The Curonian language (german: Kurisch; lv, kuršu valoda; lt, kuršių kalba), or Old Curonian, was a nearly unattested

Baltic language The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic langu ...

spoken by the

Curonians :''The Kursenieki are also sometimes known as Curonians.'' The Curonians or Kurs ( lv, kurši; lt, kuršiai; german: Kuren; non, Kúrir; orv, кърсь) were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic Sea in what are now the western ...

, a Baltic tribe who inhabited the

Courland Peninsula The Courland Peninsula (, German: ''Kurland'') is a historical and cultural region in western Latvia in the north-western part of Courland. Fourteen coastal villages on the peninsula make of the Livonian core area. It is bordered by the Baltic S ...

(now western

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

) and the nearby Baltic shore.

Classification

Curonian was an Indo-European language of the Baltic branch. This was proven by

Jānis Endzelīns Jānis Endzelīns (22 February 1873 – 1 July 1961) was a Latvian linguist. He graduated from the University of Tartu. In 1908, he and Kārlis Mīlenbahs developed the modern Latvian alphabet, which slowly replaced the old orthography used befo ...

that Curonian was a Baltic language. Curonian's relation to other Baltic languages is unclear: *Some scholars consider it to have been an Eastern Baltic, intermediate between Lithuanian and Latvian; * While others like, Vytautas Mažiulis classify it as a Western Baltic language that became closer to the Eastern branch due to extensive contact; and * Linguist Eduard Vääri argues that it is possible that Curonians were

Baltic Finns The Baltic Finnic or Balto-Finnic peoples, also referred to as the Baltic Sea Finns, Baltic Finns, sometimes Western Finnic and often simply as the Finnic peoples, are the peoples inhabiting the Baltic Sea region in Northern and Eastern Europe ...

History

Old Curonian disappeared in the course of the 16th century. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the Baltic states saw a revival of scientific and cultural interest in extinct Baltic languages and tribes, including

Yotvingian Sudovian (also known as Yotvingian, or Jatvingian) was a Western Baltic language of Northeastern Europe. Sudovian was closely related to Old Prussian. It was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, east of Gali ...

, Curonian, and

Old Prussian Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...

Lexicon

Samogitian words such as (mosquito), (duck), (swallow), (skylark), (rabbit), (stone), (marsh), and (winter wheat) are considered to be of Curonian origin. Further words show similarities with Old Prussian: and

: compared to lt, rãtas, lv, rats, all meaning wheel.

Corpus

Evidence from other languages

Curonian left substrata in western dialects of the Latvian and Lithuanian, namely the Samogitian dialect. No written documents in this language are known, but some ancient Lithuanian texts from western regions show some Curonian influence. According to Lithuanian linguist

Zigmas Zinkevičius Zigmas Zinkevičius (January 4, 1925 in Juodausiai, Ukmergė district – February 20, 2018 in Vilnius) was a leading Lithuanian linguist-historian, professor at Vilnius University, and a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He ha ...

, long and intense Curonian–Lithuanian bilingualism existed.

Onomastics

There are only few onomastics in the region considered to have been inhabited by the Curonians. There are attested names of Curonian noblemen such as: , , , , .

Potential text in Curonian

Additionally, the Pater Noster reported by Simon Grunau is speculated to be in Curonian. Lord's Prayer after Simon Grunau

References

Literature

*Ambrassat, August "Die Provinz Ostpreußen", Frankfurt/ Main 1912 *Endzelin, J.: Über die Nationalität und Sprache der Kuren, in Finnisch-Ungarische Forschungen, XII, 1912 *Gaerte, Wilhelm "Urgeschichte Ostpreussens", Königsberg 1929 *Gimbutas, Marija "Die Balten", München-Berlin 1983 *Kurschat, Heinrich A.: Das Buch vom Memelland, Siebert Oldenburg 1968 *Kwauka, Paul, Pietsch, Richard: Kurisches Wörterbuch, Verlag Ulrich Camen Berlin, 1977, *Kwauka, Paul: Namen des Memellandes/ Unsere „fremdartigen“ Familiennamen, Archiv AdM, Oldenburg *Lepa, Gerhard (Hrsg) "Die Schalauer", Tolkemita-Texte Dieburg 1997 *Mortensen, Hans und Gertrud "Die Besiedlung des nordöstlichen Ostpreußens bis zum Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts", Leipzig 1938 *Mortensen, Hans und Gertrud: Kants väterliche Ahnen und ihre Umwelt, Rede von 1952 in Jahrbuch der Albertus-Universität zu Königsberg / Pr., Holzner- Verlag Kitzingen/ Main 1953 Bd. 3 *Peteraitis, Vilius: Mažoji Lietuva ir Tvanksta (Lithuania Minor and Tvanksta) Vilnius 1992 *Pietsch, Richard (künstlerischer Entwurf und Text): Bildkarte rund um das Kurische Haff, Heimat-Buchdienst Georg Banszerus, Höxter, Herstellung: Neue Stalling, Oldenburg *Pietsch, Richard: Deutsch-Kurisches Wörterbuch, Verlag Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk Lüneburg 1991, *Pietsch, Richard: Fischerleben auf der Kurischen Nehrung dargestellt in kurischer und deutscher Sprache, Verlag Ulrich Camen Berlin 1982 *Schmid, Wolfgang P. (Hrg): Nehrungskurisch, Sprachhistorische und instrumentalphonetische Studien zu einem aussterbenden Dialekt, Stuttgart 1989 *Schmid, Wolfgang P.: Das Nehrungskurische, ein sprachhistorischer Überblick *Tolksdorf, Ulrich "Fischerei und Fischerkultur in Ostpreußen", Heide/ Holstein 1991 *Žadeikiene, Daiva, Krajinskas, Albertas: Kurenkahnwimpel,

External links

Pietsch-Bildkarte „Kurisches Haff“

Curonians in Memelland

Curonian placenames in Memelland

Studentu zinātniskās konferences "Aktuāli baltistikas jautājumi" tēzes Loreta Stonkutė. Kuršininkų tarmės lituanizmai. p.43, 44
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curonian Language Baltic languages West Baltic languages Extinct Baltic languages Extinct languages of Europe Medieval languages Languages extinct in the 16th century 16th-century disestablishments in Europe