Sudovian language

From Free net encyclopedia

Sudovian (otherwise known as Jatvingian or Yotvingian) is an extinct western Baltic language in Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river, in Galindia and Sudovia in East Prussia and southwest Lithuania. Sudovia and Galindia were two of the twelve original Prussian lands. Although not actually a separate language, Sudovian/Jatvingian diverged as a dialect in the 10th century, and has been documented in writing. It was at once more archaic, and more closely influenced by Germanic languages, than other Baltic dialects, as exemplified by the loanword from Germanic, virdan, "word" -- that preserves the neutral case ending -an, absent from Latvian and Lithuanian.

The southern Prussian districts of Sudovia and Galindia were partially overtaken and conquered by Slavs around present-day Bialystok and Suwalki in north-eastern Poland and nearby Hrodna (formerly Grodno) in Belarus. Some elements of Baltic speech are still retained in the Belarus and Ukraine territory, owing to resettlements of refugees and prisoners from Prussia.

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