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The Sūdovian language belongs to the Indo-European linguistic

family. It is a branch of the Baltic group of languages. Of this group,
the Lithuanian and Latvian languages are more well known. Together
with Old Prussian they share an extraordinarily archaic lexicon.
Sūdovian is therefore also of first-rate significance for Indo-European
linguistic studies.

Recent scholarship has suggested Sūdovian linguistic influence in the

2nd and 3rd Old Prussian Catechisms, which were also produced for
the many exiled endogamic Sūdovians in Sembia. The Preface to the
First Old Prussian Catechism of 1545 comments on how the two
languages are mutually inteligible - that although the Sūdovians
sound more "rustic", they understand this Prussian language as it is
printed in the Catechism, and they express themselves well &
understand all words.

" Vo rskaitas "

The account of Hieronymus Meletius', Warhafftige Beschreibung

der Sudawen auff Samland sambt ihren Bock heyligen und
Ceremonien ( True Description of the Sūdovians in Samland
along with their goat sanctifications and ceremonies ) that came
out in two editions ( Konigsberg 1561 ) contained a few phrases or
sentences from the exiled Sūdovian endogamic enclave as well. (
Variant spellings of variant versions available at this TITUS TEXTS link )

Kails naussen gnigethe.

Kellewesze perioth, Kellewesze

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perioth.

Ocho Moy myle schwante Panike.

Beigeite beygeyte peckolle.

Kails poskails ains par antres.

There is also the wealth of regional toponyms, hydronyms, and

accented vocabulary preserved for us by those that remained in their
homeland, and survived the Holocaust of the Crusade against them.
This restored Sūdovian-Yotvingian lexicon draws from all those
historical and many other authentic regional sources. Errors in the
old spelling have been corrected by a direct genetic descendant of a
Yotvingian. Assertions by a few Academics that there are no such
records of the Sūdovian-Yotvingian language are evidently baseless
propaganda, and patently false. These same Academics label the
above Sūdovian words as "Old Prussian". Abipusība ast dermē.

"Esamoji medžiaga neduoda nė vieno kalbos fakto,

kuris rodytų jotvingius kalbėjus ne prūsų kalbos tarme.“
- K. Jablonskis

GUNNAR ?
?

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Y ATVEZ '

Around the 9-10th century ( circa 854 ), the Sūdovian-Dainavian

territory witnessed the arrival of more Varangian ( < Old Norse: Væringi
) Viking-Rus' river trade, and a few settlements ( re: Indura -
Vawkavysk, Belarus, etc. ) of distinctly Norse cultural character
around the Grodno-Vawkavysk region - affiliated with the Viking
trade posts of Kaup ( < Old Gutnish "Kaupungr", aka "Gintijar" in Arabic
) Wiskiauten, Irzekapinis, Linkuhnen, Bogeviken, and others, including
the Franopol, Belarus Vikings - along the Nemunas river ( Gintaras-
Amber ) trade route to Byzantium, far to the South. Nearly all dirhams
found in the territory of West Balts date to pre-900 A.D.

Adam of Breman, in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae

Pontificum, #62, notes that ships from Sembia-Samland would
navigate the sea to the commercial center of Birka. "Ad quam
stationem, quia tutissima est in maritimis Suevoniae regionibus,
solent omnes Danorum vel Nortmannorum itemque Sclavorum ac
Semborum naves aliique Scithiae populi pro diversis
commerciorum necessitatibus sollempniter convenire". In Old
Novgorod, one of the oldest streets bears the name "Prussian
Street". Bilingualism follows trade, & trade follows the money..

Excavations indicate the Norsemen along the Nemunas dispersed and

/ or assimilated in with locals of rank ( a common Viking custom ),
sometime around the 10th-11th centuries. The RPC Byzantine Treaty
of Kiev prince Igor ( Ingvarr - ) in 944-945 notes among the
Rus' ambassadors ( Grk. Ρως ) a Ӕтьвѧгъ Гунаревъ, "Játvįg' for
Gunnar". [* spelling note > J = Y ] . Ρως ? Játvįg( r) ? Gunnarr
? ? Uh-oh.

