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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 [1] [2] mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Europe.
The East Baltic languages are a group of languages that along with the extinct West Baltic languages belong to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. The East Baltic branch primarily consists of two extant languages—Latvian and Lithuanian. Occasionally, Latgalian and Samogitian are viewed as distinct languages, though they ...
Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian, and they constitute the eastern branch of the Baltic languages family. [77] An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century; the other Western Baltic languages, Curonian and Sudovian, became extinct earlier.
[14] [4] [15] There is a general consensus that the Baltic languages can be divided into East Baltic (Lithuanian, Latvian) and West Baltic (Old Prussian). The internal diversity of Baltic points at a much greater time-depth for the breakup of the Baltic languages in comparison to the Slavic languages. [3] [16] "Traditional" Balto-Slavic tree model
Distribution of the Baltic tribes, circa 1200 CE (boundaries are approximate). The Curonian language (German: Kurisch; Latvian: kuršu valoda; Lithuanian: kuršių kalba), or Old Curonian, was a Baltic language spoken by the Curonians, a Baltic tribe who inhabited Courland (now western Latvia [2]: 291–293 [1] and northwestern Lithuania [3]).
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]
Western Aukštaitian – most similar to standard Lithuanian – preserves both the diphthongs and the vowels. It is further subdivided into two sub-dialects: The Kaunas sub-dialect is spoken mostly in Suvalkija. This sub-dialect separates long and short vowels pretty well and properly stresses word endings.
Baltic languages. Latvian, 1.75 million speakers (2015) Latgalian, 200 000 speakers (2009) ... Lithuanian, 3 million speakers (2012) West Slavic languages