What languages are included in the Slavic group. South Slavic group of languages

The Slavic group of languages is the closest of this family to the Baltic group, so some scientists combine these two groups into one - Balto-Slavic subfamily Indo-European languages. The total number of native speakers of Slavic languages is over 300 million. The majority of speakers of Slavic languages live in Russia and Ukraine.

The Slavic group of languages is divided into three branches: East Slavic, West Slavic And South Slavic. The East Slavic branch of languages includes: Russian language or Great Russian, Ukrainian, also known as Little Russian or Ruthenian, and Belarusian. These languages are collectively spoken by about 225 million people. The West Slavic branch includes: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lusatian, Kashubian and the extinct Polabian language. Living West Slavic languages are spoken today by approximately 56 million people, mainly in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The South Slavic branch consists of Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Macedonian languages. The language of church services, Church Slavonic, also belongs to this branch. The first four languages are collectively spoken by more than 30 million people in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

All Slavic languages, according to linguistic research, are rooted in one common ancestor language, usually called Proto-Slavic language, which in turn separated much earlier from Proto-Indo-European language(around 2000 BC), the ancestor of all Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language was probably common to all Slavs as early as the 1st century BC, and already from the 8th century AD. Separate Slavic languages begin to form.

General characteristics

Conversational Slavic languages are very similar to each other, more so than the Germanic or Romance languages are to each other. However, even though they share similarities in vocabulary, grammar and phonetics, they still differ in many respects. One of the common characteristics of all Slavic languages is the relatively large number of consonants. A striking example of different usage is the variety of basic stress positions in individual Slavic languages. For example, in Czech the stress falls on the first syllable of a word, and in Polish on the next syllable after the last, while in Russian and Bulgarian the stress can fall on any syllable.

Grammar

Grammatically, Slavic languages, with the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian, have a highly developed system of noun inflections, up to seven cases(nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional and vocative). The verb in Slavic languages has three simple tenses(past, present and future), but is also characterized by such a complex characteristic as species. A verb can be imperfect (shows continuity or repetition of an action) or perfect (denotes the completion of an action). Participles and gerunds are widely used (one can compare their use with the use of participles and gerunds in English). In all Slavic languages, except Bulgarian and Macedonian, there is no article. The languages of the Slavic subfamily are more conservative and therefore closer to Proto-Indo-European language than the languages of the Germanic and Romance groups, as evidenced by the preservation by the Slavic languages of seven of the eight cases for nouns that were characteristic of the Proto-Indo-European language, as well as the development of the aspect of the verb.

Vocabulary composition

The vocabulary of Slavic languages is predominantly of Indo-European origin. There is also an important element of the mutual influence of the Baltic and Slavic languages on each other, which is reflected in the vocabulary. Borrowed words or translations of words go back to Iranian and German groups, and also to Greek, Latin, and Turkic languages. They influenced the vocabulary of such languages as Italian and French. Slavic languages also borrowed words from each other. The borrowing of foreign words tends to translate and imitate rather than simply absorb them.

Writing

Perhaps it is in the written form that the most significant differences between the Slavic languages lie. Some Slavic languages (in particular Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Polish) have a written language based on the Latin alphabet, since the speakers of these languages belong predominantly to the Catholic faith. Other Slavic languages (such as Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian) use adopted variants of the Cyrillic alphabet as a result of the influence of the Orthodox Church. The only language, Serbo-Croatian, uses two alphabets: Cyrillic for Serbian and Latin for Croatian.
The invention of the Cyrillic alphabet is traditionally attributed to Cyril, a Greek missionary who was sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to the Slavic peoples who were present at the time - in the 9th century AD. in the territory of present-day Slovakia. There is no doubt that Kirill created the predecessor of the Cyrillic alphabet - Glagolitic, based on the Greek alphabet, where new symbols were added to represent Slavic sounds that did not find a correspondence in the Greek language. However, the very first texts in Cyrillic dating back to the 9th century AD. not preserved. The oldest Slavic texts preserved in the ecclesiastical Old Church Slavonic language date back to the 10th and 11th centuries.

Western Slavic languages

West Slavic languages are a group within the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Distributed in Central and Eastern Europe (in Czechoslovakia, Poland, partly in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Germany [Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian languages - in the vicinity of the cities of Bautzen (Budiszyn), Cottbus and Dresden]. Speakers of Western languages also live in territories of America (USA, Canada), Australia and Europe (Austria, Hungary, France, Yugoslavia, etc.) The total number of speakers is over 60 million people.

