Yotvingian Language

Until the 1970s, Yotvingian was chiefly known from toponyms and medieval Russian sources. But in 1978, a monument with Yotvingian writing was discovered by accident. In Belarus, a young man named Vyacheslav Zinov, an amateur collector, bought a book of Catholic prayers from an old man from Novy Dvor [ru] village in the depths of Białowieża Forest, which held a small manuscript titled Pogańskie gwary z Narewu ("Pagan Speeches of Narew"). It was written partly in Polish, and partly in an unknown, "pagan" language. Unfortunately, Zinov's parents threw away the book. However, before the manuscript was destroyed, Zinov had made notes of it which he sent to Vilnius University in 1983. Even though Zinov's notes were riddled with errors, it has been proven beyond doubt that the notes are indeed a copy of an authentic Yotvingian text. According to the first person who analyzed the manuscript, Zigmas Zinkevičius, this short Yotvingian–Polish dictionary (of just 215 words[Note 1]), Pogańskie gwary z Narewu, appears to have been written by a Catholic priest[Note 2] in order to preach to locals in their mother tongue. Concerning the language, Zinkevičius put forth three possible versions: (1) a Yotvingian dialect under a heavy influence of Lithuanian (2) Lithuanian words over a strong Yotvingian substratum (3) the compiler of the dictionary could not tell Lithuanian from Yotvingian clearly, and may have included words from both. The latter version is indirectly supported by the name of the document: "Speeches", rather than "Speech" Some scholars did not rule out the possibility of forgery, but there are strong indications it was not.