Slavic languages

The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related language of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ==Branches== Scholars divide the Slavic languages into three main branches, some of which feature sub-branches: * East Slavic languages, including Russian language, Ukrainian language, and Belarusian language. * West Slavic languages, which further subdivide into: ** Czech language in the Czech Republic and Slovak language in Slovakia, ** Upper and Lower Sorbian language in Germany, ** Lekhitic languages — Polish language and related dialects, Kashubian language, Polabian, Obodrit. * South Slavic languages, which further subdivide into: ** Western subgroup composed of Slovenian language from Slovenia, Serbian language (Serbia and Montenegro), Bosnian language (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Croatian language (Croatia). Slavicists often group the latter three together as the Serbo-Croatian language. ** Eastern subgroup composed of Bulgarian language in Bulgaria and adjacent areas; and of Macedonian language from the Republic of Macedonia. (Some slavicists, especially those in Bulgaria and Greece, regard Macedonian as a "regional norm" of the Bulgarian language rather than as a separate language.)

Map of Slavic languages in Europe

The tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take into account the spoken dialects of each language. Of these, certain so-called transitional dialects and hybrid dialects often bridge the gaps between different languages, showing similarities that do not stand out when comparing Slavic literary (i.e., standard) languages. Enough differences exist between the various Slavic dialects and languages to make communication between speakers of different Slavic languages difficult, if not impossible. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a lesser degree, as those of Russian, or to a much greater degree, as those of Slovenian. Modern mass media, however, has helped to minimize variation in all the Slavic languages. Note too that historical inter-Slav cultural currents, such as the influence of South Slavic Old Chuch Slavonic and of South Slavic scholars on Russian, have exercised some re-unifying influence. ==History== ===Common roots and ancestry=== One can view all Slavic languages as descendants from Proto-Slavic language, their parent language. According to some historical linguistics theories, Proto-Slavic in turn developed from the Proto-Balto-Slavic language language, a common ancestor of Proto-Baltic language, the parent of the Baltic languages. According to this theory, the "Urheimat" of Proto-Balto-Slavic lay in the territories surrounding today's Lithuania at some time after the Indo-European language community had separated into different dialect regions (c. 3000 BC). Slavic and Baltic speakers share at least 289 words which could have come from that hypothetical language. According to some linguists the process of separation of Proto-Slavic speakers from Proto-Baltic speakers presumably occurred around 1000 BC. (Proto-Baltic-Slavic earlier developed from Proto-Baltic-Germanic-Slavic, which has a reconstructed vocabulary of around 164 words.) Some linguists maintain however, that the Slavic group of languages differs more radically from the neighboring Baltic group (Lithuanian language, Latvian language, and the now-extinct Old Prussian language). The Baltic language speakers once lived in a much larger area along the Baltic Sea and south. Starting by 600 Slavic language speakers gradually spread and took over large areas of Baltic settlements. (At the same time records note them taking over portions of Greece.) (The first documented attempt at conquest of Baltic speakers by Slavic speakers comes from Adalbert of Prague in the year 997.) This group of linguists explain Baltic/Slavic similarities in grammar and vocabulary as a result of this Slav migration into the Baltic-speaking areas and the subsequent proximity of the two groups. A minority of linguists, spurred by the idea of "geolinguistics", view the southern branch of the Slavic languages as possibly autochthonous to the