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South Slavic
Geographic
distribution		Southeast Europe
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-5zls
Glottologsout3147
  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language
South Slavic languages and dialects
Western South Slavic
Eastern South Slavic
Transitional dialects
Alphabets
a Includes Banat Bulgarian alphabet.

The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian 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, now called Old Church Slavonic, in the ninth century. It is retained as a liturgical language in Slavic Orthodox churches in the form of various local Church Slavonic traditions.[citation needed]

Classification

Balto-Slavic language family tree

The South Slavic languages constitute a dialect continuum.[1][2] Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin constitute a single dialect within this continuum.[3]

Linguistic prehistory

The Slavic languages are part of the Balto-Slavic group, which belongs to the Indo-European language family. The South Slavic languages have been considered a genetic node in Slavic studies: 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:[4]

  1. Consistent application of Slavic second palatalization before Proto-Slavic *v
  2. Loss of *d and *t before Proto-Slavic *l
  3. Merger of Proto-Slavic *ś (resulting from the second and third palatalization) with *s

This is illustrated in the following table:

Late Proto-Slavic South Slavic West Slavic East Slavic
reconstruction meaning Old Church Slavonic Slovene Serbo-Croatian Bulgarian Macedonian Czech Slovak Polish Belarusian Russian Ukrainian
*gvězda star звѣзда zvezda zv(ij)ézda
зв(иј)е́зда 		звезда ѕвезда hvězda hviezda gwiazda зорка,
звязда 		звезда
(звѣзда) 		зірка
*květъ flower, bloom цвѣтъ cvet cv(ij)ȇt
цв(иј)е̑т 		цвете цвет květ kvet kwiat кветка,
цвет 		цветок,
цвет 		цвіт,
квітка
*ordlo plough рало ralo rȁlo
ра̏ло 		рало рало rádlo radlo radło арала орало,
рало 		орало,
рало
*vьśь all вьсь ves sȁv
са̏в 		вси сиот vše všetok wszystkie усе,
увесь 		все,
весь 		всі,
весь

Several isoglosses have been identified which are thought to represent exclusive common innovations in the South Slavic language group. They are prevalently phonological in character, whereas morphological and syntactical isoglosses are much fewer in number. Sussex & Cubberly (2006:43–44) list the following phonological isoglosses:

  1. Merger of yers into schwa-like sound, which became /a/ in Serbo-Croatian, or split according to the retained hard/soft quality of the preceding consonant into /o e/ (Macedonian), or /ə e/ (Bulgarian)
  2. Proto-Slavic *ę > /e/
  3. Proto-Slavic *y > /i/, merging with the reflex of Proto-Slavic *i
  4. Proto-Slavic syllabic liquids *r̥ and *l̥ were retained, but *l̥ was subsequently lost in all the daughter languages with different outputs (> /u/ in Serbo-Croatian, > vowel+/l/ or /l/+vowel in Slovene, Bulgarian and Macedonian), and *r̥ became [ər/rə] in Bulgarian. This development was identical to the loss of yer after a liquid consonant.
  5. Hardening of palatals and dental affricates; e.g. š' > š, č' > č, c' > c.
  6. South Slavic form of liquid metathesis (CoRC > CRaC, CoLC > CLaC etc.)

Most of these are not exclusive in character, however, and are shared with some languages of the Eastern and Western Slavic language groups (in particular, Central Slovakian dialects). On that basis, Matasović (2008) argues that South Slavic exists strictly as a geographical grouping, not forming a true genetic clade; 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 archaisms, or are shared with some Slovakian or Ukrainian dialects.[citation needed]

The South Slavic dialects form a dialectal continuum stretching from today's southern Austria to southeast Bulgaria.[5] On the level of dialectology, they are divided into Western South Slavic (Slovene and Serbo-Croatian dialects) and Eastern South Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects); these represent separate migrations into the Balkans and were once separated by intervening Hungarian, Romanian, and Albanian populations; as these populations were assimilated, Eastern and Western South Slavic fused with Torlakian as a transitional dialect.[citation needed] On the other hand, the breakup of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, followed by formation of nation-states in the 19th and 20th centuries, led to the development and codification of standard languages. Standard Slovene, Bulgarian, and Macedonian are based on distinct dialects.[6] The Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard variants[7] of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian[8] are based on the same dialect (Shtokavian).[9] Thus, in most cases national and ethnic borders do not coincide with dialectal boundaries.

Note: Due to the differing political status of languages/dialects and different historical contexts, the classifications are arbitrary to some degree.

Dialectal classification

South Slavic dialect continuum with major dialect groups

Eastern South Slavic languages

Main article: Eastern South Slavic
Areas where Eastern South Slavic dialects are spoken:
  by a majority of speakers
  by a minority.
Map of the big yus (*ǫ) isoglosses in Eastern South Slavic and the eastern part of the transitional Torlakian dialects according to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' atlas from 2001.[10] Pronunciation of man and tooth, derived from proto-words zǫbъ mǫžь on the map:

The dialects that form the eastern group of South Slavic, spoken mostly in Bulgaria and Macedonia and adjacent areas in neighbouring countries (such as the Bessarabian Bulgarians in Ukraine), share a number of characteristics that set them apart from other Slavic languages:[11][12]

  • the existence of a definite article (e.g. книга, book – книгата, the book, време, time – времето, the time)
  • a near-complete lack of noun cases
  • the lack of a verb infinitive
  • 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 formed by the present form of the verb preceded by ще/ќе
  • the existence of a renarrative mood (e.g. Той ме видял. (Bulg.)/Тој ме видел. (Maced.) – He supposedly saw me. Compare with Той ме видя./Тој ме виде. – He saw me.)

