Russian is one of the largest languages ​​in the world: in terms of the number of speakers it ranks fifth 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 ​​show great similarities among themselves, but the ones closest to the Russian language are Belarusian and Ukrainian. The three of these languages ​​form the East Slavic subgroup, which is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.

1. Name the two most characteristic features grammatical structure of the Russian language

The first feature that creates the complexity of Russian morphology is the variability of words, that is, the grammatical design of words with endings. The endings express the case and 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, the gender and number of verbs of the past tense.

The second feature of the Russian language is word order. Unlike other languages, the Russian language allows greater freedom in word arrangement. The subject can come either before the predicate or after the predicate. Other members of the sentence can also be rearranged. Syntactically related words can be separated by other words. Of course, this or that word order is not at all accidental, but it is not purely regulated grammar rules, as in other European languages, where it is used to distinguish, for example, such functions of words as subject and object.

1. Why do you think the Russian language is difficult for an Englishman?

The main difficulty lies in the variability of the word. Russian people, of course, do not notice this, because for us it is natural and simple to say now EARTH, then EARTH, then ZEMLE - depending on the role of the word in the sentence, on its connection with other words, but for speakers of languages ​​of a different system - this 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 conveyed in Russian by changing the form of a word are conveyed in other languages ​​in other ways, for example, using prepositions, or word order, or even a change in the intonation of a word.

1. Does the Russian language need foreign words?

The lexical wealth 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 continue to 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 (Latin), August (Latin), compote (German), jacket (Swedish), lamp (German) and many other familiar words. Starting from the era of Peter the Great, for obvious reasons (“window to Europe”), borrowings from European languages ​​intensified: German, French, Polish, Italian, English. Currently - the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century - the vocabulary of the Russian person is replenished with Americanisms, that is in English words, which came from American English. The flow of borrowings in different historical periods is more or less active, sometimes it becomes violent, but over time its activity is lost. At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century there were many borrowings from French. By borrowing words from any language, the Russian language adapts them to its structure, that is, foreign words are mastered. So, in particular, nouns acquire Russian endings, acquire gender, and some begin to decline.

1. Why do Russian people so often make mistakes when using numerals?

Russian numerals represent an extremely complex system. This applies not only to their changeability. The names of numbers have different structures and represent different types declination. Wed. one (changes as an adjective), two, three, four ( special type declension), five (varies as a noun of 3 declension, but not in numbers), forty, ninety and hundred have only two forms: in all indirect cases the ending is a: forty, hundred. However, if one hundred is part of a compound numeral, it changes differently, cf: five hundred, five hundred, about five hundred.

IN present moment, for example, there is a very noticeable tendency to simplify the declension of numerals: many Russians decline complex numerals only by half: cf. with fifty-three instead of the correct one with fifty-three. The system of declension of numerals is clearly being destroyed, 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)

The sounding speech of a Russian person in that ancient era, naturally, was not recorded by anyone (there were no corresponding technical methods), however, science knows the main processes that have occurred in the Russian language over the centuries, including processes that change the sound structure of the language, its phonetic system. It is known, for example, that the words forest and day until about the 12th century had not three sounds, but four, and that the first syllable of these two words had different vowel sounds. No one who speaks Russian today can reproduce them accurately, including phonetic specialists. but experts know what they roughly sounded like. This is because linguistics has developed methods for studying ancient languages.

The number of types of declension of nouns has been significantly reduced: now, as is known, there are 3 of them, but there were much more - in different periods different quantities. For example, a son and a brother leaned differently for some time. Nouns such as sky and word were declined in a special way (the features were preserved in the forms heaven, word), etc.

Among the cases there was a special case - “vocal”. This case form received the address: father - father, old man - older, etc. In the prayers in Church Slavonic it sounded: “our father”, who art in heaven..., glory to you, Lord, heavenly king.... The vocative case has been preserved in Russian fairy tales and other works of folklore: Kotik! Brother! Help me out! (Cat, rooster and fox).

