The Slavic group of languages ​​is a large branch of the Indo-European languages, since the Slavs are the largest group of people in Europe united by similar speech and culture. They are used by more than 400 million people.

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). The languages ​​belonging to the Slavic group originated from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine) and spread to the rest of the above territories.

Classification

There are three groups of 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, with the exception of 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 of Russian and Bulgarian).

Therefore, it should be noted that the traditional classification in terms of 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 ​​\u200b\u200bhas a striking homogeneity throughout the entire territory of its distribution. For centuries, the paths of different peoples intersected, and their cultures mixed.

Differences

Still, it would 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 the 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 Slovene, the similar expression is “cloth” - “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 in the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Its main dialects are northern, southern and transitional central group. Including the Moscow dialect, on which the literary language is based, belongs to it. 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 know the language in Canada and the United States. This is due to the presence of a large ethnic community of immigrants who left the country at the end of the 19th century. The Carpathian dialect, which is also called Carpatho-Russian, is sometimes treated as a separate language.
• Belarusian - it is spoken by about seven million people in Belarus. Its main dialects are southwestern, some features of which can be explained by proximity to the Polish lands, and northern. The Minsk dialect, which serves as the basis for the literary language, is located on the border of these two groups.

West Slavic branch

It includes the Polish language and other Lechitic (Kashubian and its extinct variant - Slovenian), 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 (in particular, in 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 the northwestern, southeastern, Silesian and Mazovian. The Kashubian dialect is considered part of the Pomeranian languages, which, like Polish, are Lechitic. Its speakers live west of Gdansk and on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The extinct Slovene dialect belonged to the northern group of Kashubian dialects, which differs from the southern one. Another unused Lechitic language is Polab, which was spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slavs living in the region of the Elbe River.

His is Serbal Lusatian, which is still spoken by the inhabitants of Lusatia in East Germany. It has two literary (used in and around Bautzen) and Lower Sorbian (common in Cottbus).

Czechoslovak language group

It includes:

• Czech, spoken by about 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, most of them 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 the central and eastern ones, which share common 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. It includes:

2. Western subgroup:

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

(BY THE MATERIAL OF THE DICTIONARY)

MOSCOW-1960

CONDITIONAL ABBREVIATIONS IN LANGUAGE NAMES

Albanian. - Albanian porridge. - Kashubian

English. - English latin. - latin

Anglo-Saxon. - Anglo-Saxon Latvian. - Latvian

Armenians. - Armenian litas. - Lithuanian

Belarusian. - Belarusian German. - Deutsch

Bulgarian. - Bulgarian lower lugs. - Lower Lusatian

upper puddle. - Upper Lusatian novopers. -New Persian

Goth. - gothic floor. - Polish

Greek. - Greek Serbohorv. - Serbo-Croatian

dates. - Danish Slovak. - Slovak

Old Upper. - Old High German Slovenian.- Slovenian

ancient irl. - Old Irish staroslav. - Old Church Slavonic

Old Prussian. - Old Prussian Ukrainian. - Ukrainian

Old Russian. - Old Russian rus. -Russian

Czech. - Czech.

The Slavic peoples inhabiting the vast expanses of Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, Siberia, Central Asia, the Far East speak languages ​​that have pronounced similarities in the field of sound composition, grammatical structure and vocabulary. The similarity of the Slavic languages ​​is the most important manifestation of their mutual relationship.

Slavic languages ​​belong to the family of Indo-European languages. In addition to the Slavic, Indian (Old Indian: Vedic and Sanskrit, Middle Indian: Pali, Prakrit, New Indian: Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, etc.), Iranian (Old Persian, Avestan, Middle Persian, New Persian, and also Afghan, Tajik, Ossetian, etc.), Germanic (ancient: Gothic, High German, Low German, Anglo-Saxon; modern: German, Dutch, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, etc.), Romanesque (dead Latin and living: French, Italian, Spanish , Romanian, Portuguese, etc.), Celtic languages ​​represented by Irish, Cymric and Breton, Greek (with Ancient Greek and Middle Greek), Armenian, Albanian, Baltic languages ​​and some others.

Of the languages ​​of the Indo-European family, the closest to the Slavic languages ​​are the Baltic ones: modern Lithuanian and Latvian and the extinct Old Prussian.

The Indo-European family of languages ​​was formed through the development of language groups and individual languages, rooted in the common Indo-European language-base (the common Indo-European proto-language). The separation of the Slavic language group from the common Indo-European base language occurred long before our era.

Within the Slavic language group, several groups of languages ​​are distinguished. The most accepted is the division of Slavic languages ​​into 3 groups: East Slavic, South Slavic and West Slavic. The East Slavic group includes Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages; to South Slavic - Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian; to West Slavic - Czech, Slovak, Upper Lusatian, Lower Lusatian, Polish and Kashubian. The vanished Polabian language also belonged to the West Slavic group, the speakers of which, the Polabian Slavs, occupied the territory between the rivers Elbe (in Slavic - Laba), the Oder and the Baltic Sea.

The South Slavic language group includes the Old Slavonic literary language, which has come down in written monuments since the end of the 10th century. He captured the ancient Macedonian-Bulgarian dialect and the features of some Slavic languages ​​that were in the 9th century. in the early stages of its independent history.

The division of Slavic languages ​​into three groups is based on the differences in some of the sound processes that took place in these languages ​​in ancient times, and on the commonality of some trends in their development in a later period.

In addition to facts of a purely linguistic nature, the geographic principle also has a certain significance in dividing the Slavic languages ​​into three groups: the languages ​​of each of the three groups are common in adjacent territories.

Each group of Slavic languages ​​is close to other main Slavic language groups in different ways. East Slavic languages ​​are, in some respects, closer to South Slavic than to West Slavic. This affinity lies mainly in certain sound phenomena that developed even before the appearance of writing (that is, before the 9th century) both in the south and in the east of the Slavic world, but unknown in the west. However, there are also such phenomena that bring the East Slavic languages ​​closer to the West Slavic ones and jointly distinguish the Eastern and Western languages ​​from the southern ones. So, the languages ​​of the Eastern Slavs, which form a compact group with common features, have different points of contact with the South Slavic and West Slavic languages.

The features of similarity, so noticeable in the sound composition, grammatical forms and vocabulary of the Slavic languages, could not be due to their independent, isolated appearance in each of the languages.

The means of expressing language are not related to concepts by nature; between sounds, forms and their meaning there are no necessary, pre-established eternal correspondences.

The initial connection between the sound of linguistic units and their meanings is a conditional connection.

Therefore, the coincidence of several linguistic units taken from different languages, characterized by the sameness or proximity of their meanings, is an important indication of the common origin of these units.

The existence of many similar features in languages ​​is an indication of the relationship of these languages, that is, that they are the result of several different ways of developing the same language that was in use before. In other words, the fact of the similarity of the Slavic languages ​​can be considered as an indication of the existence in the past of a single common source language, from which groups of Slavic languages ​​and individual languages ​​developed in complex and diverse ways.

The material of the Slavic languages ​​provides ample opportunities for reconstructing the stages of their history and makes it possible to trace their development from a single source. If, while exploring the past of the Slavic languages, we delve more and more into antiquity, it becomes obvious that the older the era, the greater the similarity between individual languages, the closer they are to each other in sound composition, grammar and vocabulary. This leads to the idea of ​​the existence of such a state of languages ​​in which they had a common sound composition, a common grammatical system, a common vocabulary and, therefore, constituted a common group of related languages ​​or one common language, from which separate languages ​​subsequently developed. Such a common language cannot be restored in all its details, but many of its features have been restored, and the reality of the existence of this language is now beyond doubt. The source language of the Slavic languages, theoretically restored for scientific purposes by means of comparative historical linguistics, is called the common Slavic base language or Proto-Slavic language.

The existence of a base language among the Slavs, in turn, implies the existence in antiquity of a single tribe or group of tribes that gave rise to the Slavic peoples and nations of a later time.

The questions of the origin of the Slavs and their ancient history contain many difficulties, and far from everything in this area has yet been finally resolved.

The first reliable references to the Slavs belong to ancient writers and date back to the 1st and 2nd centuries of our era. From more ancient eras of the life of the Slavs, no other evidence has come down, except for archaeological finds discovered during excavations of ancient settlements and burials, which reveal some features of the material culture of early historical Slavic settlements (for example, the type of pottery, the type of buildings, household tools, jewelry, the method of burial of the dead etc.).

Based on the study of archaeological data, it has been established that the most ancient Slavic tribes developed on the territory of Eastern Europe during the millennia preceding the beginning of our era.

According to the majority of Soviet, Polish and Czechoslovak scientists, the origins of Slavic history should be sought at the end of the 3rd and in the 2nd millennium BC, when agricultural and pastoral tribes settled in the vast expanses between the Dnieper, Carpathians, Oder and the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, united by a common feature their material culture. Later, at the end of the II millennium and in the I millennium BC. e., on the same territory inhabited by agricultural tribes, which are considered the early Slavic tribes. These tribes were in close contact with the Thracian, Illyrian, Finno-Ugric, Scythian and other neighboring tribes, some of which were subsequently assimilated by the Slavs. The result of this process was the formation at the turn of our era of the main groups of early Slavic tribes that occupied the Vistula basin, the Dnieper region and the Northern Carpathian region. The authors of the beginning of our era knew the tribe of Wends in these places. Later, in the 6th century, the existence of two large Slavic associations was noted here - the Slavs and the Antes.

The language of the ancient Slavic tribes that formed in the vast expanses of Eastern Europe was very stable for a long time (until the era of the collapse of Slavic unity), which resulted in the long-term unchanged preservation of a number of linguistic facts. Probably, the mutual contact between the tribes was so close that the dialectal differences did not stand out too sharply.

However, this language should not be imagined as some absolutely immovable unity. Related dialects, somewhat different from each other, existed in it. They were in interaction with the languages ​​of the nearest foreign neighbors. It has been established that some borrowings from neighboring languages ​​penetrated into the Common Slavic language, which later became part of all or many Slavic languages, for example, from Germanic languages ​​(Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. prince, bulg. prince, Serbohorv. knez"prince", "ruler of the region", Slovenian. knez , Czech kněz "prince", "priest", Slovak. kňaz, pol. książę „prince“, Upper Lud. and lower luzh. kńez "master", "father"; Russian hut, bulg. hut"dugout", "hut", "hut", Serbohorv. hut"room", "cellar", Slovenian. isba "room", Czech. izba "room", "hut", floor. izba "hut", "room", upper-luzh. jspa, spa, lowerluzh. Spa, porridge. jizba (in the same meanings); from Iranian languages ​​(for example, Rus. axe, Belarusian, tapor, Slovenian topor, Czech. topor "axe", upper meadow. toporo, Slovak. topor, pol., topòr) 1 . The wide distribution of identical foreign borrowings throughout the Slavic languages ​​is sometimes regarded as an indication of the duration of the era of ancient Slavic unity 2 .

When establishing linguistic kinship, special attention is paid to the grammatical structure of languages ​​and their sound system. The most reliable criterion for the relative proximity of the compared languages ​​is the proximity of the grammatical structure, since of all aspects of the language, the grammatical structure is the most stable and is characterized by an extremely gradual and slow pace of development.

An important manifestation of kinship is also the similarity in the vocabulary of languages, expressed in the similarity of the ancient roots of words and other word-forming elements or whole words, provided that the grammatical structure of the languages ​​from which these language units are extracted gives the right to consider these languages ​​as related. The material closeness of roots, grammatical formatives and whole words complements and reinforces the evidence of linguistic kinship.

This paper examines some phenomena in the field of vocabulary, indicating the proximity between the Slavic languages ​​in our time and their origin from a single source. A number of examples have been selected from the many thousands of lexical composition of the Slavic languages, illustrating the main ways and processes of development of the most ancient Slavic vocabulary and showing the emergence of new vocabulary features in languages, the complexity of family ties between individual languages ​​in the field of vocabulary.

To determine the ways of vocabulary development, it is extremely important to establish the nature and boundaries of the original, Proto-Slavic vocabulary as a starting point in the history of many words.

