South Slavic languages

South Slavic
Geographic
distribution:		 Eastern Europe
Linguistic Classification: Indo-European
 Balto-Slavic
  Slavic
   South Slavic
Subdivisions:
Eastern South Slavic
Western South Slavic
ISO 639-5: zls
Slavic europe.svg

     Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language
South Slavic
languages
and dialects
Western South Slavic
Slovene
dialects
Prekmurian dialect · Resian dialect
Serbo-Croatian
Bosnian
Štokavian dialect
Croatian
Štokavian dialect
Čakavian · Kajkavian
Burgenland · Molise
Torlakian
Serbian
Štokavian dialect
Ekavian · Ijekavian
Torlakian
Slavoserbian
Serbian Romany
Užice dialect
Differences between standard
Bosnian · Croatian · Serbian
Non-ISO recognized languages
and dialects
Montenegrin  · Bunjevac dialect
Eastern South Slavic
Church Slavonic (Old)
Bulgarian
Dialects
Banat · Greek Slavic
Torlakian · Meshterski
Macedonian
Dialects
Aegean Macedonian
Torlakian
Spoken Macedonian
Standard Macedonian
Transitional dialects
Serbian-Bulgarian
Torlakian · Gora dialect
Croatian-Slovenian
Kajkavian
Alphabets
Modern
Gaj's Latin1 · Serbian Cyrillic
Macedonian Cyrillic
Bulgarian Cyrillic
Slavica
Slovene
Historical
Bohoričica · Dajnčica · Metelčica
Arebica · Bosnian Cyrillic
Glagolitic · Early Cyrillic
1 Includes Banat Bulgarian alphabet.

South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of Slavic languages. There are some 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two branches of Slavic, West and East, by a belt of German, Hungarian, and Romanian.

The first South Slavic language to be written, and indeed the first Slavic language, was the dialect of Thessalonica, now called Old Church Slavonic, in the 9th century. It is retained as a liturgical language in some South Slavic Orthodox churches in form of various local Church Slavonic traditions.

Contents

Classification

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

Linguistic prehistory

South Slavic languages in Europe

Slavic languages belong to Balto-Slavic group, which itself belongs to the Indo-European language family. The South Slavic language family has been traditionally treated as a genetic node by itself in Slavic studies: strictly defined by an exclusive set of phonological, morphological and lexical innovations (isglosses) that separate it from Western and Eastern Slavic groups. That view, however, has been scrutinized in recent decades (see below).

Some of the innovations that cover all South Slavic languages are also shared with Eastern Slavic group (but not Western Slavic). These include[2]:

  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/

These are illustrated in the following table:

South Slavic West Slavic East Slavic
Late Proto-Slavic reconstruction Late Proto-Slavic meaning Old Church Slavonic Slovenian Serbo-Croatian Bulgarian Macedonian Czech Slovak Polish Belarusian Russian Ukrainian
*gvězda star звѣзда zvezda zv(ij)ezda
зв(иј)езда		 звезда ѕвезда hvězda hviezda gwiazda - звезда звізда
*květъ flower, bloom цвѣтъ cvet cv(ij)et
цв(иј)ет		 цвете цвет květ kvet kwiat кветка цвет квітка
*ordlo plough рало ralo ralo,
рало		 рало рало rádlo radlo radło рало рало рало

Various isoglosses have been identified that are thought to represent exclusive common innovation of 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+/l̥/ or /l̥/+vowel in Slovenian, 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. Proto-Slavic */tl/, */dl/ > /l/
  7. South-Slavic form of liquid metathesis (CoRC > CRaC, CoLC > CLaC etc.)

Most of these are however not exclusive in character, and are shared with some of the languages in 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 - there was never a period in which all South Slavic dialects exhibited exclusive set of extensive phonological, morphological and lexical changes (isoglosses) peculiar to them and them only. Furthermore, Matasovć argues, there was never really a period of cultural or political unity in which "Proto-South-Slavic" could have existed, in which Common South Slavic innovations could have occurred. Several South-Slavic-only lexical and morphological patterns that have been proposed have all been argued to represent Common Slavic archaisms, or are shared with some Slovakian or Ukrainian dialects.

