Baltic languages

 

a subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The Indo-European subfamily to which the Baltic languages appear to be closest is the Slavic. Because of this, some linguists regard Baltic and Slavic as branches of a single Balto-Slavic division of the Indo-European family. The Baltic tongues are thus named because they are spoken in an area bordering on the Baltic Sea. The principal ones are Latvian (or Lettish) and Lithuanian (together native to about 6.5 million people in Eastern Europe) and Old Prussian (which ceased to be a living language during the 17th cent.). The early common ancestor of the various Baltic languages, both living and dead, is traditionally referred to as Proto-Baltic. It is thought that Proto-Baltic broke off from the other Indo-European languages before 1000 B.C. A further division into East Baltic (to which Latvian and Lithuanian belong) and West Baltic (which claims Old Prussian) is believed to have taken place before 300 B.C. The Baltic languages are said to be the closest of the living Indo-European languages to Proto-Indo-European—the original parent of all the Indo-European tongues—both phonologically and grammatically. They show a high degree of inflection in both the noun and verb systems. The earliest surviving text in a Baltic language may be dated c.1400, but by the 16th cent. documents had become fairly numerous. See also Latvian, Lithuanian, Indo-European.

Bibliography

See T. F. Magner and W. R. Schmalstieg, ed., Baltic Linguistics (1970).

Baltic
Geographic distribution:	Northern Europe
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Baltic
Subdivisions:	Western Baltic Eastern Baltic
ISO 639-2:	bat

The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The language group is sometimes divided into two sub-groups: Western Baltic, containing only extinct languages, and Eastern Baltic, containing both extinct and the two living languages in the group: Lithuanian (including both Standard Lithuanian and Samogitian) and Latvian (including both literary Latvian and Latgalian). While related, the Lithuanian, the Latvian, and particularly the Old Prussian vocabularies differ substantially from each other and are not mutually intelligible. The now extinct Old Prussian language has been considered the most archaic of the Baltic languages. Some linguists connect this group with the group of Slavic languages. Lithuanian is supposed to be one of the most archaic and least changed conservative Indo-European language.

Branches

Western Baltic languages †

• Galindian †
• Old Prussian †
• Sudovian (Yotvingian) †
• Skalvian †

Eastern Baltic languages

• Latvian (~3 million speakers (~1.6 million native speakers, 0.8 million Russian speakers, 0.6 million others)
  • Latgalian (150 thousand speakers; usually considered a dialect of Latvian)
• Lithuanian (~3.9 million speakers)
  • Samogitian (usually considered a dialect of Lithuanian)
• Old Curonian † (sometimes considered Western Baltic)
  • New Curonian (nearly extinct; status as Eastern / Western Baltic is disputed)
• Selonian †
• Semigallian †

(†—Extinct language)

Geographic distribution

Speakers of modern Baltic languages ^[1] are generally concentrated within the borders of Lithuania and Latvia, and in emigrant communities in the United States, Canada, Australia and former Soviet states. Historically the languages were spoken over a larger area: West to the mouth of the Vistula river in present-day Poland, at least as far East as the Dniepr river in present-day Belarus, perhaps even to Moscow, perhaps as far south as Kiev. Key evidence of Baltic language presence in these regions is found in hydronyms (names of bodies of water) in the regions that are characteristically Baltic. Use of hydronyms is generally accepted to determine the extent of these cultures' influence, but not the date of such influence. Historical expansion of the usage of Slavic languages in the South and East, and Germanic languages in the West reduced the geographic distribution of Baltic languages to a fraction of the area which they had formerly covered.

