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The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches ( West and East) by a belt of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, Hungarian and
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
speakers.


History

The first South Slavic language to be written (also the first attested Slavic language) was the variety of the Eastern South Slavic spoken in
Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, now called Old Church Slavonic, in the ninth century. It is retained as a liturgical language in Slavic Orthodox churches in the form of various local
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Her ...
traditions.


Classification

The South Slavic languages constitute a
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
. Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin constitute a single dialect within this continuum. * Eastern ** Bulgarian – (ISO 639-1 code: bg; ISO 639-2 code: bul; SIL code: bul; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-hb) **
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...
– (ISO 639-1 code: mk; ISO 639-2(B) code: mac; ISO 639-2(T) code: mkd; SIL code: mkd; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-ha) ** Old Church Slavonic (extinct) – (ISO 639-1 code: cu; ISO 639-2 code: chu; SIL code: chu; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-a) * Transitional ** Torlakian * ** Slovene (ISO 639-1 code: sl; ISO 639-2 code: slv; ISO 639-3 code: slv; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-f) ** Kajkavian (ISO 639-3 code: kjv) ** Chakavian (ISO 639-3 code: ckm) **
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
/ Shtokavian (ISO 639-1 code: sh; ISO 639-2/3 code: hsb; SIL code: scr; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-g).
There are four national
standard language A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that include ...
s based on the
Eastern Herzegovinian dialect The Eastern Herzegovinian dialect (, Serbo-Croatian: ''istočnohercegovački'' / источнохерцеговачки) is the most widespread subdialect of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian, both by territory and the number of speakers ...
: ***
Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...
(ISO 639-1 code: sr; ISO 639-2/3 code: srp; SIL code: srp) *** Croatian (ISO 639-1 code: hr; ISO 639-2/3 code: hrv; SIL code: hrv) *** Bosnian (ISO 639-1 code: bs; ISO 639-2/3 code: bos; SIL code: bos) *** Montenegrin (ISO 639-2/3 code: cnr; SIL code: cnr)


Linguistic prehistory

The
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
are part of the Balto-Slavic group, which belongs to the
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
language family. The South Slavic languages have been considered a genetic
node In general, a node is a localized swelling (a " knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex). Node may refer to: In mathematics * Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph * Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, line ...
in
Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...
: defined by a set of phonological, morphological and lexical innovations (isoglosses) which separate it from the Western and Eastern Slavic groups. That view, however, has been challenged in recent decades (see below). Some innovations encompassing all South Slavic languages are shared with the Eastern Slavic group, but not the Western Slavic. These include: # Consistent application of Slavic second palatalization before Proto-Slavic *v # Loss of *d and *t before Proto-Slavic *l # Merger of Proto-Slavic *ś (resulting from the second and third palatalization) with *s This is illustrated in the following table: Several
isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss (see Etymology below), is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Major ...
es have been identified which are thought to represent exclusive common innovations in the South Slavic language group. They are prevalently phonological in character, whereas morphological and
syntactical In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...
isoglosses are much fewer in number. list the following phonological isoglosses: # Merger of
yers A yer is either of two letters in Cyrillic alphabets, ъ (ѥръ, ''jerŭ'') and ь (ѥрь, ''jerĭ''). The Glagolitic alphabet used, as respective counterparts, the letters (Ⱏ) and (Ⱐ). They originally represented phonemically the "ult ...
into
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
-like sound, which became in Serbo-Croatian, or split according to the retained hard/soft quality of the preceding consonant into (Macedonian), or (Bulgarian) # Proto-Slavic *ę > # Proto-Slavic *y > , merging with the reflex of Proto-Slavic *i # Proto-Slavic syllabic liquids *r̥ and *l̥ were retained, but *l̥ was subsequently lost in all the daughter languages with different outputs (> in Serbo-Croatian, > vowel+ or +vowel in Slovene, Bulgarian and Macedonian), and *r̥ became in Bulgarian. This development was identical to the loss of ''yer'' after a liquid consonant. # Hardening of palatals and dental affricates; e.g. š' > š, č' > č, c' > c. # South Slavic form of liquid metathesis (CoRC > CRaC, CoLC > CLaC etc.) Most of these are not exclusive in character, however, and are shared with some languages of the Eastern and Western Slavic language groups (in particular, Central Slovakian dialects). On that basis, argues that South Slavic exists strictly as a geographical grouping, not forming a true genetic
clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...
; in other words, there was never a proto-South Slavic language or a period in which all South Slavic dialects exhibited an exclusive set of extensive phonological, morphological or lexical changes (isoglosses) peculiar to them. Furthermore, Matasović argues, there was never a period of cultural or political unity in which Proto-South-Slavic could have existed during which Common South Slavic innovations could have occurred. Several South-Slavic-only lexical and morphological patterns which have been proposed have been postulated to represent common Slavic
archaism In language, an archaism (from the grc, ἀρχαϊκός, ''archaïkós'', 'old-fashioned, antiquated', ultimately , ''archaîos'', 'from the beginning, ancient') is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a hi ...
s, or are shared with some Slovakian or Ukrainian dialects. The South Slavic dialects form a
dialectal continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
stretching from today's southern
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
to southeast
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
. On the level of
dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their ass ...
, they are divided into Western South Slavic (Slovene and Serbo-Croatian dialects) and Eastern South Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects); these represent separate migrations into the Balkans and were once separated by intervening Hungarian, Romanian, and Albanian populations; as these populations were assimilated, Eastern and Western South Slavic fused with Torlakian as a transitional dialect. On the other hand, the breakup of the Ottoman and
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
s, followed by formation of
nation-states A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than " country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, m ...
in the 19th and 20th centuries, led to the development and codification of
standard language A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that include ...
s. Standard Slovene, Bulgarian, and Macedonian are based on distinct dialects. The Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard variants of the
pluricentric A pluricentric language or polycentric language is a language with several interacting codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries. Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spoken languages, inc ...
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
are based on the same dialect ( Shtokavian). Thus, in most cases national and ethnic borders do not coincide with dialectal boundaries. Note: Due to the differing political status of languages/dialects and different historical contexts, the classifications are arbitrary to some degree.


