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Everything about South Slavic Languages totally explained


South Slavic languages comprise one of the three groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic). There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans. The South Slavic languages are further subdivided into Eastern and Western groups. German, Hungarian and Romanian generally form a belt which geographically separate speakers of South Slavic languages from their counterpart West and East Slavic language users.

Classification

Slavic languages belong to Balto-Slavic family, which originates from Centum-Satem isogloss of the Indo-European languages family.
   South Slavic languages 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 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; as a result, some dialects got deprecated and marginalized, while others flourished. Further, the national and ethnic borders don't coincide with dialectal boundaries in most cases.
   Thus, two distinct classifications of South Slavic languages can be drawn; one from a genetic linguistic point of view, and the other from a sociolinguistic or political 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 Štokavian Ijekavian. Note: Due to different political statuses of languages/dialects and different historical contexts, the classifications are necessarily arbitrary to some extent.

Genetic linguistic classification

South Slavic languages
  • Eastern
  • Western

    Eastern group of South Slavic languages

    Bulgarian dialects

    Macedonian dialects

    » :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 related.

    Central or Eastern Western group of South Slavic languages

    History

    Each of these primary and secondary dialectical units breaks down into subdialects and accents by region. In the past (and now in mountains and islands), it wasn't 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, nationalism has also caused many, especially in Bosnia and Hercegovina, to modify their speech, or even attempt to change dialects entirely. The various wars have also caused mass migrations, and changed the ethnic makeup of some areas, especially in Bosnia, but also in central Croatia and in Serbia (especially in Vojvodina). In some areas it's 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's 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 Central South Slavic diasystem and the names their native speakers might call them.
    Dialect Sub-Dialect Serbian Croatian Bosnian Montenegrin
    Štokavian Torlakian dialect x
    Zeta-South Sandžak x x x
    Eastern Herzgovinian x x x x
    Šumadija-Vojvodina x
    Western Ikavian x x
    Kosovo-Resava x
    Eastern Bosnian x x x
    Slavonian x
    Čakavian x
    Kajkavian x

    Štokavian dialects and languages

    Rusian-štokavian, Bulgarian-štokavian, Macedonian-štokavian, Ukrainan-štokavian. Belarus-štokavian, Croatian-štokavian, Bosnian-štokavian, Poland-štokavian, Serb-štokavian, Montenegrian-štokavian. ==== Shtokavian dialects ==== Bosnian language: **Štokavian east Bosnian dialect Montenegrian language: **Štokavian Montenegrian dialect *Serbian language: **Štokavian-Ekavian *** Cyrillic: Штa јест, јест; тако је увек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити! ==== Shtokavian narječja ==== ((main | štokavski dijalekt-serbian no (što)-štokavian= serbian is ŠTA (štakavian)) bosanski jezik: štokavski ** istočno bosanskog dijalekta Montenegrian jezik: ** Montenegrian štokavski dijalekt * srpski jezik: štokavski-Ekavian ** *** Cyrillic : Штa јест, јест, тако је увек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити! *** Latin: Što jest, jest; tako je uvek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti! **Štokavian-East-Herzegovina dialect (Istočno hercegovački) *** Latin: Šta jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti! *** Cyrillic: Што јест, јест; тако је увијек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити! *** Latinski:Što jest, jest, tako je uvek bilo, što će biti, biće, Nekako će već biti!** Štokavski-Istok-Hercegovina dijalekta (Istočno hercegovački) *** Latinski:Što jest, jest, tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, biće, Nekako će već biti!*** Cyrillic: Што јест, јест, тако је увијек било, Што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити! *Croatian language: (Štokavian-Iyekavian dialect, Latin): Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, a bit će već nekako! * Hrvatski jezik: (štokavski-Iyekavian narječje, Latinski):Što jest, jest, tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, bit će već Nekako!

    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.

    Dialects and official languages

    The Croatian and Serbian standard language:
  • Serbian language is a system of two dialects: Štokavian and Torlakian.
  • Bosnian language is dialects: Štokavian East Bosnian dialects.
  • Montenegrian language is dialects: Štokavian Montenegrian dialects (Zetski).
  • Croatian language is a system of three dialects: Čakavian, Štokavian and Kajkavian.

    Čakavian dialects and languages

    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 yat mostly as i or also as e (rarely as ye), or even mixed Ekavian-Ikavian. Many dialects of Čakavian 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 didn't 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 Serbo-Croatian.
       At most 100,000 people speak Burgenland Croatian and almost all are bilingual in German. Its future is uncertain, but there's 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.

    Western group of South Slavic languages

    Kaykavian dialects

    Kaykavian is mostly spoken in northern and northwest Croatia including 1/3 of country near the Hungarian and Slovenian borders: chiefly in and around towns Zagreb, Varaždin, Čakovec, Koprivnica, Petrinja, Delnice, etc. It renders jat mostly as e (rarely as diphthong ie); note that this pronouncing can't be equated to that of the ekavian-shtokavian 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 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!

    Slovene language

    Further Information

    Get more info on 'South Slavic Languages'.


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