Old Prussian Language

Old Prussian Language

Old Prussian (Prussian: Prūsiskan or Prūsiskai Bilā) is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the Old Prussians, the indigenous peoples of Prussia (not to be confused with the later and much larger German state of the same name), now north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia.

The language is called “Old Prussian” to avoid confusion with the German dialects Low Prussian and High Prussian, and the adjective “Prussian”, which is also often used to relate to the later German state.

The Old Prussian name for the nation, not being Latinized, was Prūsa.

Old Prussian began to be written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 13th century. A small amount of literature in the language survives.