What family of languages ​​did the ancestors of the Slavs belong to? Slavic languages

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, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with kindred and unrelated ethnic groups.

Slavic languages ​​are usually divided into 3 groups according to the degree of their proximity to each other: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) and West Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish with a Kashubian dialect that retained a certain genetic independence , Upper and Lower Lusatian). There are also small local groups of Slavs with their own literary languages. Thus, the Croats in Austria (Burgenland) have their own literary language based on the Chakavian dialect. Not all Slavic languages ​​have come down to us. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. the Polish 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 the Slavic languages ​​are different. The Czech literary language has a more complex stylistic structure than Slovak, but the latter better preserves the features of dialects. Sometimes the 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. The proportion of identical elements is often different. For example, the category of diminutive in Czech is expressed in more diverse and differentiated forms than in Russian.

Of the Indo-European languages, C. I are the closest to the Baltic languages. This proximity served as the basis for the theory of " Balto-Slavic proto-language", according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first separated from the Indo-European proto-language, later splitting into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, most modern scientists explain their special closeness by the long contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs. It has not been established in which territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European took place. It can be assumed that it took place 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 be. On the basis of one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavonic), 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 appear. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language, its dialects into independent S. Ya. was long and difficult. It was most active in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e., during the 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 various natural and climatic conditions, the Slavs entered into relationships with peoples and tribes standing at different levels cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.

The Proto-Slavic language was preceded by the period of the Proto-Slavic language, elements of which can be restored with the help of the ancient Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language in its main part is restored using the data of S. Ya. different periods of their history. The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the most ancient - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic language 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 as early as early period. It was then that it took shape new system vowel sonants, consonantism was greatly simplified, the stage of reduction became widespread in the ablaut, the root ceased to obey the ancient restrictions. According to the fate of the middle palate k ’and g’, the Proto-Slavic language is included in the satəm group (sürdce, pisati, prositi, cf. lat. cor - cordis, pictus, precor; zürno, znati, zima, cf. 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 the Proto-Slavic soil. Proto-Slavic vocabulary is distinguished by great originality; already in the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of significant transformations in the field of lexical composition. While retaining in most cases the old Indo-European lexical fund, at the same time he lost many old Indo-European lexemes (for example, some terms from the field of social relations, nature, etc.). Many words have been lost due to various kinds of prohibitions. Forbidden, for example, was the name of the oak - Indo-European. perku̯os, whence lat. quercus. The old Indo-European root has come down to us only in the name pagan god Perun. In the Slavic languages, the taboo dǫbъ was established, from where Rus. "oak", Polish. dąb, Bulgarian db, 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 word formation medvědъ ‘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 arose in position before consonants and the sequences of “vowel sonant before vowels” (sьmürti, but umirati), intonations (acute and circumflex) became relevant features. The most important processes the Proto-Slavic period was the loss of closed syllables and softening of consonants before iot. In connection with the first process, all ancient diphthongic combinations turned into monophthongs, syllabic smooth, nasal vowels arose, a syllable division moved, which, in turn, caused a simplification of consonant groups, the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes have left their mark on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. Russian "reap - reap"; “to take - I will take”, “name - names”, Czech. žíti - žnu, vzíti - vezmu; Serbohorv. zhȅti - zhmȇm, uzeti - ȕzmȇm, ȉme - names. The softening of consonants before 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 iot, the process of the so-called first palatalization of the posterior palate 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 verb word formation. Later, the so-called second and third palatalization of the posterior palate began to operate, as a result of which the alternations k: c, g: ʒ (z), x: s (š) arose. The name changed by 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 infinitive and present tense stems. From the first, the infinitive, supine, aorist, imperfect, participles in -l, participles of the real past tense in -vъ and participles of the passive voice in -n were formed. From the foundations of the present tense, the present tense, the imperative mood, the participle of the active voice of the present tense were formed. Later, in some Slavic languages, the 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 that group of Proto-Slavic dialects, on the basis of which the East Slavic languages ​​later arose. In the western Slavic group there were 3 subgroups: Lechit, Serboluzhitskaya and Czech-Slovak. The most differentiated dialectally was the South Slavic group.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period in 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 the Slavic languages. By the 12th-13th centuries. there was a loss of super-short (reduced) vowels ъ and ь, characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language. In some cases they disappeared, in others they turned into full vowels. As a result, there have been significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of the Slavic languages. Many common processes have gone through the Slavic languages ​​in the field of grammar and lexical composition.

