Baltischer

Baltischer is the German adjective meaning “Baltic” and is used to describe things related to the Baltic region, its peoples, and its languages. In geographic and cultural contexts, the term commonly points to the Baltic Sea area and the nations around it, especially the Baltic states, but it can be applied more broadly to topics connected with the broader Baltic Rim.

The term also appears in discussions of Baltic history and demography. Historically, Baltic peoples referred to various tribes around the Baltic Sea, including Latvians, Lithuanians, and, in earlier periods, Old Prussians and other Western Baltic groups such as Curonians and Semigallians. Today the living Baltic peoples are primarily Lithuanians and Latvians, with the term Baltic often used to denote the cultural and historical sphere associated with these populations.

In linguistics, Baltic refers to a branch of the Indo-European language family that includes two living languages, Lithuanian and Latvian, and several extinct Western Baltic languages such as Old Prussian. The Baltic languages are divided into Eastern Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvian) and Western Baltic (extinct languages) groups. They are noted for rich inflection, conservative features relative to many other Indo-European languages, and, in Lithuania and Latvia, a strong tradition of written literary languages.

Etymologically, the term Baltic derives from the Baltic Sea region, with Latin forms such as Balticus and Balticum historically used in scholarly and geographic contexts; in German, Baltikum denotes the Baltic region, and Baltischer describes related topics.