The name BALTS deriving from the Baltic Sea, Mare Balticum, is a neologism, used since 1845 as a general name for the people speaking BALTIC languages — Old Prussian, Lithuanian, Lettish, Curonian, Semigallian, and Selian.
Of these, only Lithuanian and Lettish are living languages. Old Prussian disappeared around 1700 due to German colonization of East Prussia. Curonian, Semigallian, and Selian disappeared between 1400 and 1600. These were either Lettonized or Lithuanized. Other eastern Baltic languages or dialects became extinct in the protohistoric or early historic period and are not preserved in written sources.
The lands occupied by Baltic-speaking people in modern times are about
one-sixth of what they were in prehistoric times before the Slavic and Germanic
expansions.
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