For the first time, Slavic languages ​​received literary processing in the 60s. 9th c. Creators Slavic writing there were brothers Cyril (Konstantin the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavonic for the needs of Great Moravia. At its core, the new literary language had a South Macedonian (Thessalonica) dialect, but in Great Moravia it adopted many local linguistic features. Later he received further development In Bulgaria. In this language (usually called the Old Church Slavonic language), the richest original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From the 9th c. Slavic texts have not been preserved. The most ancient date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription 943, the inscription of Tsar Samuil 993, etc. From the 11th century. many Slavic monuments have already been preserved. Slavic literary languages ​​of the era of feudalism, as a rule, did not have strict norms. Some important functions were performed by foreign languages ​​(in Russia - Old Church Slavonic, in the Czech Republic and Poland - Latin). Unification of literary languages, development of written and pronunciation norms, expansion of the scope of use mother tongue- all this characterizes a long period of formation of national Slavic languages. The Russian literary language has gone through a centuries-old and complex evolution. He absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Slavonic language, 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 ​​went differently. In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. literary language, which reached in the 14-16 centuries. great perfection, almost disappeared. The German language dominated in the cities. During the period of the national revival, the Czech "wake-ups" artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the vernacular. The entire history of the Czech literary language in the 19th-20th centuries. reflects the interaction of the old bookish language and spoken language. The development of the Slovak literary language proceeded differently. Not burdened by old book traditions, it is close to the folk language. Serbia until the 19th century. the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version dominated. In the 18th century began the process of rapprochement of this language with the people. As a result of the reform carried out by V. Karadzic in the middle of the 19th century, a new literary language was created. This new language began to serve not only the Serbs, but also the Croats, in connection with which he began to be called Serbo-Croatian or Croatian-Serbian. The Macedonian literary language was finally formed in the middle of the 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.

• Meillet A., Common Slavonic language, trans. from French, M., 1951;
• Bernstein S. B., Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Introduction. Phonetics, M., 1961;
• his own, Essay on Comparative Grammar of Slavonic Languages. Alternations. Name bases, M., 1974;
• Kuznetsov PS, Essays on the morphology of the Proto-Slavic language. M., 1961;
• Nachtigal R., Slavic languages, trans. from Slovenian, M., 1963;
• Entry to the historical-historical development of the words of the Yan language. For red. 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 H., 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.

Replenishment of the vocabulary with new words by creating them from the word-formation elements available in the language and by borrowing words from the languages ​​of other peoples is a natural phenomenon for all languages.

Russian language refers to Slavic group languages. Related to it are the living East Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200b- Ukrainian and Belorussian; West Slavic - Polish, Kashubian, Czech, Slovak, Lusatian; South Slavic - Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian; dead West Slavic - Polabian and Pomeranian; South Slavic - Old Church Slavonic.

Long before our era, tribes of Slavs settled on the lands between the Dnieper and the Vistula, who developed their own common Slavic language. By the 5th - 6th centuries. among the Slavs, who by that time had significantly expanded their territory, three groups separated themselves: southern, western and eastern. This isolation of the Slavic tribes was accompanied by the division of the common Slavic language into independent languages. East Slavic (Old Russian) language is the language of a separate eastern group of Slavic tribes.

Settlement of Slavic tribes in the tenth century.

From the 7th century by the ninth century developed, and from the 9th century. until the second third of the 12th century. there was an East Slavic (Old Russian) state - Kievan Rus. Population Kievan Rus communicated through close dialects of the East Slavic (Old Russian) language. In the XII - XIII centuries. Kievan Rus broke up into separate principalities. The East Slavic (Old Russian) language gave rise to three languages ​​- Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. They separated already by the 14th century. On the northeastern outskirts of Kievan Rus in the XIV century. the state of Moscow Rus began to be created, the population of which spoke the emerging Russian language. In the era of the Muscovite state and in subsequent eras, the Russian language is the language of only one of the three East Slavic peoples.

