Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language      Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language      Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language

The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages 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. Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Balto-Slavic language group consists of the Baltic and Slavic languages, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian. ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian. The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and

Branches

Scholars divide the Slavic languages into three main branches, some of which feature sub-branches:

• East Slavic, including Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Rusyn
• West Slavic, which further subdivides into:
  • Czech and Slovak
  • Upper and Lower Sorbian (minority languages in Germany)
  • Lechitic languages: Polish, Pomeranian/Kashubian, Silesian and extinct Polabian
• South Slavic, which further subdivides into:
  • Western subgroup composed of Serbian, Slovene, Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian (Latin script; Montenegrin and Serbian use Cyrillic and Latin script)
  • Eastern subgroup composed of Bulgarian and Macedonian (Cyrillic script)
    • The oldest Slavic literary language was Old Church Slavonic, of which Church Slavonic is a later descendent

Some linguists speculate that a North Slavic branch has existed as well. The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. The Belarusian language, or Belorussian,(беларуская мова BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: belaruskaja mova Rusyn (ry русинськый язык) is an East Slavic language (along with Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, with which it shares The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian. Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the The Slovak language ( slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with Slovenščina) sometimes referred to as "Slovakian" Lower Sorbian (dsb ''Dolnoserbski'' is a Slavic Minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Lechitic languages include three languages spoken in Central Europe, mainly in Poland, and historically also in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. For the Low German dialects also called Pomeranian see Pommersch. Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa; język kaszubski is one of Silesian or Upper Silesian (Silesian Ślůnsko godka, Slezsky jazyk Język śląski is a Slavic language or dialect spoken in the region of The Polabian language, which became extinct in the 18th century was a group of Slavic Dialects spoken in present-day northern Germany: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Slovene or Slovenian ( slovenski jezik or slovenščina, not to be confused with Slovenčina) is a South Slavic language Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Montenegrin language ( Cyrillic script: Црногорски језик, Latin: Crnogorski jezik) is the name given to the Ijekavian- Shtokavian Bosnian language (Bosnian bosanski jezik) sometimes referred as Bosniak language or Bosniac language is a South Slavic language native Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group Macedonian () is the official Language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox The term North Slavic languages (or North Slavonic languages) has three unrelated mutually exclusive meanings The Old Novgorod dialect of Old Russian may have reflected some idiosyncrasies of this group. Old Novgorod dialect ( Russian древненовгородский диалект also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries On the other hand, the term "North Slavic" is also used sometimes to combine the West and East Slavic languages into one group, in opposition to the South Slavic languages, due to traits the West and East Slavic branches share with each other that they do not with the South Slavic languages.

The tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take into account the spoken dialects of each language. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of 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.

Although the Slavic languages split from a common proto-language later than any other group of the Indo-European language family, enough differences exist between the various Slavic dialects and languages to make communication between speakers of different Slavic languages difficult. 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 Slovene.

History

Common roots and ancestry

All Slavic languages are descendants of Proto-Slavic, their parent language. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin European peoples are those who speak Romance languages, descended from Vulgar Latin, spread during the time of the Roman Empire. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct Proto-Slavic is the Proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged A proto-language is a Language which was the common ancestor of related languages that form a Language family.

Mainstream historical linguists (Oswald Szemerényi, August Schleicher) postulate that Proto-Slavic in turn developed from the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a common ancestor of Proto-Baltic, the parent of the Baltic languages. Historical linguistics (also called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change Oswald John Louis Szemerényi (born 7 September 1913 in London;died 29 December 1996 in Freiburg) was a Hungarian August Schleicher ( February 19, 1821 – December 6, 1868) was a German linguist born in Meiningen ( Duchy The Balto-Slavic language group consists of the Baltic and Slavic languages, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages The Balto-Slavic language group consists of the Baltic and Slavic languages, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic 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. Urheimat ( German: ur- Original, Ancient; Heimat Home, Homeland) is a linguistic term denoting the Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the 3000 BC). The 30th century BC is a Century which lasted from the year 3000 BC to 2901 BC Slavic and Baltic speakers share at least 289 words which could have come from that hypothetical language. The process of separation of Proto-Slavic speakers from Proto-Baltic speakers presumably occurred around 1000 BC.

