| East Baltic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | In Northern Europe, Baltic region |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-5 | bat |
| Linguasphere | 54= |
| Glottolog | east2280 |
 Extent of Baltic languages in present day Europe with languages traditionally considered to be dialects mentioned in Italics East Baltic languages | |
The East Baltic languages are a group of languages that along with the extinct West Baltic languages belong to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. The East Baltic branch primarily consists of two extant languages—Latvian and Lithuanian. Occasionally, Latgalian and Samogitian are viewed as distinct languages, though they are traditionally regarded as dialects.[1][2] It also includes now-extinct Selonian, Semigallian, and possibly Old Curonian.[3]
Lithuanian is the most-spoken East Baltic language, with more than 3 million speakers worldwide, followed by Latvian, with 1.75 million native speakers, then Samogitan with 500,000 native speaker, and lastly Latgalian with 150,000 native speakers. [4][5]
- ^ Gibson, Catherine (2015). Language or Dialect?: The Politicisation of Language in Central and Eastern Europe. London: University College London. p. 6.
- ^ Pabrėža, Juozas (2019). "The Past and Present of the Samogitian Language." In (Eds.), Baltu filoloģija XXVIII (I) [Baltic philology]. Riga: University of Latvia. pp. 141–148. ISSN 1691-0036.
- ^ Östen Dahl (ed.) 2001, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, vol. 1
- ^ Lithuanian language at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Standard Latvian language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Latgalian language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)