East Slavic languages
The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Siberia and the Russian Far East. In part due to the large historical influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian language is also spoken as a lingua franca in many regions of Caucasus and Central Asia. Of the three Slavic branches, East Slavic is the most spoken, with the number of native speakers larger than the Western and Southern branches combined.
| East Slavic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Eurasia (Eastern Europe, Northern Asia, and the Caucasus) |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Early forms | |
| Subdivisions | |
| ISO 639-5 | zle |
| Glottolog | east1426 |
The common consensus is that Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian are the existent East Slavic languages;[1] Rusyn is mostly considered as a separate language too, but some classify it as a dialect of Ukrainian.[2]
The modern East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor spoken in Kievan Rus' from the 9th to 13th centuries, which later evolved into Ruthenian, the chancery language of the Balto-Ruthenian Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Dnieper river valley, and into medieval Russian in the Volga river valley, the language of the Russian principalities including the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
All these languages use the Cyrillic script, but with particular modifications. Belarusian and Ukrainian, which are descendants of Ruthenian, have a tradition of using Latin-based alphabets—the Belarusian Łacinka and Ukrainian Latin alphabets, respectively (also Rusyn uses Latin in some regions).
Differentiation
The East Slavic territory exhibits a linguistic continuum with many transitional dialects. Between Belarusian and Ukrainian there is the Polesian dialect, which shares features from both languages. East Polesian is a transitional variety between Belarusian and Ukrainian on one hand, and between South Russian and Ukrainian on the other hand. At the same time, Belarusian and Southern Russian form a continuous area, making it virtually impossible to draw a line between the two languages. Central or Middle Russian (with its Moscow sub-dialect), the transitional step between the North and the South, became a base for the Russian literary standard. Northern Russian with its predecessor, the Old Novgorod dialect, has many original and archaic features.
Ruthenian, the ancestor of modern Belarusian and Ukrainian, was the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as "Chancery Slavonic" until the end of the 17th century when it was gradually replaced by the Polish language. The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk from 1710 is one of the most important written sources of the Ruthenian language. Due to the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth over many centuries, Belarusian and Ukrainian have been influenced in several respects by Polish, a West Slavic language / Lechitic. As a result of the long Polish-Lithuanian rule, these languages had been less exposed to Church Slavonic, featuring therefore less Church Slavonicisms than the modern Russian language, e.g. Ukr.: солодкий / solodkyj and Bel.: салодкі / salodki vs. Rus.: сладкий / sladkij ("sweet"). Aditionally, the original East Slavic phonetic form was kept in many words in Ukrainian and Belarusian, e.g. Ukr.:одиниця / odynycja and Bel. адзінка / adzinka vs. Rus.: eдиница / edinica ("unit").