West Slavic languages include:

§ Lehitic subgroup
§ Kashubian
§ Polabian †
§ Polish
§ Silesian (in Poland, the Silesian language is officially considered a dialect of Polish or transitional dialects between the Polish and Czech languages. According to 2002 data in Poland, 60,000 people called the Silesian language their native language. The language does not have its own literary tradition, although it was singled out as special by the Slavists of the 19th century)
§ Slovinsky †
§ Lusatian subgroup (Serbo-Lusatian)
§ Upper Sorbian
§ Lower Sorbian
§ Czech-Slovak subgroup
§ Slovak
§ Czech
§ knanite †

The most common West Slavic languages are Polish (35 million), Czech (9.5 million) and Slovak (4.5 million). A small population of Kashubians lives in Poland. Polabian is now a dead language. It is reconstructed on the basis of individual words and local names available in Latin and German documents, in small recordings of live speech of the 17th-18th centuries.

In Z. I. 3 subgroups are distinguished: Lechitic, Czech-Slovak, Serbian, differences between which appeared in the late Proto-Slavic era. From the Lechitic subgroup, which included Polish, Polabian, Kashubian, and earlier other tribal languages, the Polish language with the Kashubian dialect, which retained a certain genetic independence, was preserved.

Z. I. differ from the East Slavic and South Slavic languages in a number of features that developed during the Proto-Slavic period:

preservation of the consonant group kv", gv" before the vowels i, "e, "a (‹м) in accordance with cv, zv in South Slavic and West Slavic languages: Polish. kwiat, gwiazda; Czech kvмt, hvмzda; Slovak kvet, hviezda; lower-puddle kwмt, gwмzda; top-puddle kwмt, hwмzda (cf. Russian “color”, “star”, etc.).

Preservation of unsimplified consonant groups tl, dl in accordance with l in the languages of other Slavic groups: Polish. plutі, mydіo; Czech pletl, medlo; Slovak plietol, mydlo; lower-puddle pleti, mydio; top-puddle pleti, mydio; (cf. Russian “plait”, “soap”).

Consonants c, dz (or z) in place of the Proto-Slavic *tj, *dj, *ktj, *kti, which in other Slavic languages correspond to the consonants i, ћ, љt, dj, ћd, zh: Polish. њwieca, sadzаж; Czech svнce, sбzet; Slovak svieca, sбdzaќ; lower-puddle swmca, sajџaj; top-puddle swмca, sadџeж (cf. Russian “candle”, “to plant”).

The presence of the consonant љ in those cases that correspond to s or њ in the languages of other Slavic groups (with analogous formations ch): Polish. wszak, musze (Danish-prepositional clause from mucha); Czech vљak, mouљe; Slovak vљak, muљe; lower-puddle vљako, muљe; top-puddle vљak, muљe [cf. rus. “everyone”, “fly”; Ukrainian “everyone”, “musi” (= fly)].

Absence of l epenthetic after labials in the non-initial position of a word (from the combination labial + j): Polish. ziemia, cupiony; Czech zemм, koupм; Slovak zem, kъpene; lower-luzh.zemja, kupju; top-puddle zemja, kupju (cf. Russian “land”, “purchase”).

In the history of the development of Z. I. changes common to the entire group occurred:

contraction of groups of vowels into one long with the loss of intervocalic j and assimilation of vowels in inflections and roots: Czech. good

In Z. I. a fixed stress was established either on the first (Czech, Slovak, Lusatian languages) or on the penultimate syllable (Polish, some Czech dialects). The Kashubian dialect has different accents.

For most of Z. I. and dialects are characterized by the same change in strong reduced ъ and ь > e: Czech. sen

The main differences between individual vowels that arose during the historical period of their development: the different fate of nasal vowels, the sound m (yat), long and short vowels; the Proto-Slavic consonant g in Czech, Slovak and Sorbian languages changed into h (glottal, fricative), the differences also concern the category of hardness/softness of consonants. In the system of nominal declension of all Z. i. All-Slavic processes took place: regrouping of declension types based on grammatical gender, loss of some previous types (mainly consonant stems), mutual influence of case inflections within the paradigm, reorganization of stems, emergence of new endings. Unlike East Slavic languages, the influence of the feminine gender is more limited. The Czech language has retained the most archaic declension system. All Z. I. (except for Lusatian ones) have lost the forms of the dual number. The category of animation (Czech, Slovak) and the specific category of personality (Polish, Upper Sorbian) developed and received morphological expression. Short forms of adjectives have disappeared (Slovak, Upper Sorbian) or have been preserved to a limited extent (Czech, Polish).

The verb is characterized by the transition of unproductive conjugation classes to productive ones (cf. Czech siesti > sednouti), the loss (except for the Sorbian languages) of simple past tenses (aorist and imperfect), in some languages, and the plusquaperfect (Czech, partly Polish). The most significant changes in the conjugation of present forms of the verb have been experienced by the Slovak language, where all verbs in the present tense have the same ending system.

