Yotvingians, also called Sudovians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians, were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prussians. The linguist Petras Bà «tÃÂnas once asserted that they were closest to the Lithuanians. The Yotvingians contributed to the formation of the Lithuanian state.
According to Vytautas Maà ¾iulis, the name Sà «duva derives from a local hydronym *Sà «d(a)vÃÂ, derived from a Baltic verbal root, *sà «-: to flow, pour.
Numerous linguists consider the Yotvingian language as a dialect of the Old Prussian language. The Lithuanian linguist Petras Bà «tÃÂnas states that such an opinion is incorrect, because the Lithuanian predominates in Yotvingian toponymy instead of the Old Prussian . The Lithuanian professor Zigmas ZinkeviÃÂius wrote that the Yotvingians spoke a dialect of Western Baltic that was closer to Lithuanian than Prussian. The only known written source of the Yotvingian language is the manuscript "".
The Yotvingians lived in the area of Sudovia (Yotvingia) and Dainava, southwest from the upper Nemunas river. Today, this area corresponds mostly to the Podlaskie Voivodeship in Poland, portions of Lithuania west of the Nemunas and a part of Hrodna Province in Belarus. The territory was between the later cities of Marijampolàand Merkinà(Lithuania), Slonim and Kobryn (Belarus), and Biaà Âystok and Lyck in Prussia (now Eà Âk, Poland).
Before the 10th century, in the south, Yotvingian homesteads reached the Brest area. In the west, they reached the Narew river basin. In the north, they reached the Vilnius' and Kaunas' southern outskirts. The territory was shrinking over time.
According to The Histories of Herodotus (5th century B.C.), the Neuri (ÃÂõàÃÂÿï) 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) and the Scythian tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east.
Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people Galindai kai Soudinoi (ãÿàôùýÿï). Peter of Dusburg called them Galindite and Suduwite. In the Hypatian Codex the spelling changes: Jatviagy, Jatviezie, Jatviaà ¾in, zemlia Jatveskaja, na zemliu Jatviaà ¾sôkuju 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. and the Scythian tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east.
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. In 983, Vladimir I of Kiev hired the Yotvingians to add to his army.
In two dotations, in 1253 and 1259, by King Mindaugas of Lithuania, a new name was recorded: Dainava, Deynowe, Dainowe, Denowe (land of songs). The forests were named Deinova Jatveà ¾. In the 1260 treaty with the Teutonic Knights, the region is called "terre Getuizintarum". Skalmantas, leader of the Yotvingians was responsible for single-handedly raiding Pinsk in the Principality of Turov.
In the sentence of Breslau of the emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg to the Livonian Order from 1325, this area is called Suderlandt alias Jetuen.
Vytautas the Great wrote about "terra Sudorum", in a letter to King Sigismund of March 11, 1420.
A 1860 census by the clergy of the Belarus Grodno area, had 30,929 inhabitants identifying as Yatviags.
In the 1980s, a group of intellectuals led by Nikolai Shelyagovich emerged, which created the public-cultural association "Polesie" () in April 1988. Its goals were the revival of the Western Polesie language, recognition of the local residents of as a national minority and a national and cultural autonomy of Western Polesie. The group claimed that the residents of West Polesia were Yotvingians.
In April 1990, the group held a scholarly conference in Minsk, declaring that the territories of the Brest and Pinsk regions of Belarus, the Volhynia region of Ukraine, and the Podlachia and Cheà Âm regions of Poland were a part of the Yotvingian ethnic group.