The Western Baltic languages were a group of Baltic languages that were spoken by Western Baltic peoples. Western Baltic is one of the two primary branches of Baltic languages, along with Eastern Baltic. It includes Old Prussian, Sudovian, Western Galindian, possibly Skalvian and Old Curonian.[1][2]

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

The only properly attested Western 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] Many Western Baltic languages went extinct in the 16th century while Old Prussian ceased to be spoken in the early 18th century.[4]

History

Western 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 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.[3]

The Western Baltic languages were more archaic. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, Western Balts have retained the dipthong *ei (e. g., deiws 'god', acc. deinan 'day'), palatalized consonants ḱ, ǵ, and compounds tl, dl. They also preserved three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.[3] Sudovian and Old Curonian shared suffix -ing-, which can be observed in various hydronyms and oeconyms (e. g., Apsingė, Nedzingė, Pilvingis, Suvingis) found in southern Lithuania.

References