Syntactic features are partly due to the influence of Latin and German. In contrast to the East Slavic languages, modal verbs, reflexive forms of verbs in an indefinite-personal and generalized-personal meaning such as Czech are more often used. Jak se jde? `How to get there?', etc.

The vocabulary reflected Latin and German influence, in Slovak - Czech and Hungarian. Influence of the Russian language, significant in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially intensified after World War II.

In the early feudal period as a written language The Western Slavs used Latin. The oldest literary language of the Slavs is Old Church Slavonic, which emerged in the 9th century. The first Czech monuments proper date back to the end of the 13th century, Polish ones - to the beginning of the 14th century, Slovak ones - to the end of the 15th - 16th centuries, Lusatian ones - to the 16th century. Modern Z. i. use Latin script.

The Lusatian languages are preserved in the form of small islands in Germany. There are about 150 thousand Lusatian residents. They have their own schools, their own press, and there is a Slavic department at the University of Berlin.

Lehitic subgroup

Kaszumbian language (alternative names: Pomeranian language, Pomeranian language; Kashubian kaszлbsczi jгzлk, ptmрsczi jгzлk, kaszлbskф mтwa, kaszлbskт-siowiсskф mтwa) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic subgroup, widespread to the west and south of Gdańsk. Currently, approximately 50 thousand people speak Kashubian in everyday life, and approximately 150 thousand people are familiar with it.

The closest language to Kashubian is Polish, with which Kashubian shares most of its core vocabulary. Kashubian has also experienced significant influence from Polish on its grammar and word formation. The main differences from Polish are borrowings from Old Prussian and German (from the latter - approximately 5% of the vocabulary), as well as the omission of vowels in syllables without stress and other stress rules, which in Kashubian itself, however, are also heterogeneous. While in the south the stress always falls on the first syllable, in the north the stress can vary.

Pomlian language (jкzyk polski, polszczyzna) is the language of the Poles and is the native language of approximately 40 million people in many countries around the world, including approximately 38 million people in the Republic of Poland. About 5-10 million more people speak Polish as a second and foreign language.

The dialects of the Polish language include:

§ Wielkopolska dialect, covers the territory of Greater Poland, Krajna and Borow Tucholski. This dialect is based on the tribal dialect of the Polyans.
§ Lesser Poland dialect, occupies the territory of the Lesser Poland, Subcarpathian, Świętokrzyskie and Lublin voivodeships. It was based on the Vistula dialect.
§ The Masovian dialect occupies the eastern and central part of Poland. It was formed on the basis of the dialect of the Mazovshan tribe.
§ The Silesian dialect, widespread in Upper Silesia, is a continuation of the development of the dialect of the Slenzan tribe.

Polambian language is an extinct West Slavic language. The native language of the Polabian Slavs, assimilated by the Germans at the beginning of the 19th century.

The Polabian language was closest to Polish and together with it, Kashubian and the extinct Slovinian.

The name of the language comes from the Slavic name of the Elbe River (Polish: Јaba, Czech: Labe, etc.). Other names: Old-Solabian, Vendian. Accordingly, the Slavic tribe that spoke it was called Polabian Slavs, Drevyans (Drevans) or Vends (Vends is the German name for all the Slavs of Germany). The language was widespread until the first half of the 18th century on the left bank of the Elbe in the Principality of Lunenburg (now the Lüchow-Dannenberg district of Lower Saxony), where monuments of this language were recorded, and earlier also in the north of modern Germany (Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Schleswig, Fr. Rügen).

In the south, the area of the Polabian language bordered on the Lusatian languages, which were widespread in the southern part of modern eastern Germany.

In the 17th century, the Polabian language became socially unprestigious, the “Vendas” hid or did not advertise their origin and switched to the German language, including being subjected to forced Germanization. By 1725 there is information about a family of native speakers, in which the younger generation no longer knew Polabian. The last entry was made around 1750. In 1790, the compiler of the first consolidated Polabian dictionary, Johann Jugler, looked for people who could understand at least a little Polish, but he could no longer find anyone.

Slovinsky (Slovinc) language is a West Slavic idiom of the Lechitic subgroup, extinct in the 20th century. It is considered by some authors as an independent language, by others as a dialect of Kashubian or (not distinguishing Kashubian in turn) Polish. The term “Pomeranian (Pomeranian) language” is used, combining Kashubian and Slovinian. It was spoken by the Slovinians, first ethnographically described by A.F. Hilferding in 1856 and living northwest of the Kashubians, between Lake Łebski and Lake Gardno.

In the 17th - 19th centuries, the Slovinian language/dialect was used even in church sermons, but after the unification of Germany in 1871 it began to be finally replaced by the German language. By the beginning of the 20th century, no more than a few hundred speakers remained, and all of them spoke German.

