SLAVIC LANGUAGES, a group of languages belonging to the Indo-European family, spoken by over 440 million people in Eastern Europe and North and Central Asia. Thirteen currently existing Slavic languages are divided into three groups: 1) the East Slavic group includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian; 2) West Slavic includes Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian (which is spoken in a small area in northern Poland) and two Lusatian (or Serbolic) languages - Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian, common in small areas in eastern Germany; 3) the South Slavic group includes: the Serbo-Croatian language (which is spoken in Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina), Slovene, Macedonian and Bulgarian. In addition, there are three dead languages - Slovinian, which disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century, Polabian, which became extinct in the 18th century, and Old Church Slavonic - the language of the first Slavic translations of the Holy Scriptures, which is based on one of the ancient South Slavic dialects and which was used in divine services. in the Slavic Orthodox Church, but was never an everyday spoken language ( cm... OLD SLAVONIC LANGUAGE).
In modern Slavic languages there are many words in common with other Indo-European languages. Many Slavic words are similar to the corresponding English ones, for example: sister - sister,three - three,nose - nose,night - night and etc. In other cases, the general origin of the words is less obvious. Russian word see akin to Latin videre, Russian word five related to German fünf, latin quinque(cf. musical term quintet), Greek penta, which is present, for example, in a borrowed word pentagon(lit. "pentagon") .
An important role in the system of Slavic consonantism is played by palatalization - 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 both hard (non-palatalized) and soft (palatalized). In the field of phonetics, there are also some significant differences between the Slavic languages. In Polish and Kashubian, for example, two nasalized (nasal) vowels have survived - ą and ERROR disappeared in other Slavic languages. Slavic languages differ greatly in stress. In Czech, Slovak and Lusatian, the stress usually falls on the first syllable of a word; in Polish - the penultimate; in Serbo-Croatian, any syllable except the last one can be stressed; in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, the stress can fall on any syllable of the word.
All Slavic languages, except Bulgarian and Macedonian, have several types of declension of nouns and adjectives, which vary in six or seven cases, in numbers and in three genders. The presence of seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, local or prepositional and vocative) testifies to the archaism of the Slavic languages and their closeness to the Indo-European language, which supposedly had eight cases. An important feature of the Slavic languages is the category of the verb form: every verb refers to either the perfect or the imperfect form and denotes, respectively, either a completed, or lasting or repetitive action.
The habitat of the Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe in the 5-8 centuries. AD expanded rapidly, and by the 8th century. the common Slavic language spread from the north of Russia to the south of Greece and from the Elbe and the Adriatic Sea to the Volga. Up to 8 or 9 c. it was basically a single language, but gradually the differences between territorial dialects became more noticeable. By the 10th century. there were already predecessors of modern Slavic languages.
Russian is one of the largest languages in the world: it ranks fifth in terms of the number of speakers after Chinese, English, Hindi and Spanish. Belongs to the eastern group of Slavic languages. Among the Slavic languages, Russian is the most widespread. All Slavic languages are very similar to each other, but the closest to the Russian language are Belarusian and Ukrainian. Together, these languages form the East Slavic subgroup, which is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.
- Name the two most characteristic features of the grammatical structure of the Russian language
The first feature that creates the complexity of Russian morphology is the variability of the word, that is, the grammatical design of words with endings. Endings express the case and the number of nouns, the agreement of adjectives, participles and ordinal numbers in phrases, the person and number of verbs of the present and future tense, gender and the number of past tense verbs.
The second feature of the Russian language is the word order. Unlike other languages, the Russian language allows for greater freedom in word arrangement. The subject can stand both before the predicate and after the predicate. Other members of the sentence can also be permuted. Syntactically related words can be separated by other words. Of course, this or that word order is not at all random, but it is not regulated by purely grammatical rules, as in other European languages, where, for example, such functions of words as subject and object are distinguished with its help.
- What do you think is difficult for the Russian language for an Englishman?
The main difficulty lies in the mutability of the word. Russian people, of course, do not notice this, because for us it is natural and simple to say EARTH, EARTH, EARTH - depending on the role of a word in a sentence, on its connection with other words, but for speakers of languages of a different system - it is unusual and difficult. The point, however, is not at all that there is something superfluous in the Russian language, but that those meanings that are transmitted in Russian by changing the form of a word are transmitted in other languages in other ways, for example, using prepositions, or word order, or even changing the intonation of a word.
