Yotvingians
The Yotvingians (also called: Sudovians, Suduvians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians; , ; ; , , ) were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prussians. The linguist Petras Būtėnas asserts that they were closest to the Lithuanians. The Yotvingians contributed to the formation of the Lithuanian state. Yotvingians had a strong warrior culture and were generally well known as great warriors and hunters, and were feared by their neighbours for their skill in warfare. The Yotvingians were referred to in regional historical records into the 19th century. Culture. Etymology. According to Vytautas Mažiulis, the name Sūduva derives from a local hydronym "*Sūd(a)vā , in turn derived from a Baltic verbal root *sū-": to flow, pour. A. S. Kibin proposed Yotvingian, or the "Slavic Jatviagi as the group name goes back to O. N. patronymic derivative játvingar meaning "the descendants of Játvígr", or "the people of Játvígr"" - "the name Játvígr mentioned by Knytlinga saga". J. Pashka, acknowledging Kibin's proposal, has similarly interpreted the ethnonym as derived from the Old Norse "Játvígr", with a genitive "Játvígs" liðsmenn (ᛃᚨᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᛟᚦᛋ) label of Játvígr's Viking expedition and his Norse Rus' settlers ( i.e. Indura, Belarus ) by the Nemunas river. Pashka asserts the nasal infixation in the  original Old Norse "Játvíg" name of the 944-945 Kiev Treaty was probably an insignificant scribal error or misinterpretation, that has survived to the present. Language. Numerous linguists consider the Yotvingian language as a dialect of the Old Prussian language. The Lithuanian linguist Petras Būtėnas states that such an opinion is incorrect, because there are no written sources in Yotvingian. As the Lithuanian predominates in Yotvingian toponymy instead of the Old Prussian , this means the Yotvingians were closest to Lithuanians. The Lithuanian professor Zigmas Zinkevičius wrote that the Yotvingians spoke a dialect of Western Baltic that was closer to Lithuanian  compared to Prussian. Geography. The Yotvingian lived in the area of Sudovia (Yotvingia) and Dainava, southwest from the upper Nemunas. Today this area corresponds mostly to the Podlaskie Voivodeship in Poland, portions of Lithuania and a part of Hrodna Province in Belarus. The territory was between later the Marijampolė and Merkinė (Lithuania); Slonim and Kobryn (Belarus); and Białystok, and Lyck, in Prussia now Ełk (Poland). History. Ancient history. According to "The Histories" of Herodotus "(5th century B.C.)", the Neuri Νευροί were a tribe living beyond the Scythian cultivators, one of the nations along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug  river), west of the Borysthenes (Dniepr river). This was roughly the area of modern Belarus and Eastern Poland by the Narew river, coinciding with the Yotvingian linguistic territory of toponyms and hydronyms (Narew river). Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people "Galindai kai Soudinoi" (Σουδινοί). Peter of Dusburg called them "Galindite and Suduwite". In the Hypatian Codex the spellings are changing: "Jatviagy, Jatviezie, Jatviažin, zemlia Jatveskaja, na zemliu Jatviažs´kuju" and more. Polish sources also used Russian spellings: "Jazviagi, Iazvizite, Jazvizite, Yazvizite". This name was taken by the papal administration: "terra Jatwesouie, Gretuesia, Gzestuesie, Getuesia und Getvesia". The Knights  called this tribe "Sudowite, Sudowia, in qua Sudowit". 10th century. In 944, during the treaty between the Kievan Rus' prince Igor and the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, the Yotvingians were hired by the Kievan ruler to serve as mercenaries. Also Vladimir I of Kiev, in 983, hired the Yotvingians to add to his army. 13th century. In two dotations (1253 and 1259) of Mindaugas, a new name was recorded: "Dainava, Deynowe, Dainowe, Denowe" (land of songs). The forests were named "Deinova Jatvež". In the treaty with the Teutonic Knights in 1260, the region is called ""terre Getuizintarum"". Skalmantas, leader  of the Yotvingians was responsible for single-handedly raiding Pinsk in the Principality of Turov. 14th century. In the sentence of Breslau of the emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg to the Livonian Order from 1325, this area is called "Suderlandt alias Jetuen". 15th century. Vytautas the Great wrote about "terra Sudorum", in a letter to King Sigismund of March 11, 1420. A census by the clergy of the Belarus Grodno area in 1860 had as many as 30,929 inhabitants identifying as Yatviags.