Old Prussian language

Old Prussian language

      West Baltic language extinct since the 17th century; it was spoken in the former German area of East Prussia (now in Poland and Russia). The poorly attested Yotvingian dialect was closely related to Old Prussian.

      Old Prussian preserved many archaic Baltic features that do not occur in the related East Baltic languages (Latvian, Lithuanian), among them the preservation of the final -n of the Proto-Baltic language (the ancestor of Old Prussian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and the other Baltic languages), the Proto-Baltic diphthongs ai and ei, and the use of neuter gender in nouns (East Baltic languages have only masculine and feminine gender). Old Prussian also contained many inflectional forms and vocabulary items unknown in East Baltic. Old Prussian had a position intermediate between East Baltic and the Slavic group.

      Modern knowledge of Old Prussian is based primarily on a German-Prussian vocabulary, known as the Elbing vocabulary and compiled about 1300, and the three Old Prussian catechisms dating from the 16th century.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Old Prussian language — Prussian (Prūsiskai Bilā, Prūsiskan) Spoken in Prussia Region Europe Extinct Late 17th / E …   Wikipedia

  • Old Prussian — Infobox Language name = Prussian nativename = ( ba. Prūsiskai Bilā , ba. Prūsiskan ) states = Prussia region = Europe extinct = Late 17th/Early 18th century iso1 = iso2 = iso3 = prg familycolor = Indo European fam1 = Indo European fam2 = Balto… …   Wikipedia

  • Old Prussian — 1. adjective Of or pertaining to the Old Prussian language or people. 2. noun the Baltic language spoken by the people of Prussia prior to their subjugation by the German Order …   Wiktionary

  • Old Prussian — n. a West Baltic language that was once spoken in East Prussia and became extinct in the 17th cent …   English World dictionary

  • Old Prussian — Old′ Prus′sian n. peo the extinct language of the Baltic speaking Prussians, attested principally in several religious texts of the 16th century Abbr.: OPruss • Etymology: 1870–75 …   From formal English to slang

  • Old Prussian — noun a dead language of the (non German) Prussians (extinct after 1700); thought to belong to the Baltic branch of Indo European • Hypernyms: ↑Baltic, ↑Baltic language …   Useful english dictionary

  • Old Prussian — noun Date: 1841 a Baltic language used in East Prussia until the 17th century see Indo European languages table …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Old Prussian — a Baltic language extinct since the 17th century. Abbr.: OPruss [1870 75] * * * …   Universalium

  • Old Prussian — noun a Baltic language, related to Lithuanian, spoken in Prussia until the 17th century …   English new terms dictionary

  • Old Prussian — /oʊld ˈprʌʃən/ (say ohld prushuhn) noun a Baltic language extinct since the 17th century …  

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