Originally Russian words are divided into three groups: common Slavic, East Slavic (Old Russian) and proper Russian. For example, common Slavic words: beard, eyebrow, hip, head, lip, throat and etc.; East Slavic (Old Russian) words: gaff, enough, rope, blackberry and others. From the XIV century. actually Russian words began to appear in the Russian language ( alcove, get lost, militia and etc.). They were created on the basis of common Slavic, East Slavic (Old Russian) and borrowed words. For example, in the XVI century. the word was borrowed from the Polish language pharmacy. On the basis of this word, the adjective arose in Russian pharmacy(according to the rules of Russian word production). Actually Russian words make up a significant layer of the vocabulary of the modern Russian language.

Everyone who was born and raised in Russia knows the song about the dashing Don Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin, the leader of the popular uprising in the early 70s. 17th century

From behind the island to the rod,

To the expanse of the river wave

Painted ones come up

Stenki Razin Chelny.

The words in this song are ancient. Let's look into their history, and at the same time into the languages ​​of neighboring peoples.

Word Island in use since the 11th century; it has an attachment about- connected with the Indo-European root streu-, meaning "flow, leak, pour" (by the way, the same root is in the word jet). Wed: in Latvian strava and in Lithuanian srava, srove- current, flow; in german Strom- current, flow (strömen - flow, run, flow). Is there a connection between the island and the current? Of course have. After all, an island is a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides. Word Island appeared not only in Russian, it has relatives in other Slavic languages: island(Ukrainian), vostrau(Belarusian), Island(Bulgarian) island(Serbo-Croatian), island(Czech and Slovak), ostrow(Old Polish).

Word rod(a place in the river with the highest flow rate and depth) has been used since the 14th - 15th centuries; compare: shear(Ukrainian), stridzhan(Belarusian).

AT ancient times words arose river and river(Indo-European basis meant "flow, stream"); compare: rika and rich(Ukrainian), cancer and cancer(Belarusian), river and river(Bulgarian), river and speeches(Serbo-Croatian), river and recen(Slovenian), Reka and ricni(Czech), rieka and riecny(Slovak), rzeka and rzeczny(Polish).

From the 11th century the word used in ancient Russian shuttle; its basis is also Indo-European, meaning "to rise, to rise above something"; hence the English hill(hill, hill) and German Holm(elevation, hill, river island). But really dude (pl. canoes) - that is, a boat, a boat - was perceived from a distance as something towering above the smooth surface of the water. Of course, the diminutive is also remembered shuttle - firstly, like a small boat, and secondly, like a part of a loom (elongated in shape, like a boat). Wed: choven and official(Ukrainian), choven and chounik(Belarusian), chlun(Bulgarian) Coln and Colnicek(Slovenian), clun and clunek(Czech), cln and clnok(Slovak), czolno(Polish).

Sailing ships (boats) on the river; shuttle of an automatic loom; space shuttle Clipper (Russia)

How do scientists determine which words are common Slavic, which are East Slavic (Old Russian), and which are actually Russian? To do this, they compare in all Slavic languages ​​the meaning and pronunciation of words denoting the same objects, phenomena, signs, actions. Common Slavic will be those words that will appear in all or most Slavic languages, and each of the three groups of Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200bmust be represented (eastern, southern, western). If it turns out that words exist, for example, only in Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian and Slovene, then these words should be considered South Slavic; if only in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, then these are East Slavic (Old Russian) words. If there are words in only one of the languages, then these are already their own formations of one or another Slavic language, for example, Russian.

The first scientific etymological dictionary of the Russian language appeared at the end of the 19th century. And in the last century, the Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by A. G. Preobrazhensky and the Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Fasmer, as well as several short etymological dictionaries, were published.

In one of his books, L. V. Uspensky made interesting comparison Russian and Bulgarian words.

“When our soldier entered into a conversation with a Bulgarian, they, smiling sweetly at each other, all the time tried to moderate the pace of the conversation.