Balkans. ===Differentiation of Slavic languages=== In the opinion of linguists, probably even in the 10th century–12th century all Slavs spoke generally Common Slavonic: the same language, with very slight differences. Linguistic differentiation received impetus from the dispersion of the Slavic peoples over large territory - which in Central Europe exceeded the current extent of Slavic-speaking majorities. Written documents of the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries already have some local linguistic features. For example the Freising monuments show a language which contains some phonetic and lexical elements peculiar to Slovenian dialects (e.g. rhotacism, the word ''krilatec''). ===Separation of South and West Slavs=== The movement of Slavic-speakers into the Balkans in the declining centuries of the Byzantine empire expanded the area of Slavic speech, but pre-existing languages (notably Greek and Romanian) survived in this area. The arrival of the Hungarians in Pannonia in the 9th century interposed non-Slavic speakers between South and West Slavs. Franks conquests completed the geographical separation between these two groups, severing the connection between Slavs in Lower Austria (Moravians) from those in Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, ancestors of present-day Slovenians. ===Slavic-speaking populations under foreign rule=== Political situations have also affected the use and scope of the Slavic languages. In the course of their history, many Slavic-speaking communities came under foreign rule for longer or shorter periods. Poland underwent partition, German language empires appeared to absorb the Czech for many centuries, and the Ottoman Empire in their hey-day dominated the Balkan Slavs. Even the Russia had to submit to the Tatar yoke. The largest geographical extent of Slavic population, which in the Middle Ages included the majority of the present-day Germany lands of Brandenburg and Pomerania, diminished in the course of the German ''Drang nach Osten''. Ottoman Empireish incursions suppressed the regional hegemonies of Bulgarian and Serbian speakers; Poland suffered decline, partition and extinction as a separate national state in the 18th century. Until the 20th century, certain speech-groups (such as speakers of Slovenian) lacked the resources to establish their own distinctive independent nation-states. Other communities (speakers of Sorbian or of Kashubian, for example) remain as minorities in the current system of nation-states. Some speech-communities have long stood under the influence of others -- even other Slavs: speakers of Ukrainian and Belarusian came under Polish and/or Russian rule; German-speaking overlords have long dominated the Sorbian-speakers. In the case of Czech- and Slovak-speakers, originally kindred languages diverged when the former came under German rule, the latter under Hungarian. The same division marks the now well-established border between the Slovenian and Croatian language areas, even if some bordering dialects of the two languages indicate an almost smooth transition. Despite their frequent lack of political power, speakers of Slavic languages demonstrated resilience, sometimes culturally taking over foreign political rulers, as in Bulgaria, where Bulgar overlords became Slavicized. Similarly, in the Republic of Dubrovnik Croatian became an official language in parallel to Dalmatian language and Latin. Even under the Ottoman Empire, south-eastern Europe, except for Greece proper and Albanian, Romanian and Hungarian areas, remained Slavic speaking. ===Modern developments=== In the 19th century Pan-Slavism combined with nationalism to foster linguistic and literary expansion and revival: often under the aegis of the Russian tsars. The arrival of Communism regimes in the 20th century fostered the separate lingustic development of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Macedonian, for example, but the years from 1945 to 1990 saw the vast majority of Slavic speakers grouped in the institutions of the Comintern and of the Warsaw Pact under Soviet Russian domination. The following trend to political