After 1945, the Slovinians - Protestants (since the 16th century), speaking mainly German - were considered by the Polish government as Germans and were mostly expelled to Germany or then left Poland of their own free will, settling in Germany (many in area of Hamburg). There they finally assimilated. Some old people who remained in Poland remembered Slovinian words back in the 1950s.

Lumzhitsky languages, Serbolumzhitsky languages: (obsolete name - Serbian) - the languages of the Lusatians, one of the national minorities in Germany.

They belong to the Slavic group of languages. The total number of speakers is about 60,000 people, of which about 40,000 live in Saxony and about 20,000 in Brandenburg. In the region where the Lusatian language is spoken, tables with the names of cities and streets are often bilingual.

There are two written languages, which in turn consist of several dialects: Upper Sorbian (in Upper Lusatia) and Low Sorbian (in Lower Lusatia).

The number of speakers of Lusatian languages in everyday life is significantly lower than the above figures. In contrast to the fairly stable Upper Sorbian language, the Lower Sorbian language is on the verge of extinction.

Slovak language West Slavic ethnic

Czech-Slovak subgroup

Chemsh language (self-name - eeљtina, eeske jazyk) - total number of speakers - 12 million. Latin (Czech alphabet)

The Czech language is divided into several dialects, the speakers of which generally understand each other. Currently, under the influence of the literary language, the boundaries between dialects are blurred. Czech dialects are divided into 4 groups:

§ Czech dialects (with colloquial Czech as koine)
§ Central Moravian group of dialects (Ganatsky);
§ East Moravian group of dialects (Moravian-Slovak);
§ Silesian dialects.

The border lands formerly inhabited by Sudeten Germans cannot be classified as one dialect due to the heterogeneity of the population.

As in many related languages that have developed independently for a long time, similar-sounding Czech and Russian words often have different and even opposite meanings (for example, иerstve - fresh; pozor - attention; mmsto - city; hrad - castle; ovoce - - fruits; rodina - family; and other so-called false friends of the translator).

Slovak language (Slovak slovenіina, slovenskе jazyk) - total number of speakers - 6 million. The Slovak language is very close to the Czech language.

The standardization of the Slovak language began at the end of the 18th century. Then Anton Bernolak's book “Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum” with the appendix “Orthographia” (1787) was published. This literary language was based on Western Slovak dialects. The modern literary Slovak language, which is based on Central Slovak linguistic features, arose in the middle of the 19th century thanks to the efforts of the Slovak patriots Ludovit Štur, Michal Miloslav Goji, Josef Miloslav Gurban and others. The first version of Štur’s codification was formulated in the books “Nauka reii slovenskej” ( The science of the Slovak language) and “Nbreija slovenskuo alebo potreba pнsатja v tomto nbrein” (Slovak dialect or the need to write in this dialect) and came primarily from the speech of the intelligentsia of the central Slovak city of Liptovsky Mikulas and was characterized by a strong phonological principle of spelling, the absence of soft “ l" ("ѕ") and the long vowel "й" with the exception of the word "dcеra" (daughter) and other linguistic features that exist in the modern version of the Slovak language. In 1851, at a meeting of Slovak intellectuals, a reformed version of the Stuhr codification was adopted, the author of which was linguist Milan Gattala (we are talking about the so-called “Godjov-Gattala reform”). This variant is the basis of today's literary Slovak language. Important moments in the history of further standardization of the Slovak language are the publication of spelling books in 1931 and 1953. and the development of terminology in the interwar and especially postwar period.

During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hungarian authorities persecuted the literary Slovak language while promoting the less widespread Eastern Slovak dialect.

Jewish-Slavic dialects (Qna'anith) is the conventional name for several dialects and registers of Slavic languages spoken by Jews who lived in Slavic countries in the Middle Ages. All known Judeo-Slavic dialects were supplanted by Yiddish or surrounding Slavic languages by the end of the Middle Ages.

The best known is the Judeo-Czech variant of the Old Czech language, which was spoken by Bohemian and Moravian Jews before the massive influx of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim from Germany and the subsequent resettlement of both to the east and northeast within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, nothing is known about its differences from the language of the surrounding population. Most likely, as in the case of other medieval Hebrew languages of Europe, the differences were minimal and were limited to the inclusion of Hebrew and Aramaic words and the use of the Hebrew alphabet.

The name Knaanite (English Knaanic) is associated with the designation of Slavic countries by the term Qna`an (Hebrew lrtp, anciently denoting Palestine - Canaan), found in Jewish texts (for example, Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th century calls Kievan Rus " Land of Canaan"). The reason for this identification is unknown.

Polabian	Polish	Kashubian	Upper Lusatian	Lower Lusatian	Ukrainian	Belorussian
					man, man




prenja zaima, jisin




					vogon, vogon	fire, fire

						veter, wind

Slavic countries are states that existed or still exist, having the majority of their population Slavs (Slavic peoples). Slavic countries of the world are those countries in which the Slavic population is about eighty to ninety percent.

