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 Ear ...
. 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
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
) 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, tradition ...
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 Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
, now called
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
, in the ninth century. It is retained as a
liturgical language
A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives.
Concept
A sacre ...
in Slavic
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
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 Herzeg ...
traditions.
Classification
The South Slavic languages constitute a
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
. Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin constitute a single dialect within this continuum.
*
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
**
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
– (ISO 639-1 code: bg; ISO 639-2 code: bul; SIL code: bul; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-hb)
**
Macedonian – (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
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
(extinct) – (ISO 639-1 code: cu; ISO 639-2 code: chu; SIL code: chu; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-a)
* Transitional
**
Torlakian
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
*
**
Slovene (ISO 639-1 code: sl; ISO 639-2 code: slv; ISO 639-3 code: slv; Linguasphere: 53-AAA-f)
**
Kajkavian
Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and nort ...
(ISO 639-3 code: kjv)
**
Chakavian
Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...
(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 and ...
/
Shtokavian
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
(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 includes ...
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 (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 Ear ...
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, Dutch ...
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, lines, ...
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 The Slavic second palatalization is a Proto-Slavic sound change that manifested as a regressive palatalization of inherited Balto-Slavic velar consonants that occurred after the first and before the third Slavic palatalizations.
Motivation
The sec ...
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 d ...
es have been identified which are thought to represent exclusive common innovations in the South Slavic language group. They are prevalently
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
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
The Slavic liquid metathesis refers to the phenomenon of metathesis of liquid consonants in the Common Slavic period in the South Slavic and West Slavic area. The closely related corresponding phenomenon of pleophony (also known as polnoglasie o ...
(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 term, ...
; 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 Macedon ...
. 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 assoc ...
, 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
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
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, may i ...
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 includes ...
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 language, standard forms, often corresponding to different countries. Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spo ...
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 and ...
are based on the
same dialect (
Shtokavian
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
). 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
![Slavic languages tree](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Slavic_languages_tree.svg)
*South Slavic languages
** Southeastern
***
Bulgarian dialects
Bulgarian dialects are the regional varieties of the Bulgarian language, a South Slavic language. Bulgarian dialectology dates to the 1830s and the pioneering work of Neofit Rilski, ''Bolgarska gramatika'' (published 1835 in ...
**** 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
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
)
***
Transitional Bulgarian dialects
The Transitional Bulgarian dialects are a group of Bulgarian dialects, whose speakers are located west of the Yat border, yat boundary and are part of the Western Bulgarian dialects. As they have most of the typical characteristics of the North- ...
in western Bulgaria
***
Gora dialect
The Gorani or Goranski, also Našinski ("Our language") language, is the variety of South Slavic spoken by the Gorani people in the border area between Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Albania. It is part of the Torlakian dialect group,Browne, ...
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 dialects (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
The Bunjevac dialect (), also known as Bunjevac speech (), is the Danubian branch of Shtokavian– Younger Ikavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language, preserved among members of the Bunjevac community. Their accent is purel ...
), 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 dialect
Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...
s
****
Buzet subdialect: Croatia
****
Western Chakavian subdialect: Croatia
****
Southwestern Istrian subdialect: Croatia
****
Northern Chakavian subdialect: Croatia
****
Southern Chakavian subdialect: Croatia
**** Lastovo subdialect: Croatia
***
Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and nort ...
s, in Croatia
**** Zagorje–Međimurje subdialect
**** Križevci–Podravina subdialect
**** Turopolje–Posavina subdialect
**** Prigorski subdialect
**** Donja Sutla subdialect
**** Goranski subdialect
***
Slovene dialects
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( sl, slovenska narečja , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also ...
![Nouvi Zakon (razstava)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Nouvi_Zakon_%28razstava%29.JPG)
**** 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
Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...
**** Styrian: Štajersko; eastern Slovenia
****
Pannonian
Pannonia may refer to:
In geography:
* Basin of Pannonia, a geomorphological region (plain) in Central Europe
* Sea of Pannonia, an ancient (former) sea in Central Europe
* Steppe of Pannonia, a grassland ecosystem in the Pannonian Plain
In h ...
or Prekmurje dialect: Panonsko; far eastern Slovenia
**** Carinthian: Koroško; far north and northwest Slovenia
****
Resian
The Resian dialect or simply Resian (self-designation Standard , Bila , Osoanë , Solbica ; sl, rezijansko narečje , ; ) is a distinct variety in the South Slavic continuum, generally considered a Slovene dialect spoken in the Resia Valley, ...
