Editing Baltic languages (section)

==Geographic distribution==
[[File:Baltic languages.png|thumb|left|Distribution of the Baltic languages in the Baltic (simplified)]]
[[File:Baltiškos kilmės vandenvardžių paplitimas.svg|thumb|275px|right|Map of the area of distribution of Baltic [[hydronyms]].]]
Speakers of modern Baltic languages are generally concentrated within the borders of [[Lithuania]] and [[Latvia]], and in emigrant communities in the [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]] and the countries within the former borders of the [[Soviet Union]].

Historically the languages were spoken over a larger area: west to the mouth of the [[Vistula]] river in present-day [[Poland]], at least as far east as the [[Dniepr]] river in present-day [[Belarus]], perhaps even to [[Moscow]], and perhaps as far south as [[Kyiv]]. Key evidence of Baltic language presence in these regions is found in [[hydronym]]s (names of bodies of water) that are characteristically Baltic.<ref>[[Vaclav Blažek|Blažek, Vaclav]]. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/41857 Baltic horizon in Eastern Bohemian hydronymy?]". In: ''Tiltai. Priedas''. 2003, Nr. 14, p. 14. {{ISSN|1648-3979}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Zinkevičius |first1=Zigmas |author1-link=Zigmas Zinkevičius |last2=Luchtanas |first2=Aleksiejus |last3=Česnys |first3=Gintautas |title=Where We Come from: The Origin of the Lithuanian People |date=2005 |publisher=Science & Encyclopedia Publishing Institute |isbn=978-5-420-01572-8 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7MkiAQAAIAAJ&q=%22+show+very+uneven+traces+of+a+Baltic+presence%22 |quote=...the hydronyms in this region [Central Forest Zone] show very uneven traces of a Baltic presence: in some places (mainly in the middle of this area) the stratum of Baltic hydronyms is thick, but elsewhere (especially along the edges of this area) only individual Baltic hydronyms can be found...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=Ancient Baltic hydronyms cover an area that includes the Upper Dnieper area and extends approximately from Kiev and the Dvina to Moscow |last=Parpola |first=A. |year=2013 |chapter-url=https://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_parpola.pdf |chapter=Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language families in the light of archaeology |editor-last1=Grünthal |editor-first1=R. |editor-last2=Kallio |editor-first2=P. |title=A linguistic map of prehistoric northern Europe |publisher=Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura |page=133}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=The original Baltic-speaking territory was once much larger, extending eastward into the upper Dniepr river basin and beyond. |last=Young |first=Steven |chapter=Baltic |editor=[[Mate Kapović]] |title=The Indo-European Languages |edition=Second |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |page=486}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Gelumbeckaitė|2018}}:"The study of hydronyms has shown that the Proto-Baltic area was about six times larger than the ethnic territory of the present-day Balts ..."</ref> The use of hydronyms is generally accepted to determine the extent of a culture's influence, but ''not'' the date of such influence.<ref>{{cite book |quote="Information about the ethnic identity of the older tribes that had lived in a given territory can be obtained only from toponymy and particularly from hydronymy. Hydronyms, especially the names of large rivers, are very resistant to changes of the population and they may supply us with information about the older population of a particular region" | last=Georgiev | first=Vladimir I. |authorlink=Vladimir I. Georgiev | title=Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change | chapter=The Earliest Ethnological Situation of the Balkan Peninsula as Evidenced by Linguistic and Onomastic Data | publisher=De Gruyter | date=1972-12-31 | isbn=978-3-11-088593-4 | doi=10.1515/9783110885934-003 | pages=50–65}}</ref>

