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Medieval Baltic Tribes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

Extract

The Neuri (Neuroi) and Aesti of classical scholarship are the earliest names which recent research has attempted to gloss as Baltic (K. Būga's “Aestic”), but since nothing beyond conjecture, unsubstantiated by linguistic evidence, can establish the equation, it is better to begin more soberly with names about which there can be less doubt. The oldest known authority on these is Ptolemy (c. 100-78), who says in his De geographia “Ypo men tous Ouenedas, [Tacitus's Vencti, Wends, Slavs] Palin Galindai, [or Galindanoi, Calindians] kai Loudinoi, [or Loudênoi, Sudinians, Sudavians].” After a lapse of more than a millennium Peter von Dusburg (i.e., Duisburg) numbers these tribes among the Prussians, and two centuries later (1545), Meletius, archipresbyter Ecclesie Liccensis in Prussia, offers meager and obviously corrupt fragments of Sudavian or Yatvingian speech (e.g., moy ’,my,‘ cf. Pr. fem.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1949

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References

1 Matthews, W. K., “Baltic Origins,”Revue des Études Slaves,Vol. XXIV (Paris, 1948).Google Scholar

2 Lowmiański, H., The Ancient Prussians, (Toruń, 1936), pp. 14—15.Google Scholar

3 Geôgraphikô yphôgôsis, III, 5, 21.

4 Cronica Terre prussie, (1326). Sec T. Hirsch, M. Töppen, and Strehlke, E., Die geschichtlichen, Quellen der preussischen Vorzeit, (Leipzig, 1861), Vol. I.Google Scholar

5 Erleutertes preussen, (Königsberg, 1724-42), V, 707.

6 In the Preface to the Prussian Catechism of 1545 we read: “Die Sudawen aber, wiewol jhre rede etwas nyderiger, wissen sich doch jnn diese preussische sprach wie sie alhie, im Catechismo gedruckt ist auch wol zuschichen und vernemen alle wort.”, Sec R. Trautmann, Die altpreussischen Sprachdenkmäler, (GÖttingen, 1910).

7 “Zur Sprachc der Sudauer-Jatwingcr, ,”Festschrift Adalbert Bezzenberger, (GÖttingen, 1921), pp. 4451.Google Scholar

8 The Old Russian form Goljad', which figures in the “Hypatian Chronicle” (Ipat'evskaja letopis), under 1057—58, is obviously a Russification of Galindi, and since this tribe is given there as settled on the Protva, it would seem to have been the easternmost Baltic tribe, called, appropriately enough, by the same name as the westernmost. A. Brückner (Indogermanische Forschungen,Vol. XXXXI) is unwilling to concede the separate identity of the two tribes and prefers to consider the Goljad’ as West Galindian War prisoners and their descendants. The separateness of the Galindians and the Goljad', however, requires no emphasis: space divides them effectively, and their names are abviously geographical, not national, in origin, so that their appearance at opposite ends of the territory presents no obstacle.

9 Būga, K., Lietuviu kalbos žodynas, (Kaunas, 1924-25), Vols. I—II.Google Scholar

10 Staatsarchiv Königsberg, Orig. Urk. 65, 44.

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13 Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis, (1518).

14 De originis et rebus gestis Polonorum, (Basilea, 1555).

15 Būga, op. cit.

16 Gacrte, W., Urgeschichte Ostpreussens (Königsberg, 1929), p. 357.Google Scholar

17 Germania.

18 Even at the beginning of the sixteenth century Mathias Miechovita (op. cit), observes that in Prussia iam pauci proferunt Prutenicum, but the credibility of this statement is minimized by a subsequent observation: in Lothua pauci villani profitentur hdnc linguttm, quia subintravit Almanicum.

19 See Salys's, A. diagram in “Baltu kalbos,” Lietuviškoji Enciklopedija, (Kaunas, 1934) II, 986.Google Scholar

20 Būga, K., Aisčiu pracitis vietu vardų šviesoje,(Kaunas, 1924)Google Scholar; “Upių vardų studijos ir sisšiu bei slavenu senove,” Tauta ir Žodis, Vol. I (Kaunas, 1923); Kalbair senove, (Kaunas, 1922), Vol. I.

21 Matthews, W.K., “The Language Pattern of the U.S.S.R.,” Slavonic and East European Review, XXV, No. 65 (April, 1947), 435.Google Scholar

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23 Op. cit.

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25 Būga, op. cit.

26 Livonian is still spoken in small fishing communities on the northwest coast of Curonia (Latv. Kurzeme), but died out in southern Livonia (Latv. Vidzeme) in the nineteenth century.

27 The Hervararsaga, mentions the Swedish king Ívar Vídfarmne as having had control of “kúrland” as well as of Estonia c. 675.