The ancient dictionary, of course, cannot be restored in its entirety. The development of languages ​​from a single source need not be understood in a straightforward and simplistic way. In the process of the historical development of a language from epoch to epoch, the words included in it change greatly; the very composition of the dictionary is updated: it includes more and more new units, while others gradually disappear. In the vocabulary of each individual language from the group of related languages, there is a lot of changed and new, and at the same time, much is missing from what was in the base language. At the same time, the facts of the language, lost without a trace, cannot be restored, since the restoration is done on the basis of those traces that remained in the languages ​​from the ancient era.

Different areas of the language develop unevenly. As for the dictionary, this area is characterized by features of particular mobility and variability. “Life contributes to the change of vocabulary by increasing the number of causes acting on words. Social relations, specialty, tools of labor change the vocabulary, banish old words or change their meanings, require the creation of new words. The activity of consciousness constantly receives new impulses to work on the vocabulary. In short, there is not a single area where the causes of changes in phenomena would be more complex, numerous and diverse,” wrote the French linguist J. Vandries 3 .

The lexical side of the language is very susceptible to foreign borrowings and extremely permeable to them. Therefore, when we encounter words in several languages ​​that are similar both in sound composition and in meaning, we must first of all resolve the question of whether this is the result of borrowing one language from another.

Concerning the question of the possibility of restoring the oldest Indo-European vocabulary, the French linguist A. Meillet noted: “Vocabulary is the most unstable in the language. Words can disappear for a variety of reasons and be replaced by new ones. The original vocabulary may include new words that outnumber the old ones. So, in English, elements of Latin and French, which are not inferior to it in volume, were superimposed on the Germanic layer of vocabulary. It even happens that all vocabulary belongs to a different group than grammar; this is how things stand in the language of the Armenian Gypsies: the grammar and phonetics in their language are entirely Armenian, and the vocabulary is completely Gypsy” 4 .

Meillet's remark about the difficulty of restoring the general vocabulary of the Indo-European languages ​​can to a certain extent be applied to the Slavic languages ​​as well.

Along with the disintegration of the common Slavic base language into separate languages, several words were formed from the same word, related to each other by a common origin, existing simultaneously, but within different language systems. But one cannot think that all lexical phenomena, coinciding in several or in all Slavic languages, developed from a single language, attributable to the period of the initial community. Slavic languages ​​throughout their history interacted with the languages ​​of neighboring peoples, being influenced by them. After the emergence of writing, the vocabulary features of the Church Slavonic language, isolated Slavic languages ​​of neighboring groups, many foreign words, and international vocabulary penetrated into them through the literary languages.

However, despite all the outside influences, the oldest vocabulary of the Slavic languages ​​has been preserved in a significant amount - incomparably more than the Indo-European vocabulary found in modern Indo-European languages. The Slavic dictionary has not experienced major changes during the period of its existence. Along with the entry of a certain number of easily assimilated foreign words and the loss of a number of ancient words in the Slavic languages, the ancient lexical fund was preserved, revised and enriched.

It is very important to understand how the original Slavic vocabulary can be separated from earlier and later dictionary borrowings.

The high prevalence of the word in related languages ​​cannot yet serve as an indication of its originality and non-borrowed character (compare the borrowings of the common Slavic period cited above, which are widely represented in modern Slavic languages).

The most general requirement for separating native words from borrowed ones is to find genetically identical (or etymologically identical) language units in several languages, that is, units that go back to the same unit and are the result of its different development in individual languages.

Genetic identity does not imply a complete qualitative match. These units must be similar in sound terms, and the sound similarity must be based on regular regular sound correspondences observed not only in this example, but in a whole group of linguistic phenomena.

Such linguistic units can be, first of all, individual morphemes, i.e. roots, suffixes, prefixes, endings, and then compounds of morphemes - whole words.

For example, the Russian word powder, Ukrainian powder"dust", "gunpowder", Belarusian pores"gunpowder", Bulgarian dust"dust", "powder", "dust", Serbo-Croatian dust"dust", "gunpowder", "powder", Slovenian prah "dust", "gunpowder", Czech prach "dust", "fluff", "gunpowder", Slovak prach "dust", "gunpowder", Polish proch "gunpowder" ', 'dust', 'dust', Upper Lusatian and Lower Lusatian proch 'mote', 'dust', 'dust', 'gunpowder', Kashubian proh 'ash', 'dust', 'gunpowder' can be considered genetically identical and primordially Slavic words, since all these words are connected by threads going to each of them (directly or through intermediate stages) from their Proto-Slavic source - the word *porch, restored on the basis of modern Slavic words developed from it. Conventionally and schematically, the history of these words can be represented as follows:

The change in the original *porch in individual languages ​​is strictly subject to the well-known law of sound correspondences, covering a large group of Slavic words. According to this law, East Slavic combinations oro between consonants correspond South Slavic, as well as Czech and Slovak combinations ra and northwestern - Polish, Lusatian and Kashubian - combinations ro(Belarusian combination ora in the word pores is a consequence of the akanya of the Belarusian language, reflected in its orthography). This correspondence is a consequence of the different development of the ancient long syllable or in the middle of a word between consonants in different local conditions.

An important requirement for the original words of this group of languages ​​is also the commonality of the morphological articulation of words or the presence of common moments in their morphological articulation.

Word powder, which in terms of word formation is currently a root with a zero ending, historically was a combination of morphemes, erected to the period of the common Indo-European language-base. However, the root of the word powder coincides not only with the roots of genetically identical Slavic words, but also with the roots of the words of the Indo-European languages ​​that are close to them. Thus, common moments are found in the morphological articulation of the word not only in Slavic, but also in Indo-European soil, which clearly indicates the primordial nature of this word and that the proximity of the corresponding words in related languages ​​is not a consequence of borrowing.

Morphemes and words are meaningful units of a language. The semantic (semantic) correspondences of units having the same origin (genetically identical) presented in related languages ​​should be as accurate as sound correspondences.

The boundaries between languages, the separate use of related languages, make the vocabulary of each of them devoid of direct and living relations with the vocabulary of other languages.

Under these conditions, the original ancient words in related languages ​​often acquire different semantic development. The differences that arise between them are formed by the gradual accumulation of a new quality and the gradual death of the old quality in the process of transferring the language from generation to generation. Changes in the initial values ​​sometimes reach great depths.

In such cases, it may be necessary to explain the relationships of meanings that take place in modern languages, and to prove their development from a single ancient meaning through semantic transitions, the probability of which cannot be in doubt.

For Russian powder and Bulgarian dust characteristic is not only a sound similarity based on the phonetic features of the Russian and Bulgarian languages, but also a semantic connection, the existence of which becomes an indisputable fact as soon as we turn to the history of these words.

There are common points in the semantics of Russian and Bulgarian words even now: the meanings “gunpowder” and “powder”, “dust” are united by the idea of ​​loose bodies or individual small particles of a solid substance, but in ancient times the Bulgarian and Russian meanings completely coincided: Old Russian powder meant "dust" (cf. in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign": Behold, Stribozh vnutsi, vlyut ... cover the fields of pigs). Later, with the advent of gunpowder, in the Russian language there was a narrowing of the semantics of the word powder, the specialization of its meaning and the loss of the original meaning of “dust”, “powder” (in Ukrainian, Slovenian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Lusatian and Kashubian languages, both the old and the new meanings of this word simultaneously exist).

The connection between the meanings of the words of the group under consideration finally convinces us that we are dealing with facts that developed in different ways from the same source, i.e., genetically identical. Thus, along with the principle of phonetic and structural explainability, it is necessary to keep in mind the principle of semantic explainability of relationships between compared units.

Guided by these basic requirements, it is possible with sufficient certainty to distinguish words, the commonality of which to given languages ​​is based on the relationship of these languages, from words common to them of another origin (loanwords).

In the Slavic languages, a striking unity is noted in relation to a number of words inherited from ancient times. Each of the words of this group has either the same or very similar sound composition in modern languages. A special linguistic analysis, the main requirements of which are mentioned above, establishes the original nature of these words and their origin from common sources. The meanings of each word from the group of genetically related words are basically the same in languages: they have the same subject correlation and can differ in languages ​​only by the difference in connections with other words.

The commonality of a large group of words for all Slavic languages ​​is a very clear manifestation of their proximity to each other. These common words, coinciding in the Slavic languages, can be used as material for restoring the elements of the vocabulary of the common Slavic language-base (Proto-Slavic language).

Among the numerous common Slavic words of ancient origin, a number of semantic groups of words stand out noticeably, characterized by features of special stability. These are the names of kinship relationships, natural objects and phenomena, human and animal body parts, agricultural crops, domestic and wild animals, fish, household activities, the most important simple actions, and some others 5.

So, for example, the concept of a genus as a series of generations descending from one ancestor is denoted in the same way in the Slavic languages: cf. Russian genus, Ukrainian рід, Belarusian. genus, bulg. and Serbohorv. genus, Slovenian rod, Czech. and Slovak. rod, upper luzh. ród, lower service rod, gender rod, porridge. rod. Russian word tribe in many Slavic languages, words similar in sound correspond: Ukr. tribe, Belarusian. tribe, bulg. tribe, Serbohorv. tribe, Slovenian pleme, Czech. plemě, Slovak. plema, pol. plemic. Some difference in the sound composition is explained by the different fate of the final sound of this word in the Slavic languages, which in the ancient period was pronounced as a nasal vowel.

The similarity in the sound of the main designations of kinship is obvious: cf. Russian mother, Ukrainian mother, Belarusian. matsi, bulg. T-shirt, Serbohorv. T-shirt, Slovenian mati, Czech. and Slovak. matka, lower luzh. maś, upper-luzh. mac, pol. matka, porridge. mac; Russian about calf, Belarusian. hello, Serbohorv. father, Slovenian oh, Czech. and Slovak. otec, lower service wóśc, pol. ojciec, porridge. wœjc; Russian son, Ukrainian syn, Belarusian. son, bulg. syn, Serbohorv. syn, Slovenian sin, Czech. and Slovak. syn, lower service and upper. syn, pol. syn, porridge. sin; Russian daughter, Ukrainian and Belarusian. daughter, bulg. daughter, Serbohorv. kћi, Slovenian hči, Czech. dcera, Slovak dcera, pol. corka "daughter"; Russian brother, Ukrainian brother, Belarusian. brother, bulg. brother, Serbohorv. brother, Slovenian brother, Czech. bratr, Slovak brat, lower service brat, upper brother, pol. bro, porridge. brother; Russian sister, Ukrainian sister, Belarusian. sistra, bulg. sister, Serbohorv. sister, Slovenian sestra, Czech. and Slovak. sestra, lower service sostra, sotša, upper puddle. sotra, pol. siostra, porridge. sostra.

The Slavic languages ​​retain much in common in the names of the sky, heavenly bodies, and some natural phenomena: cf. Russian and Ukrainian sky, Belarusian. sky, bulg. sky, Serbohorv. sky, Slovenian sky, Czech nebe, Slovak nebo, upper puddle. njebjo, pol. niebo, porridge. ńebœe; Russian and Belarusian. month, Ukrainian month, bulg. month, Slovenian mesec, Serbohorv. month, Czech mĕsic, Slovak mesiac, upper luzh. mĕsac, pol. miesiąc "calendar month", Kash. mjeso;¸; Russian sun, Ukrainian sun, Belarusian. sun, bulg. slantse, Serbohorv. sunce, Slovenian sonce, Czech. slunce, Slovak slnce, upper luzh. slónco, Lower Luzh. slyńco, pol. slońce; Russian wind, Ukrainian wind, Belarusian. evening, bulg. vyatar, Serbohorv. wind, Slovenian wind, Czech vitr, Slovak. vietor, upper luzh. wĕtr, lower service wĕtš, pol. wiatr, porridge. vjater; in the names of body parts, for example: Rus. and Ukrainian head, Belarusian. galava, bulg. and Serbohorv. chapter, Slovenian chapter, Czech. and Slovak. hlava, upper luzh. hłowa, Lower Luzh. głowa, pol. głowa, porridge. głova; Russian Ukrainian and Belarusian. hand, bulg. rka, Serbohorv. hand, Slovenian roka, Czech. and Slovak. ruka, upper luzh. and lower luzh. ruka, pol. ręka, porridge. rąka; Russian and Ukrainian leg, Belarusian. naga, bulg. dialectal leg(under the general Bulgarian krak), Serbohorv. leg, Slovenian noga, Czech. noha, upper meadow. noha, lower service noga, pol. noga, porridge. noga; Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. tooth, Bulgarian zb, Serbohorv. tooth, Slovenian zob, Czech. and Slovak. tooth, upper luzh. and lower luzh. teeth, pol. ząb, porridge. zab; pyc. yxo, Ukrainian in ear, Belarusian. woah, bulg. ear, Serbohorv. ear, Slovenian uho, Czech. and Slovak. ucho, upper-luzh. wucho, lower luzh. hucho, pol. ucho, porridge. wxœu; Russian a heart, Ukrainian heart, Belarusian. heart, bulg. sirce, Serbohorv. srce, Slovenian srce, Czech. and Slovak. srdce, lower luzh. serce, pol. and porridge. heart.