The Old Russian verb was significantly different from the modern one: there was not one past tense, but four. - each with its own forms and meaning: aorist, imperfect, perfect and plusquaperfect. Three tenses have been lost, one has been preserved - the perfect, but it has changed its form beyond recognition: in the chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” we read: “because you went to sing and took all the tribute” (why are you going again? - after all, you have already taken all the tribute) - auxiliary verb (esi) disappeared, only the participle form with the suffix L remained (here “caught”, i.e. took), which became for us the only past tense form of the verb: walked, wrote, etc.

7. In what area of ​​the Russian language system are changes most noticeable and understandable: in phonetics, morphology or vocabulary. Why?

Different sides of the tongue change with to varying degrees activity: vocabulary changes most actively and most noticeably for speakers. Everyone knows the concepts of archaisms/neologisms. The meanings of words and their compatibility change. Phonetic system and grammatical structure languages, including Russian, are much more stable, but changes are also taking place here. They are not immediately noticeable, not like changes in the use of words. But specialists, 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 took place over two years are also known. last centuries, since the time of Pushkin - they are not so deep. For example, a certain type of entity. husband. p changed the plural form. numbers: in the times of Zhukovsky and Pushkin they said: houses, teachers, breads with the emphasis on the first syllable. The replacement of the ending Y with a stressed A first occurred only in individual words, then more and more words began to be pronounced this way: teacher, professor, haystack, workshop, mechanic. It is characteristic that this process is still ongoing and involves more and more words, i.e. You and I, 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 we see, there is a fundamental difference between changes in writing (graphics) and changes in language. fundamental difference: no king, no ruler can change the language by his own will. You cannot order speakers not to utter certain sounds or not to use certain cases. Changes in language occur under the influence of various factors and reflect internal properties language. They occur against the will of the speakers (although, naturally, they are created by the speaking community itself). We are not talking about changes in the style of letters, in the number of letters, or in 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, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. Development trends are also studied, new phenomena and processes are noted. New trends arise in living speech - oral and written.

9. Is it possible for a language to exist without writing? Give reasons for your 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. There are still peoples in the world who do not have a written language, but they naturally have a language. Other proofs of the possibility of language without writing can be given. For example: young children speak a language without writing (before they go to school). So, language existed and exists primarily in oral form. But with the development of civilization, it also acquired another form - written. The written form of speech developed on the basis of oral speech and existed, first of all, as its graphic representation. In itself, it is a remarkable achievement of the human mind to establish a correspondence between an element of speech and a graphic icon.

10. In what other way, besides writing, can speech be preserved and transmitted over a distance in our time? (There is no direct answer in the textbook)

Nowadays speech can be recorded - saved on various audio and video media - disks, cassettes, etc. And later it can be transmitted on such media.

11. Is writing reform possible in principle? Give reasons for your 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 according to the will of the people, reformed if a practical need arises. The history of mankind knows many facts about changes in types of writing, that is, methods of graphically transmitting speech. There are fundamental changes, for example, the transition from a hieroglyphic system to an alphabetic one or within an alphabetic system - the replacement of the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin alphabet or vice versa. Smaller changes in writing are also known - changes in the style of letters. Even more specific 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 writing was translated into Russian graphics.

12. What historical event is associated with the emergence of writing in Rus'? When did this happen?

The emergence of writing in Rus' 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 az and buki. It is generally accepted that the names of the Slavic letters were invented by the creator Slavic alphabet Cyril in the 9th century. He wanted the name of the letter itself not to be a meaningless complex of sounds, but to have meaning. He called the first letter azъ - in ancient Bulgarian “I”, the second - simply “letter” (this is what this word looked like in ancient times - bouki), the third - vede (from the ancient Slavic verb veti - “to know”). If we translate the name into modern Russian language first three letters of this alphabet, it turns out “I recognized the letter.” Slavic alphabet (Cyrillic) was developed by a team of missionary scientists under the leadership of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, when the adoption of Christianity by the Slavic peoples required the creation of church texts in their native language. The alphabet quickly spread in Slavic countries, and in the 10th century it penetrated from Bulgaria to Rus'.