Which countries are Slavic?

Slavic countries of Europe:

But still, to the question “which country’s population belongs to the Slavic group?” The answer immediately arises - Russia. The population of Slavic countries today is about three hundred million people. But there are other countries in which Slavic peoples live (these are European countries, North America, Asia) and speak Slavic languages.

The countries of the Slavic group can be divided into:

Western Slavic.
East Slavic.
South Slavic.

The languages in these countries originate from one common language (it is called Proto-Slavic), which once existed among the ancient Slavs. It was formed in the second half of the first millennium AD. It is not surprising that most words are consonant (for example, Russian and Ukrainian languages are very similar). There are also similarities in grammar, sentence structure, and phonetics. This is easy to explain if we take into account the duration of contacts between the inhabitants of the Slavic states. Russian occupies the lion's share in the structure of Slavic languages. Its carriers are 250 million people.

It is interesting that the flags of Slavic countries also have some similarities in color and the presence of longitudinal stripes. Does this have something to do with their common origin? More likely yes than no.

Countries where Slavic languages are spoken are not that numerous. But Slavic languages still exist and flourish. And several hundred years have passed! This only means that the Slavic people are the most powerful, persistent, and unshakable. It is important that the Slavs do not lose the originality of their culture, respect for their ancestors, honor them and preserve traditions.

Today there are many organizations (both in Russia and abroad) that revive and restore Slavic culture, Slavic holidays, even names for their children!

The first Slavs appeared in the second and third millennium BC. Of course, the birth of this mighty people took place in the area of modern Russia and Europe. Over time, the tribes developed new territories, but still they could not (or did not want to) go far from their ancestral homeland. By the way, depending on migration, the Slavs were divided into eastern, western, southern (each branch had its own name). They had differences in their way of life, agriculture, and some traditions. But still the Slavic “core” remained intact.

The emergence of statehood, war, and mixing with other ethnic groups played a major role in the life of the Slavic peoples. The emergence of separate Slavic states, on the one hand, greatly reduced the migration of Slavs. But, on the other hand, from that moment on their mixing with other nationalities also dropped sharply. This allowed the Slavic gene pool to gain a strong foothold on the world stage. This affected both the appearance (which is unique) and the genotype (hereditary characteristics).

Slavic countries during the Second World War

The Second World War brought great changes to the countries of the Slavic group. For example, in 1938, the Czechoslovak Republic lost its territorial unity. The Czech Republic ceased to be independent, and Slovakia became a German colony. The following year the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth came to an end, and in 1940 the same happened to Yugoslavia. Bulgaria sided with the Nazis.

But there were also positive sides. For example, the formation of anti-fascist movements and organizations. A common misfortune united the Slavic countries. They fought for independence, for peace, for freedom. Such movements especially gained popularity in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.

The Soviet Union played a key role in World War II. The citizens of the country selflessly fought against the Hitler regime, against the cruelty of German soldiers, against the fascists. The country has lost a huge number of its defenders.

Some Slavic countries during the Second World War were united by the All-Slavic Committee. The latter was created by the Soviet Union.

What is Pan-Slavism?

The concept of Pan-Slavism is interesting. This is a direction that appeared in the Slavic states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It had the goal of uniting all the Slavs of the world on the basis of their national, cultural, everyday, and linguistic community. Pan-Slavism promoted the independence of the Slavs and praised their originality.

The colors of Pan-Slavism were white, blue and red (these same colors appear on many country flags). The emergence of such a movement as Pan-Slavism began after the Napoleonic wars. Weakened and “tired,” the countries supported each other in difficult times. But over time, they began to forget about Pan-Slavism. But at the present time there is again a tendency to return to the origins, to the ancestors, to the Slavic culture. Perhaps this will lead to the formation of a neo-Panslavist movement.

Slavic countries today

The twenty-first century is a time of some discord in the relations of the Slavic countries. This is especially true for Russia, Ukraine, and EU countries. The reasons here are more political and economic. But despite the discord, many residents of countries (from the Slavic group) remember that all the descendants of the Slavs are brothers. Therefore, none of them wants wars and conflicts, but only want warm family relationships, as our ancestors once had.

There are, however, differences of a material, functional and typological nature, due to the long-term independent development of Slavic tribes and nationalities in different ethnic, geographical and historical-cultural conditions, their contacts with related and unrelated ethnic groups.