independence and the break-up of the old unified polities (Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) has encouraged a greater diversity of Slavic linguistic paths. ==Slavic influence on neighboring languages== The Romanian language and Hungarian languages witness the influence of the neighboring Slavic nations, especially in the vocabulary pertaining to crafts and trade; the major cultural innovations at times when few long-range cultural contacts took place. ==Detailed list with ISO 639 and SIL codes== The following tree for the Slavic languages derives from the Ethnologue report for Slavic languages[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90673]. It includes the SIL code, ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 codes where available. ISO 639-2 uses the code sla in a general way for Slavic languages not included in one of the other codes. East Slavic languages: * Belarusian language (alternatively Belarusan, Belarussian, Belorussian) - (SIL code: bel; ISO 639-1 code: be; ISO 639-2 code: bel) ** The United States State Department, Ethnologue and the Rosetta Project recognize the form Belarusan. * Ukrainian language - (SIL code: ukr; ISO 639-1 code: uk; ISO 639-2 code: ukr) * Russian language - (SIL code: rus; ISO 639-1 code: ru; ISO 639-2 code, rus) * Rusyn language - (SIL code: rue; ISO 639-2 code: sla) West Slavic languages: *Sorbian languages section (also known as Wends) - ISO 639-2 code: wen **Lower Sorbian language (also known as ''Lusatian)'' - (SIL code: dsb; ISO 639-2 code: dsb) **Upper Sorbian language - (SIL code: hsb; ISO 639-2 code: hsb) *Lekhitic languages section ** Polish language - (SIL code: pol; ISO 639-1 code, pl; ISO 639-2 code, pol) ** Kashubian language - (SIL code: csb; ISO 639-2 code: csb) ** Polabian language - extinct - (SIL code: pox; ISO 639-2 code: sla) *Czech-Slovak section ** Czech language - (SIL code: ces; ISO 639-1 code: cs; ISO 639-2(B) code, cze; ISO 639-2(T) code: ces) ** Knaanic language or Judeo Slavic - extinct - (SIL code: czk; ISO 639-2 code: sla) ** Slovak language - (SIL code: slk; ISO 639-1 code: sk; ISO 639-2(B) code: slo; ISO 639-2(T) code: slk) Note also Slovincian language, an extinct dialect of Kashubian. South Slavic languages: *Western Section ** Slovenian language - (SIL code: slv; ISO 639-1 code: sl; ISO 639-2 code: slv) ** Croatian language (SIL code: hrv; ISO 639-1 code: hr; ISO 639-2/3 code: hrv) ** Bosnian language (SIL code: bos; ISO 639-1 code: bs; ISO 639-2/3 code: bos) ** Serbian language (SIL code: srp; ISO 639-1 code: sr; ISO 639-2/3 code: srp) *Eastern Section ** Macedonian language - (SIL code: mkd; ISO 639-1 code: mk; ISO 639-2(B) code: mac; ISO 639-2(T) code: mkd) ** Bulgarian language - (SIL code: bul; ISO 639-1 code: bg; ISO 639-2 code: bul) ** Old Church Slavonic - extinct (SIL code: chu; ISO 639-1 code: cu; ISO 639-2 code: chu) Note that Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian previously formed a unitary Serbo-Croatian language (SIL 14th ed. code: ''SRC''; ISO 639-1 code: ''sh''; ISO 639-2(B) codes: ''scr'' and ''scc''). See also: Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. Transitional *Church Slavonic language, derived from Old Church Slavonic, but with significant replacement of the original vocabulary by forms from the Old Russian language and other regional forms. The Russian Orthodox Church and Serbian Orthodox Church continue to use Church Slavonic as a liturgical language, while a Church Slavonic mass survives in the Czech Republic. A planned language called Slovio also exists: constructed on the basis of Slavic languages, and intended to facilitate intercommunication between people each of whom already speak at least one Slavic language. ==See also== * Slavistics * Language families and languages == External links == *[http://www.continuitas.com/interdisciplinary.pdf|Ethnic continuity and Slavic ethnogenesis] *[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90673 Ethnologue report on Slavic languages] Slavic languages az:Slavyan qrupu li:Slavische tale vi:Nh�m ng�n ngữ gốc Slav *http://miejipang.homestead.com/untitled1.html Let's try Slavic languages!

