Semigallian or Zemgalian, was an East Baltic language of the

Baltic language The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively or as a second language by a population of about 6.5–7.0 million people

sub-family of the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

History

It was spoken in the northern part of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and southern regions of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

in what is known as Semigallia. It is thought that it was extinct by the 16th century, with the assimilation by the

Latvians Latvians () are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common Latvian language ...

and Lithuanians. Semigallian is known only from references to it in documents and texts from before the 16th century.

Phonology

Semigallian shares some phonological similarities to Curonian and, to a lesser extent, Latvian. The Common Baltic , consonants became , in their soft varieties in Semigalian. All long vowels and diphthongs at the end of the word in Common Baltic were reduced to simple short vowels in Semigallian.

References

East Baltic languages Medieval languages Extinct Baltic languages Extinct languages of Europe {{Ie-lang-stub