Slavic languages, according to the degree of their proximity to each other, are usually divided into 3 groups: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) and Western Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish with a Kashubian dialect that has retained a certain genetic independence , Upper and Lower Sorbians). Small local groups of Slavs with their own literary languages are also known. Thus, Croats in Austria (Burgenland) have their own literary language based on the Chakavian dialect. Not all Slavic languages have reached us. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. The Polabian language disappeared. The distribution of Slavic languages within each group has its own characteristics (see East Slavic languages, West Slavic languages, South Slavic languages). Each Slavic language includes a literary language with all its stylistic, genre and other varieties and its own territorial dialects. The ratios of all these elements in Slavic languages are different. The Czech literary language has a more complex stylistic structure than Slovak, but the latter better preserves the features of the dialects. Sometimes dialects of one Slavic language differ from each other more than independent Slavic languages. For example, the morphology of the Shtokavian and Chakavian dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language differs much more deeply than the morphology of the Russian and Belarusian languages. Often the specific gravity of identical elements is different. For example, the category of diminutive in the Czech language is expressed in more diverse and differentiated forms than in the Russian language.

Of the Indo-European languages, S. are closest to the Baltic languages. This proximity served as the basis for the theory of the “Balto-Slavic proto-language”, according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first emerged from the Indo-European proto-language, which later split into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, most modern scientists explain their special closeness to the long-term contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs. It has not been established on what territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European one took place. It can be assumed that it occurred to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. There are many such theories, but all of them do not localize the ancestral home where the Indo-European proto-language could have been located. On the basis of one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), the Proto-Slavic language was later formed, which is the ancestor of all modern Slavic languages. The history of the Proto-Slavic language was longer than the history of individual Slavic languages. For a long time it developed as a single dialect with the same structure. Later, dialect variants arise. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language and its dialects into independent S. languages. was long and difficult. It took place most actively in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e., during the period of formation of the early Slavic feudal states in the territory of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. During this period, the territory of Slavic settlements increased significantly. Areas of various geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were developed, the Slavs entered into relationships with peoples and tribes at different stages of cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of Slavic languages.

The Proto-Slavic language was preceded by a period of Proto-Slavic language, elements of which can be reconstructed with the help of ancient Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language in its main part is restored with the help of data from S. I. different periods of their history. The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the oldest - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic linguistic contact, the period of Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

The individuality and originality of the Proto-Slavic language began to take shape in the early period. It was then that a new system of vowel sonants was formed, consonantism was significantly simplified, the reduction stage became widespread in ablaut, and the root ceased to obey ancient restrictions. According to the fate of the middle palatal k' and g', the Proto-Slavic language is included in the satəm group (sрьдьce, pisati, prositi, Wed. Lat. cor - cordis, pictus, precor; zьrno, znati, zima, Wed. Lat. granum, cognosco, hiems). However, this feature was implemented inconsistently: cf. Praslav *kamy, *kosa, *gǫsь, *gordъ, *bergъ, etc. Proto-Slavic morphology represents significant deviations from the Indo-European type. This primarily applies to the verb, to a lesser extent to the name. Most of the suffixes were already formed on Proto-Slavic soil. Proto-Slavic vocabulary is highly original; already in the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of significant transformations in the field of lexical composition. Having preserved in most cases the old lexical Indo-European fund, it at the same time lost many old Indo-European lexemes (for example, some terms from the field of social relations, nature, etc.). Many words were lost due to various kinds of prohibitions. For example, the name of oak - Indo-European - was forbidden. perku̯os, from Lat. quercus. The old Indo-European root has reached us only in the name of the pagan god Perun. In Slavic languages, the tabooistic dǫbъ was established, from where Russian. "oak", Polish dąb, Bulgarian dab, etc. The Indo-European name for the bear has been lost. It is preserved only in the new scientific term “Arctic” (cf. Greek ἄρκτος). The Indo-European word in the Proto-Slavic language was replaced by the taboo compound medvědь ‘honey eater’. During the period of the Balto-Slavic community, the Slavs borrowed many words from the Balts. During this period, vowel sonants were lost in the Proto-Slavic language, in their place diphthong combinations appeared in the position before consonants and the sequence “vowel sonant before vowels” (sъmьrti, but umirati), intonations (acute and circumflex) became relevant features. The most important processes of the Proto-Slavic period were the loss of closed syllables and the softening of consonants before the iota. In connection with the first process, all ancient diphthong combinations turned into monophthongs, smooth syllabic, nasal vowels arose, and a shift in the syllable division occurred, which in turn caused a simplification of consonant groups and the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes left their mark on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. rus. “reap - reap”; “take - I’ll take”, “name - names”, Czech. žíti - žnu, vzíti - vezmu; Serbohorv. zheti - press, uzeti - uzme, ime - names. The softening of consonants before the iot is reflected in the form of alternations s - š, z - ž, etc. All these processes had a strong impact on the grammatical structure, on the system of inflections. In connection with the softening of the consonants before the iota, the process of the so-called first palatalization of vesterior palatals was experienced: k > č, g > ž, x > š. On this basis, even in the Proto-Slavic language, the alternations k: č, g: ž, x: š were formed, which had a great influence on nominal and verbal word formation. Later, the so-called second and third palatalization of the posterior palatals began to operate, as a result of which the alternations k: c, g: ʒ (z), x: s (š) arose. The name changed according to cases and numbers. In addition to the singular and plural, there was a dual number, which was later lost in almost all Slavic languages. There were nominal stems that performed the functions of definitions. In the late Proto-Slavic period, pronominal adjectives arose. The verb had the stems of the infinitive and present tense. From the former, the infinitive, supine, aorist, imperfect, participles in ‑l, active past participles in ‑vъ and passive participles in ‑n were formed. From the bases of the present tense, the present tense, the imperative mood, and the active participle of the present tense were formed. Later, in some Slavic languages, an imperfect began to form from this stem.

