Name of Lithuania
The first known record of the name of Lithuania () is in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno recorded in the Quedlinburg Chronicle (). The Chronicle recorded a Latinized form of the Old Church Slavonic word for Lithuania — — Latinized as Litva (pronounced ). Although it is clear the name originated from a Baltic language, scholars still debate the meaning of the word. Historic usage During the 13th century the Duchy of Lithuania was bordered by Slavic lands. The Slavs did not create the name; they used the existing Lithuanian ethnonym. The Lithuanian diphthong -ie- has, in Slavic languages, shifted to the vowel -i- (), and the short -u- became extra-short (reduced) -ŭ- () which, being unstressed, later disappeared from the East Slavic, hence Litva. This is evidence that the Slavs borrowed this ethnonym from Lithuanians a long time ago. During the next century, Lithuania's name was recorded in other languages, including German and Polish. In early German chronicles Lithuania's name was spelled Lettowen. In this form the German letter -e- is used to denote the Lithuanian diphthong -ie-, while -owen denotes the Lithuanian hydronymic suffix -uva (-ava). The traditional Lithuanian root -liet- is encountered in various