The Curonian language (German: Kurisch; Latvian: kuršu valoda; Lithuanian: kuršių kalba), or Old Curonian, is a nearly unattested, extinct language spoken by the Curonians, a Baltic tribe who inhabited the Courland Peninsula (now western Latvia) and the nearby Baltic shore. Curonian was a Baltic language, most likely Eastern Baltic, intermediate between Lithuanian and Latvian.
Old Curonian disappeared in the course of the 16th century, leaving substrata in western dialects of the Latvian and Lithuanian, namely the Samogitian dialect. No written documents in this language are known, but some ancient Lithuanian texts from western regions show some Curonian influence.
Amateur historian Edgar V. Saks and linguist Eduard Vääri have pointed out several Curonian words and names of Finnic origin. For example, a treaty from 1230 calls Curonian administrative divisions kiligunden (kihelkond in Estonian) and the Curonian army maleva. The elder who signed the treaty was named Lammechinus (resp. Lemminkäinen). Self-denomination of Curonians, kure, means 'crane' in Estonian. The attested local Finnic language, Livonian, may be the source of Finnic elements in Curonian.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Baltic states saw a revival of scientific and cultural interest in extinct Baltic languages and tribes, including Yotvingian, Curonian, and Old Prussian.
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)