Quelltext der Seite Benutzer:Userofmusic♪♫/Westbaltische Sprachen

{{Importartikel}}
{{Short description|Branch of Baltic languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Western Baltic
| region        = In the northeast of [[Central Europe]], western parts of [[Baltic region]]
| familycolor   = Indo-European
| fam2          = [[Baltic languages|Baltic]]
| child1        = [[Western Baltic culture|Pomeranian Baltic]] † (?)
| map           = Western Baltic languages (II).svg
| mapcaption    = Former extent of Western Baltic languages (including disputed ones) in 12th century Europe<br />
'''Western Baltic languages'''
{{legend|#3879ac|[[Curonian language|Old Curonian]] †}}
{{legend|#00a8f3|[[Old Prussian language|Old Prussian]] †}}
{{legend|#84f4fc|[[Sudovian language|Sudovian]] †}}
{{legend|#3f48cc|[[Skalvian language|Skalvian]] †}}
{{legend|#b3bfff|[[Galindian language|Western Galindian]] †}}
| iso5          = bat
| glotto        = 
| glottorefname = Eastern Baltic
| lingua        = 54=
| ancestor      = 
| glottoname    = 
| notes         = 
| child2        = 
}}
The '''Western Baltic languages''' are a group of extinct [[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 languages|Eastern Baltic]]. It includes [[Old Prussian language|Old Prussian]], [[Sudovian language|Sudovian]], Western [[Galindians|Galindian]], possibly [[Skalvians|Skalvian]] and Old [[Curonians|Curonian]].<ref>[[Marija Gimbutas|Gimbutas, Marija]] (1963). ''The Balts''. Ancient peoples and places 33. London: Thames and Hudson. Retrieved 3 December 2011.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zinkevičius |first=Zigmas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-BiAAAAMAAJ&q=Scalovian+language+OR+skalvian+language,+baltic |title=The History of the Lithuanian Language |date=January 1, 1996 |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla |isbn=9785420013632 |pages=51 |language=en}}</ref>

The only properly attested Western Baltic language of which texts are known is [[Old Prussian language|Old Prussian]], although there are a few short remnants of Old Curonian and Sudovian in the form of isolated words and short phrases.<ref name=":1">''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120507121844/http://www.musicalia.lt/meli/index1.php?id=53 <nowiki>Rytų ir vakarų baltai. Du baltų tarimų junginiai [Eastern and Western Balts. Two Compounds of Baltic Spelling]</nowiki>]'' (in Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas.</ref> Many Western Baltic languages went extinct in the [[16th century]] while Old Prussian ceased to be spoken in the early [[18th century]].<ref>Young, Steven (2008). ''Baltic''. In Kapović, Mate (ed.). ''The Indo-European Languages''. London: Routledge. pp. 486–518.</ref>

== 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.<ref name=":1" /> 

The Western Baltic languages were more [[Archaic (linguistics)|archaic]]. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, Western Balts have retained the dipthong ''*ei'' (e. g., ''deiws'' 'god', ''deinan'' 'day'), [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized consonants]] ''ḱ, ǵ'', and compounds ''tl, dl''. They also preserved three genders: [[Masculine gender|masculine]], [[Feminine gender|feminine]] and [[Neuter (grammar)|neuter]].<ref name=":1" /> Sudovian and Old Curonian shared suffix ''-ing-'', which can be observed in various [[Hydronym|hydronyms]] and [[Oeconym|oeconyms]] (e. g., ''Apsingė'', ''[[Nedzingė]]'', ''Pilvingis'', ''Suvingis'') found in southern Lithuania.

== References ==
<references />
{{Baltic languages}}
<nowiki>[[Category:Baltic languages]]
[[Category:West Baltic languages]]</nowiki>