14. Name the most famous monuments Russian writing

Monuments of ancient Russian literature about ancient Russian writing and literature: The Tale of Bygone Years, Degree Book, Daniil Zatochnik, Metropolitan Hilarion, Kirill of Turov, Life of Euphrosyne of Suzdal, etc.

15. What significance do “birch bark letters” have for the history of Russian writing?

Birch bark documents are both material (archaeological) and written sources; their location is as important a parameter for history as their content. The charters “give names” to the silent finds of archaeologists: instead of the faceless “estate of a noble Novgorodian” or “traces of a wooden canopy,” 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.” . 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, about their social status, about their connections with other cities and regions.

Subgroups

A number of researchers, in addition to the languages ​​mentioned above, highlight now extinct languages ​​that in the past occupied an intermediate position between South Slavic and West Slavic (Pannonian Slavic language), as well as between South Slavic and East Slavic languages ​​(Dacoslavian language).

Origin

Slavic languages ​​within the Indo-European family are most closely related to the Baltic languages. The similarities between the two groups served as the basis for the theory of “Balto-Slavic proto-language”, according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first emerged from the Indo-European proto-language, which later split into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, many scientists explain their special closeness by the long-term contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs and deny the existence of the Balto-Slavic language.

It has not been established in what territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European/Balto-Slavic occurred. From one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), the Proto-Slavic language was formed, which is the ancestor of all modern Slavic languages. The history of the Proto-Slavic language was longer than the history of individual Slavic languages. For a long time it developed as a single dialect with an identical structure. Dialectal variants arose later.

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

Separation time

Gray and Atkinson

Atkinson and Gray performed a statistical analysis of cognates of 103 living and dead Indo-European languages ​​(out of about 150 known), using a lexical-statistical database (created from Swadesh lists by Isidore Dayen) and additional information.

And the Slavic linguistic unity, according to the results of their research, fell apart 1300 years ago, that is, around the 8th century AD. The Balto-Slavic linguistic unity collapsed 3400 years ago, that is, around the 15th century BC.

Gray and Atkinson's methods and results have been heavily criticized by different sides.

Chang, Cathcart, Hall and Garrett

Kasyan, Dybo

In September 2015, A. S. Kasyan and A. V. Dybo, as part of an interdisciplinary study on Slavic ethnogenesis, published a lexicostatistical classification of Slavic languages, built on high-quality 110-word Swadesh lists collected according to the standard of the Global Lexicostatistical Database project "and processed by modern phylogenetic algorithms.

The resulting dated tree is in agreement with the traditional Slavic point of view on the structure of the Slavic group. The tree suggests the first division of the Proto-Slavic language into three branches: eastern, western and southern. The moment of collapse is dated to ca. 100 AD e., this is consistent with the opinion of archaeologists that at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. the Slavic population occupied a fairly vast territory and was no longer monolithic. Further, in the V-VI centuries. n. e., the three Slavic branches are almost simultaneously divided into more fractional taxa, which corresponds to the rapid spread of the Slavs throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e. (Slavicization of Europe).

The Slovene language was excluded from the analysis, since Ljubljana Koine and literary Slovene show a mixture of South Slavic and West Slavic lexical features (presumably this may indicate an original West Slavic attribution of the Slovene language, which for a long time was influenced by neighboring Serbo-Croatian dialects), and qualitative Swadesh lists for Slovenian dialects were not collected at that time. Due to the lack or unreliability of lexical data, the study did not cover the so-called. Old Novgorod dialect, Polabian language and some other Slavic idioms.