Dialectal classification

*South Slavic languages ** Southeastern *** Bulgarian dialects **** Eastern Bulgarian dialects **** Western Bulgarian dialects ***
Macedonian dialects The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They are part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that ...
**** Northern **** Western/Northwestern **** Eastern **** Southeastern **** Southwestern ** Transitional ( Torlakian) *** Transitional Bulgarian dialects in western Bulgaria *** Gora dialect in southern Kosovo, western North Macedonia and northeast Albania *** Prizren-Timok dialect in southeast Serbia and eastern Kosovo *** Karashevsk dialect in western Romania ** Southwestern ***
Shtokavian dialect Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric language, pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian language, Serbian, Croatian l ...
s (Serbo-Croatian) **** Šumadija–Vojvodina (Ekavian, Neo-Shtokavian): Serbia **** Smederevo–Vršac (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian): east-central Serbia **** Kosovo–Resava (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian): north Kosovo, eastern central Serbia **** Zeta–Raška (Ijekavian, Old-Shtokavian), in south and east Montenegro and southwest Serbia **** Eastern Herzegovinian (Ijekavian, Neo-Shtokavian), Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro **** East-Bosnian (Ijekavian, Old-Shtokavian), in central and northern Bosnia **** Slavonian (mixed yat, Old-Shtokavian), in eastern Croatia **** Younger Ikavian (Ikavian) with 3 subdialects — Dalmatian, Danubian ( Bunjevac dialect), and Littoral-Lika: in Dalmatia, central Bosnia, northern Serbia, southern Hungary (incl. Budapest) **** Prizren–Timok (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian), in southeast Serbia and south Kosovo *** Chakavian dialects **** Buzet subdialect: Croatia **** Western Chakavian subdialect: Croatia **** Southwestern Istrian subdialect: Croatia **** Northern Chakavian subdialect: Croatia **** Southern Chakavian subdialect: Croatia **** Lastovo subdialect: Croatia *** Kajkavian dialects, in Croatia **** Zagorje–Međimurje subdialect **** Križevci–Podravina subdialect **** Turopolje–Posavina subdialect **** Prigorski subdialect **** Donja Sutla subdialect **** Goranski subdialect *** Slovene dialects **** Littoral Slovene: Primorsko; west Slovenia and Adriatic **** Rovte Slovene: Rovtarsko; between Littoral and Carniolan **** Upper and Lower Carniolan: Gorenjsko and Dolenjsko; central; basis of Standard Slovene **** Styrian: Štajersko; eastern Slovenia **** Pannonian or Prekmurje dialect: Panonsko; far eastern Slovenia **** Carinthian: Koroško; far north and northwest Slovenia **** Resian: Rozajansko; Italy, west of Carinthian ***Other **** Burgenland Croatian (mixed), minority in Austria and Hungary