“My dear man,” the Russian persuaded, “don’t speak so fast, speak more slowly!”

- Pray those, friend, do not say such a borzo, say funny!

The Slavic group of languages ​​is the closest thing from this family to the Baltic group, so some scholars combine these two groups into one - Balto-Slavic subfamily Indo-European languages. Total speakers of Slavic languages ​​(for whom they are native languages) is more than 300 million. The main number of speakers of Slavic languages ​​lives 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. Together these languages ​​are 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 today spoken by approximately 56 million people, mostly in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The South Slavic branch consists of Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovene and Macedonian. The Church Slavonic language also belongs to this branch. The first four languages ​​are spoken collectively 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, which, in turn, separated much earlier from Proto-Indo-European language(about 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 starting from the 8th century AD. Separate Slavic languages ​​begin to form.

General characteristics

colloquial Slavic languages very similar to each other, stronger than the Germanic or Romance languages ​​among themselves. However, even if there are common features in vocabulary, grammar and phonetics, they still differ in many aspects. One of general characteristics of all Slavic languages ​​is relatively a large number of consonant sounds. A striking example various uses can serve as a variety of positions of the main stress in individual Slavic languages. For example, in Czech the stress falls on the first syllable of a word, and in Polish it falls on the next syllable after the last, while in Russian and Bulgarian the stress can fall on any syllable.

Grammar

Grammatically, the 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 times(past, present and future), but is also characterized by such a complex characteristic as the species. The verb can be imperfect (shows the continuity or repetition of the action) or perfect (denotes the completion of the action) form. Participles and gerunds are widely used (one can compare their use with the use of participles and gerunds in English language). In all Slavic languages, except for Bulgarian and Macedonian, there is no article. The languages ​​of the Slavic subfamily are more conservative and therefore closer to Proto-Indo-European 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 characters for the Proto-Indo-European language, as well as the development of the form of the verb.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of the 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 . Influenced the vocabulary and languages ​​such as Italian and French. Slavic languages ​​also borrowed words from each other. Borrowing foreign words tends to translate and imitate rather than simply absorb them.

Writing

Perhaps it is in writing that the most significant differences between the Slavic languages ​​lie. Some Slavic languages ​​(in particular, Czech, Slovak, Slovene and Polish) have a script based on the Latin alphabet, since the speakers of these languages ​​belong predominantly to the Catholic denomination. Other Slavic languages ​​(for example, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian) use adopted Cyrillic variants as a result of the influence 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 then in the 9th century AD. in what is now Slovakia. There is no doubt that Cyril created the predecessor of the Cyrillic alphabet - Glagolitic, based on the Greek alphabet, where new symbols were added to denote Slavic sounds that did not find a match in the Greek language. However, the very first Cyrillic texts dating back to the 9th century AD. not preserved. The most ancient Slavic texts preserved in the church Old Church Slavonic date back to the 10th and 11th centuries.

Slavic programming languages, Slavic languages ​​of the world
branch

Languages ​​of Eurasia

Indo-European family

East Slavic, West Slavic, South Slavic groups

XII-XIII centuries n. e.

Slavic languages- a group of related languages ​​of the Indo-European family. Distributed throughout Europe and Asia. Total number speakers - more than 400 million people. They differ in a high degree of closeness to each other, which is found in the structure of the word, the use of grammatical categories, the structure of the sentence, semantics, the system of regular sound correspondences, and morphonological alternations. This proximity is explained by the unity of the origin of the Slavic languages ​​and their long and intense contacts with each other at the level of literary languages ​​and dialects.

The long independent development of the Slavic peoples in different ethnic, geographical, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with various ethnic groups led to the emergence of material, functional and typological differences.

• 1 Classification
• 2 Origin
  • 2.1 Modern research
• 3 Development history
• 4 Phonetics
• 5 Writing
• 6 Literary languages
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes
• 9 Literature

Classification

According to the degree of their proximity to each other, Slavic languages ​​are usually divided into 3 groups: East Slavic, South Slavic and West Slavic. The distribution of Slavic languages ​​within each group has its own characteristics. Each Slavic language includes in its composition the literary language with all its internal varieties and its own territorial dialects. Dialect fragmentation and stylistic structure within each Slavic language is not the same.