History of development

IN early period development of the Slavic proto-language has developed new system vowel sonants, consonantism was significantly simplified, the reduction stage became widespread in ablaut, the root ceased to obey ancient restrictions. The Proto-Slavic language is part of the satem group (sрьдьce, pisati, prositi, cf. lat. cor, - cordis, pictus, precor; zьrno, znati, zima, cf. lat. granum, cognosco, hiems). However, this feature was not fully realized: cf. Praslav *kamy, *kosa. *gǫsь, *gordъ, *bergъ, etc. Proto-Slavic morphology represents significant deviations from the Indo-European type. This primarily applies to the verb, to a lesser extent to the name.

Dialects began to form in the Proto-Slavic language. There were three groups of dialects: eastern, western and southern. From them the corresponding languages ​​were then formed. The group of East Slavic dialects was the most compact. There were 3 subgroups in the West Slavic group: Lechitic, Serbo-Sorbian and Czech-Slovak. The South Slavic group was the most differentiated in terms of dialect.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period of the history of the Slavs, when the tribal social system dominated. Significant changes occurred during the period of early feudalism. In the XII-XIII centuries, further differentiation of the Slavic languages ​​took place; the super-short (reduced) vowels ъ and ь, characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language, were lost. In some cases they disappeared, in others they became fully formed vowels. As a result, there were significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of Slavic languages, in their lexical composition.

Phonetics

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

In most Slavic languages, the long/short vowel opposition has been lost, at the same time in the Czech and Slovak languages ​​(excluding the North Moravian and East Slovak dialects), in the literary norms of the Shtokavian group (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin), and also partly in the Slovenian language these differences remain. The Lechitic languages, Polish and Kashubian, retain nasal vowels, which are lost in other Slavic languages ​​(nasal vowels were also characteristic of the phonetic system of the extinct Polabian language). For a long time nasals were retained in the Bulgarian-Macedonian and Slovenian language areas (in the peripheral dialects of the corresponding languages, relics of nasalization are reflected in a number of words to this day).

Slavic languages ​​are characterized by the presence of palatalization of consonants - the approach of the flat middle part of the tongue to the palate when pronouncing a sound. Almost all consonants in Slavic languages ​​can be hard (non-palatalized) or soft (palatalized). Due to a number of depalatalization processes, the opposition of hard/soft consonants in the languages ​​of the Czech-Slovak group is significantly limited (in Czech the opposition t - t', d - d', n - n', in Slovak - t - t', d - d', n - n', l - l', while in the West Slovak dialect due to assimilation t', d' and their subsequent hardening, as well as hardening l', usually only one pair is presented n - n', in a number of Western Slovak dialects (Povazski, Trnava, Zagorski) paired soft consonants are completely absent). The opposition of consonants in terms of hardness/softness did not develop in the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian and Western Bulgarian-Macedonian linguistic areas - of the old paired soft consonants, only n' (< *nj), l' (< *lj) did not undergo hardening (primarily in the Serbo-Croatian area).

Stress is implemented differently in Slavic languages. In most Slavic languages ​​(except Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian), the polytonic Proto-Slavic stress was replaced by a dynamic one. The free, mobile nature of the Proto-Slavic stress was preserved in the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian languages, as well as in the Torlak dialect and the northern dialect of the Kashubian language (the stress was also mobile in the extinct Polabian language). In Central Russian dialects (and, accordingly, in the Russian literary language), in the South Russian dialect, in Northern Kashubian dialects, as well as in the Belarusian and Bulgarian languages, this type of stress caused a reduction of unstressed vowels. In a number of languages, primarily in Western Slavic, a fixed stress has been formed, assigned to a specific syllable of a word or tact group. The penultimate syllable is stressed in the literary Polish language and most of its dialects, in the Czech North Moravian and East Slovak dialects, in the southwestern dialects of the southern dialect of the Kashubian language, as well as in the Lemko dialect. The stress falls on the first syllable in the Czech and Slovak literary languages ​​and most of their dialects, in the Lusatian languages, in the South Kashubian dialect, as well as in some Gural dialects of the Lesser Poland dialect. In the Macedonian language, the stress is also fixed - it falls no further than the third syllable from the end of the word (accent group). In the Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian languages, the stress is polytonic, varied, and the tonic characteristics and stress distribution in word forms are different among dialects. In the Central Kashubian dialect, the stress varies, but is assigned to a specific morpheme.