The eventual expansion of the use of [[Slavic languages]] in the south and east, and [[Germanic languages]] in the west, reduced the geographic distribution of Baltic languages to a fraction of the area that they formerly covered.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fortson|first=Benjamin W.|title=Indo-European Language and Culture|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=2004|page=378|isbn=1-4051-0316-7|author-link=Benjamin W. Fortson IV|quote="Baltic river names are found across a large swath of now Slavic-speaking territory in eastern Europe and present-day Russia, as far east as Moscow and as far south as Kiev."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=[... the southeast, in present-day Belarus] is territory which was formerly Baltic speaking, but in which Baltic yielded to Slavic in the period from the 400s to the 1000s — in part through a displacement of Lithuanian speakers towards the northwest [...] This gradual process of language replacement is documented by the more than 2000 Baltic place names (mostly hydronyms) taken over from the Balts by the Slavs in Belarus, for not only does a continuity in toponyms in general attest to a gradual process of ethno-cultural reorientation ... | last=Andersen | first=Henning | title=Reconstructing Prehistorical Dialects: Initial Vowels in Slavic and Baltic | publisher=DE GRUYTER MOUTON | date=1996-12-31 | isbn=978-3-11-014705-6 | doi=10.1515/9783110819717 | page=43}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=Baltic hydronyms are attested from the [[Pripyat (river)|Pripjať basin]] northwards, so that it is clear that there were Balts inbetween the homeland of the Slavs in the Ukrainian mesopotamia (between the Dnepr and the Dnester) and the Finnic areas of the north. |last=Timberlake |first=Alan |chapter=The Simple Sentence / Der einfache Satz |title=Die slavischen Sprachen |trans-title=The Slavic Languages |volume=Halbband 2 |editor1=Karl Gutschmidt |editor2=Tilman Berger |editor3=Sebastian Kempgen |editor4=Peter Kosta |location=Berlin, München, Boston |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2014 |page=1665 |doi=10.1515/9783110215472.1675}}</ref> The Russian geneticist Oleg Balanovsky speculated that there is a predominance of the assimilated pre-Slavic substrate in the genetics of East and West Slavic populations, according to him the common genetic structure which contrasts East Slavs and Balts from other populations may suggest that the pre-Slavic substrate of the [[East Slavs]] consists most significantly of Baltic-speakers, which predated the Slavs in the cultures of the [[Eurasian steppe]] according to archaeological references he cites.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=П |author-first1=Балановский О. |title=Генофонд Европы |language=ru |trans-title=Gene pool of Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNYPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208 |publisher=KMK Scientific Press |quote=Прежде всего, это преобладание в славянских популяциях дославянского субстрата – двух ассимилированных ими генетических компонентов – восточноевропейского для западных и восточных славян и южноевропейского для южных славян... Можно с осторожностью предположить, что ассимилированный субстрат мог быть представлен по преимуществу балтоязычными популяциями. Действительно, археологические данные указывают на очень широкое распространение балтских групп перед началом расселения славян. Балтский субстрату славян (правда, наряду с финно-угорским) выявляли и антропологи. Полученные нами генетические данные – и на графиках генетических взаимоотношений, и по доле общих фрагментов генома – указывают, что современные балтские народы являются ближайшими генетически ми соседями восточных славян. При этом балты являются и лингвистически ближайшими родственниками славян. И можно полагать, что к моменту ассимиляции их генофонд не так сильно отличался от генофонда начавших свое широкое расселение славян. Поэтому если предположить, что расселяющиеся на восток славяне ассимилировали по преимуществу балтов, это может объяснить и сходство современных славянских и балтских народов друг с другом, и их отличия от окружающих их не балто-славянских групп Европы... В работе высказывается осторожное предположение, что ассимилированный субстрат мог быть представлен по преимуществу балтоязычными популяциями. Действительно, археологические данные указывают на очень широкое распространение балтских групп перед началом расселения славян. Балтский субстрат у славян (правда, наряду с финно-угорским) выявляли и антропологи. Полученные в этой работе генетические данные – и на графиках генетических взаимоотношений, и по доле общих фрагментов генома – указывают, что современные балтские народы являются ближайшими генетическими соседями восточных славян. |trans-quote=First of all, this is the predominance of the pre-Slavic substrate in the Slavic populations – the two genetic components assimilated by them – the Eastern European for the Western and Eastern Slavs and the South European for the Southern Slavs ... It can be assumed with caution that the assimilated substrate could be represented mainly by the Baltic-speaking populations. Indeed, archaeological data indicate a very wide distribution of the Baltic groups before the beginning of the settlement of the Slavs. The Baltic substratum of the Slavs (true, along with the Finno-Ugric) was also identified by anthropologists. The genetic data we obtained – both on the graphs of genetic relationships and on the share of common genome fragments – indicate that the modern Baltic peoples are the closest genetic neighbors of the Eastern Slavs. Moreover, the Balts are also linguistically the closest relatives of the Slavs. And it can be assumed that by the time of assimilation, their gene pool was not so different from the gene pool of the Slavs who began their widespread settlement. Therefore, if we assume that the Slavs settling in the east assimilated mainly the Balts, this can explain the similarity of the modern Slavic and Baltic peoples with each other, and their differences from the surrounding non-Balto-Slavic groups of Europe ... the assimilated substrate could be represented mainly by the Baltic-speaking populations. Indeed, archaeological data indicate a very wide distribution of the Baltic groups before the beginning of the settlement of the Slavs. Anthropologists have also identified the Baltic substrate among the Slavs (although, along with the Finno-Ugric). The genetic data obtained in this work – both on the graphs of genetic relationships and on the share of common fragments of the genome – indicate that the modern Baltic peoples are the closest genetic neighbors of the Eastern Slavs. |isbn=9785990715707 |date=30 November 2015 }}</ref>

===Contact with Uralic languages===
Though [[Estonia]] is geopolitically included among the [[Baltic states]] due to its location, [[Estonian language|Estonian]] is a [[Finnic language]] of the [[Uralic languages|Uralic language family]] and is not related to the Baltic languages, which are [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]].