Slavic languages

==notes on history== I only want to point, that: # Slavic scientists usually use words like ,,peacefuly assimilated" instead of ,,conquered" :) Just like Balts do the same when speaking about Ugrofinns # There is some wild theory that Slavs are those Balts, who left their homeland and where conquered by Huns etc. I've read that once in one, single article. # Note about Slavs pledging allegiance to Emperor is irrevelant, since only small group of Slavs, (only from Western branch) did that, while expansion was done mainly by Eastern branch. I would suggest removing that sentence or putting more about other political entities which tried to overrun Slavic tribes plus info about states Slvs do. # anyway HRE is anachronic, since the term started to be used in, IIRC some XIII century. . --150.254.31.xxx, 15:17, 13 Dec 2001 IIRC == If I Remember Correctly. What's "HRE"? Both of the words "conquered" and "peacefully" detract from the neutral point of view, though usually from opposite sides of an issue. user:Eclecticology ==difference from Baltic== :The Slavic group of languages is completely different from the neighboring Baltic group They're not "completely different", as they're both IE, and probably in closer genetic relation to each other than to any other group of IO languages. --User:Taw What does "completely different" mean? Difference in languages is often only a question of degrees. user:Eclecticology There are two ways to explain the similarities between Slavic and Baltic languages: # the common ancestor, Proto-Balto-Slavic; # coexistence of ancient Slavic and Baltic tribes in the same land (the geographic closeness made some common processes possible).
Some linguists claim that there was no Proto-Balto-Slavic language. They explain all the similarities in the second way. They point at some structural differences between Baltic and Slavic languages. On the other hand, numerous similarities between these two groups support the Proto-Balto-Slavic theory.
User:Boraczek 11:36, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC) : Who are those "some linguists"? -- User:Naive cynic 21:48, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) :: Frankly, I can't remember who the most prominent supporters of that theory are. But I'll check it and let you know in a few days, OK? User:Boraczek 14:52, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC) ::: Thank you. It will hopefully help to deweaselize the wording of the article somewhat. -- User:Naive cynic 02:31, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC) :::: Well, the one who questioned the Proto-Balto-Slavic theory was Antoine Meillet. Since then, there is no consensus among linguists whether Proto-Balto-Slavic existed. User:Boraczek 09:09, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC) ==Sources== Sources are from position one ((1)) in :User:Szopen/Literature. Avaiable from amazon, i guess, although i didn't try to bought it from there :) Book is in Polish, of course. User:szopen ==Slavic vs. Slavonic== I would like to see comments on the uses of the words "slavic" vs. "slavonic". It seems to me that "slavic" has a much broader application, and that "slavonic" would correctly apply only in certain specific circumstances. user:Eclecticology : Comrie ("The Slavonic Languages", Routledge) states that Slavonic is the preferred term among scholars. Based on this, we should move the article to "Slavonic languages" and put a redirect at "Slavic languages". Any naysayers? (And if you protest, please explain how you are competent to stand against the experts in the field so we don't get accusations of anti-elitism). User:Crculver 03:02, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) :: You're going to get a lot of push-back from those who insist that WP page names must be the most popular usage, and not the most authoritative. Google search result counts will be held up as The Holy Word. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-01-24 06:23 Z'' ==Belarusian== Belarusan is the name form used by ethnologue.com and its Summer Institute of Linguistics in its development of the "SIL" codes. It also has been accepted by the Rosetta Project at http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/search/detailedlanguagerecord?ethnocode=RUW. Both of these organizations cross reference the other versions to "belarusan". :I know SIL use it, and I normally attach great (but not exclusive) weight to their findings: on this occasion, though, they and the Rosetta folk are out on a limb, and in a tiny minority: the Engish form used in Belarus(i)an official (and most other) sources is Belarus(s)ian, with one "s" I think in the majority. But there's definitely an "i", unless you want to reject the way they and most others describe it. User:David Parker ---- Re: compromise - yes, please: but I don't feel at liberty to compromise the way speakers of the language choose (with the assent it seems of the overwhelming majority of non-speakers) to describe it. I'm all for including alternative renditions, but your suggestion crucially leaves the future article on the language as "Belorusan". Now I've a lot of respect for SIL and other experts in the field who may have their own spellings, but this is an international project, and I can't accept that a ''minority'' of western linguists should so dictate the name of a language, especially when their version is so at odds with related adjectival forms (Russian, Rusyn, Ruthene - nowhere do we have ''Rusa-/Russa-''). User:David Parker *As a compromise, I've changed back to Belarusan in only one of the two places in the article where the name appears. After spending a couple hours googling on this, I'm no better off than when I started. The most influential body on the net to use Belarusan is the US State Department, for what that's worth. The English-B*** dictionary page, at http://ceti.pl/~hajduk/ to which many links eventually only makes matters worse by using both forms on its