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The first known record of the name of Lithuania ((リトアニア語:Lietuva)) is in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno recorded in the Quedlinburg Chronicle ((ラテン語:Annales Quedlinburgenses)). The Chronicle recorded a Latinized Slavic form of the name Lietuva: ''Litua''〔Vilnius. (Key dates ). Retrieved in 2007-01-18.〕 pronounced (). While it is clear the name originated in a Baltic language, scholars still debate the meaning of the word. ==Historic usage of the name== During the 13th century the Duchy of Lithuania was bordered by Slavic lands. Since the Slavs interacted with Lithuanians much earlier than Western countries did, it is understandable that the Quedlinburg Chronicle used a Slavic form of its name. 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''- (и), 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 as ''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 German usages of the era, such as ''Lettowen'', and in Latin as ''Lethovia'', ''Lettovia'', ''Lettavia'', etc. In Rus' chronicles Lithuania's name was written as Литъва, alongside a shortened version, Литва (''Litva''), where -''i''- (и) was already used instead of the diphthong -''ie''. All of these names clearly originated from *''Lētuvā > Lietuva'', forms used by Lithuanians to identify their lands.〔 The current form of the name ''Lietuva'' is thought to have been used by Lithuanians since the 12th or 13th century,〔(On the Name of Lithuania ), Zigmas Zinkevičius〕 but there are no written sources of that time, as the oldest existing manuscript in the Lithuanian language is dated back to the 16th century. Despite ample historic and linguistic evidence with regard to the name's usage in different languages, there is a certain degree of debate about the etymology of the name. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Name of Lithuania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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