- Does the Russian language need foreign words?
The lexical richness of a language is created not only by its own capabilities, but also by borrowing from other languages, since political, economic and cultural ties have always existed and exist between peoples. The Russian language is no exception. In different historical periods, words from various languages penetrated into the Russian language. There are very ancient borrowings. Speakers may not even be aware of this. For example, "foreign" words are: sugar (Greek), candy (lat.), August (lat.), Compote (German), jacket (Swedish), lamp (German) and many other familiar words. Since the Peter the Great, for obvious reasons ("window to Europe") borrowings from European languages have become more active: German, French, Polish, Italian, English. At the present time - the end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century - the vocabulary of the Russian person is being replenished with Americanisms, that is, English words that came from the American version of the English language. The flow of borrowings in different historical periods is more or less active, sometimes it becomes violent, but over time its activity is lost. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there were many borrowings from the French language. Borrowing words from any language, the Russian language adapts them to its own system, that is, the development of foreign words takes place. So, in particular, nouns acquire Russian endings, acquire a gender characteristic, some begin to bend.
- Why do Russian people so often make mistakes when using numbers?
Russian numerals represent an extremely complex system. This concerns not only their mutability. Number names have different structures and represent different types of declension. Wed one (changes as an adjective), two, three, four (a special type of declension), five (changes as a noun 3 declensions, but not in numbers), forty, ninety and one hundred have only two forms: in all indirect cases the ending is a: forty, one hundred. However, if one hundred is part of a compound number, it changes differently, cf. five hundred, five hundred, about five hundred.
At the moment, for example, there is a very noticeable tendency to simplify the declension of numerals: many Russians only half declinate complex numerals: cf. with fifty-three instead of the correct fifty-three. The declension system of numerals is clearly collapsing, and this is happening before our eyes and with our participation.
6. Name one of the changes in sounds and two changes in morphology known from the history of the Russian language (optional)
Naturally, the sounding speech of a Russian person in that ancient era was not recorded by anyone (there were no corresponding technical methods), nevertheless, science knows the main processes that have taken place in the Russian language over the centuries, including the processes that change the sound structure of the language, its phonetic system. It is known, for example, that in the words forest and day until about the twelfth century there were not three sounds, but four, and that different vowel sounds sounded in the first syllable of these two words. None of those who speak Russian today can reproduce them accurately, including phonetic specialists. but experts know how they sounded roughly. This is because linguistics has developed methods for the study of ancient languages.
The number of types of declension of nouns has significantly decreased: now, as you know, there are 3 of them, and there were much more - in different periods, a different number. For example, the son and brother bowed differently for a time. Nouns such as heaven and word were inclined in a special way (features were preserved in the forms of heaven, words), etc.
Among the cases there was a special case - "vocative". This case form was addressed: father - father, old man - elder, etc. In the prayers in the Church Slavonic language, it sounded: "our father", like you are in heaven ..., glory to you, Lord, the king of heaven .... The vocal case is preserved in Russian fairy tales and other works of folklore: Kotiku! Brother! Help me out! (Cat, rooster and fox).
Significantly different from the modern Old Russian verb: there was not one past tense, but four. - each with its own forms and with its own meaning: aorist, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. Three times were lost, one remained - perfect, but it changed its form beyond recognition: in the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" we read: "Why did you go to sing all the tribute?" (you) disappeared, only the form of the participle with the suffix L remained (here "took", that is, took), which became for us the only form of the past tense of the verb: walked, wrote, etc.
7. In which area of the Russian language system the changes are most noticeable and understandable: in phonetics, in morphology or in vocabulary. Why?
Different aspects of the language change with varying degrees of activity: the vocabulary changes most actively and most noticeably for the speakers. Everyone knows the concepts of archaism / neologism. The meanings of words, their compatibility are changing. The phonetic structure and grammatical structure of the language, including Russian, is much more stable, but here, too, changes are taking place. They are not immediately noticeable, not in the same way as changes in the use of words. But experts, historians of the Russian language, have established very important, profound changes that have occurred in the Russian language over the past 10 centuries. The changes that have taken place in the last two centuries, since the time of Pushkin, are also known - they are not so profound. For example, a certain type of noun. husband. p changed the form of pl. numbers: at the time of Zhukovsky, Pushkin they said: houses, teachers, breads with an emphasis on the first syllable. At first, the replacement of the ending Y with the shock A took place only in separate words, then more and more words began to be pronounced like that: teacher, professor, haystack, workshop, locksmith. Characteristically, this process is still ongoing and involves more and more words, i.e. we, who speak Russian now, are witnesses and participants in this process.
