Editing Old Prussian language (section)

==History==

===Original territory===
[[File:Baltic Tribes c 1200.svg|thumb|The approximate distribution of the [[Balts|Baltic tribes]], {{Circa|1200 [[Common Era|CE]]}}]]
In addition to Prussia proper, the original territory of the Old Prussians may have included eastern parts of [[Pomerelia]] (some parts of the region east of the [[Vistula River]]). The language may also have been spoken much further east and south in what became [[Polesia]] and part of [[Podlasie]], before conquests by [[Rus (people)|Rus]] and [[Polish people|Poles]] starting in the 10th century and the [[Ostsiedlung|German colonisation]] of the area starting in the 12th century.{{r|Gimbutas|p=23}}<ref name="Dini">{{cite book|first=Pietro U.|last=Dini|title=Foundations of Baltic languages|translator-first1=Milda B.|translator-last1=Richardson|translator-first2=Robert E.|translator-last2=Richardson|publisher=Vilniaus universitetas|place=Vilnius|date=2014|isbn=978-609-437-263-6}}</ref>{{rp|page=324}}

===Decline===
With the conquest of the Old Prussian territory by the [[Teutonic Knights]] in the 13th century, and the subsequent influx of Polish, Lithuanian and especially German speakers, Old Prussian experienced a 400-year-long decline as an "oppressed language of an oppressed population".<ref name="Trautmann1910">{{cite book|first=Reinhold|last=Trautmann|author-link=Reinhold Trautmann|title=Die altpreußischen Sprachdenkmäler|place=Göttingen|publisher=Vandenhoek & Ruprecht|date=1910|trans-title=The Old Prussian language monuments}}</ref>{{rp|page=VII|quote="Sie hat noch genau 400 Jahre nach der endgültigen Unterwerfung (1283) als unterdrückte Sprache einer unterdrückten Bevölkerung weitergelebt."}} Groups of people from Germany, [[Poland]],<ref name="Pl Refuge 1">{{cite book|title=A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland|first1=Henry Wickham|last1=Steed|first2=Walter Alison|last2=Phillips|first3=David|last3=Hannay|url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=2&cid=24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030804090230/http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=2&cid=24|archive-date=4 August 2003|chapter=The Reformation Period|date=1914|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica Company|place=London}}</ref>{{rp|page=115|quote=For a time, therefore, the Protestants had to be cautious in Poland proper, but they found a sure refuge in Prussia, where Lutheranism was already the established religion, and where the newly erected [[University of Königsberg]] became a seminary for Polish ministers and preachers.}} [[Lithuania]], [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]],<ref name="scots">{{cite web|title=Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia, Part III – Documents (3)|url=http://www.electricscotland.com/history/prussia/part3-3.htm|access-date=2007-02-18}}</ref> [[Kingdom of England|England]],<ref name="Eastland">{{cite web|title=Elbing als ehemaliger englischer Handelsplatz|trans-title=Elbing as a former English trading post|publisher=Magistrat der Stadt Elbing|translator-first=W.|first=Hermann|translator-last=Baumfelder|last=Kownatzki|date=1977|orig-date=unknown|url=http://www.elbing.de/Eastland.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070730075606/http://www.elbing.de/Eastland.pdf|archive-date=30 July 2007|access-date=18 February 2007}}</ref> and [[Austria]] (see [[Salzburg Protestants]]) found refuge in Prussia during the [[Protestant Reformation]] and thereafter.<ref name="Szatkowski">{{cite journal|doi= 10.11649/a.2626|journal=Adeptus|first=Piotr|last=Szatkowski|date=2021|issue=18|title=Language practices in a family of Prussian language revivalists: Conclusions based on short-term participant observation|publisher=Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{rp|page=1}} Old Prussian ceased to be spoken probably around the beginning of the 18th century,<ref name="Young2008" /> because many of its remaining speakers died in the [[famine]]s and the [[Great Northern War plague outbreak|bubonic plague outbreak]] which harrowed the [[East Prussia]]n countryside and towns from 1709 until 1711.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/Engl.pdf|title=Dictionary of Revived Prussian|page=4|first=Mikkels|last=Klussis|year=2005|access-date=2 March 2018|archive-date=26 September 2007|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070926162334/http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/Engl.pdf|url-status=unfit }}</ref>

===Revitalization===
[[File:Mėnuo Juodaragio XXI Kellan.jpg|thumb|The Prussian post-folk band Kellan performing at the Baltic culture festival [[Mėnuo Juodaragis]] in Lithuania]]
In the 1980s, linguists [[Vladimir Toporov]] and [[Vytautas Mažiulis]] started reconstructing the Prussian language as a scientific project and a humanitarian gesture. Some enthusiasts thereafter began to [[Language revitalization|revive]] the language based on their reconstruction.{{r|Szatkowski|pages=3–4}}

Most current speakers live in Germany, Poland, Lithuania and [[Kaliningrad Oblast|Kaliningrad]] (Russia). Additionally, a few children are native in Revived Prussian.{{r|Szatkowski|pages=4–8}}<ref name="culture.pl">{{cite web|url=http://culture.pl/en/article/little-prince-published-in-prussian|title=Little Prince Published in Prussian|website=Culture.pl|publisher=Adam Mickiewicz Institute|date=17 February 2015|access-date=15 November 2022}}</ref>

Today, there are websites, online dictionaries, learning apps and games for Revived Prussian, and one children's book – [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]'s ''[[The Little Prince]]'' – was translated into Revived Prussian by Piotr Szatkowski (Pīteris Šātkis) and published by the Prusaspirā Society in 2015.{{r|Szatkowski|pages=4–7}}{{r|culture.pl}} Moreover, some bands use Revived Prussian, most notably in the Kaliningrad Oblast by the bands [[Romowe Rikoito]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=ROMOWE RIKOITO – Undēina|url=http://www.dangus.net/releases/albumai/043_RomoweRikoito.htm|access-date=29 August 2014|publisher=Dangus|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324135735/http://www.dangus.net/releases/albumai/043_RomoweRikoito.htm|archive-date=24 March 2015}}</ref> Kellan<ref>{{Cite web|author-first=А.|author-last=Ржевский|title=Илья Левашов: То, что мы поем — это о нашей земле|url=https://day-off39.ru/novosti-kaliningrada-i-oblasti/6565-ilya-levashov|access-date=11 October 2020|language=ru|website=Выходной|date=12 December 2018 }}</ref> and Āustras Laīwan, as well as in Lithuania by [[Kūlgrinda (band)|Kūlgrinda]] on their 2005 album {{Lang|lt|Prūsų Giesmės}} ('Prussian Hymns'),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Senoji prūsų kalba atgimsta naujausioje grupės KŪLGRINDA plokštelėje|url=http://www.dangus.net/news/nauja418.htm|access-date=29 August 2014|publisher=Dangus|language=lt|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910040212/http://www.dangus.net/news/nauja418.htm|archive-date=10 September 2012}}</ref> and Latvia by Rasa Ensemble in 1988<ref>{{cite book|last=Smidchens|first=Guntis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TfOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|title=The Power of Song: Nonviolent National Culture in the Baltic Singing Revolution|publisher=[[University of Washington Press]]|year=2014| isbn=978-0-295-99310-2|page=12}}</ref> and [[Valdis Muktupāvels]] in his 2005 [[oratorio]] "Pārcēlātājs Pontifex" featuring several parts sung in Prussian.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oratorio "Pārcēlātājs Pontifex"|url=http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/oratorio.htm|website=Prussian Reconstructions – Ethonology|first=Mykolas Letas|last=Palmaitis|access-date=15 November 2022}}</ref>