Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

One of the two living members (the other being * Latvian ) of the eastern group of the * Baltic languages , spoken principally in Lithuania itself (see map 12 ) but also by communities in neighbouring countries and by emigrant communities in western Europe (including Britain), North America and Australia. The eastern limits of the Lithuanian linguistic territory in the past are not easy to establish. The earliest direct contacts with the eastern Slavs, mainly the Krivichi and the Dregovichi tribes who lived along almost the entire border of the territory inhabited by the Lithuanians, date from the 9th c. AD. In the second half of the 12th c. the Lithuanian state expanded into extensive parts of Kievan Rus and incorporated Kiev itself into its domain. In quite a wide stretch of what is now Belarusian territory, around Grodno, Ščučin, Lida, Kreva, Braslav, and other towns, the Lithuanian language became dominant. Historical data about the borders of the Lithuanian-speaking territory in the 13th c. are controversial. The study of toponyms and personal names of Lithuanian origin indicates that the eastern limit, established in the 14th c., had hardly moved until the Union of Lublin (1569), at which time the Lithuanian-speaking area must have encompassed the regions of Braslav and of Druya (at least the western part thereof), and have reached as far as Grodno and Ščučin and nearly to ... log in or subscribe to read full text