The Grodno [ C + Ͻ ] Ulfberht

Type Y Sword

The Norse Rus' of their Varangian leader

"Játvígr" ( Old Norse gen. sg. "Játvígs > Játvįgs Róss-menn ( Lið

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) > Jātvings " ) would influence those known later as "Яцвягi ", or
"Jotvingiai", just as the by now poly-ethnic mixed Balt & Slav locals
influenced them. Bilingualism was a key necessity for profitable trade.
The "nasal infixation" ( -ígs / -īgs > -įgs > -ings ) of the Old Norse
original reflects close early contacts with local Dainavians-Sūdovians,
for whom the ubiquitous trademark "nasal -ing-" suffix was indeed
highly productive ( re: Aps-ingis, Zietela "Rus-ingis", etc ) and is thus
non-problematic - and in fact, rather insightful for it's "nasal"
affectation of the local Balts. With the peculiar parallel nominative-
genitive masc. singular ( re: Wilkaskaymen ) of West Baltic dialects, it
it easy to see how an original genitive Játvígs Róss-menn ( Liðsmenn
- Družīna - Sėbrija ) from Old Norse becomes assimilated as a
poly-ethnic West Baltic nominative/genitive Jātvings. "Jotvings".
Voilà!

As convenient as that all sounds, it should be noted that the ubiquitous

modern Lithuanian "Jotvingis" term itself is a recent theoretical
neologism from the middle 1920's. Opps. This "Jotvingis" neologism
coined in the 20's was derived solely from various Rhōs affiliated, &
historical Rus' era, Slavic labels of a prior millennium. Játvígr (
) may have been a Rhōs / Liðs Foringi ( / Crew
Leader ), or perhaps related to a Járl ( Gunnarr? ) of Bogeviken or
Garðariki-Austrvegr. The 944-945 RPC middle nasal vowel - ѧ - is
in all probability an insignificant scribal error, or misinterpretation of
source material, perhaps of runic - -, now enshrined for perpetuity.

Centuries of multi-cultural commingling between West Balts &

Scandinavians - beginning with the poly-ethnic Wielbark ( Gothic )
culture & Przeworsk ( Vandal ) culture [ exhibited by artifacts like
spears, spurs, Roman coins, etc. ], are also reflected at other trade
settlements like Saeborg-Grobina, Truso, Linkuhnen, or Kaup /
Wiskiauten ( aka "Kaupungr" , or "Gintijar" ) & Bogeviken. PI Z alleles
and S alleles in the Courland ( Kurland ) region of Latvia ( Beckman L.
et al, 1999 ) mirror cultural blending of Grobina artifacts, as does LWb
in Gotland. To the West Balts resisting the encroachment of the Kiev
Rus' of Vladimir's era, and the later Holocaust of the Crusades, these
assimilated mixed Norse-Balt poly-ethnic descendants were already
"one of us". They had names, alright - just like everyone else did.
They were neighbors, brothers, kinfolk - literally. They still are.

The "Pagan dialects from Narew" glossary of Zinkevičius ( 1984,

1985, 1992 ) may require a reanalysis from an Old Norse-Old

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Gutnish perspective, given some unexpected new DNA ( R1a1a,

YP704* ) evidence from Sūduva, and regional Norse artifacts of the
10th-11th century connected to Gotland & Kaup. The "Játvįg(r) for
Gunnarr " of 944-945 invites such a fresh, qualified approach. Guti
/ Guti ( Gotlander ). Kałdi / kalði ? Some scholars have even
suggested the Narew 215 word glossary to be the Kurlandian Yiddish
of a merchant. If so, some Gutnish influence would not be wholly
unexpected. A Zietela Lithuanian dialect word "pamarkas"-accursed,
is most probably a legacy of an assimilated bilingual Viking relic term
from the Old Norse "morkinn"- putrid, rotten, like the Scots English
"murkle" reproach.

No traces of any hypothetical Baltic hydronym *Jāt-vā have ever

been found to this day. None. Nada, ... Zip. Yet there is still a
Yatvyagi town in the Ukraine, located in Lviv oblast & Mostyskyi
raion. GPS coordinates for the town are N 49.65700 E 23.21733. Two
other places in the Lviv area shared the same Yatvyagi name ( 49°43'0"
N 23°29'0" E ). ( A. Kaminsk i, Jaćwieź -1953, p.74 ) And there are still
Yatvez' towns in the Belarus, & Poland. Perhaps the Nethimer of St.
Bruno of Querfurt was someone named Næfmarr ( ). The
beginning of the Russian Primary Chronicle lists many tribes that pay
tribute to the Rus'. The Yotvingians are conspicuously absent from
that list.

