Sudovian
Sūdaviskas
Spoken in	Yotvingia and Sūduva
Region	Europe
Language extinction	17th c.?
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Baltic Western Sudovian
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3	xsv
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Sudovian (also 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 what is now Lithuania, East of Galindia and North of Yotvingia, and as exiles in East Prussia. Sudovia and neighboring Galindia were two Baltic tribe/nations mentioned by the Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century A.D. as Galindai and Soudinoi, ( Γαλίνδαι, Σουδινοί ). Although Sudovian and Yotvingian were separate dialects of the same language, Sudovian and Yotvingian merged as a common dialect in the 10th century when they created a Federation along with Denowe - Dainavians. Peter of Dusburg, in his 14th century Chronicon Terrae Prussiae, refers to Sudowia and its inhabitants as Sudowite. Sudovian was very similar to the archaic Old Prussian language and mutually intelligible, as the introduction to the 1st Old Prussian Catechism (printed in Königsberg - 1545 - the 1st Baltic language book) states (Die Sudawen aber wiewol jhre rede etwas nyderiger wiſſen ſich doch jnn dieſe preüßniſche ſprach : wie ſie alhie jm Catechiſmo gedruckt iſt auch wol zuſchicken vñ vernemen alle wort). There were also some Sudovian language phrases in "Warhafftige Beschreibung der Sudawen auff Samland sambt ihren Bock heyligen und Ceremonien" - True Description of the Sudovians in Samland along with their goat sanctifications and ceremonies - from the mid 16th century by Hieronymus Meletius.

 1) Beigeite beygeyte peckolle.   2) Kails naussen gnigethe.  3) Kails poskails ains par antres. (a drinking toast) 4) Kellewesze perioth, Kellewesze perioth.  5) Ocho Moy myle schwante Panike. 

About the Sudovians that lived near Königsberg, Prussia, John Poliander wrote in 1535 while referring to amber production, that 32 villages used Sudini speech in a 6-7 mile stretch of land of the Samland Corner that wears the name of Sudauia. They spoke their own speech, which is near to Old Prussian language. They used the term "gentaras" for amber and not the Samlandish (Old Prussian) term. From him we learn the Sudovians lived secluded from the Samlandish, would marry their same Sudovites and not allow marriage with the neighboring Prussian population even if begged. They stubbornly held to their own traditions, wore finger and ear rings with bronze bells and silver belts. Nothing has been imported from abroad, but produced by local craftsmen. Christoph Hartknoch reported in 1684 that there were still Sudovians there.

The Constit. Synod. Evangel. of 1530 contains the following list of deities who were still worshipped by the Sudavians in Samland: "Occopirmus, Sualxtix, Ausschauts, Autrympus, Potrympus, Bardoayts, Piluuytis, Parcunas, Pecols,..." (Hastings, p 488)

Toponyms from N.E. Poland, N.W. Belarus, and Lithuania also preserve words. It was influenced by the Gothic language, as was Old Prussian, with whom trade was common. As with other West Baltic dialects, it preserved the nominative singular neuter case ending -an, absent from Latvian and Lithuanian. Five noun declensional cases are the same as in Old Prussian: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative. The vocative example "Kails naussen gnigethe." is shown above in phrase 2). The noun declension is very conservative and preserved many archaic features.

The Yotvingian territories of Sudovia and Galindia were later overtaken and populated by Slavs around present-day Białystok and Suwałki 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 the indigenous sparse populations and resettlements of refugees from Lithuania. The dialect of Zietela (brus. Дзятлава, rus. Дятлово, jid. Zietil, pl. Zdzięcioł) was of particular interest. Kazlauskas (1968, p. 285) suggested that mėnas ‘month’ encountered in dialects ( Zietela, Lazdijai ) and in the writings of Bretkûnas (dat. sg. mënui) is a remnant of the nouns with the stem suffix -s.