Bulgarian and Macedonian share some of their unusual characteristics with other languages in the Balkans, notably Greek and Albanian (see Balkan sprachbund).[11]

Bulgarian dialects

Main article: Bulgarian language
See also: Bulgarian dialects and Banat Bulgarian language

Macedonian dialects

Main article: Macedonian language
See also: Dialects of Macedonian language

Torlakian dialect in Serbian

Transitional South Slavic languages

Torlakian dialects

Main article: Torlakian dialects

Torlakian dialects are spoken in southeastern Serbia, northern North Macedonia, western Bulgaria, southeastern Kosovo, and pockets of western Romania; it is considered transitional between the Western and Eastern groups of South Slavic languages. Torlakian is thought to fit together with Bulgarian and Macedonian into the Balkan sprachbund, an area of linguistic convergence caused by long-term contact rather than genetic relation. Because of this some researchers tend to classify it as Southeast Slavic.[13]

Western South Slavic languages

History

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

Shtokavian dialects

Main article: Shtokavian

The eastern Herzegovinian dialect is the basis of the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard variants of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian.[14]

Chakavian dialects

Main article: Chakavian

Chakavian is spoken in the western, central, and southern parts of Croatia—mainly in Istria, the Kvarner Gulf, Dalmatia and inland Croatia (Gacka and Pokupje, for example). The Chakavian reflex of proto-Slavic yat 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, Greek and other Mediterranean languages.[citation needed]

Example: Ča je, je, tako je vavik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, a nekako će već bit!

Burgenland Croatian

Main article: Burgenland Croatian

This dialect is spoken primarily in the federal state of Burgenland in Austria and nearby areas in Vienna, Slovakia, 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, but the linguistic standard is based on the Chakavian dialect.

Kajkavian dialects

Main article: Kajkavian

Kajkavian is mostly spoken in northern and northwest Croatia near the Hungarian and Slovene borders—chiefly around the towns of Zagreb, Varaždin, Čakovec, Koprivnica, Petrinja, Delnice and so on. Its reflex of yat is primarily /e/, rarely diphthongal ije). This differs from that of the Ekavian accent; many Kajkavian dialects distinguish a closed e—nearly ae (from yat)—and an open e (from the original e). It lacks several palatals (ć, lj, nj, dž) found in the Shtokavian dialect, and has some loanwords from the nearby Slovene dialects and German (chiefly in towns).[citation needed]

Example: Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu!

Slovene dialects

Main article: Slovene dialects

Slovene is mainly spoken in Slovenia. Spoken Slovene has numerous dialects, but there is no consensus on how many;[15] estimates range from 7 to 50.[16] [17] The lowest estimate refers to the language's seven commonly recognized dialect groups, without subdividing any of them. Some of the seven groups are more heterogeneous than others, and the higher estimates reflect the varying criteria that have been used to differentiate dialects and subdialects. Slovenian 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,[18] particularly if their dialects belong to different groups. Some dialects spoken in southern Slovenia transition into Chakavian or Kajkavian Serbo-Croatian, 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 and Sutla rivers).[citation needed]

Comparison

The table below compares grammatical and phonological innovations. The similarity of Kajkavian and Slovene is apparent.[citation needed]

Western South Slavic isoglosses
Slovene Kajkavian Chakavian Shtokavian
Acute > neoacute nonfinally Most dialects No No No
Loss of Proto-Slavic tone Some dialects No No Neoshtokavian
u- > vu- Some dialects Yes No No
ǫ > o Yes Yes No No
-ojo > -o in instrumental singular Yes Yes No No
ć > č Most dialects Yes No No
Neocircumflex Yes Yes No No
Loss of vocative Yes Yes Some dialects No
Final devoicing Most dialects Yes Yes No
đ > j Yes Yes Yes No
žV > rV Yes Yes Yes Western
Final -m > -n Some dialects No Yes No
ľ, ň > l, n Most dialects No Yes No
jd, jt > đ, ć No No Yes Yes
ř > r No No Yes Yes
ə > a No No Yes Yes
čr > cr No No No Yes
Dat/loc/ins plural -ma/-u (from dual) No No No Yes

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.[19]
  • The Eastern dialects have developed definite-article suffixes similar to the other languages in the Balkan sprachbund.[20]
  • The Eastern dialects have lost the infinitive; 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), 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.[21]

Divisions within Western dialects

  • While Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian Shtokavian dialects have basically the same grammar, its usage is very diverse. While all three languages are relatively highly inflected, the further east one goes the more likely it is that analytic forms are used – if not spoken, at least in the written language.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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):[citation needed]
    • 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).[citation needed]
    • дете (dete, 'а child')
    • детето (deteto, 'the child')
    • детево (detevo, 'this child [near me]')
    • детено (deteno, 'that child [over there]')