Branches of Slavic languages:

Origin

The Slavic languages ​​within the Indo-European family are closest to the Baltic languages. The similarity between the two groups served as the basis for the theory of the "Balto-Slavic parent language", according to which the Balto-Slavic parent language first emerged from the Indo-European parent language, later splitting into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, many scientists explain their special closeness by the long contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs, and deny the existence of the Balto-Slavic language.

It has not been established in which territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European / Balto-Slavic took place. It can be assumed that it took place to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. From one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), the Proto-Slavic language was 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 an identical structure. Dialect variants arose later.

The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language into independent languages ​​took place most actively in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD, during the formation of the early Slavic states in the territory of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. This period significantly increased the territory of Slavic settlements. Areas of various geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were mastered, the Slavs entered into relationships with the population of these territories, standing at different stages of cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.

The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the most ancient - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic language contact, the period of the Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

Modern research

In 2003, Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson, scientists from the University of Oklad, published their study in the scientific journal Nature. modern languages Indo-European family. The data obtained indicate that the Slavic linguistic unity broke up 1300 years ago, that is, around the 8th century AD. And the Balto-Slavic linguistic unity broke up 3400 years ago, that is, around the 15th century BC.

History of development

In the early period of the development of the Slavic parent language, a new system of vowel sonants developed, consonantism became much simpler, the stage of reduction became widespread in ablaut, and the root ceased to obey the ancient restrictions. The Proto-Slavic language is included in the satem group (sürdce, pisati, prositi, cf. lat. cor, - cordis, pictus, precor; zürno, znati, zima, cf. lat. granum, cognosco, hiems). However, this feature was not fully realized: 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.

Novgorod birch bark of the 14th century

Most of the suffixes were already formed on the Proto-Slavic soil. In the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of transformations in the field of vocabulary. Having retained in most cases the old Indo-European vocabulary, at the same time he lost some lexemes (for example, some terms from the field of social relations, nature, etc.). Many words have been lost in connection with various kinds of prohibitions (taboos). For example, the name of oak was lost - the Indo-European perkuos, whence the Latin quercus. In the Slavic language, the taboo dǫbъ was established, from where “oak”, Pol. dąb, Bulgarian. db, 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 a taboo combination of the words *medvědь (originally "honey eater", from honey and *ěd-).

Zograph codex, X-XI centuries.

During the period of the Balto-Slavic community, vowel sonants were lost in the Proto-Slavic language, in their place diphthong combinations arose in position before consonants and the sequences of “vowel sonant before vowels” (sьmürti, 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 softening of consonants before iot. In connection with the first process, all ancient diphthongic combinations turned into monophthongs, syllabic smooth, nasal vowels arose, a syllable division shifted, which, in turn, caused a simplification of consonant groups, the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes have left their mark on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. "reap - reap"; “to take - I will take”, “name - names”, Czech. ziti - znu, vziti - vezmu; Serbohorv. zheti - zhaњem, uzeti - let's know, name - names. The softening of consonants before the iot is reflected in the form of alternations s - sh, z - zh, etc. All these processes had a strong impact on the grammatical structure, on the system of inflections. due to the softening of consonants before the iot, the process of the so-called. the first palatalization of the posterior palate: k > h, d > f, x > w. On this basis, even in the Proto-Slavic language, the alternations k: h, g: w, x: sh were formed, which had a great influence on nominal and verbal word formation.

Later, the second and third palatalizations of the posterior palate developed, as a result of which alternations arose k: c, g: dz (s), x: s (x). The name changed by cases and numbers. Apart from the only one plural there was a dual number, which was later lost in almost all Slavic languages, except for Slovene and Lusatian, while the rudiments of the dualis are preserved in almost all Slavic languages.

There were nominal stems that performed the functions of definitions. the late Proto-Slavic period arose pronominal adjectives. The verb had the stems of the infinitive and the present tense. From the first, the infinitive, supine, aorist, imperfect, participles in -l, participles of the real past tense in -v, and participles of the passive voice in -n were formed. From the foundations of the present tense, the present tense was formed, imperative mood, present participle in the active voice. Later, in some Slavic languages, the imperfect began to form from this stem.

