The Curonian language, or Old Curonian, was a Baltic language spoken by the Curonians, a Baltic tribe who inhabited Courland (now western Latvia and northwestern Lithuania ).

Classification

Curonian was an Indo-European language of the Baltic branch, as proven by Jānis Endzelīns. Curonian's relation to other Baltic languages is unclear:

History

Old Curonian disappeared in the course of the 16th century. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Baltic states saw a revival of scientific and cultural interest in extinct Baltic languages and tribes, including Yotvingian, Curonian, and Old Prussian.

Lexicon

Samogitian words such as kuisis (mosquito), pylė (duck), blezdinga (swallow), cyrulis (skylark), zuikis (hare), kūlis (stone), purvs (marsh), and pūrai (winter wheat) are considered to be of Curonian origin. Further words show similarities with Old Prussian: *kela and Old Prussian: kelan compared to, , 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, 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: Lammekinus, Veltūnas, Reiginas, Tvertikis, Saveidis.

Potential text in Curonian

Additionally, the Pater Noster reported by Simon Grunau is speculated to be in Curonian. Lord's Prayer after Simon Grunau Nossen thewes, cur tu es delbes sweytz gischer tho wes wardes penag munis tholbe mystlastilbi tolpes prahes girkade delbeszisne tade symmes semmes worsunii dodi mommys an nosse igdemas mayse unde gaytkas pames mumys nusze noszeginu cademes pametam musen prettane kans newede munis lawnā padomā swalbadi munis nowusse loyne Jhesus amen.

Literature