Yotvingians

The map showing the territory of already partially assimilated Yotvingians.

Yotvingian kurhan, piliagarbas in the area of Suwałki

The biggest Yotvingian kurhan in the area of Suwałki

Yotvingians or Sudovians (also called Suduvians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians in English) (Lithuanian: Jotvingiai, Sūduviai; Latvian: Jatvingi; Polish: Jaćwingowie, Belarusian: Яцьвягі) were a Baltic people with close cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians. The Yotvingian language (sometimes called Sudovian) was a Western Baltic language nearest to Prussian, but with small variations.

Yotvingians lived in the area of Sudovia and Dainava (Yotvingia); south west from the upper Neman, between Marijampolė, Merkinė (Lithuania), Slonim, Kobrin (Belarus), Białystok, and Lyck, Prussia (after 1945 Ełk (Poland).

Today this area corresponds mostly to the Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland, portions of Lithuania and a part of Hrodna Province of Belarus.

Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people Sudinoi.

[edit] External links

• English-Sudovian (Yotvingian) dictionary

[edit] See also

• Yotvingian / Sudovian language
• Yotvingia

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