8. What is the essential difference between changes in language and changes in writing?
As you can see, there is a fundamental, fundamental difference between changes in writing (graphics) and changes in language: no king, no ruler can change the language by his own will. You cannot order the speakers not to pronounce any sounds, not to use any cases. Changes in the language occur under the influence of various factors and reflect the internal properties of the language. They occur against the will of the speakers (although, of course, they are created by the speaking community itself). We are not talking about changes in the style of letters, in the number of letters, in the spelling rules. The history of language and the history of writing are different stories. Science (the history of the Russian language) has established how the Russian language has changed over the centuries: what changes have occurred in the sound system, in morphology, in syntax and in vocabulary. Development trends are also investigated, new phenomena and processes are noted. New trends are emerging in living speech - oral and written.
9. Is it possible for a language to exist without writing? Argument the answer
In principle, a language can exist without writing (although its possibilities in this case are limited). At the dawn of mankind, at first there was only oral speech. Until now, there are peoples in the world that do not have a written language, but they naturally have a language. There are other proofs of the possibility of a language without writing. For example: small children speak the language without writing (before school). So, the language existed and exists, first of all, in the oral form. But with the development of civilization, it acquired another form - written. The written form of speech developed on the basis of the oral one and existed primarily as its graphic display. It is in itself a remarkable achievement for the human mind to establish a correspondence between a speech element and a graphic icon.
10. In what other way, besides writing, it is possible in our time to save speech and transmit it over a distance? (There is no direct answer in the tutorial)
Speech nowadays can be recorded - saved on various audio and video media - discs, cassettes, etc. And later, on such media, you can transfer it.
11. Is writing reform possible in principle? Argument the answer
Yes, it can be changed and even reformed. Writing is not part of the language, but only corresponds to it, serves to reflect it. It is invented by society for practical purposes. With the help of a system of graphic icons, people record speech, save it and can transmit it over a distance. The letter can be changed at the will of people, reformed, if a practical need arises. The history of mankind knows many facts of changes in the types of writing, that is, methods of graphical transmission of speech. There are fundamental changes, for example, the transition from the hieroglyphic system to the letter system or within the letter system - replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet or vice versa. There are also known less major changes in writing - changes in the style of letters. Even more frequent changes are the elimination of some individual letters from the practice of writing, and the like. An example of changes in writing: for the Chukchi language, writing was created only in 1931 based on the Latin alphabet, but already in 1936 the letter was translated into Russian graphics.
12. What is the historical event associated with the emergence of writing in Russia? When did it happen?
The emergence of writing in Russia is associated with the official adoption of Christianity in 988.
13. Why is the Slavic alphabet called "Cyrillic"?
Russian adaptation of the Greek alfabetos, composed of the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - in the Slavic version of az and buki. It is believed that the name of the Slavic letters was invented by the creator Slavic alphabet Cyril in the 9th century. He wanted the very name of the letter not to be a meaningless complex of sounds, but to have meaning. He called the first letter azъ - in Old Bulgarian "I", the second - simply "letter" (this is how this word looked in ancient times - bouky), the third - Veda (from the ancient Slavic verb vedeti - "to know"). If we translate the name of the first three letters of this alphabet into modern Russian, we get “I learned the letter”. Slavic alphabet (Cyrillic) was developed by a team of missionary scientists under the leadership of brothers Cyril and Methodius, when the adoption of Christianity by Slavic peoples required the creation of church texts in their native language. The alphabet quickly spread in the Slavic countries, and in the 10th century it penetrated from Bulgaria to Russia.
14. What are the most famous monuments of Russian writing
Monuments of Old Russian literature about Old Russian writing and bookishness: The Tale of Bygone Years, Book of Degrees, Daniel Zatochnik, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril Turovsky, Life of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, etc.