Basically, many agricultural crops are called the same among the Slavs. Wed Russian wheat, Ukrainian wheat, Belarusian. wheat, bulg. wheat, Serbohorv. wheat, Slovenian psenica. Czech pšenice, Slovak pšenica, Lower Luzh. pšenica, upper pšenica. pšeńca, pol. pszenica, porridge. pseńica; Russian barley, Ukrainian barley, Belarusian, barley, bulg. echemik, Serbohorv. Yesham, Slovenian. ječmen, Czech. ječmen, Slovak jačmeň, Lower Luzh. jacm;´, upper puddle. ječmjeń, pol. jęczmień, porridge. jičme; Russian millet, Ukrainian millet, Belarusian. millet, bulg. millet, Serbohorv. millet, Slovenian proso, Czech. proso, Slovak proso, lower service pšoso, upper meadow. proso, pol. proso, porridge. proso; Russian rye, bulg. rzh, Serbohorv. rage, Slovenian rž, Czech. rež, Slovak raž, lower service rež, upper service rež, porridge. rež; Russian oats, Ukrainian oats, Belarusian. and weight, bulg. oats, Serbohorv. about you, Slovenian oves, Czech. oves, Slovak ovos, lower service hows, upper puddle. wows, pol. owies, porridge. wòvs; Russian peas, Ukrainian peas, Belarusian. peas, bulg. grah, Serbohorv. grah, Slovenian grah, Czech. hrach, Slovak hrach, lower service groch, upper puddle. hroch, pol. groch, porridge. grox; Russian linen, Ukrainian lion, Belarusian. linen, bulg. linen, Serbohorv. lan, Slovenian lan, Czech. len, Slovak ľan, lower service lan, upper len, floor. len, porridge. len.

A great similarity is also observed in the names of some domestic animals in modern Slavic languages. Wed Russian word pig, Ukrainian pig, Belarusian. swine, bulg. pig, Serbohorv. pig, Slovenian svinja, Czech. svinĕ, Slovak sviňa, Lower Luzh. swińa, upper meadow. swinjo, pol. świnia, porridge. swina; Russian cow, Ukrainian cow, Belarusian. karova, bulg. crava, Serbohorv. crava, Slovenian krava, Czech. Krava, Slovak krava, upper luzh. kruwa, lower service krowa, pol. krowa, porridge. crova; Russian sheep, Ukrainian ever, Belarusian. avechka, bulg. sheep, Serbohorv. sheep, Slovenian ovca, Czech. ovce, Slovak ovca, lower luzh. wojca, upper meadow. wowca, pol. owca, porridge. wœwca; Russian goat, Ukrainian goat, Belarusian. kaza, bulg. goat, Serbohorv. goat, Slovenian koza, Czech. koza, Slovak koza, lower luzh. koza, pol. koza, porridge. kœza; Russian horse, Ukrainian kin, Belarusian, horse, bulg. con, Serbohorv. which, Slovenian konj, Czech. kůň, Slovak kôň, lower service. kóń, upper luzh. koń, pol. koń, porridge. kòń; Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. dog, bulg. dog, ps, Serbohorv. pass, Slovenian pes, Czech. pes, upper meadow. and lower luzh. pjas, pol. pies, porridge. pjes.

From Proto-Slavic times, such words from the field of cattle breeding as herd, shepherd, hay have survived to this day. Wed Russian herd, Ukrainian herd, Belarusian. herd, bulg. herd, Serbohorv. herd, Czech stado, Slovak stado, lower service stado, stadło, upper puddle. stadło, pol. herd; Russian shepherd, Ukrainian shepherd, Belarusian. shepherd, bulg. pastor, Slovenian pastir, Czech. pastyr, Slovak pastier, lower luzh. pastyŕ, upper-luzh. pastyŕ, pol. pastuch, pasterz, porridge. pastur; Russian hay, Ukrainian blue, Belarusian. hay, bulg. hay, Serbohorv. hay, Slovenian seno, Czech. seno, Slovak seno, lower luzh. seno, pol. siano, porridge. sano.

For the names of objects associated with hunting, there were also many words in Proto-Slavic that have survived to this day in all Slavic languages. These are the names of hunting tools, the names of wild animals, etc. Cf. Russian onion, Ukrainian onion, Belarusian. onion, bulg. lac, Serbohorv. onion, Slovenian lok, Czech. luk, upper meadow. wobluk, pol. Luk; Russian arrow, Ukrainian arrow, Belarusian. strala, bulg. arrow, Serbohorv. arrow, Slovenian strela, Czech. strela, Slovak strela, lower service stśĕła, upper meadow. třĕla, pol. strzala; Russian boar, "wild boar", Ukrainian vepyr, Belarusian. vyapruk, bulg. vepar, Serbohorv. vepar, Slovenian veper, Czech. vepř, Slovak vepor, pol. wieprz, Lower Luzh. wjapś, upper meadow. vjaps; Russian a fox, Ukrainian fox, fox, bald, Belarusian. fox, lіs, bulg. fox, Serbohorv. fox, Slovenian lisa, Czech. liška, Slovak líška, Lower Luzh. liška, upper meadow. lis, lišak, pol. lis, lisica, porridge. lés, léseca; Russian beaver (beaver), Ukrainian bob r, Belarusian. baber, bulg. bber, Slovenian beber, Serbohorv. dabar, Czech bobr, Slovak bobor, lower luzh. and upper. beaver, pol. bóbr, porridge. bœbr; Russian deer, Ukrainian deer, Belarusian. scarlet, bulg. elen, Serbohorv. jelen, Slovenian Jelen, Czech. jelen, Slovak jeleň, lower service. jeleń, pol. jeleń, porridge. jeleń. Words for expressing concepts related to fishing: Rus. seine, Ukrainian nevid, Belarusian. nevada, bulg. seine, Czech nevod, lower luzh. navod, floor. niewod; Russian merezha, Ukrainian merezha, bulg. margin, Serbohorv. margin, Slovenian mreza, Czech. mříže, Slovak mreza, pol. mrzeža, porridge. mřeža; Russian top, Belarusian. top, Ukrainian top, Slovenian vrsa, Czech. vrse, Slovak vrša, lower luzh. w;´, upper luzh. wjersa, pol. wiersza; Russian good luck, Ukrainian vudka(obsolete), Belarusian. wood, bulg. vditsa, Serbohorv. uditsa, Czech udice "hook", Slov. udica, upper meadow. wuda, lower luzh. huda, pol. weda; Russian fish, Ukrainian riba, Belarusian. fish, bulg. riba, Serbohorv. riba, Slovenian riba, Czech and gender. fish, porridge reba; Russian caviar, Ukrainian caviar, Belarusian. caviar, Serbohorv. caviar, Czech jikra, upper meadow. jikra, lower service jekr, pol. ikra; Russian sturgeon, Ukrainian sturgeon, jaster, Belarusian. acetre, bulg. sestra, Serbohorv. Jesetra, Czech Jeseter, Slovak jesetr, lower luzh. jesotr, pol. jesiotr, porridge. jesoter; Russian perch, Ukrainian perch, Belarusian. shark, Slovenian okun, Czech. okoun, Slovak okún, lower service hokuń, pol. okoń; Russian catfish, Ukrainian catfish, sum, bulg. catfish, Serbohorv. catfish, Slovenian som, Czech. sumec, pol. sum.

In ancient times, the Slavic tribes were familiar with the manufacture of pottery, as evidenced not only by finds during excavations, but also by the widespread use of pottery terms in modern Slavic languages. Wed Russian potter, Ukrainian potter, Belarusian. ganchar, bulg. granchar, Serbohorv. grnchar, Czech hrnčiř, Slovak hrnčiar, upper puddle. hornčes, pol. garncarz. Of the many words related to spinning and weaving, we note the spindle, the canvas: cf. Russian and Ukrainian spindle, bulg. screwed, Serbohorv. screwed, Slovenian vreteno, Czech. vřeteno, Slovak vreteno, upper puddle. wrječeno, Lower Luzh. reśeno, pol. wrzeciono; Russian and Ukrainian canvas, bulg. for a fee, Serbohorv. for a fee, Slovenian platno, Czech. platno, Slovak platno, upper meadow. płótno, Lower Luzh. płotno, floor. płótno, porridge. płotno.

In the Slavic languages, some primordially Slavic, which appeared in ancient times, the names of abstract concepts and mental processes are very common. Wed Russian truth, Ukrainian truth, Belarusian. truth, bulg. truth"right", Serbohorv. truth, Slovenian pravda "court", "trial", Czech. and Slovak. pravda, upper-luzh. prawda, lower luzh. pšawda, pol. right; Russian Vera, Ukrainian faith, Belarusian. Vera, bulg. vara, Serbohorv. Vera, Slovenian vera, Czech. víra, upper meadow. and lower luzh. wera, pol. wiara, porridge. vjara; Russian joy, Ukrainian joy, Belarusian. rejoice, bulg. joy, Serbohorv. joy, Slovenian joyst, czech. and Slovak. radost, upper meadow. and lower luzh. radosć, pol. radość; Russian fear, Ukrainian fear, Belarusian. fear, bulg. and Serbohorv. fear, Slovenian strah, Czech. and Slovak. strach, upper luzh. strach, lower luzh. tšach, pol. strach, porridge. strax; Russian memory, Ukrainian memory, Belarusian. memory, bulg. pamet, Serbohorv. pamet, Czech paměť, Slovak. pamäť, upper meadow. pomjatk, pol. pamięć, porridge. pamjac; Russian thought, Belarusian. thought, bulg. misal, Serbohorv. misao, Slovenian misel, upper-luzh. and lower luzh. mysľ, Czech. mysl, Slovak myšlienka, pol. myśl, porridge. mesl 6 .

Among the names of signs, some words denoting the physical properties of objects, such as color, are still widely used in Slavic languages: cf. Russian white, Ukrainian white, Belarusian. white, bulg. byal, Serbohorv. beo, Slovenian bel, Czech, bílý, Slovak. biely, upper puddle. and lower luzh. běły, pol. bialy, porridge. bjeły; Russian yellow, Ukrainian Zhovty, Belarusian. zhouty, bulg. zhult, Serbo-Croat. creepy, Slovenian žolt, Czech. žluty, Slovak žltỳ, upper-luzh. žołty, pol. żółty, porridge. žêłti; pyc. green, Ukrainian greenery, Belarusian. green, bulg. green, Serbohorv. green, Slovenian green, Czech green, Slovak zelený, upper meadow. and lower luzh. green, floor. zielony, porridge. zelony; physical features of living beings, for example: Rus. healthy, Ukrainian health, Belarusian. healthy, bulg. healthy, Serbohorv. healthy, Slovenian, zdrav, Czech, zdravý, Slovak zdravý, upper-luzh. and lower luzh. stringy, pol. zdrowy, porridge. zdròv; Russian thick, Ukrainian tovstiy, Belarusian. toasty, bulg. tlst, Serbohorv. Tust, Slovenian thick, Czech. tlustý, Slovak tlstý, upper-luzh. tołsty, Lower Luzh. tłusty, kłusty, pol. tłusty, porridge. tlesti; Russian weak, Ukrainian weak, weak, Belarusian. weak, bulg. and Serbohorv. weak, Slovenian slab, Czech and Slovak. slabý, upper luzh. and lower luzh. slaby, floor. slaby, porridge. slaby.

