The Western Baltic languages were a group of

Baltic languages The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic lang ...

that were spoken by Western Baltic peoples. Western Baltic is one of the two primary branches of Baltic languages, along with

Eastern Baltic The Eastern Baltic languages are a group of languages that along with the extinct Western Baltic languages belong to the branch of the Baltic language family. The Eastern Baltic branch has only two living languages— Latvian and Lithuanian. In s ...

. It includes

Old Prussian Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...

, Sudovian, Western

Galindian Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia. Less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is tod ...

, possibly Skalvian and Old Curonian.

Attestation

The only properly attested Western Baltic language of which texts are known is

, although there are a few short remnants of Old Curonian and Sudovian in the form of isolated words and short phrases. Many Western Baltic languages went extinct in the

16th century The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th cent ...

while Old Prussian ceased to be spoken in the early

18th century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trad ...

Classification

The only languages securely classified as Western Baltic are

and West Galindian, which could also be a dialect of Old Prussian. Most scholars consider Skalvian to be a Westen Baltic language or dialect. Another possible classification is a transitional language between Western and Eastern Baltic. Sudovian is either classified as an Old Prussian dialect, a West Baltic language or a transitional language between Western and Eastern Baltic. The former two options would leave Sudovian in the Western Baltic phylum. Old Curonian is the least securely classified language. It is argued to be either Western Baltic with significant Eastern Baltic influence, or Eastern Baltic.

History

Western Baltic was presumably native to the north of

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

, especially modern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, and the western

Baltic region The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. ...

, which includes parts of modern

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), 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. Lithuania ...

. The Western Baltic branch probably fully separated from Eastern Baltic around the 4th–3rd century BCE, although their differences go as far as the middle of the last millennium BC.

Linguistic features

The Western Baltic languages were more archaic. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, Western Balts retained the dipthong ''*ei'' (e. g., 'god', acc. 'day'),

palatalized consonants In phonetics, palatalization (, also ) or palatization is a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the hard palate. Consonants pronounced this way are said to be palatalized and are transcribed in the Internat ...

, , and compounds , and . They also preserved three genders:

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

and neuter. Sudovian and Old Curonian shared suffix ''-ing-'', which can be observed in various

hydronyms A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...

and oeconyms (e. g., ''Apsingė'', '' Nedzingė'', ''Pilvingis'', ''Suvingis'') found in southern Lithuania.

References

{{Baltic languages Baltic languages West Baltic languages