15. What is the significance of “birch bark letters” for the history of Russian writing?
Birch bark letters are both material (archaeological) and written sources; their location is just as important a parameter for history as their content. The diplomas "give names" to the silent finds of archaeologists: instead of the faceless "estate of a noble Novgorodian" or "traces of a wooden shed" we can talk about "the estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich, nicknamed Grechin" and about "traces of a canopy over the premises of the local court of the prince and mayor" ... One and the same name in letters found on neighboring estates, mentions of princes and other statesmen, mentions of significant sums of money, geographical names - all this says a lot about the history of buildings, their owners, their social status, and their connections with other cities and regions.
Russian is one of the group of East Slavic languages, along with Ukrainian and Belarusian. It is the most widespread Slavic language and one of the most widespread languages in the world in terms of the number of people who speak it and consider it their native language.
In turn, the Slavic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Thus, in order to answer the question: where did the Russian language come from, you need to make an excursion into deep antiquity.
Origin of Indo-European languages
About 6 thousand years ago there lived a people who are considered to be a native speaker of the Proto-Indo-European language. Where he lived exactly is the subject of fierce controversy among historians and linguists today. The steppes of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, and the territory on the border between Europe and Asia, and the Armenian Highlands are called the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. In the early 80s of the last century, the linguists Gamkrelidze and Ivanov formulated the idea of two ancestral homelands: first there was the Armenian Highlands, and then the Indo-Europeans moved to the Black Sea steppes. Archeologically, the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language are correlated with the representatives of the Yamnaya culture, who lived in the east of Ukraine and in the territory of modern Russia in the 3rd millennium BC.
Allocation of the Balto-Slavic branch
Subsequently, the Proto-Indo-Europeans settled in Asia and Europe, mixed with the local peoples and gave them their own language. In Europe, the languages of the Indo-European family are spoken by almost all peoples, except for the Basques, in Asia, various languages of this family are spoken in India and Iran. Tajikistan, Pamir, etc. About 2 thousand years ago, the Proto-Slavic language emerged from the common Proto-Indo-European language. The Prabalto-Slavs existed as a single people speaking the same language, according to a number of linguists (including Ler-Splavinsky) for about 500-600 years, and the archaeological culture of Corded Ware corresponds to this period of the history of our peoples. Then the linguistic branch was divided again: into the Baltic group, which henceforth healed an independent life, and the Proto-Slavic, which became the common root from which all modern Slavic languages originated.
Old Russian language
Common Slavic unity lasted until the 6th-7th century AD. When the speakers of the East Slavic dialects emerged from the general Slavic massif, the Old Russian language began to form, which became the ancestor of the modern Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. The Old Russian language is known to us thanks to the numerous monuments written in the Church Slavonic language, which can be considered as a written, literary form of the Old Russian language. In addition, there are also preserved written monuments - birch bark letters, graffiti on the walls of churches - written in everyday, colloquial Old Russian language.
Old Russian period
The Old Russian (or Great Russian) period covers the time from the XIV to the XVII centuries. At this time, the Russian language finally stands out from the group of East Slavic languages, phonetic and grammatical systems close to modern ones are formed in it, other changes take place, including dialects. The leading among them is the "akay" dialect of the upper and middle Oka, and, first of all, the Moscow dialect.
Modern Russian language
The Russian language, which we speak today, began to take shape in the 17th century. It is based on the Moscow dialect. The decisive role for the formation of the modern Russian language was played by the literary works of Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Sumarokov. Lomonosov also wrote the first grammar that consolidated the norms of the literary Russian language. All the richness of the Russian language, formed from the synthesis of Russian colloquial, Church Slavonic elements, borrowings from other languages, was reflected in the works of Pushkin, who is considered the creator of the modern Russian literary language.