Dialects began to form in the Proto-Slavic language. There were three groups of dialects: Eastern, Western and Southern. From them, the corresponding languages ​​were then formed. The group of East Slavic dialects was the most compact. The West Slavic group had 3 subgroups: Lechit, Lusatian and Czech-Slovak. The South Slavic group was dialectally the most differentiated.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period in the history of the Slavs, when the tribal social system dominated. Significant changes occurred during the period of early feudalism. XII-XIII centuries there was a further differentiation of the Slavic languages, 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 turned into full vowels. As a result, there have been significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of the Slavic languages, in their lexical composition.

Phonetics

In the field of phonetics, there are some significant differences between the Slavic languages.

Most Slavic languages ​​have lost the long/short vowel opposition, while Czech and Slovak (excluding North Moravian and East Slovak dialects) have lost literary norms Shtokavian group (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin), and also partly in Slovene, these differences are preserved. Lechitic languages, Polish and Kashubian, retain nasal vowels that are lost in other Slavic languages ​​(nasal vowels were also characteristic of the phonetic system of the extinct Polabian language). Long time nasals were retained in the Bulgarian-Macedonian and Slovene language areas (in the peripheral dialects of the respective languages, relics of nasalization are reflected in a number of words to this day).

Slavic languages ​​are characterized by the presence of palatalization of consonants - the approach of the flat middle part of the tongue to the palate when pronouncing a sound. Almost all consonants in Slavic languages ​​can be hard (non-palatalized) or soft (palatalized). due to a number of depalatalization processes, the opposition of consonants in terms of hardness / softness in the languages ​​of the Czech-Slovak group is significantly limited (in Czech, the opposition t - t', d - d', n - n' has been preserved, in Slovak - t - t', d - d' , n - n', l - l', while in the West Slovak dialect, due to the assimilation of t', d' and their subsequent hardening, as well as the hardening of l', as a rule, only one pair of n - n' is represented, in a number of West Slovak dialects ( Povazhsky, Trnavsky, Zagorsky) paired soft consonants are completely absent). The opposition of consonants in terms of hardness / softness did not develop in the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian and Western Bulgarian-Macedonian language areas - from the old paired soft consonants, only n '(< *nj), l’ (< *lj) не подверглись отвердению (в первую очередь в сербохорватском ареале).

Stress in Slavic languages ​​is realized in different ways. In most Slavic languages ​​(except Serbo-Croatian and Slovene), the polytonic Proto-Slavic stress was replaced by a dynamic one. The free, mobile nature of the Proto-Slavic stress was preserved in the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian languages, as well as in the Torlak dialect and the northern dialect of the Kashubian language (the extinct Polabian language also had a mobile stress). in Central Russian dialects (and, accordingly, in the Russian literary language), in the South Russian dialect, in the North Kashubian dialects, as well as in Belarusian and Bulgarian, this type of stress caused the reduction of unstressed vowels. in a number of languages, primarily in West Slavic, a fixed stress was formed, assigned to a certain syllable of a word or bar group. The penultimate syllable is stressed in the Polish standard language and most of its dialects, in the Czech North Moravian and East Slovak dialects, in the southwestern dialects of the southern Kashubian dialect, and also in the Lemko dialect. The first syllable is stressed in the Czech and Slovak literary languages ​​and most of their dialects, in the Lusatian languages, in the South Kashubian dialect, and also in some Goral dialects of the Lesser Polish dialect. In Macedonian, the stress is also fixed - it falls no further than the third syllable from the end of the word (accent group). In Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, the stress is polytonic, multi-local, the tonic characteristics and the distribution of stress in word forms are different in dialects. In the Central Kashubian dialect, the stress is different, but is assigned to a certain morpheme.

Writing

Slavic languages ​​received their first literary processing in the 60s. ninth century. The creators of Slavic writing were the brothers Cyril (Konstantin the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated for the needs of Great Moravia from Greek into Slavonic liturgical texts. At its core, the new literary language had a 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 the Old Church Slavonic language), the richest original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From IX century. Slavic texts have not been preserved. The most ancient date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription of 943, the inscription of Tsar Samuil of 993, the Varosha inscription of 996 and others. Starting from the XI century. more Slavic monuments have been preserved.

