Prussian and Sudauer language is the West Baltic branch of the Baltic language. Lithuanian , Latvian and other languages are related , but are East Baltic.
Of the Baltic languages Prussian was the most ancient.
Other groups of people with languages now excinct lived interspersed along the Baltic Sea . To the east are still the Finno-Ugric language speaking Esthonians , recorded as Fenni by Tacitus in 98 AD in his Agricola and Germania . The Finno-Ugric took on parts of Baltic and partially overlapped Baltic languages . Esthonians were part of the Finns, who became split due to the arrival of Slavs near the Baltic Sea. The land east of the Vistula Wixel, Weichsel river was in ancient times called Sarmatia . To the west of the Vistula was Germania Magna . In ancient records you find the Galinder classified as Sarmatians . Scythians and Sarmatians were related and some Scythians came to the Oder river .
There is a large difference in vocabulary of the West to the East Baltic languages.
Jatwingian , Yatvigian etc or Sudauer , Sudavian language was a dialect of Old Prussian language spoken inPrussia south of the Baltic Sea.
From 2000 BC to before 1000 AD the Baltic language area was much larger than what it was by 1000 AD . It used to reach all along the Baltic Sea to the area around the later city of Moskow . With arrival of Slavs from the south the Sudauer living area got much smaller and the Sudavians were confined to more northern areas of Prussia. Some Prussian tribes moved to Lithuania etc during the times of the Baltic or Northern Crusades. During Catholic repressions at a later time in the Lithuanian- Polish kingdom these Prussian found refuge in the state of Prussia and occasionally were named Lithuo-Prussians.
Old Prussi Land was by 19st or 20th century historians so named , to distinguish it from the later state of the empire from 1200 AD .
Of the twelve sons of Prussian king Waidewut? or Widewuto , eleven gave their names to Prussian Gaue or lands . Galindo was an old Prussian name which gave the Prussian land Galindien, Galindia its name. Some Galinder allied and went with the Saxons in their battles all the way to Spain against Frankish take-overs before 800 AD . Pomesania was named after Pomeso, Samland after Samo , etc. Waidewut's son Lithuo gave his name to Lithuania.
Prussians , Lithuanians , Latvians did not have a written language .
After 1200 AD monk Christian of Oliva near Danzig , the Apostle of the Prussians started writing down Prussian history .
A word book the Elbing Prussian Vocabulary was written down circa 1350 AD . This records Old Prussi words, as well as later recordings.
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