Some linguists in the Baltic countries traditionally maintain that the Slavic group of languages differs so radically from the neighboring Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian, and the now-extinct Old Prussian), that they could not have shared a parent language after the breakup of the Proto-Indo-European continuum about five millennia ago. Lithuanian ( lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. Latvian language (latviešu valoda is the official state language of Latvia. Prussian is an extinct Baltic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now north-eastern Poland

Evolution

Baška tablet, 11th century, Krk, Croatia

The imposition of Church Slavonic on Orthodox Slavs was often at the expense of the vernacular. Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox Says W. B. Lockwood, a prominent Indo-European linguist: "It [O. C. S] remained in use to modern times, but was more and more influenced by the living, evolving languages, so that one distinguishes Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian varieties. The use of such media hampered the development of the local languages for literary purposes and when they do appear the first attempts are usually in an artificially mixed style. " (148) Lockwood also notes that these languages have "enriched" themselves by drawing on Church Slavonic for the vocabulary of abstract concepts. The situation in the Catholic countries, where Latin was more important, was different. The Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski and the Croatian Baroque writers of the 16th century all wrote in their respective vernaculars (though Polish itself had drawn amply on Latin in the same way Russian would eventually draw on Church Slavonic). Life Kochanowski was born at Sycyna, near Radom, Poland. Little is known of his early education Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc

14th-century Novgorodian children were literate enough to send each other letters written on birch bark

Although Church Slavonic hampered vernacular literatures, it fostered Slavonic literary activity and abetted linguistic independence from external influences. Veliky Novgorod (Вели́кий Но́вгород is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia and the administrative center of Novgorod A birch bark document is a document written on pieces of Birch bark. Vernacular literature is Literature written in the Vernacular - the speech of the "common people" Only the Croatian vernacular literary tradition nearly matches Church Slavonic in age. It began with the Vinodol Codex and continued through the Renaissance until the codifications of Croatian in 1830, though much of the literature between 1300 and 1500 was written in much the same mixture of the vernacular and Church Slavonic as prevailed in Russia and elsewhere. Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring The most important early monument of Croatian literacy is the Baška tablet from the late 11th century. Baška tablet (Bašćanska ploča is one of the first monuments of Croatian language, dating from the year 1100 It is a large stone tablet found in the small church of St. A tablet is a mixture of active substances and Excipients usually in powder form pressed or compacted into a solid Lucy on the Croatian island of Krk, containing text written mostly in čakavian, today a dialect of Croatian, and in Croatian Glagolitic script. An island (ˈaɪlənd or isle (/ˈaɪl/ is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water in two dimensions above high tide and isolated from other significant Krk ( Italian Veglia, German: Vegl; Latin Curicta) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavic Alphabet. The independence of Dubrovnik facilitated the continuity of the tradition. ||-||-||-||-||-||-||} Dubrovnik (ˈdǔbro̞ːʋniːk Dalmatian: Ragusa; Latin: Ragusium, also Rhausium, Rhaugia; The languages of the Catholic Slavs tottered precariously near extinction on many occasions. The earliest Polish is attested in the 14th century; before then, the language of administration was Latin. Czech was always in danger of giving way to German, and Upper and Lower Sorbian, spoken only in Germany, have nearly succumbed just recently. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Under German and Italian for many centuries, the Slovene language was a regional language spoken by peasants, and was brought to written standards only by the followers of the Reformation in the 16th century. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Slovene or Slovenian ( slovenski jezik or slovenščina, not to be confused with Slovenčina) is a South Slavic language A regional language is a Language spoken in an area of a Nation state, whether it be a small area a federal State or Province, or A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time

More recent foreign influences follow the same general pattern in Slavic languages as elsewhere, and are governed by the political relationships of the Slavs. In the 17th century, bourgeois Russian (delovoi jazyk) absorbed German words through direct contacts between Russians and communities of German settlers in Russia. In the era of Peter the Great, close contacts with France invited countless loan words and calques from French, a significant fraction of which not only survived, but replaced older Slavonic loans. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation In Linguistics, a calque (kælk or loan translation is a Word or Phrase borrowed from another Language by Literal, word-for-word French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people In the 19th century, Russian influenced most literary Slavic languages by one means or another. Croatian writers borrowed Czech words liberally, whereas Czech writers, scrambling to revive their dying language, had in turn borrowed many words (cf. vzduch, air) from Russian. Russian words were imported en masse to Bulgarian, to replace Turkish and Greek loans, so that many Bulgarian words now carry a Russian phonetic footnote (i. Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly e. , have a phonetic structure unusual for Bulgarian language or, indeed, for South Slavic languages in general).

