Golyad language

Golyad (Russian: голя́дский язык) or is a poorly attested extinct Baltic language of the Dnieper Balts living in the Protva basin in present-day Russia. The Golyad people are believed to have descended from the Moshchiny culture and is the only known ethnonym for the Dnieper-Oka language. Due to there being no known written documents of the Golyad language, the language is poorly known. The language went extinct in the 12th century due to Early Slavic migration and assimilation. It is believed the vernaculars of the Finno-Ugrians and Volga Finns adopted loanwords from Golyad language.

Based on Baltic substratum and hydronomy in the Protva basin, the following phonology can be reconstructed:

There are some Russian dialectal words from the Protva basin region suspected to be of Baltic origin:

It is believed that the hydronyms "Lama", "Yauza", "Nudol" and "Churilikha" have Baltic origins. Specifically, the Churilikha's name has origins in the Lithuanian word for narrow and other names for the Churilikha such as Goledyanka have origins from the Golyad themselves. It is also believed that the name of the two villages of Golyadi has their names originate from the Golyads.