28 Waitz, C., Vita Anskarii auctore Rimberto. Accedit vita Rimberti, (Hannover, 1884), XXX, 60.Google Scholar

29 This may reflect Livonian kura <*kurha <*kursas (Kuršas).

30 Ed. A. A. Šakhmatov (Petrograd, 1916). There is an English version (The Russian Primary Chronicle), by S. H. Cross (Cambridge, Mass., 1930).

31 Pertz, , Heinrici Chronicon Lyvoniae, (Hannover, 1874).Google Scholar

32 Ed. L. Meyer (Paderborn, 1876).

33 Voyages et ambassades, (Mons, 1890); Potvin, C., Oeuvres de Ghillebert de Lannoy, (Louvain, 1878)Google Scholar; Scriptores rerum prussicarum, III, 446, 36, 38.

34 E.g., the annalist Casper Peucer (1562) confuses Livonian with Curonian and makes the citizens of Reualia (Tallinn) speak Latvian.

35 Prätorius, M., Deliciae Prussicae, ed. Pierson, W. (Berlin, 1871)Google Scholar; Arbuzovs, L. (Arbusow) in Izglitibas Ministrijas Mēnesrakšts, (Riga, 1920), Vol. II.Google Scholar

36 Kiparsky, V., Die Kurenfrage ,(Helsinki, 1939).Google Scholar Kiparsky was an enthusiastic student of Latvian in Riga in the late nineteen-thirties and, while there, adopted the standpoint of Latvian scholarship toward this problem.

37 Annales Ryenses, (c. 870), where the name appears alongside Prucia. See Zeuss, J. C., Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, (Munich, 1837).Google Scholar

38 I.e., “Sigrid had this stone erected to her husband Svein. He often sailed to Zemgalia in his fine ship round Domesnäs (Cape Kolka). See Steffen, R.,Isländsk och fornsvensk,litteratur (2d ,ed.), p. 166.Google Scholar

39 Būga, op. cit.

40 “Latviešu aizvēsture,” Latvieši, (Riga, 1930), also Latviešu senvsture, (Riga, 1938), of which a revised and enlarged Swedish version (Det äldsta Lettland), appeared in Stockholm during the author's exile.

41 Op. cit.

42 E.g., Latv. baznīca ‘church’ (O. R. bož'nica); gavēt ‘to fast’ (O. R. govtěi);, grāmata ‘book’ (O. R. gramota); grēks ‘sin’ (O. R. grěč); pekle ‘hell ’ ( O .R.peklo);, sods ‘judgment’ (O. R. sud); svēts ‘holy’ (O. R. svjat); zvans ‘bell’ (O. R.zvon)..

43 Streitberg-Festgabe, (Leipzig, 1924), pp. 22-25.

44 Sjögren, J. A., Livische Grammatik, nebst Sprachproben, (St. Petersburg, 1861).Google Scholar

45 The aboriginal inhabitants of Ingria and of the now Russianized territory to the south. They were one of the nations (O. R. Vod’), which helped to build the Varangian state of Novgorod. Only about five hundred Vodian-speakers survive today in villages on the Luga (Est. Luuga) River in Northwest Ingria. They call their language vadja, (cf. Est. vadja;, Finn, vatja;, Germ. Wotisch; Russ. vodskij, or votskij).

46 Beiträge zur historischen Völkerkunde Europas, I. Die Ostgrenze der baltischen Stämme, (Berlin, 1932).

47 Zajaczkowski, St., Studya nad dziejami żmudzi wieku XIII, (Cracow, 1925);Google Scholar W. Gaerte, op. cit.; A. Salys, “Die žemaitischen Mundarten I. Geschichte des žemaitischen Sprachgebiets,” Tauta ir žodis, (Kaunas, 1930), Vol. VI; Engel, C., Die Bevölkerung, Ostpreussens in vorgeschichtlicher Zeit ,(Königsbcrg, 1932)Google Scholar and Vorgeschichte der alt-preussischen Stämme, (Königsbcrg, 1931); H. Mortensen, , “Ncucs zur Frage der mittel alterlichen Nordgrenze der Litauer,” Zeitschrift für slavische Philologie, (Leipzig, 1933), pp. 273305.Google Scholar For the relief and landscape of Lithuania sec Mortensen, H., Litauen,(Hamburg, 1926)Google Scholar

48 Engel, C. and La Baume, W., Kulturen und Völker der Frühzeit im Preussenlande, (Königsberg, 1937), p. 197.Google Scholar

49 Studja nad poezatkami spoleczeństwa i państwa litewskiego, (Wilno, 1932), Vol. II.

50 See the relevant map in Kruus's, H. article “Eesti ajalugu,” in Eesti Entsüklopeedin, (Tartu, 1933), II, 635-36.Google Scholar