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Proto-Baltic language

Ancestor of the Baltic languages

  • 21 min read
  • 4 chapters

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Through Vowel, Consonant and Grammatical tense

LabVowels & Consonants

Generally, Proto-Baltic had a SOV word order. Proto-Baltic is said to have possessed certain unique traits, such as turning short Proto-Indo-European vowels *o, *a into *a, retaining and further developing the Proto-Indo-European ablaut, retaining *m before dental consonants, the productivity of the word stem ē and free accentuation with two pitch accents. Also, the proto-language is thought to have had its own set of diminutive suffixes, identical endings for verb tenses and moods, past tense by applying thematic vowels *-ā- and *-ē-, as well as its own lexicon, including onomastic elements.

Proto-Baltic area

Baltic hydronyms cover a vast area of 860,000 km2 from Vystula River in the west to Moscow in the east and from the Baltic Sea in the north all the way to Kyiv in the south. The current Lithuanian and Latvian lands combined constitute approximately one-sixth of the former Baltic territory. Some researchers suggest that in the past Baltic lands from Vystula to Daugava were inhabited by Baltic Finnic tribes but they were assimilated by the Baltic newcomers later on. There is still an ongoing debate regarding the boundary of hydronyms in the southwest: Lithuanian linguist Simas Karaliūnas believed that practically all of the basins of Oder and Vystula Rivers belonged to the Baltic hydronym habitat while German linguist Hermann Schall suggested that Baltic hydronyms could be found much further west all the way to Elbe, Saxony and Rügen island. During the 2nd and 1st millennium BC, the Baltic people inhabited larger territories than Germanic and Slavic people did at the time. It is estimated that the Proto-Baltic lands had up to 500,000 people.

Inhabitants of the Proto-Baltic area were surrounded by Germanic people in the west, Slavs in the south and Finno-Ugric people in the north and northeast. Russian philologist Vladimir Toporov believes that during 1000–800 BC Proto-Germanic people began expanding into the western Baltic territory starting from the Pasłęka River. Later on, the Baltic area began shrinking even more due to the migration of the Goths. During the migration period Slavic people began expanding into the northern and eastern territories of the Balts. From 11th to 12th century, Russian scriptures mention ongoing battles near Moscow with Eastern Galindians. Since 1225, the conquests of the Teutonic Order in the current Baltic region intensified and later on resulted in the extinction of the Old Prussian speakers in the 18th century.

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