Editing Balts (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Baltic Tribes c 1200.svg|thumb|275px|right|Baltic tribes before the coming of the [[Teutonic Order]] ({{Circa|1200 AD}}). The East Balts are shown in brown hues while the West Balts are shown in green. The boundaries are approximate. Baltic territory was extensive inland.]]
In the 12th and 13th centuries, internal struggles and invasions by [[Ruthenians]] and [[Polish people|Poles]], and later the expansion of the [[Teutonic Order]], resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the Galindians, Curonians, and Yotvingians.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}} Gradually, Old Prussians became [[Germanization|Germanized]] or Lithuanized between the 15th and 17th centuries, especially after the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] in [[Prussia]].{{citation needed|date=February 2014}} The cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern-day countries of [[Latvia]] and [[Lithuania]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western [[Baltic language]]s, [[Curonian language|Curonian]], [[Galindian language|Galindian]] and [[Sudovian language|Sudovian]]. It is more distantly related to the surviving Eastern [[Baltic language]]s, [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and [[Latvian language|Latvian]]. Compare the Prussian word ''seme'' (''zemē''),<ref name="Lie">Mikkels Klussis. ''Bāziscas prûsiskai-laîtawiskas wirdeîns per tālaisin laksikis rekreaciônin'' [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20081218125558/http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/Lie.pdf Donelaitis.vdu.lt] (Lithuanian version of [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20081218125908/http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/Engl.pdf Donelaitis.vdu.lt).]</ref> Latvian ''zeme'', the Lithuanian ''žemė'' (''land'' in English).{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}