The Slavic peoples still use many names for actions and states that arose long before the separation of the Slavic languages. These include, for example, the verbs: there is(cf. Ukrainian isti, Belarusian. esci, bulg. pits, Serbohorv. eat, Slovenian jesti, Czech. jisti, Slovak. jesť, upper meadow. and lower luzh. jěsć, pol. jeść, porridge. jèsc), to live (cf. Ukrainian. live, Belarusian. zhyts, bulg. alive, Serbohorv. live, Slovenian živeti, Czech. žìti, Slovak žiť, upper meadow. žić, lower service žywiš, pol. Zyć, porridge. zec); some verbs of motion, for example: Rus. go, Ukrainian go, Belarusian. isci, bulg. Ida, Serbohorv. and, Slovenian iti, Czech. jiti, Slovak ìsť, pol. iść, porridge. jic; Russian lead, drive, Ukrainian lead, drive, Belarusian. weighty, vadzits, bulg. leading, Serbohorv. drive, Slovenian voditi, Czech. voditi, Slovak viesť, vodiť, upper puddle. wodźić, Lower Luzh. wjasć, pol. wieść, porridge. vjesc; Russian drive, Ukrainian drive, Belarusian. gnats, bulg. driving, Serbohorv. chase, Slovenian goniti, Czech. honiti, Slovak hnať, upper luzh. hnać, lower service gnaś, pol. gnać, gonić, porridge. gœńic; some names denoting various specific actions directed at physical objects, for example cf. Russian cut, Ukrainian rіzati, Belarusian. cut, bulg. cutting, Serbohorv. cut, Slovenian rezati, Czech. řezati, Slovak rezať, upper luzh. rězać, lower service rězaś, pol. rzezać; Russian forge, Ukrainian Kuwati, Belarusian. quote, bulg. kova, Serbohorv. forge, Slovenian kovati, Czech. kovati, Slovak kovať, upper meadow. kować, lower service kovaś, pol. kuć, kować, porridge. kœvac; Russian wash, Ukrainian wash, Belarusian. myts, bulg. mia, Serbohorv. miti, Slovenian miti, Czech. mýti, Slovak myť, upper luzh. myć, lower service myś, pol. myć, porridge. mec; Russian bake, Ukrainian pekti, Belarusian. heels, bulg. pitch, Serbohorv. songs, Slovenian peci, Czech. péci, Slovak pec, upper luzh. pjec, lower luzh. pjac, pol. piec, porridge. pjec; Russian weave, Ukrainian weave, Belarusian. weave, bulg. tka, Serbohorv. weave, Slovenian tkati, Czech. tkati, Slovak tkať, upper meadow. tkać, lower service tkaś, pol. tkać, porridge. tkac; Russian sew, Ukrainian sewy, Belarusian. shy, bulg. shia, Serbohorv. sewy, Slovenian šiti, Czech. šíti, Slovak. šiť, upper meadow. šić, Lower Luzh. šyś, pol. szyć, porridge. sec.

Common in all Slavic languages ​​are words denoting almost all the most important types of agricultural work. Wed Old Russian yell"plow", Ukrainian yell, Belarusian. arats, bulg. ora, Serbohorv. yell, Slovenian orati, Czech. orati, Slovak orať, pol. orac; Russian sow, Ukrainian sit, Belarusian. sow, bulg. sowing, Serbohorv. sow, Slovenian sejati, Czech. siti, Slovak siať, lower service seś, pol. siać, porridge. sôc; Russian reap, Ukrainian reap, Belarusian. zhats, bulg. life, Serbohorv. zheti, Slovenian Zeti, Slovak. žať, Czech. žiti, lower service žněš, upper meadow. Zeć, pol. żąć, porridge. žic; Russian thresh, Ukrainian thresh, Belarusian. malatsia, bulg. mlatya"beat, beat", Serbohorv. mlatiti, Slovenian mlatiti, Czech. mlatiti, Slovak mlatiť, lower service. młóśiś, upper meadow. młóćić, pol. młócić; Russian winnow, Ukrainian viati, Belarusian. winnow, bulg. way, Serbohorv. vejati, Slovenian vejati, Czech. váti, Slovak. viať, lower service wjaś, upper-luzh. wěć, pol. wiać, porridge. vjôc; Russian grind, Ukrainian grind, Belarusian. little, bulg. grinding, Serbohorv. fly away, Slovenian mleti, Czech. mliti, Slovak mlieť, lower service. młaś, upper meadow. mlěć, pol. mlec, porridge. mlec.

Of the names of actions related to cattle breeding, the verb is well preserved in languages. graze: cf. Russian graze, Ukrainian graze, Belarusian. pastor, bulg. pass, Serbohorv. graze, Slovenian pasti, Czech. pasti, Slovak pásť, lower service pastwiś, upper-luzh. pastwić, pol. paść, pasać, porridge. pasc.

The same vocabulary for all Slavic languages ​​is also found among numerals, pronouns, adverbs, and interjections. A number of basic prepositions, conjunctions, particles can be added to them.

The wide distribution of these words in the Slavic languages, the genetic identity of each group of words with close sounds and meanings, the features of their morphological structure are indicators that all these words were the property of the Slavic language even in the era of their initial community.

These words convey to our time the stock of representations fixed in the language, transmitted over a number of generations and reflecting the characteristic features of the era of the tribal system with its primitive economic structure. They point to the importance of agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, and fishing in the economy of the ancient Slavs, to the existence of such cultural skills as firing pottery, weaving, sewing, blacksmithing 7 .

The antiquity of the words inherited by the modern Slavic languages ​​from the Proto-Slavic is not the same. The Proto-Slavic language arose on the basis of the ancient Indo-European linguistic heritage, therefore, a linguistic analysis of the original common Slavic words allows us to establish a very distant historical perspective for the development of some of them. Some of these words - most often in their roots - are a legacy of times even more ancient than the era of the Slavic community, and go back to various periods of the existence of the Indo-European language-base in different territories of its distribution. For these words, one can find general parallels attested in ancient monuments or preserved to this day about all Indo-European languages, or in various zones of the Indo-European language area: in the languages ​​of the Baltic, Germanic, Iranian, Indian, etc. (The absence of such parallels does not always mean that they never existed. They may have been lost or not reflected in writing.)

The oldest Indo-European lexical layer primarily includes various words denoting family ties: for example, the Slavic designation of mother (cf. Sanskrit mātár, Greek μήτηρ, Latin māter, Old High German muoter, Armenians, mair "mother", Old Prussian pomatre " stepmother", Latvian māte "mother", Lit. motė "wife", "woman"), daughters (cf. Skt. duhitá, Greek θυγάτηρ, Goth dauhtar, German Tochter, Arm dustr, Lit. duktė) , sisters (cf. Skt. svásā, Latin soror, Goth swistar, German Schwester, Armenians, k;ֹhuyr, Old Prussian swestro, Lit. sesuo), brother (cf. Skt. bhrātar "brother", Greek φράτηρ “member of the phratry”, Latin frāter, Gothic brōthar, German Bruder, Lit. brolis, Latvian brālis “brother”) and many others. The ancient Indo-European origin also has the root of the Slavic word father. This root is attested only by some Indo-European languages ​​(cf. Latin atta "father", Greek αττα "dad", "father", Old High German atto "father", Gothic atta "father", Albanian at "father"); in Proto-Slavic, a suffix was added to the ancient root, which originally had a diminutive coloration (cf. Rus. father), which was subsequently lost.

In the Slavic languages, the old Indo-European roots for the names of the heavenly bodies are also preserved: the month (moon) (cf. Skt. mas, mā́sas "month", "moon", New Persian māh, mang "moon", Greek μήν "month", μήνη 'moon', Latin mensis 'month', Gothic mēna 'moon', German Monat 'month', Albanian muaj 'month', Armenians, amis 'month', Latvian mēness 'moon', 'month', Lit. mėnuo, rnėnesis "moon", "month"), sun (cf. Skt. svàr "sun", "light", "sky", Greek Ηλιος "sun", Latin sōl "sun", German Sonne "sun", Old Prussian saule, Latvian saule, Lit. saulė "sun"); natural phenomena, such as wind (cf. Skt. vātas, vāyú-s "wind", Greek α;'ήτης, Latin ventus, Gothic vinds, German Wind, Old Prussian wetro "wind", Lit. vėtra "storm"); some parts of the human body, such as the ear (cf. Greek ους, Latin auris, Albanian veš, Armenians, unkn, Goth . ausō, German Ohr, Latvian auss, Lit. ausis "ear"); some agricultural crops, such as rye (cf. German Roggen, English gue, Latvian rudzi, Lit. rugiai "rye"), oats ( cf. Skt. avasam "food", Latin. avēna "oats", "fodder grass", Old Prussian. wyse, Latvian. auzas "oats", lit. aviža "oatmeal"), peas (cf. Old High German gers, gires, girst, Latvian gārsa, Lit. garšvė "drowsy"), flax (cf. Greek λίνον, Latin linum, Gothic lein, German Lein "flax", lit. linas "flax stalk"); domestic animals, e.g. sheep (cf. Skt. ávis "sheep", Greek οϊς, Latin ovis, Anglo-Saxon ēow, English ewe, Old Prussian awins "sheep", Latvian auns "ram", Lit. avis "sheep" “), pigs (cf. Skt. sūkarás “pig”, “boar”, Greek υς “pig”, υινος “pig”, Latin sūs “pig”, suinus “pig”, Gothic swein, German Sau, Schwein "pig", Latvian sivēns "pig").

Indo-European roots are preserved in the Slavic names of wild animals, such as deer (cf. Greek ελαφος "deer", Old Prussian alne "animal", Latvian alnis "elk", Lit. elnis, elnias "deer", elne "doe"), boar (cf. Latin aper "boar", "boar", Anglo-Sax. eofor "boar", "boar", German Eber "boar", "boar"), beaver (cf. Skt. babhrūs "brown", Latin fiber "beaver", Anglo-Saxon beofor, Latvian bebrs, Lit. bebras, bebrus "beaver"); hunting implements, such as a bow (cf. Latin laqueus "rope with a loop", "lasso", Dan. laenge "rope loop", Albanian léngor "flexible", Lit. lankas "bow"); some feelings, such as joy (cf. Anglo-Saxon rōt "joyful", "kind", lit. rods "willing"); mental processes, such as memory (cf. Skt. matis, Latin mens "mind", "thinking", "reason", Gothic gamunds "memory", Lit. atmintis "ability to remember"); in the names of some features indicated by adjectives, for example, in the name of white color (cf. Skt. bhālam "shine", Anglo-Saxon bael "fire", Latvian balts "white", Lit. baltas "white", balti "whiten") , yellow (cf. Greek χόλος, χόλή "bile", Latin flāvus "yellowish", "golden", German Galle "bile", Old Prussian galatynam, Latvian dzeltens "yellow", Lit. geltas "yellow" , gelta "yellowness"); in many names of actions denoted by verbs, for example, eat (cf. Skt. átti "eat", Latin edo "eat", Greek εσθίω "eat", Gothic itan, Old Prussian ist "eat", Latvian ēst "eat" ', 'eat', Lit. ėsti, (ėda, ėdė) 'devour', 'devour'), ​​go (cf. Skt. ēti, Greek είμι, Latin eo, Gothic iddja, Lit. eiti), lead (cf. Old Irish feidim “lead”, Old Prussian vestwei “lead”, Latvian vadit “lead”, Lit. vesti “lead”), drive (cf. Skt. hánti “beats”, “hit”, “kills”) , Greek θείνω “beat”, “strike”, Armenian ganem “beat”, “scourge”, Lit. ginti, (gena, ginė) “drive”, “drive out”), to forge (cf. Latin cūdo “to hit ', 'to beat', 'to pound', German hauen 'to beat', 'to chop', 'to hit', Latvian kaut 'to hit', 'forge', Lit. kauti 'to hit', 'forge'), furnace ( Wed Skt pácati “cooks”, “bakes”, “roasts”, Greek πέσσω “bake”, “cook”, Latin coquo, (coxi, coctum) “bake”, “cook”, Albanian pjek “bake ', Latvian zept 'oven', 'to fry', Lit. kepti, (with transposition of consonants) 'oven', 'to fry'), to sow (cf. latin. sero, goth. saian, German saen, lit. sėju „sow“) and many others. others

Some old Indo-European roots continue to exist in the Slavic languages ​​in common forms, in conjunction with Slavic suffixes; for example, the name of a sheep (cf. Latin ovis), heart (cf. Latin cor), month (cf. Greek μήν), sun (cf. Latin sol). From the Indo-European root, which was part of the name of the bull, known, for example, in one of the Baltic languages ​​(cf. Latvian. govs "cow"), the Slavic languages ​​formed derivatives with similar meanings (cf. Bulgarian. govedo"cattle", Serbohorv. goveda"horned cattle", Czech. hovado "cattle", Rus. beef"meat of cattle") 8 .