Up until the 1970s, Yotvingians were chiefly known by toponymics and Medieval Russian sources.^[1] But in the 70s one written Yotvingian monument was discovered by accident. In Belarussia, a young man named Zinov, an amateur collector, bought a manuscript titled Pogańskie gwary z Narewu ("Paganic speeches of Narew") from a priest. It was written partly in Polish, and partly in an unknown, "paganic" language. Unfortunately, Zinov had an argument with his mother, who burned that priceless manuscript in a rage. Before the manuscript was destroyed, Zinov managed to make notes of it which he subsequently sent to the renown Baltist Vladimir Toporov. Even though Zinov's notes were riddled with errors, it has been proven beyond any doubt that the notes are indeed a copy of an authentic Yotvingian text.^[2] This short Yotvingian-Polish dictionary (of mere 215 words), Pogańskie gwary z Narewu, appears to have been written by some Polish priest in order to preach Yotvingians in their mother tongue.

Contents 1 See also 2 References 3 Literature 4 External links 5 Bibliography

[edit] See also

• Yotvingians / Sudovians

[edit] References

[edit] Literature

• Marija Gimbutas, The Balts. London : Thames and Hudson, Ancient peoples and places 33, 1963.
• Peter von Dusburg, Chronicon Terrae Prussiae , in Scriptores rerum Prussicarum (ed. Max Toeppen). Leipzig: Hirzel, 1861
• J. Endzelīns, Senprūšu valoda. – Gr. Darbu izlase, IV sēj., 2. daļa, Rīga, 1982. 9.-351. lpp.
• V. Mažiulis, Prūsų kalbos paminklai, Vilnius, t. I 1966, t. II 1981.
• W. R. Schmalstieg, An Old Prussian Grammar, University Park and London, 1974.
• W. R. Schmalstieg, Studies in Old Prussian, University Park and London, 1976.
• V. Toporov, Prusskij jazyk: Slovar', A - L, Moskva, 1975-1990.
• V. Mažiulis, Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas, Vilnius, t. I-IV, 1988-1997.
• Schmalstieg, W. R., Armenian and Jatvingian mard: A Shared Lexical Item, Annual of Armenian Linguistics Vol. VII, 1986
• Eckert, R., An exact correlation to apr. Kellewesze in the Russian Church Slavonic, Linguistica Baltica, 1, 1992, p179-82
• Savukynas, B., Del M Rudnickio Galandos, Priegliaus ir Sūduvos etimologinių aiskinimų, Lietuvių kalbotyras klausimai, 6, 1963, pp 320-325
• Witczak, K. T., Traces of Dual Forms in Old Prussian and Jatvingian in Woljciech Smoczynski and Axel Holvoet, eds, Colloquium Rruthenicum primum, 1992, pp 93-98
• Archäologie der UDSSR: Die Finno-Ugrier und die Balten im Mittelalter, Teil II, Balten, S. 411-419, Moskau 1987
• Gerullis, G., Zur Sprache der Sudauer-Jadwinger, in Festschrift A. Bezzenberger, Göttingen 1927
• Lepa, Gerhard (Hrsg): Die Sudauer, in Tolkemita-Texte Nr. 55, Dieburg 1998
• Lepa, G., Gedanken über die Prußen und ihre Lieder, in Tolkemita-Texte „25 Lieder der Sudauer“ Nr. 56, Dieburg 1999
• Salemke, G., Lagepläne der Wallburganlagen von der ehemaligen Provinz Ostpreußen, Gütersloh, 2005, Karten 19/ 7 - 19/ 13
• Tettau, v.: Volkssagen Ostpreußens, Litthauens und Westpreußens, Berlin 1837, S.10
• Žilevičius, J. Grundzüge der kleinlitauischen Volksmusik, in Tolkemita-Texte „25 Lieder der Sudauer“ Nr. 56, Dieburg 1999
• Toporov,V., ИНДОЕВРОПЕЙСКИЕ ЯЗЫКИ [Indo-European languages] Лингвистический энциклопедический словарь.[Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary] Мoskva, 1990, pp 186-189
• Illič-Svityč V., Imennaja akcentuacija v baltijskom i slavjanskom. Moskva: SSSR. 1963
• Illič-Svityč V., Sledy isčeznuvšych baltijskich akcentuacionnych sistem. Slavjanskaja ibaltijskaja akcentologija. Moskva: Nauka. 1964. pp 18–26.
• Vytautas J. Mažiulis. "Baltic languages". Britannica Online Encyclopedia.
• Henning, E., De rebus Jazygum sive Jazuin-gorum, Regiomonti, 1812
• Sjoegren, A., Ueber die Wohnsitz Verhaeltnisse und der Jatwaeger, St. Petersburg, 1859
• Sembrzycki, J., Die Nord-und Westgebiete the Jadwinger und deren Grenzen, Altpreussischeme Monatschrift, XXVIII, 1891, pp. 76-89
• Matthews, W.K., Medieval Baltic Tribes, The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, Apr., 1949 pp 126-136.
• Białuński, Grzegorz, Studia z dziejów plemion pruskich i jaćwieskich, Olsztyn, 1999.
• Nalepa, Jerzy, Jaćwięgowie – nazwa i lokalizacja, Białystok, 1964.
• Nalepa, Jerzy, Z badań nad jaćwieskimi relikatami onomastycznymi Połeksza, Studia linguistica slavica baltica K.-O. Falk, Lund 1966, S. 185-202.
• Nalepa, Jerzy, Połekszanie (Pollexiani) - Plemię Jaćwięskie u północno-wschodnich granic Polski, Rocznik Białostocki, t. VII: 1966, Warszawa 1967, s. 7-33.