Southeast Slavic languages

The dialects that form the eastern group of South Slavic, spoken mostly in
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
and Macedonia and adjacent areas in neighbouring countries (such as the Bessarabian Bulgarians in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
), share a number of characteristics that set them apart from other
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
: * the existence of a definite article (e.g. ''книга'', book – ''книгата'', the book, ''време'', time – ''времето'', the time) * a near complete lack of noun cases * the lack of a
verb infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
* the formation of comparative forms of adjectives formed with the prefix ''по-'' (e.g. ''добър, по-добър'' (Bulg.)/''добар, подобар'' (Maced.) – good, better) * a
future tense In grammar, a future tense ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
formed by the present form of the verb preceded by ''ще/ќе'' * the existence of a renarrative mood (e.g. ''Той ме видял.'' (Bulg.)/''Тој ме видел.'' (Maced.) – He supposedly saw me. Compare with ''Той ме видя.''/''Тој ме виде.'' – He saw me.) Bulgarian and Macedonian share some of their unusual characteristics with other languages in the Balkans, notably Greek and Albanian (see Balkan sprachbund).


Bulgarian dialects

*Eastern Bulgarian dialects *Western Bulgarian dialects (includes Torlakian dialects)


Macedonian dialects

* Southeastern Macedonian dialects * Northern Macedonian (including three Torlakian dialects) * Western Macedonian dialects


Torlakian dialect in Serbian

* Torlakian dialects in southeast Serbia are only spoken and unstandardized, as Serbian literary language only recognizes the Shtokavian form (as other Serbo-Croatian languages)


Transitional South Slavic languages


Torlakian dialects

Torlakian dialects are spoken in southeastern
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
, northern
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
, western
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, southeastern
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a international recognition of Kosovo, partiall ...
, and pockets of western
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
; it is considered transitional between the Western and Eastern groups of South Slavic languages. Torlakian is thought to fit together with Bulgarian and Macedonian into the Balkan sprachbund, an area of linguistic convergence caused by long-term contact rather than genetic relation. Because of this some researchers tend to classify it as South East Slavic.


Southwest Slavic languages


History

Each of these primary and secondary dialectal units breaks down into subdialects and accentological isoglosses by region. In the past (and currently, in isolated areas), it was not uncommon for individual villages to have their own words and phrases. However, during the 20th century the local dialects have been influenced by Štokavian standards through mass media and public education and much "local speech" has been lost (primarily in areas with larger populations). With the breakup of Yugoslavia, a rise in national awareness has caused individuals to modify their speech according to newly established standard-language guidelines. The wars have caused large migrations, changing the ethnic (and dialectal) picture of some areas—especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in central Croatia and Serbia (Vojvodina in particular). In some areas, it is unclear whether location or ethnicity is the dominant factor in the dialect of the speaker. Because of this the speech patterns of some communities and regions are in a state of flux, and it is difficult to determine which dialects will die out entirely. Further research over the next few decades will be necessary to determine the changes made in the dialectical distribution of this language group.


Shtokavian dialects

The eastern Herzegovinian dialect is the basis of the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard variants of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian.


Slavomolisano

The Slavomolisano dialect is spoken in three villages of the Italian region of
Molise it, Molisano (man) it, Molisana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 ...
by the descendants of South Slavs who migrated from the eastern Adriatic coast during the 15th century. Because this group left the rest of their people so long ago, their diaspora language is distinct from the standard language and influenced by Italian. However, their dialect retains archaic features lost by all other Štokavian dialects after the 15th century, making it a useful research tool.