Within South Slavic, however, there could have been Proto-West-South-Slavic (ancestral to dialects of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slavic dialects of Kosovo) and Proto-East-South-Slavic (ancestral to Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects). Older literature also frequently makes a notion of "Serbo-Croatian" or "Central-South-Slavic" dialect continuum or diasystem which would in theory compromise Čakavian, Kajakvian, Štokavian and sometimes Torlakian dialects. Čakavian, Kajkavian and Torlakian dialects have over the centuries exhibited extensive lexical and, to a lesser degree, morphological influences (such as transitional ščakavian mixture) from dominant Štokavian, which has led many into false assumption of some common ancestral dialect, or of an exclusive set of isoglosses which would connect them all, but it is important to note that there was never a language ancestral to idioms spoken nowadays by Bosniaks, Croats, Monenegrins and Serbs. "Serbo-Croatian dialect system" or its much less common but politically more correct alternative "Central South Slavic diasystem" exists only as an arbitrary geographical grouping, nowadays largely obsoleted as a term due to the break-up of Yugoslavia and the advent of newly established republics.

All South Slavic dialects form a dialectal continuum stretching from today's southern Austria to southeast Bulgaria. On the level of dialectology or linguistic typology, several major dialects can be distinguished, but their borders are blurred due to strong contact and frequent migrations in the past. On the other hand, cultural establishment and national liberation from occupying Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, followed by formation of nation-states in 19th and 20th century, caused development and codification of standard national languages. These processes have (almost) ended just at the end of 20th century, with the breakup of Yugoslavia (with only the Montenegrin national and linguistic issue left to be resolved). Most of those languages selected one dialect as the basis of a literary language and, as a result, some dialects got deprecated and marginalized, while others flourished. Further, the national and ethnic borders do not coincide with dialectal boundaries in most cases.

Thus, two distinct classifications of South Slavic languages can be drawn; one from a geographic point of view, and the other from a sociolinguistic point of view. The two classifications seldom map 1:1. For example, Croats speak three main and two exclaval dialects in four countries, while their standard language is based on Ijekavian Neo-Štokavian.

Note: Due to different political statuses of languages/dialects and different historical contexts, the classifications are necessarily arbitrary to some extent.

Dialectal classification

Prekmurian Lutheran New Testament in the 18th century (Nouvi Zákon).

Eastern group of South Slavic languages

Bulgarian dialects

Main article: Bulgarian language
See also: Bulgarian dialects and Banat Bulgarians#Language

Macedonian dialects

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

Transitional South Slavic languages

Torlakian dialect

There also exists another dialect, called torlački or Torlak, which is spoken in southern and eastern Serbia, northern Republic of Macedonia and western Bulgaria, and often considered transitional between Central and Eastern group of South Slavic languages.

It is even thought to fit into the so-called Balkan sprachbund, an area of linguistic convergence among languages due to long-term contact rather than being genetically related.

Central or Eastern Western group of South Slavic languages

History

Each of these primary and secondary dialectical units breaks down into subdialects and accentological isoglosses by region. In the past (and now in mountains and islands), it was not uncommon for individual villages to have some of their own words and phrases. However, throughout the twentieth century the various dialects have been strongly influenced by the Štokavian standards through mass media and public education, and much of the "local color" has been lost chiefly in towns.

With the breakup of Yugoslavia, rise of national awareness has also caused many to modify their speech according to newly established standard language guidelines. The various wars have also caused mass migrations, and changed the ethnic and thus dialectal picture of some areas, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in central Croatia and in Serbia (especially in Vojvodina). In some areas it is unclear whether location or ethnicity is now the dominant factor in the dialect of the speaker.

Because of these forces, 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 the language.

Dialect to language name mapping

The table below shows the relationship between the dialects of so-called South Slavic continum and Central South Slavic diasystem and the names their native speakers might call them.

Dialect Sub-Dialect Bulgarian Macedonian Serbian Montenegrin Bosnian Croatian Slovene
Torlakian x x x
Štokavian Kosovo–Resava x
Šumadija–Vojvodina x
Zeta-South Sandžak x x x
Eastern Herzgovinian x x x x
Eastern Bosnian x x
Western Ikavian x x
Slavonian x
Čakavian x
Kajkavian x x

Štokavian varieties

Molise Croatian

The Molise Croatian (or Molise Slavic) dialect is spoken in three villages of the Italian region of Molise, by the descendants of South Slavs who migrated there from the eastern Adriatic coast in the 15th century. Because these people have migrated away from the rest of their kinsmen so long ago, their diaspora language is rather distinct from the standard language, and rather influenced by Italian. However, their speech retains some archaic features that were lost in all the other Štokavian dialects after the 15th century, and thus makes it a valuable tool in accentological research.

Dialects and official languages

Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages, both as sets of dialects and as codified standard languages:

Čakavian varieties

Čakavian dialects

Chakavian (Čakavian) is spoken in the western, central, and southern parts of Croatia, mainly in Istria, Kvarner Gulf, Dalmatia, and also in Croatian inlands (Gacka, Pokupje etc.). The Čakavian renders Proto-Slavic yat mostly as i or also as e (rarely as (i)je), or even mixed Ekavian-Ikavian. Many dialects of Čakavian preserved significant number of Dalmatian words, but also have a lot of loan words from Venetian, Italian, Greek and other Mediterranean languages.