Borrowings from other languages
Over the centuries of its existence, the Russian language, like any other living and developing system, has been repeatedly enriched with borrowings from other languages. The earliest borrowings include "baltism" - borrowings from the Baltic languages. However, in this case, it is possible that we are not talking about borrowings, but about the vocabulary that has survived from the time when the Slavic-Baltic community existed. The "baltisms" include words such as "ladle", "tow", "skirda", "amber", "village", etc. During the period of Christianization, "Greekisms" - "sugar", "bench" entered our language. "Lantern", "notebook", etc. Through contacts with European peoples, "Latinisms" - "doctor", "medicine", "rose" and "Arabisms" - "admiral", "coffee", "varnish", "mattress", etc. entered the Russian language. ... A large group of words entered our language from the Turkic languages. These are words such as "hearth", "tent", "hero", "cart", etc. And, finally, since the time of Peter I, the Russian language has absorbed words from European languages. In the beginning it is a large layer of words from German, English and Dutch, related to science, technology, naval and military affairs: "ammunition", "globe", "assembly", "optics", "pilot", "sailor", "deserter ". Later in the Russian language settled French, Italian and Spanish words related to household items, the field of art - "stained glass", "veil", "couch", "boudoir", "ballet", "actor", "poster", "macaroni "," Serenade ", etc. And finally, today we are experiencing a new influx of borrowings, this time from English, mainly from the language.
The structure of the word, the use of grammatical categories, the structure of the sentence, the system of regular sound correspondences, morphonological alternations. This closeness is explained both by the unity of the origin of the Slavic languages and by their long and intense contacts at the level of literary languages and dialects. 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 and historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with related and unrelated ethnic groups.
Slavic languages, according to the degree of their proximity to each other, are usually divided into 3 groups: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian languages) and West Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish with a Kashubian dialect that has retained a certain genetic independence, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian languages). Small local groups of Slavs with their own literary languages are also known. 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 Polabian 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 peculiarities of dialects. Sometimes dialects of one Slavic language differ more strongly than independent Slavic languages. For example, the morphology of the Shtokavian and Chakavian dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language differ much deeper than the morphology of the Russian and Belarusian languages. The proportion of identical elements is often different. For example, the category of diminutiveness in Czech is expressed in more varied and differentiated forms than in Russian.
Of the Indo-European languages, the Slavic languages are the closest to the Baltic languages. This closeness served as the basis for the theory of the "Balto-Slavic proto-language", according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language, which later split into Pro-Baltic and Proto-Slavic, first emerged from the Indo-European proto-language. However, most modern scientists explain their special closeness by the long-term contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs. It is not established in what territory the separation of the linguistic continuum from Indo-European took place. It can be assumed that it happened south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homeland. There are many such theories, but all of them do not localize the ancestral home where the Indo-European proto-language could be located. On the basis of one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), 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 an identical structure. Later, dialect variants appear. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language and its dialects into independent Slavic languages was long and complex. It took place most actively in the second half of the first millennium AD, during the formation of the early Slavic feudal states on the territory of Southeast and Eastern Europe. During this period, the territory of Slavic settlements increased significantly. Areas of different geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were developed, the Slavs entered into relationships with peoples and tribes at different stages of cultural development. All this is reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.
The Proto-Slavic language was preceded by the period of the Proto-Slavic language, the elements of which can be restored using the ancient Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language in its main part is restored with the help of these Slavic languages from different periods of their history. The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into three periods: the oldest - before the establishment of a close Balto-Slavic language contact, the period of the Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialectical fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.
The individuality and originality of the Proto-Slavic language began to take shape in the early period. It was then that a new system of vowel sonants took shape, consonantism became much simpler, the reduction stage became widespread in the Ablaut, and the root ceased to obey ancient restrictions. According to the fate of the middle palates, the Proto-Slavic language is included in the satəm group ("sьrdьce", "pisati", "prositi", compare Latin "cor" - "cordis", "pictus", "precor"; "zьrno", "znati", "Zima", compare the Latin "granum", "cognosco", "hiems"). However, this feature was realized inconsistently: cf. Proto-Slavic “* kamy”, “* kosa”, “* gąsь”, “gordъ”, “bergъ” and others. Proto-Slavic morphology presents 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 formed already on the Proto-Slavic soil. The Proto-Slavic vocabulary is distinguished by its great originality; already the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of significant transformations in the field of lexical composition. Having preserved in most cases the old Indo-European lexical fund, it at the same time lost many old Indo-European 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. For example, the name of the oak was forbidden - the Indo-European "* perkuos", whence