Thus, much of the Indo-European vocabulary has been preserved in the Proto-Slavic language, although this language material has undergone specific changes on Slavic soil.

The preserved elements of the dictionary, as well as the features of the grammatical structure, close to the grammatical structure of other Indo-European languages, closely connect the Slavic languages ​​​​with other Indo-European languages.

But a number of ancient Indo-European roots are not reflected in Slavic languages. In a different way compared to other Indo-European peoples, the Slavs began to call such animals as a horse, a dog, an ox. The name for fish is also a Slavic neoplasm. The Slavic designations for these concepts do not have convincing parallels in other Indo-European languages.

Many of the most important Slavic words have parallels in the Baltic languages. An outstanding researcher of the Baltic languages ​​prof. As early as 1911, Ya. M. Endzelin noted up to two hundred such parallels 9 . Later this figure was increased. It is very important that in the Baltic and Slavic languages ​​we find not only related roots, but also related words. Some of them are characteristic only for the Baltic and Slavic languages, do not find repetition in other Indo-European languages ​​and are, apparently, the same new formations for the Baltic and Slavic languages, and therefore the most characteristic sign of the close connection of these languages. The existence of a large group of common words brings the Slavic and Baltic languages ​​together, separates these two language groups from other Indo-European ones.

So, for example, instead of various Indo-European names for the hand, the Slavic languages ​​have a special word that is close to the Lithuanian ranka "hand" and to the Lithuanian verb rinkti - "to collect". The Slavic name for the foot is very different from its other Indo-European names, but has a parallel in the Baltic languages: lit. naga means "hoof". like slavic leg, and the Lithuanian naga is derived from the ancient Indo-European name for the nail, which is also preserved in the Slavic and Baltic languages: Rus. nail, Old Prussian. nagutis, lit. nagas, Latvian. nags 10 .

Of the names of body parts, we also note the proximity of the Slavic name of the head (staroslav. chapter, Old Russian. head) or T. galva, the ancient Slavic name for the finger (Staroslav. prst, Old Russian. prst) or T. pirstas.

Of the names of tree species, the Slavic name of linden and lit. liepa.

Among the names of domestic animals, the Slavic and Baltic languages ​​have close names for a cow (cf. Lit. karvė), among the names of fish - close names for catfish (cf. Lit. šamas, Latvian, sams). Among the verbs, we note the closeness of lit. nešti "carry" and the corresponding Slavic verb.

Other elements of the Slavic vocabulary were created on Slavic soil. On the part of the sound and morphological composition, they differ significantly from the corresponding words in other Indo-European languages, including the Baltic ones, and are purely Slavic vocabulary phenomena.

Some Slavic neoplasms are easy to dissect into component parts, parallels for which are found within the Slavic language material; it is also possible to establish the attributes of objects that form the basis of their names, i.e., to determine the way of expressing a concept through a word. So, among the names of agricultural crops listed above, a purely Slavic neoplasm is the word wheat(in Old Slavic language wheat). The root of this word is usually brought closer to the root of the Slavic verb Phat(old Slav. phati) “kick”, “push”, “press” 11 . Apparently, wheat in the Slavic languages ​​got its name on the basis of the processing it was subjected to to obtain flour: it was pounded in a mortar.

In the Slavic languages, as well as in the Baltic and Germanic ones, there is no former name for the bear, attested by the ancient Indo-European languages ​​(cf., for example, Greek άρκος, Latin ursus); it has been replaced in these languages ​​by various other words. The Slavic name of the bear is formed from two roots (the root of the word honey and word root there is) and originally meant "an animal that eats honey". This name of the bear is borrowed, apparently, from the practice of hunters, who, according to the custom associated with dictionary taboo and well known among many peoples, prefer to change the names of living creatures. (Perhaps for the same reason, the Slavs created new names for other animals, such as a hare. A. Meie believes that the name of the hare in the Slavic languages ​​replaced the more ancient, Indo-European; the Slavic designation of the hare is unclear in origin 12.)

The Indo-European designations of the snake were supplanted in the Slavic languages ​​by new ones, formed either from the root of the word Earth(Staroslav. Zmi), or from the root of a word denoting something repulsive (Staroslav. gad) (while the name of the snake has a correspondence in Lit. angis and Latin. anguis "snake") 2 . (The tendency to change the names of living creatures takes place in our time. So, for the name of the snake in Russian local dialects, substitutions again appear. Compare the name skinny, noted by S. A. Koporsky in the Ostashkovsky district of the Kalinin region. thirteen)

Among the names of fish, a purely Slavic character is called perch. It clearly stands out the root, common with the word eye: This fish is named after its large eyes.

Among the names of crafts presented in our list in the common Slavic era, the word potter(in Old Slavic language granchar), the root of which is associated with the verb burn(same as word root bugle, pot).

Thus, there are no grounds for projecting all words of an original nature that coincide in modern languages ​​onto one plane, that is, to associate their occurrence with one specific era. The difference in the duration of their existence in languages ​​can be calculated in millennia.

Our list of words of ancient origin, used in all modern Slavic languages, contains only a small part of the significant vocabulary layer inherited from ancient eras. Bulgarian linguist prof. I. Lekov believes that, according to approximate data, about 1120 words now belong to the general vocabulary of the Slavic languages. Only in 320 cases did he notice a partial violation of this unity in individual languages ​​or their groups 1 4 . Acad. T. Ler-Splavinsky calculated that for the three Slavic languages ​​- Polish, Czech and Russian - almost two-thirds of the most commonly used vocabulary fund is common. By comparing the common Slavic vocabulary, identified on the basis of special studies, with a vocabulary typical of modern literary vocabulary, he established that more than 1,700 ancient Slavic words have been preserved in the Polish language, that is, about one quarter of the entire active vocabulary of an educated Pole. About one-tenth of these words refer in their meaning to the inner, spiritual life of man, while more than eight-tenths refer to the external world and external material life; the remaining words serve to designate grammatical categories and relations (pronouns, numerals, conjunctions, prepositions). In the field of concepts related to spiritual life, the Polish language has preserved from the Proto-Slavic era a rather large list of names expressing spiritual abilities, some concepts from the field of religion and ethics, concepts about a person’s life, about his spiritual qualities, vices, etc. Much more A complex and rich picture is presented in the Polish language by the ancient lexical heritage in the field of expressing the external and physical life of a person and his connections with the outside world. This includes a very extensive vocabulary relating to dead and living nature, such as terrain, fossils, water bodies, times of day and year, weather and precipitation, plants, animals, human and animal body structure. Many words refer to family, economic, social life. There are also many definitions of various physical properties of people and animals (adjectives). To all these semantic categories, one can add the names of the actions and states associated with them 15 .

The ancient lexical layer, which is included in the dictionary of modern Slavic languages, is the basis for the formation of new words in them: throughout the historical development of the Slavic languages, the main material of lexical creativity has been and is the main word-building elements (roots, suffixes, prefixes) inherited by these languages ​​from the Proto-Slavic era. It is from them that new connections and combinations are created, focusing mainly on word-formation types inherited from antiquity.

Based on the ancient lexical layer, new compound words are created that include several roots. It serves as the main source of various idioms and phraseological formations that give each Slavic language a noticeable peculiar coloring.

It should be taken into account that the stability of the ancient lexical layer in the composition of modern languages ​​is not absolute. Some ancient words, which were among the most important semantic categories that have survived throughout the history of the Slavic languages, are subsequently replaced in individual languages ​​by others coming from dialects, vernacular and other sources.

But despite these fluctuations, the most ancient stratum remains the most important support for the vocabulary of each of the Slavic languages. For many centuries and up to our time, it has served in each of the languages ​​as the main basis for the enrichment and development of their vocabulary.

Settling across the vast expanses of Eastern Europe, the Slavs lost direct contact with each other, which should have entailed a weakening, and then a break in the community in their development. The first mention of the existence of separate groups - information about the division of the Slavs into Slavs and Antes, belonging to the Gothic historian Jordanes and the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, dates back to the 6th century. n. e. According to these data, the territory of the vast tribal union of the Ants was the Dniester region and the middle Dnieper region, and the territory of the union of the Sklavins was the land to the west of the Dniester.

It must be borne in mind that the Slavic peoples and nations of a later time are not the direct successors and heirs of the indicated specific groups or parts of the ancient Slavic world, because throughout history new regroupings of ancient tribes arose. The eastern massif splits: its southern part, the ancestors of the Balkan Slavs, move south and gradually occupy the Balkan Peninsula, while the rest seem to move somewhat to the west. This process was probably the result of the invasion of the nomadic Turko-Tatar peoples, first the Huns, and then the Avars, etc., who, starting from the middle of the 4th century. wedged from the Black Sea steppes into the Slavic settlements, pushing some tribes of the original eastern group through the Carpathians to the south, to the Danube, and others to the west, in the direction of Volhynia, where they came into close contact with the Western Slavs. Shortly thereafter, a change took place in the composition of the ancient western group: the southwestern tribes, the ancestors of the future Czechs and Slovaks, broke away from it and moved south. In Transcarpathia and along the Danube, they reached the settlements of the southern Slavs, a reflection of which was the appearance of certain linguistic features linking the Czech and Slovak languages ​​with the South Slavic and distinguishing them from Polish. However, these temporary ties soon weakened due to the penetration of the Avars into the Middle Danube lowland, which in the 6th century. created a powerful state there, and finally interrupted when the place of the Avars on the Middle Danube lowland was occupied by the Magyars (Hungarians), who settled there at the beginning of the 10th century. n. e.

The eastern massif of the former northern group - the ancestors of the East Slavic tribes - is separated from the western group. It develops its own linguistic features.

In the VII-IX centuries. there is a formation of Slavic peoples: Old Russian, Old Polish, Old Czech, Old Bulgarian, Old Serbian. The composition of the ancient Russian nationality, which occupied the regions of Kievan Rus, included the ancestors of Russians (Great Russians), Ukrainians, and Belarusians.

The process of formation of the Slavic peoples was complex; it cannot be imagined as a simple fragmentation of the original Slavic tribal community into nationalities. For example, the ancient Russian nationality, which took shape in the 10th-11th centuries, later, in the 14th-15th centuries, becomes the base of three new East Slavic peoples: Russian (Great Russian), Ukrainian and Belarusian.

As a result of the development of the same source material - the oldest vocabulary layer - various lexical systems arose in different Slavic languages, fastened by the common origin of their supporting elements: morphemes and whole words.

There is no doubt that a number of words of ancient origin invariably fell out of circulation. The loss of the word from circulation is explained by the gradual reduction in its use, caused by changes in the language system as a whole in connection with changes in social practice and the entire history of the people.

