The
Prussian Lithuanians or
Lietuvininkai (singular:
Lietuvininkas, also
Lietuvininkai) are a Western Lithuanian ethnic group, originally
Lithuanian language speakers who inhabited a territory in
East Prussia called Prussian Lithuania or
Lithuania Minor, (, ) in contrast to the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the
Republic of Lithuania (Lithuania Major or Proper). Prussian Lithuanians contributed greatly to the development of written Lithuanian, which for a long time was considerably more widespread and in more literary use in their land than in Lithuania Proper.