Modern Slavic languages ​​use alphabets based on Cyrillic and Latin. The Glagolitic alphabet is used in Catholic worship in Montenegro and in several coastal areas in Croatia. In Bosnia, for some time, the Arabic alphabet was also used in parallel with the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

Literary languages

In the era of feudalism, Slavic literary languages, as a rule, did not have strict norms. Sometimes the functions of the literary language were performed by foreign languages ​​(in Russia - the Old Slavonic language, in the Czech Republic and Poland - the Latin language).

The Russian literary language has gone through a centuries-old and complex evolution. He absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Slavonic language, was influenced by many European languages.

Czech Republic in the 18th century literary language, which reached in the XIV-XVI centuries. great perfection, almost disappeared. cities were dominated by the German language. the period of national revival in the Czech Republic artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the national language. History of the Czech literary language of the 19th-20th centuries. reflects the interaction of the old book language and colloquial. The Slovak literary language had a different history, it developed on the basis of the vernacular. Serbia until the 19th century dominated by the Church Slavonic language. 18th century began the process of rapprochement of this language with the people. As a result of the reform carried out by Vuk Karadzic in the middle of the 19th century, a new literary language was created. The Macedonian literary language was finally formed in the middle of the 20th century.

In addition to the "large" Slavic languages, there are a number of small Slavic literary languages ​​(microlanguages), which usually function along with national literary languages ​​and serve either relatively small ethnic groups or even individual literary genres.

see also

• Swadesh lists for Slavic languages ​​at Wiktionary.

Notes

1. Balto-Slavonic Natural Language Processing 2009
2. http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
3. Languages ​​Spoken by More Than 10 Million People (Languages ​​spoken by more than 10 million people) according to the Encarta encyclopedia. Archived from the original on October 31, 2009.
4. Omniglot
5. 1 2 Sometimes separated into a separate language
6. see Meillet's law.
7. Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. - 1st ed. - T. 1-4. - M., 1964-1973.
8. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 15. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
9. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 10. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
10. Lifanov K. V. Dialectology of the Slovak language: Tutorial. - M.: Infra-M, 2012. - S. 34. - ISBN 978-5-16-005518-3.
11. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 16. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
12. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - S. 14-15. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)

Literature

• Bernstein S. B. Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Introduction. Phonetics. M., 1961.
• Bernstein S. B. Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Alternations. nominal bases. M., 1974.
• Birnbaum H. Proto-Slavic language. Achievements and problems of its reconstruction, trans. from English, M., 1987.
• Boshkovich R. Fundamentals of Comparative Grammar of Slavonic Languages. Phonetics and word formation. M., 1984.
• Gilferding A.F. Common Slavonic alphabet with the application of examples of Slavic dialects. - St. Petersburg: Type. Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1871.
• Kuznetsov P. S. Essays on the morphology of the Proto-Slavic language. M., 1961.
• Meie A. Common Slavic language, trans. from French, Moscow, 1951.
• Nachtigal R. Slavic languages, trans. from Slovenia., M., 1963.
• National revival and formation of Slavic literary languages. M., 1978.
• Entry to the historically historical development of the words of the Yan language. For red. O. S. Melnichuk. Kiev, 1966.
• Vaillant A. Grammaire comparee des langues slaves, t. 1-5. Lyon - P., 1950-77.
• Russell D. Gray & Quentin D. Atkinson. Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature, 426: 435-439 (November 27, 2003).

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Slavic languages ​​Information About

Just as a tree grows from a root, its trunk gradually grows stronger, rises to the sky and branches, the Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200b"grew" from the Proto-Slavic language (see Proto-Slavic language), whose roots go deep to the Indo-European language (see Indo-European family of languages). This allegorical picture served, as is well known, as the basis for the theory of the "family tree", which, in relation to Slavic family languages ​​can be accepted in general terms and even historically justified.