Prehistory and history

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages
Albanian · Armenian  · Baltic Celtic · Germanic  · Greek Indo-Iranian (Iranian, Indo-Aryan) Italic · Slavic   extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian · Thracian · Phrygian) Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians · Armenians Balts · Celts · Germanic peoples Greeks · Indo-Aryans · Iranians · Latins · Slavs historical: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians)  · Germanic tribes · Celts (Gauls, Galatians) Italic peoples  · Indo-Iranians (Iranian tribes) Illyrians  · Thracians  · Tocharians
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language · Society · Religion
Urheimat hypotheses
Kurgan hypothesis · Anatolia Armenia · India · PCT
Indo-European studies

Although the various Baltic tribes were mentioned by ancient historians as early as 98 B.C., the first attestation of a Baltic language was in about 1350, with the creation of the Elbing Prussian Vocabulary, a German to Prussian translation dictionary. It is also believed that Baltic languages are among the most archaic of the remaining Indo-European languages, despite their late attestation. Lithuanian was first attested in a hymnal translation in 1545; the first printed book in Lithuanian, a Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas was published in 1547. Latvian appeared in a hymnal in 1530 and in a printed Catechism in 1585. One reason for the late attestation is that the Baltic peoples resisted Christianization longer than any other Europeans, which delayed the introduction of writing and isolated their languages from outside influence.

With the establishment of a German state in Prussia, and the relocation of much of the Baltic Prussian population in the 13th century, Prussians began to be assimilated, and by the end of the 17th century, the Prussian language had become extinct.

During the years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795), official documents were written in Polish, Ruthenian and Latin, with Lithuanian being mostly an oral language, with small quantities of written documents.

After the Partitions of Poland, much of the Baltic lands were under the rule of the Russian Empire, where the native languages were sometimes prohibited from being written down, or used publicly.

Relationship with other Indo-European languages

The Baltic languages are of particular interest to linguists because they retain many archaic features, which are believed to have been present in the early stages of the Proto-Indo-European language.

Linguists disagree regarding the relationship of the Baltic languages to other languages in the Indo-European family. Such relationships are discerned primarily by the Comparative method, which seeks to reconstruct the chronology of the languages' divergence from each other in phonology and lexicon. Language kinship is generally determined by the identification of linguistic innovations that are held in common by two languages or groups.

Several of the extinct Baltic languages have a limited or nonexistent written record, their existence being known only from the records of ancient historians and personal or place names; all of the languages in the Baltic group (including the living ones) were first written down relatively late in their probable existence as distinct languages. These two factors combined with others have obscured the history of the Baltic languages, leading to a number of theories regarding their position in the Indo-European family.

Most linguists believe that the Baltic languages diverged from Proto-Indo-European separately from other language groups.

According to many scientists, the Baltic languages show closest relationship with the Slavic languages. Opinions vary, however, as to whether this relation is a result of a common ancestry or merely of geographic proximity.

Close relationships have also been postulated between the Baltic languages and geographically-distant Indo-European languages and groups such as Albanian, Dacian (and Moesian), and Thracian.

More recently, it has been suggested that the Baltic language group is itself an inappropriate grouping and that the West Baltic and East Baltic groups have differing lineages that converged later in their existences.

See also

• Historical linguistics
• Language families and languages
• Baltic peoples

External links

• Ethnologue Report on Baltic languages
• Baltic Online from the University of Texas at Austin

Note

1. ^ Though included among the Baltic states, the language of Estonia (the Estonian language) is a Finno-Ugric language and is not related to the Baltic languages, which are Indo-European.

References

• Joseph Pashka, Proto Baltic and Baltic languages (1994)
• Lituanus Linguistics Index (1955-2004) provides a number of articles on modern and archaic Baltic languages.
• Mallory, J.P. (1991). In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd. ISBN 0-500-27616-1
• Baltistica [1]
• Algirdas Girininkas. The monuments of the stone Age in the Historical Baltic region. In Baltų archeologija, N.1, 1994 (English summary, p. 22). ISSN 1392-0189
• Algirdas Girininkas (1994). Origin of the Baltic culture. Summary. In Baltų kultūros ištakos, Vilnius, "Savastis", p. 259. ISBN 9986-420-00-8

Baltic languages
Curonian | Galindian | Latgalian | Latvian | Lithuanian | Old Prussian | Samogitian | Selonian | Semigallian | Sudovian (Yotvingian)

hsb:Baltiske rěčermy:Baltikane chhibabat-smg:Baltu ruodas

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