[edit] External links

• M. Gimbutas book on the Balts, with maps
• (Latin) Chronicon Terrae Prussiae, Peter von Dusburg

[edit] Bibliography

• Kapović, Mate (2008) (in Croatian), Uvod u indoeuropsku lingvistiku, Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, pp. 96-97, ISBN 978-953-150-847-6 
• Catechiſmus jn Peűßniſcher ſprach, Königsberg, Hans Weinreich, 1545, p.3
• Hartknoch, C., Altes und Neues Preussen. Frankfurt, Königsberg, 1684
• Būga, K., Kalba ir senovė, I, Vilnius, 1922, p. 78
• Būga, K., Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, I, Vilnius, 1924, p. LXXV
• Kazlauskas J., 1968, Lietuvių Kalbos Istorinė Gramatika [Historical Grammar of Lithuanian], Vilnius, 1968, p 285
• Salys, A, Sūduviai [including Sūdovian language], Sūduvių Kampas. Liet. Enciklopedija, XXIX, Boston, USA, 1963, pp 114 - 126
• Schmalstieg, W. R., Studies in Old Prussian, (1976) University Park and London, pp 17-23, 91-93, ISBN 0-271-01231-5
• Mažiulis, V., Prūsų kalbos paminklai, t. II (1981) Vilnius, pp 62-64, 67-68.
• Mažiulis, V., Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas,t. IV, (1997) Vilnius, pp 166-167, ISBN 5-420-01406-8
• Vidugiris, A., Zietelos Šnektos žodynas [A Dictionary of the Subdialect of Zietela.], Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 1998
• Vidugiris, A., Mikulėnienė, D, ZIETELOS ŠNEKTOS TEKSTAI. I dalis [Texts of the Zietela Subdialect. Part I}, Vilnius, 2005, ISBN 9986-668-73-5 (1 dalis), ISBN 9986-668-74-3 (2 dalys)
• Mikuleniene, D., Concerning the Influence of the Western Balts on the Accentuation System of Western Lithuanian Dialects, Acta Baltico-Slavica, Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2006, vol: 30, pp 89-96
• Naktinienė, G., Paulauskienė,A., Vitkauskas, V., Druskininkų tarmės žodynas, Vilnius 1988
• Zinkevičius, Z., Lietuvių kalbos dialektologija, Vilnius 1994
• Z. Zinkevičius. Lietuvių dialektologija, Vilnius 1966
• Zinkevičius, Z, The History of the Lithuanian Language (1996) Vilnius: Mokslas pp 50-53 ISBN 5-420-01363-0
• Zinkevičius Z. Lenkų-jotvingių žodynėlis? – Rinktiniai straipsniai. T. I. Vilnius, 2002. P. 30–60.
• Zinkevičius Z. Nauja apie jotvingių kalbą – Rinktiniai straipsniai. T. I. Vilnius, 2002. P. 61–66.
• Gimbutas, Marija, The Balts, (1963) London : Thames and Hudson, pp 19, 22-23, 83, 112, 126, 139, 141, 147, 159.
• Gerullis, G., Zur Sprache der Sudauer-Jotwinger. Festschrift Bezzen-berger, 1921, p. 44
• Hastings, J., Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Volume IX, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917, pp 488
• The Sudovian Language in Linguist List

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