The Prussian Lithuanians or Lietuvininkai (singular: Lietuvininkas, plural: Lietuvininkai) are a Western Lithuanian ethnic group, originally Lithuanian language speakers who inhabited a territory in East Prussia called Prussian Lithuania or Lithuania Minor, (Lithuanian: Prūsų Lietuva, Mažoji Lietuva, German: Preußisch-Litauen, Kleinlitauen) 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.