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Information about Baltic Languages

Baltic
Geographic
distribution:		 Northern Europe
Genetic
classification:		 }}
Subdivisions:
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 †

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 Anatolian Armenian
Baltic Celtic Dacian Germanic
Greek Indo-Iranian Italic Phrygian
Slavic Thracian Tocharian
 
Indo-European peoples
Albanians Anatolians Armenians
Balts Celts Germanic peoples
Greeks Indo-Aryans Indo-Iranians
Iranians Italic peoples Slavs
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

External links

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 http://www.leidykla.vu.lt/inetleid/baltistic/baltist.html
  • 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)
Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe, though its precise boundaries are vague and defined variously. It is a term that groups the Nordic countries (which are present in all definitions):

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A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
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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.
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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.
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ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as "Alpha-3" codes. There are 464 language codes in the list.
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Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, the northern Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and much of Central Asia.
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Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt.
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Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe, though its precise boundaries are vague and defined variously. It is a term that groups the Nordic countries (which are present in all definitions):

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Lithuanian (lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of the Republic of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native speakers.

History


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Samogitian can refer to:
  • Eldership of Samogitia - medieval province of Grand Duchy of Lithuania
  • Anything pertaining to Samogitia (Žemaitija), the Lowlands of Lithuania
  • Samogitian dialect, a dialect of the Lithuanian language, sometimes regarded as a Baltic language

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Latvian}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Latvia, European Union
Regulated by: State Language Center
Language codes
ISO 639-1: lv
ISO 639-2: lav
ISO 639-3: lav Latvian (latviešu valoda
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Latgalian language can mean one of the following:
  1. It was a language spoken by Latgalians in a great part of the area which is now Latvia. Latgalian was a member of the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family.

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Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) prior to the German colonization of the area which began in the 13th century.
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Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of
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Galindian is a poorly attested extinct language, considered to be a part of the Baltic languages group. There are no extant writings in Galindan.

Baltic languages
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Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) prior to the German colonization of the area which began in the 13th century.
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Sudovian (otherwise known as Jatvingian or Yotvingian) is an extinct western Baltic language in Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river, in Galindia and Sudovia in East Prussia and
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Yotvingians (Lithuanian: Jotvingiai, Sūduviai; Polish: Jaćwingowie, Belarusian: Яцьвягі
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Scalovians (German: Schalauer; Lithuanian: Skalviai), also known as the Skalvians, was a Baltic tribe related to Prussians.
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Latvian}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Latvia, European Union
Regulated by: State Language Center
Language codes
ISO 639-1: lv
ISO 639-2: lav
ISO 639-3: lav Latvian (latviešu valoda
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Latgalian language can mean one of the following:
  1. It was a language spoken by Latgalians in a great part of the area which is now Latvia. Latgalian was a member of the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family.

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Lithuanian (lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of the Republic of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native speakers.

History


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Samogitian (Samogitian: Žemaitiu ruoda, Lithuanian: Žemaičių tarmė) is a dialect (considered as an independent Baltic language by some people outside academic literature) of the Lithuanian
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The term Curonian language (German: Kurisch; Latvian: kuršu valoda; Lithuanian: kuršių kalba
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Selonian was a language appertaining to the Baltic languages group of the Indo-European languages family. This language was spoken by the Eastern Baltic tribe of Selonians, who lived until the 15th century in Selonia, a territory in South Eastern Latvia and North Eastern Lithuania.
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Semigallian is an extinct language of the Baltic languages sub-family of Indo-European languages.

It was spoken in the Northern part of Lithuania and Southern regions of Latvia and it is thought that it was extinct by the 16th century with the assimilation by the Latvians.
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Motto
"Tautos jėga vienybėje"
"The strength of the nation lies in unity"
Anthem
Tautiška giesmė


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Motto
"Tēvzemei un Brīvībai"   ( Latvian)
"For Fatherland and Freedom"
Anthem
Dievs, svētī Latviju!   (Latvian)
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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