Writing

Slavic languages ​​received their first literary treatment in the 60s. 9th century. The creators of Slavic writing were the brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavic for the needs of Great Moravia. The new literary language was based on the South Macedonian (Thessalonica) dialect, but in Great Moravia learned a lot of local linguistic features. Later he received further development in Bulgaria. In this language (usually called Old Church Slavonic) a wealth of original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Rus', and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From the 9th century no Slavic texts have survived. The most ancient ones date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription of 943, the inscription of King Samuil of 993, the Varosha inscription of 996 and others. Starting from c. More Slavic monuments have survived.

Similarities and differences between Slavic languages

Due to historical reasons, the Slavic languages ​​managed to maintain significant similarities relative to each other. At the same time, almost each of them has a number of unique features.

Literary languages

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

The Russian literary language has experienced centuries-long and complex evolution. It absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Church Slavonic language, and was influenced by many European languages.

In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. literary language, which reached in the XIV-XVI centuries. great perfection, has almost disappeared. The German language was dominant in the cities. 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 national language. History of the Czech literary language XIX - centuries. reflects the interaction between the old book language and the spoken language. The Slovak literary language had a different history; it developed on the basis of the folk language. In Serbia until the 19th century. Church Slavonic was dominant. In the 18th century the process of bringing this language closer to the folk one began. As a result of the reform carried out

The Slavic group of languages ​​is the closest of this family to the Baltic group, so some scientists combine these two groups into one - Balto-Slavic subfamily Indo-European languages. Total quantity There are more than 300 million native speakers of Slavic languages. The majority of speakers of Slavic languages ​​live in Russia and Ukraine.

The Slavic group of languages ​​is divided into three branches: East Slavic, West Slavic And South Slavic. The East Slavic branch of languages ​​includes: Russian language or Great Russian, Ukrainian, also known as Little Russian or Ruthenian, and Belarusian. These languages ​​are collectively spoken by about 225 million people. The West Slavic branch includes: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lusatian, Kashubian and the extinct Polabian language. Living West Slavic languages ​​are spoken today by approximately 56 million people, mainly in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The South Slavic branch consists of Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Macedonian languages. The language also belongs to this branch church service Church Slavonic language. The first four languages ​​are spoken collectively by more than 30 million people in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

All Slavic languages, according to linguistic research, go back to one common ancestor language, usually called Proto-Slavic language, which in turn separated much earlier from Proto-Indo-European language(around 2000 BC), the ancestor of all Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language was probably common to all Slavs as early as the 1st century BC, and already from the 8th century AD. Separate Slavic languages ​​begin to form.

General characteristics

Conversational Slavic languages are very similar to each other, more so than the Germanic or Romance languages ​​are to each other. However, even though they have similarities in vocabulary, grammar and phonetics, they still differ in many aspects. One of general characteristics All Slavic languages ​​have a relatively large number of consonant sounds. A striking example various uses The variety of positions of the main stress in individual Slavic languages ​​may serve as a basis. For example, in Czech the stress falls on the first syllable of a word, and in Polish - on the next syllable after the last, while in Russian and Bulgarian the stress can fall on any syllable.

Grammar

Grammatically, Slavic languages, with the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian, have a highly developed system of noun inflections, up to seven cases(nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional and vocative). The verb in Slavic languages ​​has three simple tenses(past, present and future), but is also characterized by such a complex characteristic as species. A verb can be imperfect (shows continuity or repetition of an action) or perfect (denotes the completion of an action). Participles and gerunds are widely used (one can compare their use with the use of participles and gerunds in English). In all Slavic languages, except Bulgarian and Macedonian, there is no article. The languages ​​of the Slavic subfamily are more conservative and therefore closer to Proto-Indo-European language than the languages ​​of the Germanic and Romance groups, as evidenced by the preservation by the Slavic languages ​​of seven of the eight cases for nouns that were characteristic of the Proto-Indo-European language, as well as the development of the aspect of the verb.

