Contents

West Baltic languages

Branch of Baltic languages

West Baltic
Geographic distribution	In the northeast of Central Europe, western parts of Baltic region
Linguistic classification	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Baltic West Baltic
Subdivisions	Prussian † Old Curonian † Sudovian † Pomeranian Baltic † (?) Skalvian † (?) West Galindian † (?)
ISO 639-5	bat
Linguasphere	54=
Former extent of West Baltic languages (including disputed ones) in 12th century Europe West Baltic languages   Old Curonian †   Old Prussian   Sudovian †   Skalvian †   West Galindian †

The West Baltic languages are a group of extinct Baltic languages that were spoken by West Baltic peoples. West Baltic is one of the two primary branches of Baltic languages, along with East Baltic. It includes Old Prussian, Sudovian, West Galindian, possibly Skalvian and Old Curonian.^{[1]: 33 [2]}

Attestation[edit]

The only properly attested West Baltic language of which texts are known is Old Prussian, although there are a few short remnants of Old Curonian and Sudovian in the form of isolated words and short phrases.^[3]: 290 Many West Baltic languages went extinct in the 16th century while Old Prussian ceased to be spoken in the early 18th century.^[4]

Classification[edit]

The only languages securely classified as West Baltic are Old Prussian and West Galindian, which could also be a dialect of Old Prussian.^[5]

Most scholars consider Skalvian to be a West Baltic language or dialect.^[2] Another possible classification is a transitional language between West and East Baltic.^[6]: 16

Sudovian is either classified as an Old Prussian dialect,^[7][8] a West Baltic language^[9][10] or a transitional language between West and East Baltic.^[11] The former two options would leave Sudovian in the West Baltic phylum.

Old Curonian is the least securely classified language. It is argued to be either West Baltic with significant East Baltic influence,^{[3]: 295 [12]} or East Baltic.^[13]

History[edit]

West Baltic was presumably native to the north of Central Europe, especially modern Poland, and the western Baltic region, which includes parts of modern Latvia and Lithuania. The West Baltic branch probably fully separated from East Baltic around the 4th–3rd century BCE, although their differences go as far as the middle of the last millennium BC.^{[6]: 13–14}

Linguistic features[edit]

The West Baltic languages were more archaic. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, West Balts retained the diphthong *ei (e. g., deiws 'god', acc. deinan 'day'), palatalized consonants /kʲ/, /gʲ/ (they are preserved also in the Lithuanian language), and compounds /tl/, and /dl/. They also preserved three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.^[14] Sudovian and Old Curonian shared the suffix -ng-, which can be observed in various hydronyms and oeconyms (e. g., Apsingė, Nedzingė, Pilvingis, Suvingis, Palanga, Alsunga) found in southern Lithuania, western Lithuania and Latvia. West Balts possessed double-stemmed personal names with distinct compounds (e. g., Net(i)-, Sebei-), which are unusual to the anthroponymy of the East Balts.^[15]

References[edit]