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Etymology Most names of the Prussian tribes were formed on the common theme of landscape. Such names were based on water; an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps (see Masurian Lakeland). Indeed, that landscape caused the very partial isolation that preserved the Baltic language group. To the south, the terrain runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River. They have been an effective barrier over the millennia. The original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal polities into which they were organized took the name of the settlement. For example, Barta, the home of the Barti, is related to some other Baltic water names, such as the Bartis River in Lithuania, and to such words as Albanian berrak and Bulgarian bara, "swamp". A This root is perhaps the one used in Prusas (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. The name of the Dnieper in ancient Greek was the Borysthenes, which, though undoubtedly twisted, contains perhaps the Pameddi (Pomesania) is derived from the words for "by", "near", and "honey", and can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root The contexts for these elements remain unknown, or whether these Buri were the ancestors of our Prussians. The second-century AD geographer, Claudius Ptolemy, lists some Borusci living in European Sarmatia (Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen. His map is very confused in that region, but these Borusci seem further east than our Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti (Easterners) as they were recorded by Tacitus were recorded later by Jordanes as part of the Gothic empire. Early history
Medieval history The first definite mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with Adalbert of Prague, who was slain in 997 during a missionary effort to Christianise the Prussians. Because the pagan Old Prussians came into conflict with Roman Catholic Poland, Duke Konrad I of Masovia sought external help in the 1220s. Although the Old Prussians repelled the Order of Dobrzyń, they succumbed to the Teutonic Knights after a bloody conquest spanning several decades in the 13th century during the Northern Crusades. Many of the native Prussians who survived were resettled in Sambia. Frequent revolts, including a major rebellion in 1286, were defeated by the crusaders. Baptised Prussians were educated at the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, while Germans and Dutch settlers colonized the lands of the aboriginal Old Prussians; Poles and Lithuanians also settled in southern and eastern Prussia, respectively. Significant pockets of Old Prussians were left in a matrix of Germans in what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast, and remained part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights until 1525. They were gradually Germanized or Polonized, depending on which part of Prussia they lived in, especially beginning in the 15th century. The monks and scholars of the Teutonic Order took a great interest in the language spoken by the Prussians, and tried to record it. In addition, the missionaries needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them. Consequently, there are some records of the Old Prussian language; along with the slightly known Galindian and the better-known Sudovian, these records are all that remain of the West Baltic language group. As might be expected, it is a very archaic Baltic, showing affinities with Proto-Germanic. The Old Prussian language seems to support the theory that a common Germanic/Balto/Slavic language once existed. The Teutonic Order was gradually defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Union during the 15th century. In 1525 Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Order's Prussian territories into the Protestant Duchy of Prussia, a vassal of Poland. The Old Prussians rose again in rebellion, but were defeated by the German authorities. During the Protestant Reformation, Lutheranism spread throughout the territories, officially in Ducal Prussia and unofficially in the Polish province of Royal Prussia, while Catholicism survived in Warmia. With Protestantism came the use of the vernacular in church services instead of Latin; Albert had the Catechisms translated into the Old Prussian language. Because of the assimilation of the Old Prussians by Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians, the Old Prussian language became extinct before the end of the 17th century, but Bibles and poetry were written in the language beforehand. See also | ||||||||||||
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