Vocabulary composition

The vocabulary of Slavic languages ​​is predominantly of Indo-European origin. There are also important element mutual influence of the Baltic and Slavic languages ​​on each other, which is reflected in the vocabulary. Borrowed words or translations of words go back to Iranian and German groups, and also to Greek, Latin, and Turkic languages. They influenced the vocabulary of such languages ​​as Italian and French. Slavic languages ​​also borrowed words from each other. The borrowing of foreign words tends to translate and imitate rather than simply absorb them.

Writing

Perhaps it is in in writing, are the most significant differences between the Slavic languages. Some Slavic languages ​​(in particular Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Polish) have a written language based on the Latin alphabet, since the speakers of these languages ​​belong predominantly to the Catholic faith. Other Slavic languages ​​(for example, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian) use adopted variants of the Cyrillic alphabet as a result of influence Orthodox Church. The only language, Serbo-Croatian, uses two alphabets: Cyrillic for Serbian language and Latin for Croatian.
The invention of the Cyrillic alphabet is traditionally attributed to Cyril, a Greek missionary who was sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to Slavic peoples, located at that time - in the 9th century AD. in the territory of present-day Slovakia. There is no doubt that Kirill created the predecessor of the Cyrillic alphabet - Glagolitic, based on the Greek alphabet, where new symbols were added to represent Slavic sounds that did not find a correspondence in the Greek language. However, the very first texts in Cyrillic dating back to the 9th century AD. not preserved. The oldest Slavic texts preserved in the ecclesiastical Old Church Slavonic language date back to the 10th and 11th centuries.

The Slavic group of languages ​​is a major branch of the Indo-European languages, since the Slavs are the largest group of people in Europe united by similar speech and culture. More than 400 million people use them.

General information

The Slavic group of languages ​​is a branch of the Indo-European languages ​​used in most countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, parts of Central Europe and northern Asia. It is most closely related to the Baltic languages ​​(Lithuanian, Latvian and the extinct Old Prussian). Languages ​​belonging to the Slavic group originated from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine) and spread to the remaining territories listed above.

Classification

There are three groups: South Slavic, West Slavic and East Slavic branches.

In contrast to the clearly divergent literary, linguistic boundaries are not always obvious. There are transitional dialects connecting different languages, except in the area where the South Slavs are separated from other Slavs by Romanians, Hungarians and German-speaking Austrians. But even in these isolated areas there are some remnants of the old dialectal continuity (for example, the similarity between Russian and Bulgarian).

It should therefore be noted that the traditional classification into three separate branches should not be considered as a true model of historical development. It is more correct to imagine it as a process in which differentiation and reintegration of dialects constantly took place, as a result of which the Slavic group of languages ​​has a striking homogeneity throughout the territory of its distribution. Centuries of journey different nations intersected, and their cultures mixed.

Differences

But it would still be an exaggeration to assume that communication between any two speakers of different Slavic languages ​​is possible without any linguistic difficulties. Many differences in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary can cause misunderstandings even in a simple conversation, not to mention difficulties in journalistic, technical and artistic speech. Thus, the Russian word “green” is recognizable to all Slavs, but “red” means “beautiful” in other languages. Suknja is “skirt” in Serbo-Croatian, “coat” in Slovenian, a similar expression “suknya” is “dress” in Ukrainian.

Eastern group of Slavic languages

It includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Russian is the native language of almost 160 million people, including many residents of countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Its main dialects are northern, southern and transitional central group. It also includes the Moscow dialect, on which the literary language is based. In total, about 260 million people speak Russian in the world.

In addition to the “great and mighty”, the Eastern Slavic group of languages ​​includes two more large languages.

