Sudovian language
Historical sources state that Sudovian was very similar to and mutually intelligible with the archaic Old Prussian language, e.g. in the introduction to the first Old Prussian Catechism (printed in Königsberg – 1545 – the first Baltic language book): Die Sudawen aber wiewol ihre rede etwas nyderiger wissen sich doch inn diese preüßnische sprach : wie sie alhie im Catechismo gedruckt ist auch wol zuschicken und vernemen alle wort.
[10]: 19 Sudovia and neighboring Galindia were two Baltic tribes or nations mentioned by the Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD as Galíndai and Soudinoí (Γαλίνδαι, Σουδινοί).
[11] After the district was conquered by the Teutonic Knights, the language died out and its speakers were gradually absorbed by German, Lithuanian and Slavic populations.
[2]: 300 John Poliander wrote in 1535 about the Sudovians living near Königsberg, Prussia, that 32 villages used Sudini speech in a 6–7 mile stretch of land of the Samland Corner that bears the name of Sudavia.
From him we learn that the Sudovians lived secluded from the Sambians, that they married within their own tribe, and did not allow intermarriage with the neighbouring Prussian population "even if begged".
of 1530 contains the following list of deities who were still worshipped by the Sudavians in Samland: "Occopirmus, Sualxtix, Ausschauts, Autrympus, Potrympus, Bardoayts, Piluuytis, Parcunas, Pecols,...".
[2]: 302 The Yotvingian territories were later overrun and populated by Slavs around present-day Białystok and Suwałki in north-eastern Poland and nearby Hrodna (formerly Grodno) in Belarus.
Some elements of Baltic speech are still retained in the Belarus and Ukraine territory, owing to the sparse indigenous populations and resettlements of refugees from Lithuania.
In Belarus, a young man named Viačasłaŭ Zinaŭ,[22] an amateur collector, bought a book of Catholic prayers from an old man from Novy Dvor village in the depths of Białowieża Forest, which held a small manuscript titled "Pagan Dialects from Narew [lt; be-tarask]" (Pogańskie gwary z Narewu).
[21]: 97 [23] According to the first person who analyzed the manuscript, Zigmas Zinkevičius, this short Yotvingian–Polish dictionary (of just 215 words[Note 1]), "Pagan Dialects from Narew", appears to have been written by a Catholic priest in order to preach to locals in their mother tongue.