Orthography
| sound | Letters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | Belarusian | Ukrainian | Rusyn | |
| /ʲe, je/ | е | е | є | є |
| /e/ | э | э | е | е |
| /i/ | и | і | і | і |
| /ʲi/ | ї | |||
| /ji/ | ї | |||
| /ɨ/ | ы | ы | - | ы |
| /ɪ/ | - | - | и | и |
| /ɤ/ | - | - | - | ы |
| /ʲo/ | ё | ё | ьо | ё |
Phonology
| Isoglosses | Northern Russian |
Standard Russian (Moscow dialect) |
Southern Russian |
Standard Belarusian | Standard Ukrainian | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reduction of unstressed /o/ (akanye) |
no | yes[n 1] | no[n 2] | R. голова́ /ɡɐlɐˈva/, B. галава́ /ɣalaˈva/, U. голова́ /ɦɔlɔˈʋa/ "head" | ||
| pretonic /ʲe/ (yakanye) | /ʲe/ | /ʲi/ | /ʲa/ | /e/[n 3] | R. земля́ /zʲiˈmlʲa/, B. зямля́ /zʲaˈmlʲa/, U. земля́ /zeˈmlʲa/ "earth" | |
| Proto-Slavic *i | /i/ | /ɪ/[n 4] | R. лист /ˈlʲist/, B. ліст /ˈlʲist/, U. лист /ˈlɪst/ "leaf" | |||
| Proto-Slavic *y | /ɨ/ | R./B. ты /ˈtɨ/, U. ти /ˈtɪ/ "thou, you" | ||||
| stressed CoC | /o/ | /i/[n 5][n 6] | R. ночь /ˈnot͡ɕ/, B. ноч /ˈnot͡ʂ/, U. ніч /ˈnʲit͡ʃ/ "night" | |||
| Proto-Slavic *ě | /e̝~i̯ɛ~i/ | /e/ | R. се́мя /ˈsʲemʲa/, B. се́мя /ˈsʲemʲa/, U. сі́м'я /ˈsʲimja/ "seed" | |||
| /e/>/o/ change before nonpalatalized consonants[n 7] | always | under stress | after /j/, /nʲ/, /lʲ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/ | R. зелёный /zʲiˈlʲonɨj/, B. зялёны /zʲaˈlʲonɨ/, U. зеле́ний /zeˈlenɪj/ "green" | ||
| Proto-Slavic *c | /t͡s/[n 8][n 9] | /t͡s, t͡sʲ/ | ||||
| Proto-Slavic *č | /t͡ɕ/[n 10][n 9] | /t͡ʂ/ | /t͡ʃ/ | R. час /ˈt͡ɕas/ "hour", B. час /ˈt͡ʂas/, U. час /ˈt͡ʃas/ "time (of day)" | ||
| Proto-Slavic *skj, zgj | /ɕː/,[n 11] /ʑː/ | /ʂt͡ʂ/, /ʐd͡ʐ/ | /ʃt͡ʃ/, /ʒd͡ʒ/ | |||
| soft dental stops | /tʲ/, /dʲ/[n 12] | /t͡sʲ/, /d͡zʲ/ | /tʲ/, /dʲ/ | R. де́сять /ˈdʲesʲitʲ/, B. дзе́сяць /ˈd͡zʲesʲat͡sʲ/, U. де́сять /ˈdesʲatʲ/ "ten" | ||
| Proto-Slavic *v | /v, f/[n 13] | /w/ | /v/ [v, w] | /w/ [β, w] | R. о́стров /ˈostraf/, B. во́страў /ˈvostrau̯/, U. о́стрів /ˈostriʋ/ "island" | |
| /f/ (in loanwords) | /f/ | /x~xv~xw~xu̯/ | /f/ | |||
| Prothetic /v~w~u̯/ | no[n 14] | yes | R. о́стров /ˈostraf/, B. во́страў /ˈvostrau̯/, U. о́стрів /ˈostriʋ/ "island" | |||
| Proto-Slavic *g | /ɡ/ | /ɣ/ | /ɦ/ | R. голова́ /ɡɐlɐˈva/, B. галава́ /ɣalaˈva/, U. голова́ /ɦɔlɔˈʋa/ "head" | ||
| Hardening of final soft labials | no | yes | R. степь /sʲtʲepʲ/,
B. стэп /stɛp/, U. степ /stɛp/ "steppe" | |||
| Hardening of soft /rʲ/ | no | yes | partially | |||
| Proto-Slavic *CrьC, ClьC, CrъC, CrъC |
/rʲe/, /lʲe/, /ro/, /lo/ | /rɨ/, /lʲi/, /rɨ/, /lɨ/ | /rɪ/, /lɪ/, /rɪ/, /lɪ/ | |||
| Proto-Slavic *-ъj-, -ьj- | /oj/, /ej/ | /ɨj/, /ij/ | /ɪj/ | |||
| Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ьjь | /ej/ | /ij/,[n 15] /ej/ | /ej/[n 16] | /ij/ | /ɪj/, /ij/ | |
| Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ъjь | /oj/ | /ɨj/,[n 15] /oj/ | /oj/[n 17] | /ɨj/ | /ɪj/ | |
| Loss of the vocative case | no | yes[n 18] | no | |||
| 3 sg. & pl. pres. ind. | /t/ | /tʲ/ | /t͡sʲ/ | /tʲ/ | R. ду́мают /ˈdumajut/, B. ду́маюць /ˈdumajut͡sʲ/, Uk. ду́мають /ˈdumajutʲ/ "(they) think" | |
| Dropping out of 3 sg. pres. ind. ending (in e-stems) |