The ancient Slavic languages ​​had more common words of Slavic origin than modern languages. The opportunity to register the disappearance of a particular word is presented to the researcher already in that. if he refers to lexical facts reflected in writing. In the Old Russian language of the XI century. marked word or meaning "peasant workhorse". According to written records, this word was also used in the Old Czech and Old Polish languages, although in a slightly different sound guise: hor, horz, horsz. According to these separate testimonies of ancient texts, it can be judged that the word was known in a large area of ​​distribution of the Slavic languages. In our time, this word has almost gone out of use. It can only be observed in narrow usage - in poetic speech - in the Czech language, where oř means "horse". It is found in some dialects of the Russian language (in the form or, yelling"horse", "horse"), in Ukrainian dialects (in the form vir, vur).

There are also such examples from the history of the Slavic languages, when words that were previously used in vast territories subsequently disappear in some languages, but are preserved in others. The language of ancient Russian chronicles and business writing, distant from modernity by a period of no more than nine centuries, sometimes turns out to be closer in terms of vocabulary to some modern Slavic languages ​​than to modern Russian. So, in ancient Russian texts there is a word borosno or brushy in the meaning of "food from flour products" or in general "food". Modern Russian literary language does not know this word 16 . However, the word brushy is still used in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian, and borosno- in Ukrainian in the meaning of "flour".

Wed also the old Russian word neti "nephew", which left no traces in modern Russian, and the Serbo-Croatian somehow"sister's son", Slovak neter, Czech neteř "niece". Old Russian kra"floe" is preserved only in some Russian dialects, but it is well known to Polish, where kra is "floe", Czech, where kra is "block of ice", "floe". In the Old Russian language there is a word marriage"quarrel", which later fell out of use in it. There are parallels for it in modern Czech, where sváda also means "quarrel", in modern Bulgarian, where wedding- "quarrel", "discord". Old Russian soon- "skin", "fur" (hence the modern Russian furrier) - corresponds to skóra in modern Polish, skóra "skin" in Kashubian. Old Russian prati"wash, wash" (hence the modern literary laundry, Smolensk regional pranic, pryalnik"roller for washing clothes") has a match in the modern floor. prać "wash", "wash", Czech. prati, Serbo-Chorv. prati, bulg. pen"wash". Old Russian aunts"beat", which disappeared in all East Slavic languages, correspond to Slovenes. tepsti, tapati “to beat”, to punish”, Bolg. tepam“to make cloth”, “to beat, to beat”, “to beat”.

Knowledge of modern Slavic languages ​​helps in the correct understanding of ancient texts. In the initial Russian chronicle, the Tale of Bygone Years, under the year 946, there is a semi-legendary story about how the Kievan princess Olga took revenge on the Drevlyans for the murder of her husband. She took tribute from the inhabitants of the Drevlyansk city with live birds - pigeons and sparrows, then ordered to tie to each bird cp(in other lists of chronicles hRb) and let the birds into the city to set it on fire. It is clear from the text that the word c p (hell) denotes some combustible substance or material. The true meaning of this word, already unknown in the Russian language, was determined only when attention was paid to the dictionary of the modern Belarusian language in which the words king and king are now used with the meaning "tinder", and on the dictionary data of the Transcarpathian dialects of the Ukrainian language, where the word devil is noted in the same meaning. Thus, it turned out that Olga ordered her soldiers to tie light and dry tinder to the birds, which burns well and at the same time slowly 1 7 .

So, some of the words of ancient Slavic origin are gradually falling out of use in all languages, the other part is firmly "settling" in some individual languages ​​or groups of languages. Modern Slavic languages ​​reflect the complex interweaving of their mutual relations in the field of vocabulary.

Prof. N. N. Durnovo noticed that along with typical East Slavic words, for which no matches can be found in languages ​​other than Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian (for example, numerals fourty and ninety, nouns squirrel, ladle, bell, drake, tablecloth, silk, adjectives cheap, good etc.), the East Slavic languages, in addition, have vocabulary that is characteristic both for them and for some other group of Slavic languages ​​or one Slavic language. N. N. Durnovo indicates that the word wait brings the East Slavic languages ​​closer to the Kashubian language, mirror- with Slovak and dialects of the Slovenian language, horse- with dialects of the Polish language. The words boron("Pine forest"), ram, belly, armchair, pie, dust, craft known to East Slavic and West Slavic languages, but unknown to South Slavic. The words board"hive in the hollow" faith, Spring, mushroom, tar, pine, tail known to East Slavic, West Slavic and Slovene, but unknown to Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian. The words loaf, feast, bird, look, honeycombs known to East Slavic and South Slavic languages, but unknown to West Slavic 18 . Word dog known, apart from the East Slavic languages, Polish and Kashubian 1 9 .

It is possible that the uneven distribution of some of these words reflects not only the ancient groupings and regroupings of Slavic tribes and nationalities, but also the difference in the terms of the existence of words in languages.

In the languages ​​of the emerging Slavic peoples, there was a further development of the vocabulary inherited from the era of unity. It was a complex process that included opposing tendencies. On the one hand, in the history of languages, the preservation of the ancient fund of vocabulary is noticed, on the other hand, the expansion and deepening of differences between individual languages ​​in the field of vocabulary.

Under the conditions of the independent existence of the Slavic languages, their ancient vocabulary layer has changed a lot. Changes, often quite profound, were subjected to the sound composition of words. There was a break in the former connections of words with other words and the formation of new connections and new contexts for the use of words. The meanings of words have changed. There were fluctuations in the degree of use of certain words. Their stylistic coloring, their emotional richness changed. There were various replacements that replaced the old words. Along with the growth of the dictionary, there was a qualitative enrichment of vocabulary. All these processes proceeded in their own way in each of the Slavic languages.

Below we consider some processes in the field of the dictionary in a short and most general form.

Very ancient local changes were sound changes reflected in the vocabulary, which proceeded in each language group and subsequently in each individual language in its own ways.

Words that have followed a path of development common to the entire Slavic world from Indo-European sources, fixed in the Proto-Slavic language in a special, purely Slavic sound design, were again subjected to changes, which this time led to different results.

Phenomena in the field of sounds changed the original appearance of the Proto-Slavic words, which began to be pronounced differently depending on the language in which they existed. Further deepening of the differences has led to the fact that in modern Slavic languages ​​some ancient words differ greatly in sound, and sometimes the common ancient sound complex is barely visible in them.

Sound differences in words identical in their origins are striking already in the above lexical materials of Proto-Slavic origin. Illustrating the common Slavic nature of the various semantic groups of the dictionary, we turned to the corresponding words of modern Slavic languages; at the same time, words traced back to the same source sometimes turned out to be presented in separate languages ​​in different sound "shells". For example, a word that sounded in Old Slavonic (and, apparently, in Proto-Slavonic) as linen, pronounced in Russian linen, in Serbian lan; cf. also staroslav. d e, rus. grandfather, Ukrainian did, Belarusian. jed, floor. dziad, bulg. uncle; Russian sun, bulg. slantse, Serbohorv. sunce, Czech slunce, Slovak slnce, floor. slońce. Other examples: rus. salt, Serbohorv. co, bulg. Sol, Czech sůl, lower service sel, pol. sol; Russian morning, Serbohorv. morning, Czech jitro, porridge. vitro; staroslav. vel(from the verb lead), Russian led, Czech vedl, pol. wiódł, Serbohorv. veo etc.

The most important element of the structure of a word is its semantic aspect. It, as well as the external, sound side of the word, is one of the objects of study in linguistics.

As already pointed out, the meanings of words are subject to change; the original meaning of the word and its later understanding may coincide only partially or not at all.

When a word is transmitted from generation to generation, its fate develops differently in each of the related languages, and therefore historical changes in genetically identical words often have a different character in languages.

Changes in the meanings of words depend mainly on two mutually intersecting reasons: firstly, on the relationship between the processes of language development and the history of the people and, secondly, on the specific features of the language in which the word functions in close connection with other words of this language.

The fact that a word has a numerous, ramified system of meanings is a fact of language that makes possible the historical change in the semantics of words. The new meaning taken on by the word usually exists as a secondary one to the previous use of the word.

“The logical meaning of a word is surrounded by a special emotional atmosphere, penetrating it and giving it, depending on its use in a particular context, one or another temporal coloring,” noted J. Vandries 20 .

The change in semantics occurs initially in separate acts of speech, in separate sentences. The resulting temporary meaning of the word either disappears subsequently, or is transferred to other sentences until the new meaning becomes common and generally accepted in a certain environment of speakers. In the latter case, the temporary meaning becomes a stable secondary meaning of the word, which can shift the semantic center of the word and become an independent center of semantic development. With such a development of meaning, a chain of meanings is formed, each of the links of which is successively a support for the emergence of a further, qualitatively new meaning. In the history of language, it is sometimes possible to discover all the links in the semantic chain and trace all the ways and means of incorporating one meaning into another. In other cases, the results of semantic development appear before the researcher in a broken form, when the intermediate links or the original link are lost and the meanings are far removed from each other. Occasionally, the same word can be attested in the history of a language in two opposite meanings: in these cases, all intermediate links or stages of semantic development fell out and disappeared from the memory of the speakers,

Under the conditions of the isolated existence of the Slavic languages, the meanings of the words of the ancient lexical fund developed in independent directions. The attachment of one meaning to another and their linkage, depending on the local forms of development of social life and consciousness, on the characteristics of the language system, was carried out in peculiar ways, the pace of development of the semantic side of different words was heterogeneous. All this created a difference in the results of the semantic development of the same initial meanings of words in the Slavic languages.

So, for example, the word apiary in dialects of the Russian language it is sometimes found in the meaning of "a part of the forest intended for a log house." Initially, this word in the Slavic languages, apparently, meant “a plot cut down in the forest” (in this sense, a semantic connection with the verb flog). Later, in Russian, the word apiary acquired the meaning of “beekeeper on a plot cut in the forest”, then in general “beekeeper”. In the Czech language, the word paseka has been preserved in its original meaning - “clearing”, “clearing” 21 .

Word a week originally denoted a free day of the week, then the meaning of the word passed to the period between two free days (two Sundays). If the Polish language retained the first of these meanings (cf. niedziela "Sunday"), then both meanings are known in Czech (neděle "Sunday" and "week"), and in Russian the second meaning, i.e. "seven days" .

Differences in individual languages ​​in the meanings of equally sounding words or words that are built to a common ancient sound composition (genetically identical) can be traced already on the materials of the most ancient texts that reflected the Slavic languages: the texts of the Old Church Slavonic language, on the one hand, and the Russian literary language of the most ancient period - with another. The discrepancies in the values ​​here do not yet look very sharp. Their existence is perceived as the result of different development of the ancient single main, pivotal meaning, around which additional meanings are sort of grouped, subsequently diverging across languages. These “sub-signations”, very changeable and mobile, would be unthinkable without the central and stable meaning of the word from which they developed.

In the vocabulary related to agriculture, attention is drawn to the incomplete coincidence in the Old Russian and Old Slavonic languages ​​of the semantic shades of words corn(Old Rus. grain, staroslav. zranno, in vain). If in Old Russian texts, starting from the most ancient, this word has the meaning “seed of plants, especially cereals”, as well as “a small particle of a solid substance that looks like a grain”, then in Old Slavonic, which arose on the basis of the Bulgarian-Macedonian dialect, along with mentioned, there is another, which can be conveyed by the word berry(mainly grapes). It is interesting to note that the word grain in this meaning still exists in the Bulgarian language, which is evidenced by some dictionaries. Along with this, in Bulgarian the word grain also has a meaning that coincides with modern Russian.

The word garden. In Russian ancient chronicles garden means "a piece of land planted with trees or bushes". Meanwhile, in the texts of South Slavic origin, along with the indicated one, one can also find another meaning of this word - “planted fruit tree” (in modern Slovene there is another special meaning of this word: Sloven. sad means “fruit”). The existence of special semantic shades of one and the same word in languages ​​is also early revealed in the field of adjectives. Yes, adjective proud in the Russian language has long meant "full of pride, self-esteem", "dignified", "arrogant", "important". In the early South Slavic texts, along with the meaning coinciding with the indicated Russian, there is another one - “terrible”, “terrible” and “amazing”. This adjective in some Old Slavonic monuments is included in such combinations of words, unusual for the Russian language, as proud miracle, proud smell, proud noise.