Differentiation

The Proto-Slavic language existed approximately to the middle of the first millennium AD. Proto-Slavic is the Proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged By the 7th century, it had broken apart into large dialectal zones. The 7th century is the period from 601 to 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era.

There are no reliable hypotheses about the nature of the subsequent breakup of West and South Slavic. East Slavic is generally thought to converge to one Old Russian language, which existed until at least the 12th century. Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries It is now believed that South Slavs came to the Balkans in two streams, and that between them was a large non-Slavic population of Romance-speaking Vlachs from the remnants of the old Roman Empire. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Vlachs is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial

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. Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and 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 Slovene dialects (e. The Freising Manuscripts (also Freising Folia, Freising Fragments, or Freising Monuments; Slovene Brižinski spomeniki, Latin Spoken Slovene has at least 32 main Dialects ( narečje) ( dI) and speeches ( govor) ( sP) g. rhotacism, the word krilatec). Rhotacism may refer to several phenomena related to the usage of the Consonant R (whether as an Alveolar tap, Alveolar trill, or

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 writing (notably Greek) survived in this area. The arrival of the Hungarians in Pannonia in the 9th century interposed non-Slavic speakers between South and West Slavs, thus severing the connection between Slavs in White Croatia (Chrobatia, present-day Poland) and White Serbia (Pomeria, present-day Germany) from southern Slavs - Croats and Serbians. Hungarians (or Magyars, magyarok are an Ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. White Croatia (also Chrobatia) is an ill-defined area said to lie somewhere in Central Europe, near Bavaria, beyond Hungary, and adjacent to White Serbia, also known as Bojka ( Serbian Cyrillic: Бојка) was the traditional homeland of the White Serbs in Europe. Croats (Hrvati are a South Slavic people mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries Frankish conquests completed the geographical separation between these two groups, also severing the connection between Slavs in Moravia and Lower Austria (Moravians) from those in present-day Styria, Carinthia, East Tyrol in Austria and in the provinces of modern Slovenia, where the ancestors of Slovenes settled during first colonisation. The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group Moravia (Morava; Morawy Moravie Moravia is a historical region in central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, one of the former Czech lands. Lower Austria (Niederösterreich is one of the nine states or Bundesländer in Austria. Styria (Steiermark is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. Carinthia (Kärnten Koroška is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. East Tyrol, or East Tirol, is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, sharing no border with North Tyrol, the main part of the state Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Slovenes or Slovenians ( Slovene Slovenci, dual Slovenca, singular Slovenec, feminine Slovenke, dual Slovenki

Common features

• fusional morphology (a property of conservative Indo-European languages)
• preservation of Proto-Indo-European noun case system - most Slavic languages have seven cases
• differentiation between perfective and imperfective aspect of verbs
• large inventories of consonants (especially sibilants)
• phonemic palatalization
• complex consonant clusters, as in Russian встреча (vstrecha) "meeting", Polish bezwzględny "absolute" or Czech/Slovak zmrzlina, "ice cream"

Influence on neighbouring languages

Most languages of the former Soviet Union, Russia and neighboring countries (for example, Mongolian) are significantly influenced by Russian, especially in vocabulary. For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process In Linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of Consonants which have no intervening Vowel. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Mongolian language (mn [[ImageMonggol kelesvg 17px]] Mongɣol kele, Cyrillic: Монгол хэл Mongol khel) is the best-known member of Russianism, Russism, or Russicism is an influence of Russian language on other languages In the west, the Romanian 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. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe.