Writing systems

Languages to the west of Serbia use the Latin script, whereas those to the east and south use Cyrillic. Serbian officially uses the Cyrillic script, though commonly Latin and Cyrillic are used equally. Most newspapers are written in Cyrillic and most magazines are in Latin; books written by Serbian authors are written in Cyrillic, whereas books translated from foreign authors are usually in Latin, other than languages that already use Cyrillic, most notably Russian. On television, writing as part of a television programme is usually in Cyrillic, but advertisements are usually in Latin. The division is partly based on religion – Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Macedonia (which use Cyrillic) are Orthodox countries, whereas Croatia and Slovenia (which use Latin) are Catholic.[22] The Bosnian language, used by the Muslim Bosniaks, also uses Latin, but in the past used Bosnian Cyrillic. The Glagolitic alphabet was also used in the Middle Ages (most notably in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia), but gradually disappeared.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Friedman, Victor (1999). Linguistic emblems and emblematic languages: on language as flag in the Balkans. Kenneth E. Naylor memorial lecture series in South Slavic linguistics; vol. 1. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. p. 8. OCLC 46734277.
  2. ^ Alexander, Ronelle (2000). In honor of diversity: the linguistic resources of the Balkans. Kenneth E. Naylor memorial lecture series in South Slavic linguistics; vol. 2. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. p. 4. OCLC 47186443.
  3. ^ Roland Sussex (2006). The Slavic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-0-521-22315-7.
  4. ^ Cited after Matasović (2008:59, 143)
  5. ^ Kordić 2010, p. 75.
  6. ^ Friedman, Victor (2003). "Language in Macedonia as an Identity Construction Site". In Brian, D. Joseph; et al. (eds.). When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. pp. 261–262. OCLC 50123480.
  7. ^ Kordić 2010, pp. 77–90.
  8. ^ Bunčić, Daniel (2008). "Die (Re-)Nationalisierung der serbokroatischen Standards" [The (Re-)Nationalisation of Serbo-Croatian Standards]. In Kempgen, Sebastian (ed.). Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress, Ohrid, 2008. Welt der Slaven (in German). Munich: Otto Sagner. p. 93. OCLC 238795822.
  9. ^ Gröschel, Bernhard (2009). Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: mit einer Bibliographie zum postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit [Serbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics: With a Bibliography of the Post-Yugoslav Language Dispute]. Lincom Studies in Slavic Linguistics; vol 34 (in German). Munich: Lincom Europa. p. 265. ISBN 978-3-929075-79-3. LCCN 2009473660. OCLC 428012015. OL 15295665W.
  10. ^ Кочев (Kochev), Иван (Ivan) (2001). Български диалектен атлас (Bulgarian dialect atlas) (in Bulgarian). София: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. ISBN 954-90344-1-0. OCLC 48368312.
  11. ^ a b Fortson, Benjamin W. (2009-08-31). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction Blackwell textbooks in linguistics. John Wiley and Sons. p. 431. ISBN 978-1-4051-8896-8. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  12. ^ van Wijk, Nicolaas (1956). Les Langues Slaves [The Slavic Languages] (in French) (2nd ed.). Mouton & Co - 's-Gravenhage.
  13. ^ Balkan Syntax and Semantics, John Benjamins Publishing, 2004, ISBN 158811502X, The typology of Balkan evidentiality and areal linguistics, Victor Friedman, p. 123.
  14. ^ Kordić, Snježana (2003). "Glotonim "srbohrvaški jezik" glede na "srbski, hrvaški, bosanski, črnogorski"" [The glotonym "Serbo-Croatian" vs. "Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin"] (PDF). Slavistična revija (in Slovenian). 51 (3): 355–364. ISSN 0350-6894. SSRN 3433071. CROSBI 430280. COBISS 23508578. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  15. ^ Sussex, Roland & Paul Cubberly. 2006. The Slavic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 502–503.
  16. ^ Lencek, Rado L. 1982. The Structure and History of the Slovene Language. Columbus, OH: Slavica.
  17. ^ Logar, Tine & Jakob Rigler. 1986. Karta slovenskih narečij. Ljubljana: Geodetski zavod SRS.
  18. ^ Sussex, Roland & Paul V. Cubberley. 2006. The Slavic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 502.
  19. ^ Note that some remnants of cases do still exist in Bulgarian – see here.
  20. ^ In Macedonian, these are especially well-developed, also taking on a role similar to demonstrative pronouns:
    • Bulgarian : stol – "chair" → stolat – "the chair"
    • Macedonian : stol – "chair" → stolot – "the chair" → stolov – "this chair here" → stolon – "that chair there". As well as these, Macedonian also has a separate set of demonstratives: ovoj stol – "this chair"; onoj stol – "that chair".
  21. ^ In Bulgarian, more complex constructions such as "koyto i da bilo" ("whoever it may be" ≈ "anyone") can be used if the distinction is necessary.
  22. ^ 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.

Sources

Further reading

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