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

Burgenland Croatian

This dialect is spoken primarily in the federal state of Burgenland in Austria, but also in nearby areas in Vienna, Slovakia, and Hungary by descendants of Croats who migrated there in the 16th century. This dialect or possibly family of dialects is quite different from standard Croatian. It has been heavily influenced by German and also Hungarian. In addition, it has some properties from all three of the major dialectical groups in Croatia, as the migrants did not all come from the same areas of Croatia. The "micro-literary" standard is based on a Čakavian dialect, and, like all Čakavian dialects, is characterized by very conservative grammatical structures: it preserves, prominently, case endings lost in the Štokavian base of standard Croatian.

At most 100,000 people speak Burgenland Croatian and almost all are bilingual in German. Its future is uncertain, but there is some movement to preserve it. It has official status in six districts of Burgenland, and is used in some schools in Burgenland and neighboring western parts of Hungary.

Central-western South Slavic dialects

Kajkavian dialects

Kajkavian is mostly spoken in northern and northwest Croatia including 1/3 of country near the Hungarian and Slovenian borders: chiefly around the towns of Zagreb, Varaždin, Čakovec, Koprivnica, Petrinja, Delnice, etc. It renders yat mostly as /e/ (rarely as diphthongal i.e.); note that this pronouncing cannot be equated to that of the Ekavian dialects, as many kaykavian dialects distinguish a closed e nearly ae (from yat) and an open e (from original e).

It almost lacks several palatals (ć, lj, nj, dž) found in the Shtokavian dialect, and has some loanwords from the nearby Slovene dialects, as well as from German, chiefly in towns.

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

Western group of South Slavic language

Slovene

Main article: Slovene language

Grammar

Eastern-Western division

In the broadest terms, the Eastern dialects of South Slavic (i.e. Bulgarian and Macedonian) most differ from the Western dialects in the following ways :

Aside from these three main areas, there are several smaller, but still significant differences:

Division within Western dialects

Division within Eastern dialects

Writing systems

The languages to the West of Serbian use the Roman alphabet, while those to the East and South use Cyrillic. Serbian itself constitutionally uses the Cyrillic script, though commonly, it is the Roman alphabet which is in greater use. For example, most newspapers are written in Cyrillic, while most magazines - in Roman script; books written by Serbian authors are written in Cyrillic, while books translated from foreign authors are usually in Roman script; on television, any writing as part of a television programme is usually in Cyrillic, while adverts are usually in Western script.

The division is traditionally partly based on religion – Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Macedonia, which use Cyrillic, are Orthodox countries, while Croatia and Slovenia, which use Roman script, are Catholic;[7] the Bosnian language, used by the Muslim Bosniaks, also uses the Roman script.

The Glagolitic alphabet was also used in the Middle Ages, most notably in Bulgaria and Croatia, but gradually disappeared.

Notes

  1. ↑ Roland Sussex (2006). The Slavic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–44. ISBN 9780521223157. 
  2. ↑ Cited after Matasović (2008:59, 143)
  3. ↑ Torlakian can be treated as the part of both the Eastern South Slavic group and the Western. Speakers generally identify as ethnic Serbs, Bulgarians and Macedonians depending on their country of origin. Most Torlakian dialects are spoken in Serbia, and thus considered Serbian.
  4. ↑ Note that some remnants of cases do still exist in Bulgarian – see here.
  5. ↑ 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".
  6. ↑ In Bulgarian, more complex constructions such as "koyto i da bilo" ("whoever it may be" ≈ "anyone") can be used if the distinction is absolutely necessary.
  7. ↑ 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), while the Catholic Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia use Roman script, 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.

See also

References

External links

Slavic languages
West Slavic
Czech · Kashubian · Knaanic · Polabian · Polish · Pomeranian · Silesian · Slovak · Slovincian · Sorbian (Lower, Upper)
East Slavic
Belarusian · Carpathian Rusyn · Iazychie · Old East Slavic · Old Novgorod dialect · Pannonian Rusyn · Russian · Ruthenian · Ukrainian
South Slavic
Other
Proto-Slavic · Slavic microlanguages · Pan-Slavic language · Slovianski
Separate dialects
(Slavic microlanguages)
Banat Bulgarian · Burgenland Croatian · Chakavian · East Slovak · Kajkavian · Lachian · Molise Croatian · Prekmurian · Resian · Slavic dialects of Greece · Shtokavian · West Polesian · Torlakian
Italics indicate extinct languages.