BALTIC LANGUAGES

group of Indo-European languages that includes modern Latvian and Lithuanian, spoken on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and the extinct Old Prussian, Yotvingian, Curonian, Selonian, and Semigallian languages. The Baltic languages are related more closely to Slavic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian than to other languages of the Indo-European family. The domain of the Baltic languages was far greater in the past, extending eastward from the Vistula River at least as far as the upper Dnieper River basin. Of the extinct Baltic languages, there are written records only for Old Prussian. Lithuanian and Latvian (East Baltic) are more closely related to each other than either is to Old Prussian (West Baltic). The Baltic languages have a number of isoglosses in common with Slavic and Germanic and could therefore be considered part of a northern Indo-European dialect area. They are most closely related to the Slavic branch of Indo-European. Strong evidence in support of a period of Balto-Slavic unity is found in common lexical items: more than 100 words are common in their form and meaning to Baltic and Slavic alone. Morphological, tonal, and stress correspondences also demonstrate this relationship. Of the East Baltic languages, Lithuanian is unusually conservative in its phonology. Certain Lithuanian words, for example, can serve as protoforms for Latvian and are often nearly identical with the forms posited for Proto-Slavic. Lithuanian is thus of particular importance for comparative Indo-European linguistics. Latvian, by contrast, has undergone extensive sound change. The first book in Lithuanian is Martin Mazvydas's translation of Martin Luther's catechism (Knigsberg, 1547). The first grammar of Lithuanian (1653 and 1654), written by Danielius Kleinas, and the poetry of Kristijonas Donelaitis (18th century) had a great influence on the formation and standardization of written Lithuanian in East Prussia. The Latvian literary tradition begins in 1585 with the publication of a translation of a Roman Catholic catechism. The first Latvian dictionary, compiled by Georgius Mancelius, dates from 1638; and the first grammar, written by Johann Rehehausen, appeared in 1644. The language of the early texts differs little from the modern language. The earliest text in Old Prussian is the so-called Elbing vocabulary, extant in a copy dating from about 1400. A second GermanOld Prussian vocabulary of 100 words was compiled by Simon Grunau between 1517 and 1526. The most important Old Prussian written records are three 16th-century catechisms, translated from German. group of Indo-European languages that includes modern Latvian and Lithuanian, spoken on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and the extinct Old Prussian, Yotvingian, Curonian, Selonian, and Semigallian languages. The Baltic languages are more closely related to Slavic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian (in that order) than to the other branches of the family. Speakers of modern Lithuanian and Latvian (Lettish), the languages of the Balts inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, as well as the now extinct Old Prussian language, Yotvingian (also spelled Yatvingian, Jotvingian, Jatvingian), Curonian (Kurish), Semigallian, and Selonian (Selian) are here referred to as the B-Balts. There also existed languages and dialects of the Balts (D-Balts) who lived east of the above-mentioned groups in the areas of the upper reaches of the Dnieper River. Additional reading There are very few works on the Baltic languages in English aside from Leonardas Dambriunas, Antanas Klimas, and William R. Schmalstieg, Introduction to Modern Lithuanian (1966); Tereza Budina Lazdina, Teach Yourself Latvian (1966); and Janis Endzelins, Baltu kalbu garsai ir formos (1957; Eng. trans., Comparative Phonology and Morphology of the Baltic Languages, 1971). Baltic Linguistics, ed. by Thomas F. Magner and William R. Schmalstieg (1970), is a collection of papers on various aspects of Baltic linguistics.Works in other languages include Reinhold Trautmann, Die altpreussischen Sprachdenkmler (1910); Johann Endzelin, Lettische Grammatik (1922; trans. into Latvian, 1951); Kazimieras Buga, Lietuviu kalbos zodynas (192425), the introduction to this dictionary containing much valuable information on the history of the Baltic languages; Rinktiniai ratai, 3 vol. (195861); Janis Endzelins, Senpruu valoda (1943; trans. into German, 1944, without a glossary); Ievads baltu filologija (1945), an introduction to Baltic linguistics, in Latvian; Ernst Fraenkel, Die baltischen Sprachen (1950), a general introduction; Alfred Senn, Die Beziehungen des Baltischen zum Slavischen und Germanischen, Zeitschrift fr vergleichende Sprachforschung, vol. 71 (1954), discusses the relationship of Baltic to Slavic and Germanic; Musdienu latvieu literaras valodas gramatika, 2 vol. (195962), a grammar of the modern Latvian literary language; Arturs Ozols, Veclatvieu rakstu valoda (1965), treats Old Latvian; Jan Otrebski, Gramatyka jezyka litewskiego, 3 vol. (195665), a Lithuanian grammar, in Polish; Marta Rudzite, Latvieu dialektoloija (1964), treats Latvian dialectology; Lietuviu kalbos gramatika, 2 vol. (1956, 1971), the most authoritative grammar of the Lithuanian language; Zigmas Zinkevicius, Lietuviu dialektologija (1966), a valuable treatment of Lithuanian dialectology; Christian S. Stang, Vergleichende Grammatik der Baltischen Sprachen (1966), the only scholarly comparative grammar of the Baltic languages; Vytautas J. Maziulis (comp.), Prusu kalbos paminklai (1966), contains and discusses all the photographed Old Prussian texts; Algirdas Sabaliauskas, Lietuviu kalbos leksikos raida, Lietuviu kalbotyros klausimai, 8:5140 (1966), treats the development of the vocabulary of Lithuanian; Jonas Palionis, Lietuviu literaturine kalba XVIXVII a. (1967), a treatment of the Lithuanian literary language in the 16th and 17th centuries; Jonas Kazlauskas, Lietuviu kalbos istorine gramatika (1968), the only historical grammar of Lithuanian; Vytautas Maziulis, Baltu ir kitu indoeuropieciu kalbu santykiai (1970), treats the relationship of Baltic and the other Indo-European languages.The largest dictionaries of Baltic languages are K. Mulenbachs, Latvieu valodas vardnica, 4 vol. (192332); Lietuviu kalbos zodynas, 8 vol. (194170); and Ernst Fraenkel, Litauisches etymologisches Wrterbuch, 2 vol. (195565). Vytautas J. Maziulis