Even in the depths of the Proto-Slavic language, dialect formations began to form. The most compact was the group of Proto-Slavic dialects, on the basis of which the East Slavic languages later arose. In the West Slavic group there were 3 subgroups: Lechitic, Serbo-Sorbian and Czech-Slovak. The most differentiated in terms of dialect was the South Slavic group.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period of the history of the Slavs, when tribal social relations dominated. Significant changes occurred during the period of early feudalism. This was reflected in the further differentiation of Slavic languages. By the 12th-13th centuries. there was a loss of the super-short (reduced) vowels ъ and ь, characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language. In some cases they disappeared, in others they became fully formed vowels. As a result, significant changes occurred in the phonetic and morphological structure of the Slavic languages. The Slavic languages have experienced many common processes in the field of grammar and lexical composition.

Slavic languages received literary treatment for the first time in the 60s. 9th century The creators of Slavic writing were the brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavic for the needs of Great Moravia. The new literary language was based on the South Macedonian (Thessalonica) dialect, but in Great Moravia it acquired many local linguistic features. Later it was further developed in Bulgaria. In this language (usually called Old Church Slavonic) a wealth of original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From 9th century no Slavic texts have survived. The most ancient ones date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription 943, the inscription of King Samuel 993, etc. From the 11th century. Many Slavic monuments have already been preserved. Slavic literary languages of the feudal era, as a rule, did not have strict norms. Some important functions were performed by foreign languages (in Rus' - the Old Church Slavonic language, in the Czech Republic and Poland - the Latin language). The unification of literary languages, the development of written and pronunciation norms, the expansion of the scope of use of the native language - all this characterizes the long period of formation of national Slavic languages. The Russian literary language has experienced centuries-long and complex evolution. It absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Church Slavonic language, and was influenced by many European languages. It developed without interruption for a long time. The process of formation and history of a number of other literary Slavic languages proceeded differently. In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. literary language, which reached in the 14th-16th centuries. great perfection, has almost disappeared. The German language was dominant in the cities. During the period of national revival, Czech “awakeners” artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the national language. The entire history of the Czech literary language of the 19th and 20th centuries. reflects the interaction between the old book language and the spoken language. The development of the Slovak literary language proceeded differently. Not burdened by old book traditions, it is close to the folk language. In Serbia until the 19th century. The Church Slavonic language of the Russian version dominated. In the 18th century the process of bringing this language closer to the folk one began. As a result of the reform carried out by V. Karadzic in the mid-19th century, a new literary language was created. This new language began to serve not only the Serbs, but also the Croats, and therefore began to be called Serbo-Croatian or Croatian-Serbian. The Macedonian literary language was finally formed in the mid-20th century. Slavic literary languages have developed and are developing in close communication with each other. For the study of Slavic languages, see Slavic studies.

Maye A., Common Slavic language, trans. from French, M., 1951;
Bernstein S. B., Essay on the comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Introduction. Phonetics, M., 1961;
his, Essay on the comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Alternations. Name bases, M., 1974;
Kuznetsov P.S., Essays on the morphology of the Proto-Slavic language. M., 1961;
Nachtigal R., Slavic languages, trans. from Slovenian, M., 1963;
Entry into the historical-historical learning of Slovenian language. Per ed. O. S. Melnichuk, Kiev, 1966;
National revival and formation of Slavic literary languages, M., 1978;
Boskovic R., Fundamentals of comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Phonetics and word formation, M., 1984;
Birnbaum Kh., Proto-Slavic language. Achievements and problems of its reconstruction, trans. from English, M., 1987;
Vaillant A., Grammaire comparée des langues slaves, t. 1-5, Lyon - P., 1950-77.

Education

Slavic. What languages belong to the Slavic group?

March 14, 2015

The Slavic group of languages is a major branch of the Indo-European languages, since the Slavs are the largest group of people in Europe united by similar speech and culture. More than 400 million people use them.