the Latin "quercus". The old Indo-European root came down to us only in the name of the pagan god Perun. In the Slavic languages, the taboo "* dąbъ" was established, whence the Russian "oak", the Polish "dąb", the Bulgarian "dab", etc. The Indo-European name for the bear has been lost. It remains only in the new scientific term "Arctic" (cf. Greek "αρκτος"). The Indo-European word in the Proto-Slavic language was replaced by the taboo word composition "* medvědь" - "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 were diphthongic combinations in the position before consonants and the sequence “vowel sonant before vowels” (“smürti”, but “umirati”), intonation (acute and circumflex) became relevant features. The most important processes of the Proto-Slavic period were the loss of closed syllables and the softening of consonants before iota. In connection with the first process, all the ancient diphthongic combinations in monophthongs, syllabic smooth, nasal vowels arose, the syllable section moved, which, in turn, caused a simplification of consonant groups, the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes have left an imprint on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. Russian "reap - reap", "take - take", "name - yen", Czech "žíti - žnu", "vzíti - vezmu", Serbo-Croatian "zheti - we press", "uzeti - uzm", "name - names" ... The softening of consonants before iota is reflected in the form of alternations s / š, z / ž and others. 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 iota, the process of the so-called first palatalization of the posterior palatine 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 the nominal and verb word formation. later, the so-called second and third palatalizations of the posterior palatine began to operate, as a result of which alternations of k / c, g / z, x / s arose. The name changed in cases and numbers. In addition to the singular and plural, there was a dual, which was later lost in almost all Slavic languages. There were nominal stems that served as definitions. In the late Proto-Slavic period, pronominal adjectives arose. The verb had infinitive and present stems. From the first, the infinitive, supin, aorist, imperfect, participles in "-l", participles in the past tense in "-vъ" and participles in 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, an imperfect began to form from this basis.
Even in the depths of the Proto-Slavic language, dialectical 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. There were three subgroups in the West Slavic group: Lehitskaya, Serbolicheskaya and Czech-Slovak. The most dialectically differentiated was the South Slavic group.
The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period of the history of the Slavs, when tribal social relations prevailed. Significant changes took place during the period of early feudalism. This was reflected in the further differentiation of the Slavic languages. By the XII-XIII centuries. there was a loss of the super-short (reduced) vowels [b] and [b] characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language. In some cases, they disappeared, in others they passed into the vowels of a complete education. As a result, there have been significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of the Slavic languages. Slavic languages have experienced many common processes in the field of grammar and lexical composition.
For the first time, the Slavic languages received literary processing in the 60s. IX century The brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius were the creators of Slavic writing. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavic for the needs of Great Moravia. At its core, the new literary language had a South Macedonian (Solunian) dialect, but in Great Moravia it acquired many local linguistic features. It was later developed further in Bulgaria. In this language (usually called the Old 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 IX century. no Slavic texts have survived. The most ancient ones belong to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription 943, the inscription of Tsar Samuel 993, etc. From the 11th century. many Slavic monuments have already survived. Slavic literary languages of the feudal era, as a rule, did not have strict norms. Some important functions were performed by foreign languages (in Russia - the Old Slavonic language, in the Czech Republic and Poland - Latin). The unification of literary languages, the development of written and pronunciation norms, the expansion of the sphere of use of the native language - all this characterizes the long period of formation of national Slavic languages. The Russian literary language has gone through a centuries-old and complex evolution. It has absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Church Slavonic, 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 proceeded differently. In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. literary language, which reached in the XIV-XVI centuries. great perfection, almost disappeared. The German language predominated in the cities. During the period of national revival, the Czech “awakeners” artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the vernacular. The whole history of the Czech literary language of the XIX-XX centuries. reflects the interaction of the old bookish language and the spoken language. The development of the Slovak literary language proceeded differently. Not burdened with old book traditions, it is close to the folk language. In Serbia until the 19th century. the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version prevailed. In the XVIII century. the process of rapprochement of this language with the folk began. 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 it 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. The Slavic languages are studied by Slavic studies.
Slavic languages are related languages of the Indo-European family. More than 400 million people speak Slavic languages.
Slavic languages are distinguished by the similarity of the structure of the word, the use of grammatical categories, the structure of the sentence, semantics (semantic meaning), phonetics, morphonological alternations. This closeness is explained by the unity of the origin of the Slavic languages and their contacts with each other.
According to the degree of closeness to each other, the Slavic languages are divided into 3 groups: East Slavic, South Slavic and West Slavic.
Each Slavic language has its own literary language (a processed part of the common language with written norms; the language of all manifestations of culture) and its own territorial dialects, which are not the same within each Slavic language.
