Editing Baltic languages (section)

===Genetic relatedness===
[[File:Balto-Slavic theories 2.svg|thumb|left|450px|Various schematic sketches of possible Balto-Slavic language relationships.]]
[[File:The epigram of Basel - oldest known inscription in Prussian language and Baltic language in general, middle of 14th c.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The epigram of Basel – oldest known inscription in [[Old Prussian language|Prussian language]] and Baltic language in general, middle of 14th c]]

The Baltic languages are of particular interest to linguists because they retain many archaic features, which are thought to have been present in the early stages of the [[Proto-Indo-European language]].<ref name="Gimbutas1963"/> However, linguists have had a hard time establishing the precise relationship of the Baltic languages to other languages in the Indo-European family.<ref name="Ancient Indo-European Dialects">{{cite book|author-first=Alfred |author-last=Senn |author-link=Alfred E. Senn |chapter=The Relationships of Baltic and Slavic |editor-first1=Henrik |editor-last1=Birnbaum |editor-link1=Henrik Birnbaum |editor-first2=Jaan |editor-last2=Puhvel |editor-link2=Jaan Puhvel |title=Ancient Indo-European Dialects |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pCBRsfJMv8C&pg=PA139 |access-date=3 December 2011 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=139–151 |id=GGKEY:JUG4225Y4H2 |year=1966}}</ref> Several of the extinct Baltic languages have a limited or nonexistent written record, their existence being known only from the records of ancient historians and personal or place names. All of the languages in the Baltic group (including the living ones) were first written down relatively late in their probable existence as distinct languages. These two factors combined with others have obscured the history of the Baltic languages, leading to a number of theories regarding their position in the Indo-European family.

{{Disputed section|Do Baltic and Slavic languages actually belong in the same branch, given the closer ties of Baltic languages to Sanskrit than to Slavic languages?  The assertion that "most" linguists support this view is not correct--or needs to be proven.|date=October 2024}}

The Baltic languages show a close relationship with the Slavic languages, and are grouped with them in a [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]] family by most scholars.{{Disputed inline|Whether Baltic and Slavic languages belong in the same branch is a matter of quite a bit of controversy.  Extensive citations needed to make the case for accuracy in Wikipedia.|date=October 2024}}{{Attribution needed|reason=[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|Unsupported attribution]]|date=October 2022}} This family is considered to have developed from a common ancestor, [[Proto-Balto-Slavic]]. Later on, several lexical, phonological and morphological dialectisms developed, separating the various Balto-Slavic languages from each other.<ref name="Mallory1991">{{cite book|author-first=J. P. |author-last=Mallory |author-link=J. P. Mallory |title=In search of the Indo-Europeans: language, archaeology and myth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfChQgAACAAJ |access-date=3 December 2011 |date=1 April 1991 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-27616-7}}</ref><ref name="Mallory1997">{{cite book|author-first=J. P. |author-last=Mallory |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&pg=PA46 |access-date=3 December 2011 |year=1997 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-884964-98-5 |page=46}}</ref> Although it is generally agreed that the Slavic languages developed from a single more-or-less unified dialect ([[Proto-Slavic]]) that split off from common Balto-Slavic, there is more disagreement about the relationship between the Baltic languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hill |first=Eugen |year=2016 |title=Phonological evidence for a Proto-Baltic stage in the evolution of East and West Baltic |journal=International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction |volume=13 |pages=205–232 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34288492 }}</ref>

The traditional view is that the Balto-Slavic languages split into two branches, Baltic and Slavic, with each branch developing as a single common language (Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic) for some time afterwards. Proto-Baltic is then thought to have split into East Baltic and West Baltic branches. However, more recent scholarship has suggested that there was no unified Proto-Baltic stage, but that Proto-Balto-Slavic split directly into three groups: Slavic, East Baltic and West Baltic.<ref>{{citation|author-last=Kortlandt |author-first=Frederik |author-link=Frederik Kortlandt |year=2009 |title=Baltica & Balto-Slavica |page=5 |quote=Though Prussian is undoubtedly closer to the East Baltic languages than to Slavic, the characteristic features of the Baltic languages seem to be either retentions or results of parallel development and cultural interaction. Thus I assume that Balto-Slavic split into three identifiable branches, each of which followed its own course of development.}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon |author-first=Rick |author-last=Derksen |author-link=Rick Derksen |year=2008 |page=20 |quote=I am not convinced that it is justified to reconstruct a Proto-Baltic stage. The term Proto-Baltic is used for convenience’s sake.}}</ref> Under this view, the Baltic family is [[paraphyletic]], and consists of all Balto-Slavic languages that are not Slavic. In the 1960s [[Vladimir Toporov]] and [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] made the following conclusions about the relationship between the Baltic and Slavic languages:<ref name="Dini143">{{cite book|last=Dini |first=P.U. |title=Baltų kalbos. Lyginamoji istorija |language=lt |trans-title=Baltic languages. Comparative history |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |location=Vilnius |date=2000 |pages=143 |isbn=5-420-01444-0}}</ref><ref>''Бирнбаум Х''. О двух направлениях в языковом развитии // Вопросы языкознания, 1985, No. 2, стр. 36</ref> 
* the Proto-Slavic language formed out of peripheral-type Baltic dialects; 
* the Slavic linguistic type formed later from the structural model of the Baltic languages; 
* the Slavic structural model is a result of the transformation from the Baltic languages structural model.

These scholars' theses do not contradict the close relationship between Baltic and Slavic languages and, from a historical perspective, specify the Baltic-Slavic languages' evolution – the terms 'Baltic' and 'Slavic' are relevant only from the point of view of the present time, meaning [[Historical linguistics|diachronic changes]], and the oldest stage of the language development could be called both Baltic and Slavic;<ref name="Dini143"/> this concept does not contradict the traditional thesis that the [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]] and [[Proto-Baltic language|Proto-Baltic]] languages coexisted for a long time after their formation – between the [[2nd millennium BC]] and circa the [[5th century BC]] – the Proto-Slavic language was a [[Dialect continuum|continuum]] of the Proto-Baltic dialects, more rather, the Proto-Slavic language should have been localized in the peripheral circle of Proto-Baltic dialects.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dini |first=P.U. |title=Baltų kalbos. Lyginamoji istorija |language=lt |trans-title=Baltic languages. Comparative history |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |location=Vilnius |date=2000 |pages=144 |isbn=5-420-01444-0}}</ref>

Finally, a minority of scholars argue that Baltic descended directly from Proto-Indo-European, without an intermediate common Balto-Slavic stage. They argue that the many similarities and shared innovations between Baltic and Slavic are caused by several millennia of contact between the groups, rather than a shared heritage.<ref name="HockJoseph1996">{{cite book |author-first1=Hans Henrich |author-last1=Hock |author-first2=Brian D. |author-last2=Joseph |title=Language history, language change, and language relationship: an introduction to historical and comparative linguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGH-RCW1fzsC&pg=PA53 |access-date=24 December 2011 |year=1996 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-014784-1 |page=53}}</ref>

[[File:Indoeuropean languages according to Wolfgang P. Schmid.gif|thumb|right|260px|Place of Baltic languages according to Wolfgang P. Schmid, 1977.]]