Similar facts exist in modern Slavic languages. So, in Polish, the noun brzeg, corresponding in sound composition to Russian shore, denotes not only the river bank, but also the edge of the forest, the side of the ship, the edge, the border. Polish pień means not only “stump”, but also “tree trunk”, “stump”. The adjective prosty means "simple" and "straight" in Polish. Bulgarian adjective Skype means not only “stingy”, but also “expensive”. Floor. szczupły, as well as Rus. frail means “thin”, “thin”, but, in addition, still “cramped”, “narrow”, “meager”; Czech ostrý means not only "sharp", but also "sharp" and "bright" (for example, ostrá barva - "bright color"); floor. ostry - "sharp" and "sharp", "severe" (eg ostra zima - "harsh winter").

In all the examples reported above, there is an incomplete divergence of meanings: the ancient, original meaning still exists in different languages, but its shades are already different from each other.

But there are also such examples when the shades of meanings of the same word, formed by languages, are not held together by the presence of a common unifying meaning of the word for these languages. Already in the early texts of the Slavic languages, one can notice the existence of semantic shades of words with the loss of a common meaning that previously united them.

If the old Slav. year means “time”, “an indefinite period of time”, then in the Old Russian language year- "twelve months". Word with mia in the Old Slavonic language it meant "servants", "slaves", "households". In ancient Russian books, starting from the works of Cyril of Turov (XII century), the word family, family means "family", "relatives". In addition, in Russian texts of the XVI-XVII centuries. word family means “like-minded”, “common friends and relatives”, and is also used in the new, figurative meaning of “wife” 22 . Adjective decrepit in Russian has long meant "old", "dilapidated". In Old Slavonic, this word meant "dull", "sad".

And in modern Slavic languages, one can find a number of words with different meanings, which make it possible to assume that they have a common semantic source. So, in Serbo-Croatian under- "floor in the room", while in Russian hearth called a smooth brick lining inside the stove, where firewood is placed (in the Old Russian language, another meaning of this word is noted - under the mountains"foot of the mountain"). It can be assumed that these meanings were once united by a common one - “the lower part, the basis of something” 23 . Bolg. womb, means not “innards”, but “stomach”, lower luzh. wutšoba "heart", pol. wątroba "liver"; Czech jíl means "clay", not "silt", as one might expect, based on the Russian meaning of this word; Czech sen means "dream", which distinguishes it from Russian dream with a broader meaning. Word vine in Russian it means “twig”, “shoot of shrub plants”, in Bulgarian - “vine” and “grapes” (plant), in Slovenian loza - “vine”, “grove”, “forest”, in Polish łoza, łozina - "willow", "willow rod". Bolg. green, Slovenian zelje, Czech. zelí mean "cabbage", and in the Old Russian language and modern Russian dialects potion- "grass", in Polish ziele - "grass", in Serbo-Croatian see- "greenery". Floor. suknia belarusian. cloth means "dress", Czech. sukně, Slovak. sukna, Serbo-Chorv. bitch- "skirt". Bolg. braid and Serbohorv. braid meaning “hair on the head”, and not “the kind of female hairstyle”, as in Russian. Bolg. grub means "back", cf. Russian hump with a different meaning (in dialects, however, it can also mean “back”). Slovenian. bor means "pine", not "pine forest", as in Russian; kvas - not “drink”, but “sourdough”, “yeast”; južina does not mean "dinner", but "lunch"; the verb kuriti is “to heat, burn firewood”, and not “to smoke”, the word žaba corresponds to Rus. "frog", the word hudi (cf. Russian thin) means "evil", "angry", adjective rumeni (cf. Rus. rosy) means "yellow" (only in Slovenian dialects "red"). Floor. grob, Slovenian. grob does not mean "coffin", but "grave", Serbohorv. Blato and Czech. bláto does not mean "swamp", but "mud", Czech. huba is not a “lip”, but a “mouth”, ret is not a “mouth”, but a “lip”, brada is not a “beard”, but a “chin”, vous is not a “moustache”, but a “hair in a beard”; Bulgarian shake and Czech. střecha means "roof", while Rus. eave- "hanging part of the roof", Bolg. cool means "sharp" (taste), "sudden", "bold", fresh does not mean “fresh”, but “fresh” (for example, fresh home"fresh tomatoes"), pol. gruby means “thick”, “dense”, not “rough”, as in Russian (cf. and Czech hrubý “rough”, “thick”, “large”), tęgi does not mean “tight”, but “strong” ', 'strong'; Czech verb rýti is different from Russian dig narrower and more special meaning: it means "cut", "engrave". Bolg. formidable unlike Russian. formidable means "ugly".

When translating from Slavic languages ​​into Russian, conditions sometimes arise under which the Russian language recalls, suggests the meaning of a foreign word, despite some differences in meanings. For example, when we read the Polish ładna dziewczyna, the Russian vernacular adjective pops up in memory okay“good”, “beautiful”, which allows us to presumably translate the Polish phrase into Russian beautiful girl. However, for an accurate translation, a good knowledge of the vocabulary of the native language and linguistic flair is clearly not enough. Differences in the meanings of some words sometimes reach great depths, so that their old connection and the nature of the original meaning cease to be felt. For example, mountain in contrast to the Russian language in Bulgarian it means "forest", Bolg. table means "chair" in contrast to Rus. table(in Old Russian so - “armchair”, “throne”, as well as in Old Bulgarian; then there was a gradual change in the meanings in both languages). Word mouth, which, as noted above, in Russian and Czech has rather close meanings, in Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian has nothing in common with Russian and Czech meanings: cf. Slovenian rt "elevation", Serbo-Chorv. rt"peak, cape", Bolg. rt"hill", "hill". If the Russian fresh and Bulgarian. fresh close in meaning, then Czech. přesny and Slovak. presný acquired a very special meaning: “accurate”, “punctual”, “neat”, “correct” (compare, for example, Slovak presna otpoveď “exact answer”).

Czech. krásný unlike Rus. red means “beautiful”, “handsome”, “beautiful” (the same was the meaning of the word red in Old Russian). The Polish adjective rychły and the Czech rychlý mean "fast", "quick", "hasty", and Russian loose- "soft", "fragile". Czech adjective náhly (cf. Rus. impudent) means "quick". Wed also Serbohorv. nagao"quick", pol. nagły "unexpected", "sudden", "unexpected", "hasty", Ukrainian insolent"fast", "quick", "sudden", "unexpected". (Compare the use of the word impudent in A.P. Chekhov’s story “The Steppe” in the speech of an old driver: “Death is nothing, it’s good, but, of course, if you don’t die without repentance. There is nothing more dashing than impudent death. Insolent death is a devil of joy. Here impudent means "unexpected".)

Slovak adjective chytrý, corresponding in sound composition to Russian cunning, means "cunning", "intelligent", and also "fast": the expression ako vietor chytrý means "fast as the wind". Wed also Serbohorv. cunning"fast", Slovenian. hitri "quick". The Slovak, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene meanings of this word are older than the Russian meaning: the adjective cunning has a common root with predatory, kidnap, grab; Initially, they were designated a sign of speed, agility, dexterity. Rus. lots means "many", Slovak. ujma - "loss", "loss". Rus. cloud- “a large dark cloud threatening with rain, hail or snow”, Ukr. cloud- "thunderstorm with rain", Serbohorv. cloud- "hail", floor. tęcza - "rainbow".

As already mentioned, in the history of individual languages ​​there are cases of the gradual formation of meanings of words that are opposite to the original ones. Indeed, occasionally words with the same composition of genetically identical morphemes are found in different languages ​​with opposite or very far from each other meanings. Compare, for example, Bulgarian. pastroc"stepfather" and Czech. pastorek, Slovak pastorok, Slovenian. pastorek, serbohorv. parsonage"stepson". Russian word stale Czech or Slovak can be understood as "fresh": cf. Czech čerstvý "fresh", "clean", "fast", "agile", Slovak. čerstvý "fresh", "alive" 24 .

Using the examples of several groups of words of ancient origin, the different limits of the development of meanings are shown above: from the formation of different shades while maintaining the main meaning to the emergence of interlingual homonymy, i.e. such a deep difference in the meanings of compared words of common origin, at which their former connection becomes completely lost. Secondary meanings that arise in words or exist for a long time in the position of secondary shades (for example, grain in the meaning of "berry" in Bulgarian), or are strengthened and displace the original meaning (for example, mountain in the meaning of "forest" in Bulgarian, apiary"bee" in Russian).

The word in its special meaning, organically established on the soil of one or another Slavic language, falling for various reasons into other Slavic languages, is felt in them as something introduced from outside, as a borrowing. Yes, the word stomach, found in some phraseological combinations of the Russian language in its Old Slavonic (Church Slavonic) meaning "life", is perceived by us as someone else's, despite the obvious Slavic nature of its external (sound) side, which is repeated in the Russian word stomach with its other specific meaning.

In individual Slavic languages, special cases of different understanding of words with the same composition of genetically identical morphemes arise as a result of some grammatical processes, for example, substantiation (with a further change in the lexical meaning of the substantiated word). Yes, Bulgarian sweet“varenye” can be mistaken for a short name by a neuter adjective, and Russian children's in the meaning of "children's room", the Czech can understand as a feminine adjective (in Czech, the meaning of "children's" is expressed descriptively: pokoi pro děti).

Comparing the vocabulary of the same language in two eras separated from each other, we notice that the fate of different words is different. Some words are preserved in the language, sometimes changing in their sound composition and meaning; other words are replaced by new ones, denoting this or that concept in a different way, more energetic, fresh and expressive than the former ones, and gradually completely disappear from the language or “settle” in dialects or special dictionaries. Over time, the names of identical phenomena or objects turn out to be different in related languages. On the scale of the Slavic languages, synonymous words arise if this term can be applied to phenomena in the vocabulary of different languages.

Some of the interlingual Slavic synonyms come from the Proto-Slavic language, others arose later or more recently.

Let's take a look at some of them.

In most Slavic languages, adjectives with the same root are used to denote sweet taste: cf. Russian sweet, Ukrainian licorice, Belarusian. salodki, bulg. sweet, Serbohorv. sweetie, Slovenian slad, Czech. sweetký, Slovak. sweetký, lower service slodki, pol. słodki. But in the Kashubian language, the sign of sweet taste is denoted by the word mjodny, formed from mjod "honey".

To denote rain in Slavic languages, the same root is usually used with some sound differences: cf. Russian rain, bulg. dzhd, Slovenian dež, Czech. déšť; Slovak dážď, pol. deszcz, upper meadow. dešć, lower service. dejsk. But in Serbo-Croatian in the meaning of "rain" we meet the word quiche, which has the same root as Rus. sour(cf. and Bulgarian. quiche"bad weather", "rainy weather", "slush"). It can be seen from these examples that in the history of a particular language, former words were replaced by others (with the former meaning completely preserved), which caused a difference in the designation of the same concept across languages. The formation of such synonyms also took place in the era after the appearance of written monuments. Their gradual consolidation in the language can be traced through the texts. The Proto-Slavic word eye is preserved in its basic meaning of the organ of vision in the Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Belarusian languages. In modern Russian, the word eye is used to name the organ of vision. However, as the texts show, the Old Russian literary language until the 16th century. used the Proto-Slavic word eye, and only later did the word taken from the vernacular gradually establish itself in it, which was originally used, probably in a figurative sense (cf. Polish głaz "stone", głazik "stone", "pebble"). Thus, a new feature of the dictionary of the Russian language arose and, at the same time, one of the vocabulary features that separated the Russian language from other Slavic ones.