The [[Mordvinic languages]], spoken mainly along western tributaries of the [[Volga]], show several dozen loanwords from one or more Baltic languages. These may have been mediated by contacts with the Eastern Balts along the river [[Oka River|Oka]].<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Riho |author-last=Grünthal |chapter=Baltic loanwords in Mordvin |title=A Linguistic Map of Prehistoric Northern Europe |date=2012 |pages=297–343 |chapter-url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_grunthal.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_grunthal.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |series=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 266}}</ref> In regards to the same geographical location, [[Asko Parpola]], in a 2013 article, suggested that the Baltic presence in this area, dated to {{circa|200}}–600 CE, is due to an "elite superstratum".<ref>Parpola, A. (2013). "[https://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_parpola.pdf Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language families in the light of archaeology]". In: Grünthal, R. & Kallio, P. (Eds.). ''A linguistic map of prehistoric northern Europe''. Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 2013. p. 150.</ref> However, linguist {{ill|Petri Kallio|nn|Petri Kallio}} argued that the Volga-Oka is a ''secondary'' Baltic-speaking area, expanding from East Baltic, due to a large number of Baltic loanwords in Finnic and [[Saami languages|Saami]].<ref>Kallio, Petri. "[https://www.academia.edu/20252178/The_Language_Contact_Situation_in_Prehistoric_Northeastern_Europe The Language Contact Situation in Prehistoric Northeastern Europe]". In: Robert Mailhammer, Theo Vennemann gen. Nierfeld, and Birgit Anette Olsen (eds.). ''The Linguistic Roots of Europe: Origin and Development of European Languages''. Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European 6. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2015. p. 79.</ref>

Finnish scholars also indicate that Latvian had extensive contacts with [[Livonian language|Livonian]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Grünthal |first=Riho|authorlink=:fi:Riho Grünthal |chapter=Livonian at the crossroads of language contacts |editor=Santeri Junttila |url=https://journal.fi/uralicahelsingiensia/issue/view/uh7 |title=Contacts between the Baltic and Finnic languages |publisher=Uralica Helsingiensia |volume=7 |location=Helsinki |year=2015 |pages=97–102 |isbn=978-952-5667-67-7 |issn=1797-3945}}</ref> and, to a lesser extent, to [[Estonian language|Estonian]] and [[South Estonian]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Junttila |first=Santeri |chapter=Introduction|editor=Santeri Junttila |url=https://journal.fi/uralicahelsingiensia/issue/view/uh7 |title=Contacts between the Baltic and Finnic languages |publisher=Uralica Helsingiensia |volume=7 |location=Helsinki |year=2015 |isbn=978-952-5667-67-7 |issn=1797-3945 |page=6}}</ref> Therefore, this contact accounts for the number of Finnic hydronyms in Lithuania and Latvia that increase in a northwards direction.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zinkevičius |first1=Zigmas |author1-link=Zigmas Zinkevičius |last2=Luchtanas |first2=Aleksiejus |last3=Česnys |first3=Gintautas |title=Where We Come from: The Origin of the Lithuanian People |date=2005 |publisher=Science & Encyclopedia Publishing Institute |isbn=978-5-420-01572-8 |page=42 }}</ref>

Parpola, in the same article, supposed the existence of a Baltic substratum for Finnic, in Estonia and coastal Finland.<ref>Parpola, A. (2013). "[https://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_parpola.pdf Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language families in the light of archaeology]". In: Grünthal, R. & Kallio, P. (Eds.). ''A linguistic map of prehistoric northern Europe''. Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 2013. p. 133.</ref> In the same vein, Kallio argues for the existence of a lost "North Baltic language" that would account for loanwords during the evolution of the Finnic branch.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kallio |first=Petri |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/20252178 |chapter=The Language Contact Situation in Prehistoric Northeastern Europe |editor1=Robert Mailhammer |editor2=Theo Vennemann gen. Nierfeld |editor3=Birgit Anette Olsen |title=The Linguistic Roots of Europe: Origin and Development of European Languages |series=Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European |volume=6 |location=Copenhagen |publisher=[[Museum Tusculanum Press]] |year=2015 |pages=88–90}}</ref>