The Slavic language "tree" has three main branches: 1) East Slavic languages, 2) West Slavic languages, 3) South Slavic languages. These main branches-groups branch out in turn into smaller ones - so, the East Slavic branch has three main branches - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, and the Russian language branch, in turn, has two main branches - North Russian and South Russian dialects (see Adverbs of the Russian language ). If you pay attention to further branches of at least the South Russian dialect, you will see how branches-zones of Smolensk, Upper Dnieper, Upper Desninsk, Kursk-Oryol-sky, Ryazan, Bryansk-Zhizdrinsky, Tula, Yelets and Oskol dialects are distinguished in it, if you draw a picture of the allegorical "family tree" further, there are still branches with numerous leaves - dialects of individual villages and settlements It would be possible to describe the Polish or Slovenian branches in the same way, to explain which of them has more branches, which has less, but the principle of description would remain the same.

Naturally, such a “tree” did not grow immediately, that it did not immediately branch out and grow so much that the trunk and its main branches are older than smaller branches and twigs. Yes, and it did not always grow comfortably and exactly some branches withered, some were chopped off. But more on that later. In the meantime, we note that the “branched” principle of classifying Slavic languages ​​and dialects presented by us applies to natural Slavic languages ​​and dialects, to the Slavic linguistic element outside of its written form, without a normative written form. And if the various branches of the living Slavic language "tree" - languages ​​​​and dialects - did not appear immediately, then the existing written, bookish, normalized, largely artificial forms formed on their basis and in parallel with them did not immediately appear. language systems- literary languages ​​(see Literary language).

In the modern Slavic world, there are 12 national literary languages: three East Slavic - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, five West Slavic - Polish, Czech, Slovak, Upper Lusatian-Serbian and Lower Lusatian-Serbian, and four South Slavic - Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian and Macedonian.

In addition to these languages, polyvalent languages, that is, speakers (like all modern national literary languages) both in the function of written, artistic, business speech, and in the function of oral, everyday, colloquial and stage speech, the Slavs also have "small" literary, almost always brightly dialect-colored languages. These languages, with limited use, usually function alongside national literary languages ​​and serve either relatively small ethnic groups or even individual literary genres. Such languages ​​exist in Western Europe: in Spain, Italy, France and German-speaking countries. The Slavs know the Ruthenian language (in Yugoslavia), the Kaikavian and Chakavian languages ​​(in Yugoslavia and Austria), the Kashubian language (in Poland), the Lyash language (in Czechoslovakia), etc.

On a rather vast territory in the basin of the Elbe River, in Slavic Laba, lived in the Middle Ages Polabian Slavs who spoke the Polabian language. This language is a severed branch from the Slavic language "tree" as a result of the forced Germanization of the population that spoke it. He disappeared in the 18th century. Nevertheless, separate records of the Polabian words, texts, translations of prayers, etc., have come down to us, from which it is possible to restore not only the language, but also the life of the disappeared Polabyans. And at the International Congress of Slavists in Prague in 1968, the famous West German Slavist R. Olesh read a report in the Polabian language, thus creating not only literary written (he read from typescript) and oral forms, but also scientific linguistic terminology. This indicates that almost every Slavic dialect (dialect) can, in principle, be the basis of a literary language. However, not only Slavic, but also another family of languages, as numerous examples of the newly written languages ​​of our country show.

In the ninth century the works of the brothers Cyril and Methodius created the first Slavic literary language - Old Church Slavonic. It was based on the dialect of the Thessalonica Slavs, translations from Greek of a number of church and other books were made in it, and later some original works were written. The Old Slavonic language first existed in the West Slavic environment - in Great Moravia (hence the number of moralisms inherent in it), and then spread among the southern Slavs, where book schools - Ohrid and Preslav - played a special role in its development. From the 10th century this language begins to exist and Eastern Slavs, where it was known under the name of the Slovenian language, and scientists call it the language of Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic. The Old Slavic language was an international, inter-Slavic book language until the 18th century. and had a great influence on the history and modern look many Slavic languages, especially the Russian language. Old Slavonic monuments have come down to us with two writing systems - Glagolitic and Cyrillic (see. The emergence of writing among the Slavs).