• Ukrainian, which is divided into northern, southwestern, southeastern and Carpathian dialects. The literary form is based on the Kiev-Poltava dialect. More than 37 million people speak Ukrainian in Ukraine and neighboring countries, and more than 350,000 people speak the language in Canada and the United States. This is explained by the presence of a large ethnic community of migrants who left the country in late XIX century. The Carpathian dialect, which is also called Carpatho-Rusyn, is sometimes considered a separate language.
• Belarusian is spoken by about seven million people in Belarus. Its main dialects are: southwestern, some features of which can be explained by its proximity to Polish lands, and northern. The Minsk dialect, which serves as the basis for the literary language, lies on the border of these two groups.

West Slavic branch

It includes the Polish language and other Lechitic (Kashubian and its extinct variant Slovinian), Lusatian and Czechoslovak dialects. This Slavic group is also quite common. More than 40 million people speak Polish not only in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe (particularly Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Belarus), but also in France, the USA and Canada. It is also divided into several subgroups.

Polish dialects

The main ones are northwestern, southeastern, Silesian and Masovian. The Kashubian dialect is considered part of the Pomeranian languages, which, like Polish, are classified as Lechitic. Its speakers live west of Gdansk and on the Baltic Sea coast.

The extinct Slovinian dialect belonged to the northern group of Kashubian dialects, which differs from the southern one. Another unused Lechitic language is Polabian, which was spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slavs who lived in the Elbe River area.

Its name is Serbo-Sorbian, which is still spoken by the people of Lusatia in East Germany. It has two literary (used in Bautzen and the surrounding area) and Lower Sorbian (common in Cottbus).

Czechoslovakian group of languages

It includes:

• Czech, spoken by approximately 12 million people in the Czech Republic. His dialects are Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian. Literary language was formed in the 16th century in Central Bohemia on the basis of the Prague dialect.
• Slovak, it is used by about 6 million people, the majority are residents of Slovakia. Literary speech was formed on the basis of the dialect of Central Slovakia in the middle of the 19th century. Western Slovak dialects are similar to Moravian and differ from central and eastern ones, which have common features with Polish and Ukrainian languages.

South Slavic group of languages

Among the three main ones, it is the smallest in terms of the number of native speakers. But this is an interesting group of Slavic languages, the list of which, as well as their dialects, is very extensive.

They are classified as follows:

1. Eastern subgroup. These include:

2. Western subgroup:

• Serbo-Croatian language - about 20 million people use it. The basis for the literary version was the Shtokavian dialect, which is widespread in most of the Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin territories.
• Slovene is a language spoken by more than 2.2 million people in Slovenia and surrounding areas of Italy and Austria. It shares some common features with the dialects of Croatia and includes many dialects with large differences between them. In Slovenian (in particular its western and northwestern dialects) traces of old connections with the West Slavic languages ​​(Czech and Slovak) can be found.

Education

Slavic. What languages ​​belong to the Slavic group?

The Slavic group of languages ​​is a major branch of the Indo-European languages, since the Slavs are the largest group of people in Europe united by similar speech and culture. More than 400 million people use them.

General information

The Slavic group of languages ​​is a branch of the Indo-European languages ​​used in most countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, parts of Central Europe and northern Asia. It is most closely related to the Baltic languages ​​(Lithuanian, Latvian and the extinct Old Prussian). Languages ​​belonging to the Slavic group originated from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine) and spread to the remaining territories listed above.

Classification

There are three groups of Slavic languages: South Slavic, West Slavic and East Slavic branches.

IN colloquial speech, unlike the clearly divergent literary, linguistic boundaries are not always obvious. There are transitional dialects connecting different languages, except in the area where the South Slavs are separated from other Slavs by Romanians, Hungarians and German-speaking Austrians. But even in these isolated areas there are some remnants of the old dialectal continuity (for example, the similarity between Russian and Bulgarian).