Chakavian dialects

Chakavian is spoken in the western, central, and southern parts of Croatia—mainly in Istria, the Kvarner Gulf,
Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...
and inland Croatia (Gacka and Pokupje, for example). The Chakavian reflex of proto-Slavic ''
yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet. There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining ...
'' is ''i'' or sometimes ''e'' (rarely as ''(i)je''), or mixed (''Ekavian–Ikavian''). Many dialects of Chakavian preserved significant number of Dalmatian words, but also have many loanwords from
Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
, Italian, Greek and other Mediterranean languages. Example: ''Ča je, je, tako je vavik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, a nekako će već bit!''


Burgenland Croatian

This dialect is spoken primarily in the federal state of Burgenland in Austria and nearby areas in Vienna,
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
, and Hungary by descendants of Croats who migrated there during the 16th century. This dialect (or family of dialects) differs from standard Croatian, since it has been heavily influenced by German and Hungarian. It has properties of all three major dialectal groups in Croatia, since the migrants did not all come from the same area. The linguistic standard is based on a Chakavian dialect, and (like all Chakavian dialects) is characterized by very conservative grammatical structures: for example, it preserves case endings lost in the Shtokavian base of standard Croatian. At most 100,000 people speak Burgenland Croatian and almost all are bilingual in German. Its future is uncertain, but there is movement to preserve it. It has official status in six districts of Burgenland, and is used in some schools in Burgenland and neighboring western parts of Hungary.


Kajkavian dialects

Kajkavian is mostly spoken in northern and northwest Croatia near the Hungarian and Slovene borders—chiefly around the towns of
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, Varaždin, Čakovec, Koprivnica, Petrinja, Delnice and so on. Its reflex of ''
yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet. There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining ...
'' is primarily , rarely diphthongal ''ije''). This differs from that of the Ekavian accent; many Kajkavian dialects distinguish a closed ''e''—nearly ''ae'' (from ''yat'')—and an open ''e'' (from the original ''e''). It lacks several palatals ''(ć, lj, nj, dž)'' found in the Shtokavian dialect, and has some loanwords from the nearby Slovene dialects and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
(chiefly in towns). Example: ''Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu!''


Slovene dialects

Slovene is mainly spoken in
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
. Spoken Slovene is often considered to have at least 37
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...
s. The exact number of dialects is open to debate, ranging from as many as 50 to merely 7. However, this latter number usually refers to dialect groups, some of which are more heterogeneous than others. The various dialects can be so different from each other that a speaker of one dialect may have a very difficult time understanding a speaker of another, particularly if they belong to different regional groups. Some dialects spoken in southern Slovenia transition into Chakavian or Kajkavian
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
, while the transition from eastern dialects to Kajkavian is general, with cases of essentially the same linguistic variety spoken on both sides of the border (this is particularly true for the upper course of the
Kupa The Kupa () or Kolpa ( or ; from la, Colapis in Roman times; hu, Kulpa) river, a right tributary of the Sava, forms a natural border between north-west Croatia and southeast Slovenia. It is long, with its border part having a length of and ...
and Sutla rivers).


Comparison

The table below compares grammatical and phonological innovations. The similarity of Kajkavian and Slovene is apparent.


Grammar


Eastern–Western division

In broad terms, the Eastern dialects of South Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian) differ most from the Western dialects in the following ways: * The Eastern dialects have almost completely lost their noun declensions, and have become entirely
analytic Generally speaking, analytic (from el, ἀναλυτικός, ''analytikos'') refers to the "having the ability to analyze" or "division into elements or principles". Analytic or analytical can also have the following meanings: Chemistry * ...
. * The Eastern dialects have developed definite-article suffixes similar to the other languages in the Balkan Sprachbund. * The Eastern dialects have lost the
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
; thus, the first-person singular (for Bulgarian) or the third-person singular (for Macedonian) are considered the main part of a verb. Sentences which would require an infinitive in other languages are constructed through a clause in Bulgarian, ''искам да ходя (iskam da hodya)'', "I want to go" (literally, "I want that I go"). Apart from these three main areas there are several smaller, significant differences: * The Western dialects have three genders in both singular and plural (Slovene has dual—see
below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ...
), while the Eastern dialects only have them in the singular—for example, Serbian ''on'' (he), ''ona'' (she), ''ono'' (it), ''oni'' (they, masc), ''one'' (they, fem), ''ona'' (they, neut); the Bulgarian ''te'' (they) and Macedonian тие (''tie'', 'they') covers the entire plural. * Inheriting a generalization of another demonstrative as a base form for the third-person pronoun which already occurred in late Proto-Slavic, standard literary Bulgarian (like Old Church Slavonic) does not use the Slavic ''"on-/ov-"'' as base forms like ''on, ona, ono, oni'' (he, she, it, they), and ''ovaj, ovde'' (this, here), but uses ''"to-/t-"''based pronouns like ''toy, tya, to, te'', and ''tozi, tuk'' (it only retains ''onzi'' – "that" and its derivatives). Western Bulgarian dialects and Macedonian have "ov-/on-" pronouns, and sometimes use them interchangeably. * All dialects of Serbo-Croatian contain the concept of "any" – e.g. Serbian ''neko'' "someone"; ''niko'' "no one"; ''iko'' "anyone". All others lack the last, and make do with ''some-'' or ''no-'' constructions instead.