home page. I've e-mailed them asking for an explanation. As long as the experts have both versians on their page why can't Wikipedia. At least we seem to agree on the other three points of contention in this single name. It's "Be-" instead of "Bie-" or "Bye-"; it's "Bela-" instead of "Belo-"; and it's a single "s". Perhaps the whole matter should be revisited when there is clearer information. user:Eclecticology ==Kashubian and Polish== I don't think that Kashbian and Polish is closer then Polish and Czech! --212.144.61.43, 03:56, 11 Dec 2003 == newest map == Image talk:Slavic languages.jpg The map contains numerous mistakes. Click the map for more info. User:Boraczek 10:23, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC) The map was corrected :-) User:Boraczek 14:49, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Correction to the map - Kashubian language == I was born and raised in Gdynia (Northern Poland). I travelled northern Poland extensively (due to family ties). I never heard Kashubian language east of Vistula River. The range of the Kashubian language west of Vistula River seems OK, but the part of the range east of Vistula River should be erased. Tadeusz Piorkowski tadeuszp@yahoo.com == The new map == I finally posted a version of the map according to the references and requests I got. If anything more needs to be done on it, and if it is possible to comply, I will gladly adapt it. However, I do hope it is better than the first version for everybody... User:Robin Hood ➳ User talk:Robin Hood 00:13, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC) : One more thing that I happened to notice... there should be areas with yellow stripes for Polish in western Ukraine. There are at least twice as many Poles in Ukraine than there are Slovaks in Vojvodina, so this seems worthy of rendering on the map. --User:Joy 21:36, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) == History of Slavic Languages, Origins == I am writing this as a casual reader (knowing almost nothing about language except for my traditional Latin & Spanish courses in high school) who wants to point out to whom ever has the knowledge that this article fails to explain (where needed) the origin and history of Slavic languages. I know that it's a harsh criticism but I can't help to just see "nerd speak" in the article and as a casual reader I'm turned off. Thanks/Sorry, User:JoeHenzi 09:14, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC) == autochtonous Balkan languages == ''In recent times the scholarly synthesis of linguistic, archaeological, genetic and anthropological data under the name of Paleolithic Continuity Theory treats the Southern Slavonic languages as autohtonous Balkan languages.'' I find this information dubious. Could you please indicate the source of this information? Any reference? User:Boraczek 23:12, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC) : I received no answer, so I'm removing the quoted paragraph until some substantiation is presented. User:Boraczek 23:31, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==independent state of the Macedonian speech-group== ''a couple of unexplained removals of the term "Macedonian" from a sentence by VMORO'' Joy wrote: ''reverted again - Macedonian speech-group did indeed long lack the resources to establish an independent state, using it as an example in that sentence is perfectly valid'' VMORO wrote: ''rvt again, there has been a solid Macedonian national consciousness since the beginning/middle of the 20th cent, unless you mean the interwar period, the sentence is not valid'' : I have no idea what you are talking about. I can fathom how the Macedonians who decided on the Bulgarian state had independence, but those who decided on the other states did not have it up until recently when the Republic of Macedonia became independent, and probably some still don't have it in northern Greece. And the phrase "Macedonian language" refers today to the language of those people, not the Bulgarian Macedonians which use the term "Bulgarian language". Do they not? --User:Joy 12:21, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) :::Now I don't understand what you are talking about:-)) The people who call themselves Macedonians now have had a Macedonian consciousness and national identity since the 1940s and probably to some extent (I can't really argue about that) in the interwar period. If these people used the name Bulgarians and Bulgarian language before that time (that's something i can argue about), then what was said in the article does not really apply to them as the Bulgarians had a well-developed medieval state, which was even at one point centered in Macedonia. User:VMORO :::: Ah, you have a point, I didn't look at it that way. While they were all Bulgarians, they could have had Bulgaria; when they became Macedonians, they could have R. Macedonia. This is a quirky exception... --User:Joy 22:02, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC) ''Until the 20th century, certain speech-groups (such as speakers of Slovenian or of Macedonian) lacked the resources to establish their own distinctive independent nation-states.'' In my opinion this phrase suggests that there was a separate Macedonian-speaking group before the 20th century, which is very dubious. Besides, this phrase is meant to give some EXAMPLES rather than to list all speech-groups which did not have their own nation-states. Hence, the dubious (if not wrong) example of Macedonian speakers is superfluous. The clear example of Slovene speakers is in my opinion enough. That is why I am removing "or of Macedonian". User:Boraczek 11:06, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Slavic languages

Indo-European languages Slavic culture vi:Category:Nh�m ng�n ngữ gốc Slav

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

S

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Words begining with Slavic_languages:

Slavic_languages
Slavic_languages
Slavic_languages