It should therefore be noted that the traditional classification into three separate branches should not be considered as a true model of historical development. It is more correct to imagine it as a process in which differentiation and reintegration of dialects constantly took place, as a result of which the Slavic group of languages ​​has a striking homogeneity throughout the territory of its distribution. For centuries, the paths of different peoples crossed, and their cultures mixed.

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Differences

But it would still be an exaggeration to assume that communication between any two speakers of different Slavic languages ​​is possible without any linguistic difficulties. Many differences in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary can cause misunderstandings even in a simple conversation, not to mention difficulties in journalistic, technical and artistic speech. Thus, the Russian word “green” is recognizable to all Slavs, but “red” means “beautiful” in other languages. Suknja is “skirt” in Serbo-Croatian, “coat” in Slovenian, a similar expression “suknya” is “dress” in Ukrainian.

Eastern group of Slavic languages

It includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Russian is the native language of nearly 160 million people, including many residents of countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Its main dialects are northern, southern and transitional central group. It also includes the Moscow dialect, on which the literary language is based. In total, about 260 million people speak Russian in the world.

In addition to the “great and mighty”, the Eastern Slavic group of languages ​​includes two more large languages.

• Ukrainian, which is divided into northern, southwestern, southeastern and Carpathian dialects. The literary form is based on the Kiev-Poltava dialect. More than 37 million people speak Ukrainian in Ukraine and neighboring countries, and more than 350,000 people speak the language in Canada and the United States. This is explained by the presence of a large ethnic community of migrants who left the country at the end of the 19th century. The Carpathian dialect, which is also called Carpatho-Rusyn, is sometimes considered a separate language.
• Belarusian is spoken by about seven million people in Belarus. Its main dialects are: southwestern, some features of which can be explained by its proximity to Polish lands, and northern. The Minsk dialect, which serves as the basis for the literary language, lies on the border of these two groups.

West Slavic branch

It includes the Polish language and other Lechitic (Kashubian and its extinct variant Slovinian), Lusatian and Czechoslovak dialects. This Slavic group of the language family is also quite common. More than 40 million people speak Polish not only in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe (particularly Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Belarus), but also in France, the USA and Canada. It is also divided into several subgroups.

Polish dialects

The main ones are northwestern, southeastern, Silesian and Masovian. The Kashubian dialect is considered part of the Pomeranian languages, which, like Polish, are classified as Lechitic. Its speakers live west of Gdansk and on the Baltic Sea coast.

The extinct Slovinian dialect belonged to the northern group of Kashubian dialects, which differs from the southern one. Another unused Lechitic language is Polabian, which was spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slavs who lived in the Elbe River area.

Its close relative is Serbo-Sorbian, which is still spoken by the people of Lusatia in East Germany. It has two literary languages: Upper Sorbian (used in Bautzen and the surrounding area) and Lower Sorbian (used in Cottbus).

Czechoslovakian group of languages

It includes:

• Czech, spoken by approximately 12 million people in the Czech Republic. His dialects are Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian. The literary language was formed in the 16th century in Central Bohemia on the basis of the Prague dialect.
• Slovak, it is used by about 6 million people, the majority are residents of Slovakia. Literary speech was formed on the basis of the dialect of Central Slovakia in the middle of the 19th century. Western Slovak dialects are similar to Moravian and differ from central and eastern ones, which share features with Polish and Ukrainian.

South Slavic group of languages

Among the three main ones, it is the smallest in terms of the number of native speakers. But this is an interesting group of Slavic languages, the list of which, as well as their dialects, is very extensive.

They are classified as follows:

1. Eastern subgroup. These include:

2. Western subgroup:

• Serbo-Croatian language - about 20 million people use it. The basis for the literary version was the Shtokavian dialect, which is widespread in most of the Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin territories.
• Slovene is a language spoken by more than 2.2 million people in Slovenia and surrounding areas of Italy and Austria. It shares some common features with the dialects of Croatia and includes many dialects with large differences between them. In Slovenian (in particular its western and northwestern dialects) traces of old connections with the West Slavic languages ​​(Czech and Slovak) can be found.