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| East Baltic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | In Northern Europe, Baltic region |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Subdivisions | |
| ISO 639-5 | bat |
| Linguasphere | 54= |
| Glottolog | east2280 |
 Extent of Baltic languages in present day Europe with languages traditionally considered to be dialects mentioned in Italics East Baltic languages | |
The East Baltic languages are a group of languages that along with the extinct West Baltic languages belong to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. The East Baltic branch has only four living languages—Latvian, Latgalian, Lithuanian, and Samogitian.[1] It also includes now-extinct Selonian, Semigallian, and possibly Old Curonian.[2]
Lithuanian is the most-spoken East Baltic language, with more than 3 million speakers worldwide, followed by Latvian, with 1.75 million native speakers, then Samogitan with 500,000 native speaker, and lastly Latgalian with 150,000 native speakers. [3][4]
- ^ Gimbutas, Marija (1963). The Balts. Ancient peoples and places 33. London: Thames and Hudson. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ Östen Dahl (ed.) 2001, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, vol. 1
- ^ Lithuanian language at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Standard Latvian language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Latgalian language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)