: Rozajansko; Italy, west of Carinthian
***Other
****
Burgenland Croatian
Burgenland Croatian (; german: Burgenländisch-Kroatisch, Burgenlandkroatisch, burgenlandkroatische Sprache, burgenländisch-kroatischen Sprache, hu, gradiscsei horvát nyelv) is a regional variety of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian spoken ...
(mixed), minority in Austria and Hungary
Southeast Slavic languages
![Bulgarian dialect map-yus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Bulgarian_dialect_map-yus.png)
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 Macedon ...
and
Macedonia and adjacent areas in neighbouring countries (such as the
Bessarabian Bulgarians
The Bessarabian Bulgarians ( bg, бесарабски българи, ''besarabski bǎlgari'', ro, bulgari basarabeni, uk, бесарабські болгари, ''bessarabski bolháry'') are a Bulgarian minority group of the historical region ...
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 inv ...
), 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 Ear ...
:
* the existence of a
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
(e.g. ''книга'', book – ''книгата'', the book, ''време'', time – ''времето'', the time)
* a near complete lack of
noun cases
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
* the lack of a
verb infinitive
* 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
The inferential mood (abbreviated or ) is used to report a nonwitnessed event without confirming it, but the same forms also function as admiratives in the Balkan languages (namely Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Turkish) in which they occu ...
(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
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
(see
Balkan sprachbund).
[
]
Bulgarian dialects
*Eastern Bulgarian dialects
*Western Bulgarian dialects (includes Torlakian dialects
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic a ...
)
Macedonian dialects
* Southeastern Macedonian dialects
* Northern Macedonian (including three Torlakian dialects
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic a ...
)
* 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
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
form (as other Serbo-Croatian language
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 and ...
s)
Transitional South Slavic languages
Torlakian dialects
Torlakian dialects are spoken in southeastern Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, 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 Macedon ...
, 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 partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, 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
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
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
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, 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
Molise (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Neapolitan, Mulise) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy. Until 1963, it formed part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise, alongside the region of Abruzzo. The split, which did not become effe ...
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 The term diaspora language, coined in the 1980s, is a sociolinguistic idea referring to a variety of languages spoken by peoples with common roots who have dispersed, under various pressures and often globally. The emergence and evolution of a diasp ...
is distinct from the standard language and influenced by Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
. 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
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...
, the Kvarner Gulf, Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
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 a ...
'' 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, Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
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
Burgenland (; hu, Őrvidék; hr, Gradišće; Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland;'' Slovene: ''Gradiščanska'') is the easternmost and least populous state of Austria. It consists of two statutory cities and seven rural districts, with a total of ...
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 s ...
, 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 a ...
'' 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
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( sl, slovenska narečja , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also ...
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, an ...
. 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 Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
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 and ...
, 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 th ...
and Sutla
The Sutla ( Croatian) or Sotla ( Slovene) is a river flowing through Slovenia and Croatia, mostly forming their border. It is a tributary to the Sava, itself a tributary to the Danube. It is long and has a watershed area of .
Overview
The Sutla f ...
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.
* 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 deri ...
; 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)
Bottom may refer to:
Anatomy and sex
* Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...
), 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
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
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 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
An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists ...
)
**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 Italy ...
, whereas those to the east and south use Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
. 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
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
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 and ...
, 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: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
, also uses Latin, but in the past used Bosnian Cyrillic
Bosnian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that originated in medieval Bosnia. The term was coined at the end of the 19th century by Ćiro Truhelka. It was widely used in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovin ...
. The Glagolitic alphabet
The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...
was also used in the Middle Ages (most notably in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia), but gradually disappeared.
See also
* Abstand and ausbau languages
In sociolinguistics, an abstand language is a language variety or cluster of varieties with significant linguistic distance from all others, while an ausbau language is a standard variety, possibly with related dependent varieties. Heinz Kloss in ...
*
* 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 an ...
* Outline of Slavic history and culture
Topical outline of articles about Slavic history and culture. This outline is an overview of Slavic topics; for outlines related to specific Slavic groups and topics, see the links in the Other Slavic outlines section below.
Slavs are the large ...
* Pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language
* South Slavic dialect continuum
* 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 includes ...
* 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 a ...
Notes
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Slavic Languages