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