Origin and history of Slavic languages
Slavic languages are closest to the Baltic languages. Both are part of the Indo-European family of languages. From the Indo-European proto-language, the Balto-Slavic proto-language first emerged, which later split into Pro-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. But not all scientists agree with this. They explain the special closeness of these proto-languages by the long-term contact between the ancient Balts and the Slavs, and they deny the existence of the Balto-Slavic language.
But it is clear that 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 long. For a long time, the Proto-Slavic language developed as a single dialect. Dialect variants appeared later.
In the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. the early Slavic states began to form on the territory of Southeast and Eastern Europe. Then the process of dividing the Proto-Slavic language into independent Slavic languages began.
The Slavic languages have retained significant similarities among themselves, but at the same time, each of them has unique characteristics.
Eastern group of Slavic languages
Russian (250 million people)
Ukrainian (45 million people)
Belarusian (6.4 million people).
The writing of all East Slavic languages is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
Differences between East Slavic languages and other Slavic languages:
vowel reduction (akane);
the presence of Church Slavisms in the vocabulary;
free dynamic stress.
Western group of Slavic languages
Polish (40 million)
Slovak (5.2 million)
Czech (9.5 million people)
The writing of all West Slavic languages is based on the Latin alphabet.
Differences between West Slavic languages and other Slavic languages:
In Polish, the presence of nasal vowels and two rows of sibilant consonants; fixed stress on the penultimate syllable. In Czech, there is a fixed stress on the first syllable; the presence of long and short vowels. The Slovak language has the same features as Czech.
Southern group of Slavic languages
Serbo-Croatian (21 million people)
Bulgarian (8.5 million people)
Macedonian (2 million people)
Slovenian (2.2 million people)
Written language: Bulgarian and Macedonian - Cyrillic, Serbo-Croatian - Cyrillic / Latin, Slovenian - Latin.
Differences between South Slavic languages and other Slavic languages:
In the Serbo-Croatian language - free musical stress. In the Bulgarian language - the absence of cases, a variety of verb forms and the absence of an infinitive (unopened verb forms), free dynamic stress. Macedonian - the same as in Bulgarian + fixed stress (no further than the third syllable from the end of the word). Slovenian language - many dialects, the presence of a dual number, free musical stress.
Writing of Slavic languages
The brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius were the creators of Slavic writing. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavic for the needs of Great Moravia.
Prayer in Old Church Slavonic
Great Moravia is a Slavic state that existed in 822-907. on the Middle Danube. In its best period, it included the territories of modern Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lesser Poland, part of Ukraine and the historical region of Silesia.
Great Moravia had a great influence on the cultural development of the entire Slavic world.
Great Moravia
The new literary language was based on the South Macedonian dialect, but in Great Moravia it acquired many local linguistic features. It was later developed further in Bulgaria. In this language (Old Slavonic), a rich original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
The most ancient Old Church Slavonic texts date back to the 10th century. Since the XI century. more Slavic monuments have survived.
Modern Slavic languages use Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The Glagolitic alphabet is used in Catholic worship in Montenegro and in several coastal regions in Croatia. In Bosnia, for some time, in parallel with the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet, the Arabic alphabet was also used (in 1463, Bosnia completely lost its independence and became part of the Ottoman Empire as an administrative unit).
Slavic literary languages
Slavic literary languages did not always have strict norms. Sometimes the literary language in the Slavic countries was a foreign language (in Russia - Old Slavonic, in the Czech Republic and Poland - Latin).
The Russian literary language has had a complex evolution. He absorbed folk elements, elements of the Old Slavonic language, was influenced by many European languages.
In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. dominated by the German language. During the period of national revival in the Czech Republic, the language of the 16th century was artificially revived, which at that time was already far from the popular language.
The Slovak literary language developed on the basis of the folk language. In Serbia until the 19th century. the Church Slavonic language prevailed. In the XVIII century. the process of rapprochement of this language with the folk began. 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 only in the middle of the 20th century.
But there are also a number of small Slavic literary languages (micro-languages) that function along with national literary languages in small ethnic groups. These are, for example, the Polissya micro-language, Podlaski in Belarus; Rusyn - in Ukraine; Wichsky - in Poland; Banat-Bulgarian micro-language - in Bulgaria, etc.