These poly-ethnic assimilated Norse - Játvígs

Liðar, or Játvígr's Rus' & Varangians by the Nemunas river would
acquire the local West Baltic language of Dainavians and Sûdovians
within a few generations - if not sooner. Bilingualism is a key necessity
of cross cultural traders ( O.N. farmenn ). Soon, they all became
united as one nation, defending their homes & loved ones from
external "foreign" threats. Ethnic identities shifted with that unification.
They fought together side by side, as brothers - just as Tatars ( w/ R1a
Z93 ) did with Lithuanians. It was the era of seemingly unending
Crusades, one after another, after another. Their individual sacrifices
are why many of us are still here. Runais teisingai. Honor them!

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Why did the Sūdovians, Dainavians, or Yotvingians "vanish"? For the

same reason the Anasazi in the American Southwest "vanished". It
is the fiction of utterly incompetent & effete Academics - defending the
fictitious lies of a powerful Church and / or their waning reputations.
It never, ever happened.

As for the depopulated "wasteland" myth of the Crusader's

propaganda priests, the evidence does not reflect it ever happened.
The highly respected archaeologist, Pranas Kulikauskas, notes on
page 164 in his 1982 book "Užnemunės piliakalniai", that the
archaeological evidence of the Užnemunės region does not support
such a depopulated "wasteland" myth. The wealth of old hydronyms
& toponyms there would agree, as does the very low regional
frequency of the LWb allele. In fact, the northern part of the
Užnemunės region was densely populated at that time, and may
explain the later post-Grunwald-Melno influx of new immigrant settlers
to the south. The Yotvingian Egline hillfort excavations did not find a
destruction layer.

Die-hards will inevitably refer to the decreased pollen records of that

period to prop up "the Lie". Science has now confirmed the "Little
Ice Age" (LIA) of that time did occur in the Northern Hemisphere.
There were widespread crop failures throughout Europe. The
Greenland Viking colonies either abandoned their homes or wasted
away. China's orange crop crashed. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII
issued a papal bull called "Summis desiderantes", which specifically
condemned the use of cannabis as "Satanic" - all due to the
widespread cataclysmic crop failures of the "Little Ice Age" (LIA) -
which had been blamed on residual European "Pagans" and their
antiquated practices.

The myth of Terra Nullius was merely historical propaganda - a Lie,

justifying Papal conquests and atrocities in both the Old and New
World. The new science of < DNA > has exposed those Lies as
merely fiction. A census by the Orthodox clergy of the Belarus
Grodno area in 1860 had as many as 30,929 inhabitants identifying
themselves as Yatviags ( Яцвягаў - GDL descendants). Today,
Sūduva is officially called "Suvalkija", as an acquiescence to protect
the old Lie of the powerful, and it's related ethnocidal propaganda.
More nonsense. But simpletons believe this nonsense. Even still to
this very day!

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Studies in various languages (Proto Indo-European, Proto Baltic,

Proto West-Baltic, Proto Slavic, Proto Germanic, Hittite, Old Indic /
Sanskrit, Old Persian / Avestan, Celtic, Old Norse / Icelandic, Old
Armenian, Khotanese Saka , Old Sogdian, Yagnobi, Tokharian,
Albanian, Dacian, Thracian, Gypsy, Old Church Slavic, Old Russian,
Belorussian, Old Lithuanian, Curonian, Samogitian, Estonian Finnic,
Turkic, Nostratic, etc,...) will be enriched by the lexical treasures
Sūdovian has to offer.

Historical forces almost exterminated the various West-Baltic dialects.

Today, the Prussian language is enjoying a revival primarily due to the
exceptional scholarship of the late great Prof. Vytautas Mažiulis and
Prof. Letas Palmaitis. An online dictionary is available here. Perhaps a
restored Sūdovian-Yotvingian language ( known also by the names
język jaćwiński, яцьвяжская мова ) will also fare as well.

