As I see we are discussing languages in the section of Mythology. I can guess that Moderators don't like it. So maybe we should open some "Languages" section, I don't know.

As for "dead" languages, to my opinion using this term "dead" we should think better what it could mean. For example, the Latin. Just think a little bit how many people know Latin very well and then there are a lot of people who studied it in universities and know it not so good but still know. So  maybe there are many thousands of them. I know that there is some radio where transmission is in Latin, there are films in Latin, there are oceans of books in Latin and people read them and so on. But still in this case we say to ourselves: Latin is "dead" language! Logically it's absurd because it is in use. And the usage of it is so large. And we never hear the term "Ancient Italian". So the reason to be "dead" for language is not only if it is not in use anymore. It could not be "dead" because today's Latin is just Italian. And the Italian of olden times is just a normal history of the same language. So the terms can be very very relative.

About Prussian. As I've already said, for about 20 years ago (or even a bit more) Prussian language was normalized as it happened in 20th cent to many languages of little countries like Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian which actually didn’t exist in natural environment (the similar situation was with many Slavic languages) because of different century-long occupations and some other political situations. So they were reconstructed from folklore data, from books, dictionaries, from different dialects. Historical aspects: authentic Prussian language was still widely used in 16th cent. Why we know about it? Because if it wasn't like this, Prussian authorities would never spend money for publishing books in Prussian. They published them and this fact shows that there were very many native speakers that time. Even in 17th cent historians wrote that in Sambia still it was possible to meet such Prussians who didn't understand German language at all!!! That was like this because until 18th cent the colonization was not so aggressive. In 16th-17th cent Prussians of Nadrowia and Skalovia little by little began to use different East-Baltic dialects. And West-Baltic (Prussian) remained mostly in Sambia. Even in 20th cent everyday's "German" language in Prussia was not the same German as it is now on TV in Germany: in Prussian German of 20 cent people used considerable amount of Baltic words. Torryn Raud, you can ask V. Gilmanov about it if you study German in university because he contacted many Prussians who live now in Germany.
Yes, German impact was. Books in Prussian of 16th cent show it. On the other hand it is difficult to say if the impact was so strong because these books were translated into Prussian from German with oceans of mistakes. So maybe it was just translators who translated them under the strong influence of German. Anyway it is clear where is German construction and where is Baltic one because all these texts are written in two languages.
There are two main dialects: "Sembiskan" (Sambian) and "Pameddiskan" (Pomezanian). The first one is normative now.
I know German not so good.

If we reconstruct something like Prussian clothes? Well, yes. But anyway, try to understand that if you come to Prussian part of Lithuania or to Germany and ask real Prussian people something like this, how do you think they would tell you. They'd answer: sorry, we don't need to reconstruct our clothes because we are modern people and we wear what we wear – usual modern clothes.
Of course, I understand that you ask about historical clothes. Well, some people do it and I think it is good to use some elements even in modern life but anyway it is not so necessary for the living.

As for Prussian name, i can offer you some variant, just give some hints.

About Prussian language was already written that it was widely spoken till 18th cent, then it was turned into different dialects. Nothing disappeared.
About meanings of the names with "wa-" I should think a little bit.
It is very clear about the name "Wannags", it is bird "jastreb". It is very popular name.

The monuments of Old Prussian are:
1 - Prussian geographical names within the territory of Baltic Prussia (the first basic study of these names was by Georg Gerullis, Die altpreußischen Ortsnamen. Berlin und Leipzig, 1922) [ON];
2 – Prussian personal names (up to now the main research is of Reinhold Trautmann, Die altpreußischen Personennamen. Göttingen, 1923, in which the work of Ernst Lewy, 1904, is included) [APN];
3 - separate words found in various historical documents [DK];
4 - vernacularisms in former German dialects of East and West Prussia, as well words of the Old Curonian origin in Latvian and West-Baltic vernacularisms in Lithuanian and Belorussian [DIA];
5 - so called Basel Epigram
6 – fragmentary texts
a) recorded in several versions by Hieronymus Maletius in Sudovian Nook in the middle of the 16th c. –
b) an expresion from the list (F) of the Vocabulary of friar Simon Grunau, a historian of the German Order -
7 – a manuscript fragment of the first words of Pater Noster from the beginning of the 15th c

8 - 100 words in strongly varying versions of the Vocabulary by Simon Grunau of ca. 1517-1526 [Gr];
9 - so called Elbing Vocabulary consisting of 802 thematically sorted words and their German equivalents. This manuscript, copied by Peter Holcwesscher from Marienburg on the boundary of the 14th / 15th c., was found in 1825 by Fr. Neumann among other manuscripts acquired by him from the heritage of Elbing merchant A. Grübnau (“Codex Neumannianus”) [E];
10 - 11 - 12 - three Catechisms [I, II, III] printed in Königsberg in 1540, 1540 and 1561 respectively, of which two first consist only 6 pages of the Prussian text, the II being a correction of the I in an another sub-dialect, but the III one consists of 132 pages of the Prussian text and is a translation by Abel Will of Martin Luther’s Enchiridion.
13 - An adage of 1583 - [OT], [MBS].

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Today's phonetics is based on the orthography of historical monuments, then of course, how real old people in Prussian parts still speak.

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V.Gilmanow is well-known person among Prussians in Germany. Maybe their leader R. Grunenberg told about him. Then he is known in Lithuania because of his works on Simon Dach.

As for proto-Baltic, it is supposed (according V. Mažiulis) that about 20th cent BC there was the last zone of proto-Indo-European between Vistula river, Baltic Sea, Dnieper river. And after the separation of German dialects from this area, we can speak about proto-Baltic. About 6th cent BC it was divided into Western and Eastern Baltic dialects. About 5th cent BC according V.Martynov from Western Baltic was separated proto-Slavic. It happened as a result of Iranian influence.

Отредактировано Aistis (2008-02-05 21:20:45)

I don't think that such conversations about "rotten" culture are so usefull. Today for everybody there is possibility to study a lot of what was then. Person may study it and bears it in his mind. So thus culture will not be "rotten". Problem that today person usually collects  just to represent it for some event but not take it as something really His.
Well, as for Order, during Order times Prussians still lived and had their traditions. Of course, some people were killed but still culture was alive.
Colonization of 1730ies was the real reason, then agressive was Kaiser's policy towards all non-German things in Prussia.
But still as i already wrote that local "German" culture is just a myth. Culture was really "germanized" but it doesn't mean that it was "German".
In this sense all traditional cultures were "rotten". The reason everywhere is the same: trade and merchandising brought new religion and the logic was like this: if i have this religion as well, it will help me to have good business.

Отредактировано Aistis (2008-02-06 23:07:32)