Despite a comparable extent of historical proximity, the Germanic languages show no significant Slavic influence. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. For instance, Max Vasmer has observed that there are no Slavic loans into Common Germanic. Max Vasmer ( February 28, 1886 &mdash November 30, 1962) was a Russian born German linguist who studied problems Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English The only Germanic language that shows significant Slavic influence is Yiddish. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High There are isolated Slavic loans into other Germanic languages. For example the word for "border", in modern German Grenze, Dutch grens was loaned from the Common Slavic *granica. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname English derives quark (a kind of cheese, not the subatomic particle) from the German Quark, which in turn is derived from the Slavic tvarog, which means "curd". Quark (or qvark) is a type of fresh Cheese of Central European origin In Physics, a quark (kwɔrk kwɑːk or kwɑːrk is a type of Subatomic particle. Swedish also has torg (market place) from Old Russian tŭrgŭ,^[1] tolk (interpreter) from Old Slavic tlŭkŭ,^[2] and pråm (barge) from West Slavonic pramŭ. Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the ^[3]

The Czech word Robot is now found in most languages worldwide, and the word pistol, also from Czech, and is found in many Indo-European languages. Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the

A well known Slavic word in almost all European languages is vodka, a borrowing from Russian водка (vodka). Vodka is one of the world's most popular Distilled beverages It is a clear liquid which consists of mostly Water and Ethanol purified by Distillation Lit. "little water", from common Slavic voda , (water, cognate to English word) with the diminutive ending -ka. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from A diminutive is a formation of a Word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning smallness of the object or quality named encapsulation intimacy or endearment ^[4][5] Owing to medieval fur trade with Northern Russia, Pan-European loans from Russian include such familiar words as sable^[6] and hamster. SABLE is an XML Markup language used to annotate texts for Speech synthesis. Hamsters are Rodents belonging to the Subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 Species, classified in six or seven genera ^[7] The English word vampire was borrowed (perhaps via French vampire) from German Vampir, in turn derived from Serbian vampir, continuing Proto-Slavic *ǫ-pěr-ь. Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Proto-Slavic is the Proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged ^[8] (although Polish scholar K. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Stachowski has argued that the origin of the word is early Old Polish *vą-pěr-ь^[9]). Old Polish (Old Polish ięzyk Polſki, modern Polish: język staropolski) is a name used to describe the period in the history of the

Detailed list with ISO 639 and SIL codes

Slavic languages

The following tree for the Slavic languages derives from the Ethnologue report for Slavic languages. Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian ^[10] It includes the ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 codes where available as well as the SIL. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian 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:

• Ruthenian section
  • Belarusian (alternatively Belarusan, Belarussian, Belorussian) - (ISO 639-1 code: be; ISO 639-2 code: bel;SIL code: bel)
  • Ukrainian - (ISO 639-1 code: uk; ISO 639-2 code: ukr; SIL code: ukr)
  • Rusyn - (ISO 639-2 code: sla; SIL code: rue)
• Russian - (ISO 639-1 code: ru; ISO 639-2 code: rus; SIL code: rus)

West Slavic languages:

• Sorbian section (also known as Wendish) - ISO 639-2 code: wen
  • Lower Sorbian (also known as Lusatian) - (ISO 639-2 code: dsb; SIL code: dsb)
  • Upper Sorbian - (ISO 639-2 code: hsb; SIL code: hsb)
• Lechitic section
  • Polish - (ISO 639-1 code: pl; ISO 639-2 code: pol; SIL code: pol)
  • Pomeranian
    • Kashubian - (ISO 639-2 code: csb; SIL code: csb)
    • Slovincian - extinct
  • Silesian - (ISO 639-3 code: szl)
  • Polabian - extinct - (ISO 639-2 code: sla; SIL code: pox)
• Czech-Slovak section
  • Czech - (ISO 639-1 code: cs; ISO 639-2(B) code: cze; ISO 639-2(T) code: ces; SIL code: ces)
  • Knaanic or Judeo Slavic - extinct - (ISO 639-2 code: sla; SIL code: czk)
  • Slovak - (ISO 639-1 code: sk; ISO 639-2(B) code: slo; ISO 639-2(T) code: slk; SIL code: slk)

South Slavic languages:

• Western Section
  • Serbian (ISO 639-1 code: sr; ISO 639-2/3 code: srp; SIL code: srp)
  • Slovene - (ISO 639-1 code: sl; ISO 639-2 code: slv; SIL code: slv)
  • Croatian (ISO 639-1 code: hr; ISO 639-2/3 code: hrv; SIL code: hrv)
  • Bosnian (ISO 639-1 code: bs; ISO 639-2/3 code: bos; SIL code: bos)
  • Montenegrin (not regulated but official in Montenegro)

• Eastern Section
  • Macedonian - (ISO 639-1 code: mk; ISO 639-2(B) code: mac; ISO 639-2(T) code: mkd; SIL code: mkd)
  • Bulgarian - (ISO 639-1 code: bg; ISO 639-2 code: bul; SIL code: bul)
  • Old Church Slavonic - extinct (ISO 639-1 code: cu; ISO 639-2 code: chu; SIL code: chu)

Para- and supranational languages

• 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 East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. Ruthenian (also The Belarusian language, or Belorussian,(беларуская мова BGN/PCGN: byelaruskaya mova, Scientific: belaruskaja mova Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. Rusyn (ry русинськый язык) is an East Slavic language (along with Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, with which it shares Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian. The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Lower Sorbian (dsb ''Dolnoserbski'' is a Slavic Minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia The Lechitic languages include three languages spoken in Central Europe, mainly in Poland, and historically also in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. For the Low German dialects also called Pomeranian see Pommersch. Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa; język kaszubski is one of Slovincian is an extinct dialect of the Pomeranian language, spoken between the lakes Gardno (Gardersee and Łebsko (Lebasee in Pomerania Silesian or Upper Silesian (Silesian Ślůnsko godka, Slezsky jazyk Język śląski is a Slavic language or dialect spoken in the region of The Polabian language, which became extinct in the 18th century was a group of Slavic Dialects spoken in present-day northern Germany: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the Knaanic (also called Canaanic, Leshon Knaan or Judeo-Slavic) was a West Slavic Jewish language formerly spoken in the Czech lands The Slovak language ( slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with Slovenščina) sometimes referred to as "Slovakian" South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Slovene or Slovenian ( slovenski jezik or slovenščina, not to be confused with Slovenčina) is a South Slavic language Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Bosnian language (Bosnian bosanski jezik) sometimes referred as Bosniak language or Bosniac language is a South Slavic language native Montenegrin language ( Cyrillic script: Црногорски језик, Latin: Crnogorski jezik) is the name given to the Ijekavian- Shtokavian Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Macedonian () is the official Language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian (древнерусский or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the 10th to the 14th centuries The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, Polish Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, and even some Roman Catholic Churches in Croatia continue to use Church Slavonic as a liturgical language. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Българска православна църква Bălgarska pravoslavna cărkva) is an Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure History The establishment of the church was undertaken after the Treaty of Riga left large amount of territory previously under the Russian Empire, as part History Origins After the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, the Emperor Basil II acknowledged the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian The Serbian Orthodox Church ( Serbian: Српска Православна Црква / Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva; СПЦ / SPC) or the A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life While not used in modern times, the text of a Church Slavonic Roman Rite Mass survives in the Croatia and Czech Republic, which is best known through Janáček's musical setting of it (the Glagolitic Mass). Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Leoš Janáček ( (July 3 1854 &ndash August 12 1928 was a Czech Composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher The Glagolitic Mass (also called Slavonic Mass; in Czech Glagolská mše and sometimes Mša glagolskaja) usually refers to a particular composition for

See also

• Slavic studies
• Language families and languages
• Freising manuscripts
• False Friends of the Slavist

References

• Lockwood, W. Slavic studies or Slavistics is the Academic field of Area studies concerned with Slavic areas Slavic languages, literature history List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Freising Manuscripts (also Freising Folia, Freising Fragments, or Freising Monuments; Slovene Brižinski spomeniki, Latin B. A Panorama of Indo-European Languages. Hutchinson University Library, 1972. ISBN 0-09-111020-3 hardback, ISBN 0-09-111021-1 paperback.
• Marko Jesensek, The Slovene Language in the Alpine and Pannonian Language Area, 2005. ISBN 83-242-0577-2

Footnotes

External links

• Ethnic continuity and Slavic ethnogenesis
• Let's try Slavic languages!
• Slavic dictionaries on Slavic Net
• Slavistik-Portal The Slavistics Portal (Germany)