If some Native Americans now speak English, have they actually

"vanished"? Nonsense! DNA does not lie. Should they be publicly
ridiculed for restoring the language of their native forefathers? Sounds
absurd, doesn't it?

As the subject of a highly disingenuous article by Prof. Jenny H.

Larsson in a popular Swedish magazine, I've reiterated that this
restored Jatvingian lexicon is of an Indigenous Peoples' Language, & a
genetic birthright. Språktidningen declined to publish a rebuttal. ( the
rebuttal link ). Terra Jatwezenorum was the birthplace of Raphael
Lemkin, who created the word "Ethnocide". Professor J. H. Larsson
states the Jatvingians have "vanished". Not only is that a lie - it is, by
definition, ethnocide. Mes paliksim.

Sūdovian, aka "Yotvingian", vocabulary, terminology, and

accentuation has a natural continuum evident in current dialects of
their lineal descendants in Lithuania, Belarus, and Poland. Sūdovian,
aka "Yotvingian", is resting, not dead. Of those whom have inherited
it as a birthright, some may choose to use it more. It is a U.N.
recognized Indigenous Cultural Right ( re: Articles 13 & 16 ) and
choice they may freely make for themselves. It is a genuine
indigenous continuum of our native Sūdovian-Dainavian-Yotvingian

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culture, as is our DNA. Mes paliksim.

By including just one word of the historically authentic Sūdovian

greeting "Kails", the Lithuanian, Polish, and Belarusian inhabitants of
the old Sūdovian, Dainavian, & Yotvingian area may transcend petty
ethnic, political, and religious differences and instantly re-affirm a long
forgotten unity they still share with each other. DNA does not lie.
People lie. It can minimize the petty modern neo-tribalism of politics,
superficial ethnicity, language, and religious dogmas. "Kails" re-affirms
that we are all One - with each other, and with the Earth we share.

This small restored lexicon (Слоўнік), by a direct genetic descendant

of a Yotvingian, is a memorial to the Holocaust of the Sūdovians,
Dainavians, & Yotvingians - the descendants of which, having mixed
in ( as area dialects & genetics reveal ), still walk and inhabit this
present world. A new ( re: A.С. Кибинь below ), rational etymology of
"Jotvingis", now rescued from the tunnel vision of a provincially inert
ethnocentrism, can finally be derived from the Dainavian influenced
Old Norse root of a West Norse Játvígr "lucky spear" ( poetic Heiti
for "Lucky-Victor" ) Varangian leader of ( Játvįgs
Rhós / Játvįgai ), Játvįgr's Rus' & Varangians.

( 983 ) Иде Володїмиръ на Ӕтвѧгы . и взѧ

землю ихъ .
Vladimir went against Játvígs Rus', and took their territory ( land ).

( with it's strategic Nemunas river access to lucrative Baltic Sea Vik ing
trade with Bogevik en )

The Belarusian Vawkavysk dialect Yatvez' [ * also spelled Jatvez' ]

"Anchor" ( ) term obtusely connects the Norse Rus' Viking
pendants & other Scandinavian relics from Gotland unearthed in that
"Black Russian" region to the original Yotvingians - who initially
spoke the Old Norse ( Greek "Ρωσιστί" ) & Old Gutnish of
Varangians.. Nobody " vanished ". ? Gunnarr ? !
Get real. "When in doubt, tell the truth" - Mark Twain.

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Sūdovian was the language of immense forests, long rivers,

and our forefathers in Sūduva. It is, our language.
It is surviving. It is waking.

Kails !

...select next topic from Contents

- Joseph Poška

Virdainas - U.S.A. Copyright 1994

All Rights Reserved

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* For more about a Norse Rus' Yatviag / Yotvingian etymology, see:

Кибинь A.С. Ятвяги в X-XI вв.: « балтское племя » или « береговое
братство »?
// Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2008. № 2(4). С.117-132.

A special "Thank You" to M. Gorska & Activists

for protecting the Jaćwież lands from desecration.

>>> USAGE GUIDELINE <<<

For use by
Sūduviai, Jotvingiai,
Яцвягi, Jaćwingowie,
& their descendants.

as an officially acknowledged
Indigenous Cultural Right
( re: Articles 13 & 16 )

Mes paliksim.

United Nations Declaration

on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

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