no | yes | ||||
| 3 sg. masc. past ind. | /v~w~u̯/[n 19] | /l/ | /v, w/ | R. ду́мал /ˈdumal/, B. ду́маў /ˈdumau̯/, U. ду́мав /ˈdumaʋ/ "(he) thought" | ||
| 2nd palatalization in oblique cases | no | yes | R. руке́ /ruˈkʲe/, B. руцэ́ /ruˈt͡se/, U. руці́ /ruˈt͡sʲi/ "hand" (locative or prepositional case) | |||
Notes
- Except for the Polesian dialect of Brest
- Except for the Eastern Polesian dialect
- Consonants are hard before /e/
- Except for some dialects
- In some Ukrainian dialects C/o/C can be /y~y̯e~y̯i~u̯o/
- In some Ukrainian dialects PSl *ě can be /e̝~i̯ɛ/
- Also at the end of words (in Russian and Belarusian). In Belarusian (unlike Russian), the change is not present in stressed 2 and 3 sg. pres. ind. endings.
- Can be /s/ in South Russian
- In some Northern Russian dialects, Proto-Slavic *c and *č have merged into one sound, variously pronounced as /t͡s, t͡sʲ, t͡ʂ, t͡ɕ/ depending on a dialect.
- Can be /ɕ/ in Southern Russian
- Can be /ɕt͡ɕ/, /ʂː/
- In Russian light affrication can occur: [tˢʲ] , [dᶻʲ]
- In some Northern Russian sub-dialects /v/ is not devoiced to /f/
- Except for восемь "eight" and some others
- Only unstressed, Church Slavonic influence
- Stressed, unstressed is usually reduced to [ʲəj]
- Stressed, unstressed is usually reduced to [əj]
- In colloquial Russian, new vocative has appeared from a pure stem: мам, пап, Маш, Вань etc.
- In the dialect of Vologda
History
Influence of Church Slavonic
After the conversion of the East Slavic region to Christianity the people used service books borrowed from Bulgaria, which were written in Old Church Slavonic (a South Slavic language).[3] The Church Slavonic language was strictly used only in text, while the colloquial language of the Bulgarians was communicated in its spoken form.
Throughout the Middle Ages (and in some way up to the present day) there existed a duality between the Church Slavonic language used as some kind of 'higher' register (not only) in religious texts and the popular tongue used as a 'lower' register for secular texts. It has been suggested to describe this situation as diglossia, although there do exist mixed texts where it is sometimes very hard to determine why a given author used a popular or a Church Slavonic form in a given context. Church Slavonic was a major factor in the evolution of modern Russian, where there still exists a "high stratum" of words that were imported from this language.[4]
References
- Sussex & Cubberley 2006, pp. 79–89.
- "Dulichenko, Aleksandr The language of Carpathian Rus': Genetic Aspects" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-25. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
- Sussex & Cubberley 2006, pp. 63–65.
- Sussex & Cubberley 2006, pp. 477–478.
Further reading
- Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G, eds. (1993). "East Slavonic languages". The Slavonic languages. London, New York: Routledge. pp. 827–1036. ISBN 0-415-04755-2.
- Sussex, Roland; Cubberley, Paul (2006). The Slavic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22315-7.
External links
Media related to East Slavic languages at Wikimedia Commons