General information

The Slavic group of languages is a branch of the Indo-European languages used in most countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, parts of Central Europe and northern Asia. It is most closely related to the Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian and the extinct Old Prussian). Languages belonging to the Slavic group originated from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine) and spread to the remaining territories listed above.

Classification

There are three groups of Slavic languages: South Slavic, West Slavic and East Slavic branches.

In colloquial speech, in contrast to the clearly varied literary language, linguistic boundaries are not always obvious. There are transitional dialects connecting different languages, except in the area where the South Slavs are separated from other Slavs by Romanians, Hungarians and German-speaking Austrians. But even in these isolated areas there are some remnants of the old dialectal continuity (for example, the similarity between Russian and Bulgarian).

It should therefore be noted that the traditional classification into three separate branches should not be considered as a true model of historical development. It is more correct to imagine it as a process in which differentiation and reintegration of dialects constantly took place, as a result of which the Slavic group of languages has a striking homogeneity throughout the territory of its distribution. For centuries, the paths of different peoples crossed, and their cultures mixed.

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Differences

But it would still be an exaggeration to assume that communication between any two speakers of different Slavic languages is possible without any linguistic difficulties. Many differences in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary can cause misunderstandings even in a simple conversation, not to mention difficulties in journalistic, technical and artistic speech. Thus, the Russian word “green” is recognizable to all Slavs, but “red” means “beautiful” in other languages. Suknja is “skirt” in Serbo-Croatian, “coat” in Slovenian, a similar expression “suknya” is “dress” in Ukrainian.

Eastern group of Slavic languages

It includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Russian is the native language of nearly 160 million people, including many residents of countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Its main dialects are northern, southern and transitional central group. It also includes the Moscow dialect, on which the literary language is based. In total, about 260 million people speak Russian in the world.

In addition to the “great and mighty”, the Eastern Slavic group of languages includes two more large languages.

Ukrainian, which is divided into northern, southwestern, southeastern and Carpathian dialects. The literary form is based on the Kiev-Poltava dialect. More than 37 million people speak Ukrainian in Ukraine and neighboring countries, and more than 350,000 people speak the language in Canada and the United States. This is explained by the presence of a large ethnic community of migrants who left the country at the end of the 19th century. The Carpathian dialect, which is also called Carpatho-Rusyn, is sometimes considered a separate language.
Belarusian is spoken by about seven million people in Belarus. Its main dialects are: southwestern, some features of which can be explained by its proximity to Polish lands, and northern. The Minsk dialect, which serves as the basis for the literary language, lies on the border of these two groups.

West Slavic branch

It includes Polish and other Lechitic (Kashubian and its extinct variant Slovinian), Lusatian and Czechoslovak dialects. This Slavic group of the language family is also quite common. More than 40 million people speak Polish not only in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe (particularly Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Belarus), but also in France, the USA and Canada. It is also divided into several subgroups.

Polish dialects

The main ones are northwestern, southeastern, Silesian and Masovian. The Kashubian dialect is considered part of the Pomeranian languages, which, like Polish, are classified as Lechitic. Its speakers live west of Gdansk and on the Baltic Sea coast.

The extinct Slovinian dialect belonged to the northern group of Kashubian dialects, which differs from the southern one. Another unused Lechitic language is Polabian, which was spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slavs who lived in the Elbe River area.

Its close relative is Serbo-Sorbian, which is still spoken by the people of Lusatia in East Germany. It has two literary languages: Upper Sorbian (used in Bautzen and the surrounding area) and Lower Sorbian (used in Cottbus).

Czechoslovakian group of languages

It includes:

Czech, spoken by approximately 12 million people in the Czech Republic. His dialects are Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian. The literary language was formed in the 16th century in Central Bohemia on the basis of the Prague dialect.
Slovak, it is used by about 6 million people, the majority are residents of Slovakia. Literary speech was formed on the basis of the dialect of Central Slovakia in the middle of the 19th century. Western Slovak dialects are similar to Moravian and differ from central and eastern ones, which share features with Polish and Ukrainian.

South Slavic group of languages

Among the three main ones, it is the smallest in terms of the number of native speakers. But this is an interesting group of Slavic languages, the list of which, as well as their dialects, is very extensive.

They are classified as follows:

1. Eastern subgroup. These include:

2. Western subgroup:

Serbo-Croatian language - about 20 million people use it. The basis for the literary version was the Shtokavian dialect, which is widespread in most of the Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin territories.
Slovene is a language spoken by more than 2.2 million people in Slovenia and surrounding areas of Italy and Austria. It shares some common features with the dialects of Croatia and includes many dialects with large differences between them. In Slovenian (in particular its western and northwestern dialects) traces of old connections with the West Slavic languages (Czech and Slovak) can be found.

What languages ​​are included in the Slavic group. South Slavic group of languages