Slavic languages The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) are the languages of the Slavic peoples. They form a distinct group of Indo-European languages, with speakers in most of Eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of Central Europe, and the northern part of Asia. Branches Scholars divide the Slavic languages into three branches: South Slavic, which further subdivides into Western and Eastern subgroups. The Western subgroup copmprises Slovenian and the group of dialects and literary languages referred to as Serbo-Croatian language (including Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian). The languages of the Western subgroup originate in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and adjacent regions. The Eastern subgroup consists of Bulgarian in Bulgaria and adjacent areas; and of Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania. West Slavic, which includes Czech in the Czech Republic and Slovak in Slovakia, Upper and Lower Sorbian in Germany, and the Lekhitic (Polish and related dialects, Kashubian, Polabian, Obodrits). East Slavic, including Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. Distribution of Slavic languages 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 Slavs of different linguistic backgrounds difficult, but not impossible. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a lesser degree, as in Russian, or to a much greater degree, as in Slovenian. Modern mass communication, however, has helped to minimize variation in all the Slavic languages. History Slavic languages descend from a dialect of Proto-Slavic, their parent language, which developed from a language that was also the ancestor of Proto-Baltic, the parent of the Baltic languages. It is believed that the "Urheimat" of Proto-Balto-Slavic, this ancestral language, 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. The process of separation of Proto-Slavic speakers from Proto-Baltic speakers occurred around 1000 BC. (Proto-Baltic-Slavic earlier developed from Proto-Baltic-Germanic-Slavic, which has a reconstructed vocabulary of around 164 words.) 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. 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. 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=656. ISO 639-2 uses the code sla in a general way for Slavic languages not included in one of the other codes. West Slavic languages: Sorbian Section - also known as Wendish - ISO 639-2 code, wen Lower Sorbian (also known as Lusatian)- (SIL Code, WEE; ISO 639-2 code, dsb) Upper Sorbian - (SIL Code, WEN; ISO 639-2 code, hsb) Lekhitic Section Polish - (SIL Code, PQL; ISO 639-1 code, pl; ISO 639-2 code, pol) (Note the counterintuitive SIL code "PQL"; "POL" refers to the Polci language of Nigeria) Kashubian - (SIL Code, CSB; ISO 639-2 code, sla) Slovincian - an extinct dialect of Kashubian Polabian - extinct - (SIL Code, POX; ISO 639-2 code, sla) Czech-Slovak Section Czech - (SIL Code, CZC; ISO 639-1 code, cs; ISO 639-2(B) code, cze; ISO 639-2(T) code, ces) Knaanic or Judeo Slavic - extinct - (SIL Code, CZK; ISO 639-2 code, sla) Slovak - (SIL Code, SLO; ISO 639-1 code, sk; ISO 639-2(B) code, slo; ISO 639-2(T) code, slk) South Slavic languages: Western Section Slovenian - (SIL Code, SLV; ISO 639-1 code, sl; ISO 639-2 code, slv) Serbo-Croatian - (SIL Code, SRC; ISO 639-1 codes, bs, hr and sr; ISO 639-2 codes, bos; ISO 639-2(B) codes, scr and scc; ISO 639-2(T) codes, hrv and srp) After the break-up of Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian became officially considered as three languages -- Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian -- though the differences (apart from the choice of script) remain more political than dialectal. For more information see Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. Romano-Serbian - (SIL Code, RSB; ISO 639-2 code, sla) Eastern Section Macedonian - (SIL Code, MKJ; ISO 639-1 code, mk; ISO 639-2(B) code, mac; ISO 639-2(T) code, mkd) Bulgarian - (SIL Code, BLG; ISO 639-1 code, bg; ISO 639-2 code, bul) Old Church Slavonic - extinct (SIL Code, SLN; ISO 639-1 code, cu; ISO 639-2 code, chu) East Slavic languages: Belarusian (alternatively Belarusan, Belarussian, Belorussian) - (SIL Code, RUW; 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. Ukrainian - (SIL Code, UKR; ISO 639-1 code, uk; ISO 639-2 code, ukr) Russian - (SIL Code, RUS; ISO 639-1 code, ru; ISO 639-2 code, rus) Rusyn - (SIL Code, RUE; ISO 639-2 code, sla) Transitional Church Slavonic language, derived from Old Church Slavonic, but with significant replacement of the original vocabulary by forms from the Old Russian language and other regional forms. The Russian Orthodox Church and Serbian Orthodox Church continue to use Church Slavonic as a liturgical language, while a Church Slavonic mass survives in the Czech Republic. A planned language called Slovio also exists: constructed on the basis of Slavic languages, and intended to facilitate intercommunication between people who already speak at least one Slavic language. See also Slavistics Language families and languages FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_languages