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Baltic languages facts for kids

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Baltic
Ethnicity: Balts
Geographic
distribution:
Northern Europe
Linguistic classification: Indo-European
Subdivisions:
Western Baltic †
Eastern Baltic
Dnieper Baltic †
ISO 639-5: bat

The Baltic languages are part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Baltic languages are mostly spoken in the Baltics, around the Baltic sea.

Branches

There are three branches of Baltic languages. Two are extinct.

Western Baltic languages †

  • (Western) Galindian †
  • Old Prussian
  • Sudovian (Yotvingian) †
  •  ? Skalvian † (unattested)

Eastern Baltic languages

  • Latvian (~2.2 million speakers, whereof ~1.75 million native speakers, 0.5 million second language speakers)
  • Latgalian (150,000–200,000 speakers)
  • Lithuanian (~3 million native speakers)
  • Selonian †
  • Semigallian †
  • Old Curonian (sometimes considered Western Baltic) †

Dnieper Baltic languages †

  • (Eastern) Galindian (the language of the Eastern Galindians, also known by its name in Ukrainian: Голядь) †

(† – extinct language)

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Lenguas bálticas para niños

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