Divisions within Western dialects

* While Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian Shtokavian dialects have basically the same grammar, its usage is very diverse. While all three languages are relatively highly inflected, the further east one goes the more likely it is that
analytic Generally speaking, analytic (from el, ἀναλυτικός, ''analytikos'') refers to the "having the ability to analyze" or "division into elements or principles". Analytic or analytical can also have the following meanings: Chemistry * ...
forms are used – if not spoken, at least in the written language. A very basic example is: ** Croatian – ''hoću ići'' – "I want – to go" ** Serbian – ''hoću da idem'' – "I want – that – I go" * Slovene has retained the proto-Slavic dual number (which means that it has ''nine'' personal pronouns in the third person) for both nouns and verbs. For example: ** nouns: ''volk'' (wolf) → ''volkova'' (two wolves) → ''volkovi'' (some wolves) ** verbs: ''hodim'' (I walk) → ''hodiva'' (the two of us walk) → ''hodimo'' (we walk)


Divisions within Eastern dialects

* In Macedonian, the perfect is largely based on the verb "to have" (as in other Balkan languages like Greek and Albanian, and in English), as opposed to the verb "to be", which is used as the auxiliary in all other Slavic languages (see also Macedonian verbs): ** Macedonian – ''imam videno'' – I have seen (''imam'' – "to have") ** Bulgarian – ''vidyal sum'' – I have seen (''sum'' – "to be") *In Macedonian there are three types of definite article (base definite form, definite noun near the speaker and definite noun far from the speaker). **дете (''dete'', 'а child') **детето (''deteto'', 'the child') **детево (''detevo'', 'this child ear me) **детено (''deteno'', 'that child ver there)


Writing systems

Languages to the west of Serbia use the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
, whereas those to the east and south use
Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
. Serbian officially uses the Cyrillic script, though commonly Latin and Cyrillic are used equally. Most newspapers are written in Cyrillic and most magazines are in Latin; books written by Serbian authors are written in Cyrillic, whereas books translated from foreign authors are usually in Latin, other than languages that already use Cyrillic, most notably Russian. On television, writing as part of a television programme is usually in Cyrillic, but advertisements are usually in Latin. The division is partly based on religion – Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Macedonia (which use Cyrillic) are Orthodox countries, whereas Croatia and Slovenia (which use Latin) are
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.This distinction is true for the whole Slavic world: the Orthodox Russia, Ukraine and Belarus also use Cyrillic, as does Rusyn (Eastern Orthodox/Eastern Catholic), whereas the Catholic Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia use Latin, as does Sorbian. Romania and Moldova, which are not Slavic but are Orthodox, also used Cyrillic until 1860 and 1989, respectively, and it is still used in Transdnistria. The
Bosnian language Bosnian (; / , ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by ethnic Bosniaks. Bosnian is one of three such varieties considered official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with Croatian an ...
, used by the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzeg ...
, also uses Latin, but in the past used Bosnian Cyrillic. The Glagolitic alphabet was also used in the Middle Ages (most notably in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia), but gradually disappeared.


See also

* Abstand and ausbau languages *
Comparison of standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian Standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are different national variants and official registers of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language. History In socialist Yugoslavia, the language was approached as a pluricentric langu ...
* Language secessionism in Serbo-Croatian *
Mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
* Outline of Slavic history and culture * Pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language *
South Slavic dialect continuum The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches ( West and East ...
*
Standard language A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that include ...
*
Yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet. There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining ...


Notes


Sources

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Further reading

* * * * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Slavic Languages