In Russian, the word finger used as a generic generic name for all fingers and toes. Some Slavic languages ​​know this word in the same sense. But in Serbo-Croatian, the common name for fingers is the word prst(cf. Old Russian. prst), a finger (palace) is only called the thumb. In Bulgarian prst- "finger", and finger(or golyam prost) - "thumb". Slovenian. prst is "finger in general", but palec is "thumb (of the hand or foot)". The same as in Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and Slovenian, the ratio of names was in the Russian language until about the 17th century, as can be judged from the texts. (The old name, applied exclusively to the thumb, was also reflected in Russian derivative words that have now disappeared. There was, for example, the word attacks"Ring worn on the thumb"

Then there was a gradual transition of the name of the thumb ( finger) on all fingers and toes. word traces finger remained in Russian in derivatives, for example ring, thimble, glove(in dialects dimple, foxglove, pershlatka and other forms). The new lexical feature brought the Russian language closer to Polish, Ukrainian, but separated it from Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian 25 .

Word shoulder in Russian, the word was gradually replaced from use ramo, echoes of the ancient existence of which are found in Russian dialects in the form of derivatives (for example, rameno"part of the horse's front leg", ramenka"shoulder, part of clothing covering the shoulder", etc.). In modern Slavic languages, both of these words with their derivatives are known to denote the shoulder, but in most cases it turned out to be more vital ramo, shoulder is used less often. Word scull in Russian replaced the old lb, once used with the same meaning. Forehead became in Russian the name of only the upper part of the face. This feature brought the Russian language closer to Polish, but created a difference between Russian, Slovene, Czech, Slovak (cf. Slovene leb, Czech leb, Slovak lebka meaning "skull") 2 6 .

It is important to note that in the formation of replacements for already existing words, Slavic vocabulary was used in most cases. Foreign words often enter the language along with new concepts.

Of several words with similar meanings inherited from ancient times, different Slavic languages ​​do not always choose and fix the same word to convey the necessary concept. So, the Russian language knows adjectives cold and icy but the word cold is generally accepted in Russian, widely used, having a large, branched system of shades of meanings, while icy found only in poetic language, oral folk art and dialects. A different picture in Bulgarian, where the adjective is usually used to express the concept of "cold" student.

Russian word world“absence of war” in Polish corresponds to pokój, which, in terms of sound composition and origin, can be associated with Russian peace. The Polish language also knows the word mir, but in the meanings of “peace”, “calm”. From these examples, one can see that in different languages ​​stable concepts that are identical for them are associated with different words from a number of intralinguistic synonyms, that is, words united by the proximity of their meanings.

When new words appear to name the same concept, words in different languages ​​can be based on different signs. Thus, for the name of linen, some Slavic languages ​​used the sign of white, which serves as a noticeable feature of the appearance of an object: cf. Russian underwear, floor. bielizna, Slovak bielizeň, lower service. bĕlizń. In other languages, the name of underwear is based on the root of the verb chop(cf. Rus. hem“to hem the edge of a scarf, clothes”), we meet this root in Serbohorv. rube, rubishte(of the same root Russian word shirt, Belarusian. rub"thick clothes", Sloven. robača "shirt", Bolg. ruba(reg.) "clothes", lower service. rub „dress“, upper luzh. rub "linen scarf"). Finally, the name of linen can be derived from a verb meaning "wash": cf. Czech prádlo "linen", derived from the root of the verb práti.

The replacement of one word by another, the strengthening in the use of one word from the synonymous series and the weakening of others, the use of different roots in the formation of one or another designation in the Slavic languages ​​- all this leads to the formation of numerous vocabulary differences that impart peculiar features to the Slavic languages.

Compare, for example, the following designations for the same concepts in several languages: Rus. morning, floor. early, Slovak rano; Russian air, Ukrainian repeat, floor. powietrze; Russian lightning, bulg. million and svitkavitsa, Ukrainian bliskavka, floor. blyskawica; Russian Ray, bulg. lch, Ukrainian promin, floor. promise; Russian cloud, bulg. cloud, Belarusian. in the clouds, hazy, Ukrainian hazy, floor. chmura; Russian wave, bulg. wave, Czech vlna, Slovak vlna, Ukrainian hvilya, Belarusian. praising, floor. fala, wał, Serbohorv. shaft; Russian Spring, Belarusian. clear, Slovenian spring, pol. wiosna, jar, jarz, Czech. jaro, Slovak vesna, jar, jaro, Bulgarian. span, Serbohorv. proletarian, zhar; Russian autumn, Ukrainian ocin, bulg. esen, floor. jesień, porridge. jeseń, Serbo-Chorv. Yesen, Slovenian jesen, Slovak jeseń, podzim, Czech. podzim; Russian year, Belarusian. year, bulg. year, Serbohorv. year, Slovenian summer, rock, Ukrainian rіk, floor. rock, Czech rock, Slovak rock; Russian a week, Ukrainian day, week, Belarusian. tyzen, floor. tydzień, Czech. tyden, Slovak týždeň, Bulgarian. week, a week, Serbohorv. week, week, Slovenian weeks, teden; Russian snake, Ukrainian snake, bulg. reptile, reptile, Serbohorv. reptile, floor. gadzina, gad, płaz, Czech. had, plaz, zmije; Russian squirrel, Ukrainian protein, vivirka, Belarusian. vawerka, floor. wieviorka, Czech. veverka, Serbohorv. veveritsa, Slovenian veverica, bulg. Katerichka, squirrel; Russian grey, Belarusian. shares, floor. szary, Czech. šedý, šedivý, Bolg. siv, Slovenian siv, Serbohorv. siv; Russian red, Ukrainian red, red, Belarusian. churvons, floor. czerwony, Czech. červený, rudy, Serbo-Chorv. red, Slovenian rudeč, črven; Russian blue, Belarusian. blakity, bulg. celestial, Slovenian modrý, Czech. lazurovy, pol. blekitny 27 .

An important factor that contributed to the isolation of the Slavic languages ​​or groups of languages ​​was the difference in the specific forms and manifestations of the enrichment of their vocabulary. The history of the Slavic peoples and nationalities was accompanied by the complication of their social system and the development of material and spiritual culture. From tribal and tribal life, the Slavs pass to the formation of classes and to the emergence of states. Cities are growing and flourishing.

The language capabilities inherited from previous eras become insufficient. The growth and development of the language find their expression primarily in vocabulary. There is a need for new words. The expansion of the vocabulary is provided partly through borrowing from other languages, but mainly through the independent use of roots inherited from ancient eras, as well as suffixes and prefixes (prefixes), i.e., by transforming one’s own word-formation elements.

External influences in the field of vocabulary, manifested in the process of borrowing, as well as differences in the paths of internal evolution, modify and change languages.

As for borrowings, they were originally oral and came from the languages ​​of those cultural regions with which the Slavs had territorial proximity. Borrowings from Latin and German penetrated into the Slavic languages ​​of the West. There are especially many German borrowings in the Lusatian languages: cf. bur ("peasant", German Bauer), butra ("butter", German Butter), négluka ("misfortune", German Unglück), bom ("tree", German Baum), štunda ("hour", German Stunde) and others. Borrowings from Greek and Turkish penetrated into the Slavic languages ​​of the Balkan Peninsula. For example, Bulgarian. koliba, "hut", "hut", prayer"pencil", bark"stomach", cocal"bone", hareswam"like" and others are of Greek origin, and the words cherga"coarse woolen blanket or carpet", cheshma"source", Kalfa"journeyman", arrogant greens, fresh vegetables, kurshum"bullet", chuval"bag", "bag", bag, "torba", "sum" and others - Turkish. In addition, borrowings from German and partly Italian (for example, bandera "banner", barka "boat" and some others) penetrated into the Slovenian language. The earliest borrowings in Russian were words from the Scandinavian languages ​​(for example, sneak, chest, hook, stigma and others), Finnish ( blizzard, tundra and others), Turkic ( shoe, caftan, box, pouch other,). After the emergence of writing and the establishment of a wide cultural exchange between peoples, the process of borrowing foreign language elements goes beyond territorial proximity, and the influx of borrowed words increases. So, in the first centuries of Russian writing, Greek vocabulary was transferred mainly through the South Slavic medium into the Russian language, mainly from the sphere of church liturgical services: altar, angel, icon, cell, monk etc. The Russian language also had a noticeable influence on Latin, the vocabulary of which penetrated to us not only directly, but also through other languages ​​​​(cf., for example, the words author, student, minister, exam etc.). From the end of the XVI to the middle of the XVII century. the Polish language had a rather significant influence on the Russian language (cf. the words monogram, harness, clerk, sergeant and etc.). Since the Petrine era, due to historical conditions, the Russian language has been replenished with words from German, Dutch, French and English. Especially a lot of French words from the field of everyday life and household use appeared in the Russian language at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. Since the 19th century, words related to the field of railway business, public life, everyday life, and sports have been transferred from English into Russian. Many musical terms come from Italian into Russian.

Borrowings that have become entrenched in the language are adapted to the grammatical structure and sound features of the language that has adopted them. Sometimes the original meaning of the borrowed word also changes. Yes, gender. węzeł means "knot" and is related to the verb wiązač (to knit). It entered the Russian language only in the very special meaning of “monogram”.

But the method of enriching the language through borrowing is always clearly inferior in quantitative terms to other methods, mainly the method of forming words from Slavic material. New words in a language are created not from arbitrary sound complexes, but from combinations of word-building elements already existing in the language.

A distinctive feature of almost all classes of words (except for numerals, pronouns), which have been preserved for many centuries and millennia, is the ability to form large nests of derivative words or be included as an integral element in compound words. The presence of numerous and diverse formations from one word root is associated with the long stay of this root in the language. Words of ancient origin are distinguished by exceptional richness and variety of word production. So, for example, the word fly gave the Russian language a basis for the formation of words: fly in, take off, fly in, fly in, fly in, fly around, fly off, fly in, fly in, fly over, fly over, fly up, fly off, fly away flight, arrival, flight, short flight, departure, departure, flying., migratory, flying, flying., flyer, pilot, flying, etc. (Examples of Academician V. V. Vinogradov). from the root of the word live There are over a hundred different derivative words in the Russian language.

Derivative words formed from old roots themselves often become a source for the formation of new words: for example, the Russian word herbal formed from the root of the word grass, served as the basis for the adjective grassy; root of the word empty became the base for a noun desert, which then became the source of the word deserted, word high-altitude derived from high-rise, which in turn is from height, a height- from tall.

The existence of nests of derived words contributes to the long-term preservation of the roots of words in languages. Therefore, powerful word-formation tendencies, which are a characteristic feature of the Slavic languages, support their primordial kinship in the field of vocabulary.

On the example of a number of Slavic languages, which have not only numerous parallels in the roots of words, but also a significant number of common suffixes and prefixes, one can notice a peculiar, specific for each individual Slavic language, the use of suffixes and prefixes in the composition of words.

When comparing the vocabulary materials of the Slavic languages, the difference in the use of suffixes and prefixes can be observed if the words borrowed from different languages ​​contain the same root. So, the Polish noun popłoch and the Russian commotion, having the same meaning, differ from each other by the difference in prefixes with the common root. The difference in prefixes is also visible between the floor. przemiał and Russian. grinding, floor. przepaść and Russian. abyss, floor. postucha and rus. drought, Serbohorv. mistletoe and Russian pomelo, Czech ucesati and Russian. comb your hair etc. As examples of the use of different suffixes in words with the same root and common meaning, one can draw, for example, the name of a rooster in Slavic languages. It is formed from the root of the verb sing, but with the help of various suffixes: cf. Russian rooster(and dialect petun), Belarusian. stump, bulg. loops.

Wed also the difference in suffixes for nouns of abstract meaning: Rus. amount, Serbohorv. quantity, Slovenian kolikost; Russian purity and gender. czystość; Russian unity and gender. jedność. Wed adjectives bone, bony, bony in Russian and kostnatý, kostlivý in Slovak, etc.

Russian word strawberries differs from the Polish poziomka not only by the absence of a prefix, but also by special suffixes. This is the essence of the difference between Russian. blizzard and gender. zamieć, rus. revenge and gender, Slovak, Czech. pomsta. Slovak ozimina has from Rus. winter common prefix but different suffixes; Bulgarian zimnitsa differs from these words by the absence of a prefix and special suffixes.

In Czech, the root -nik- can be combined with the prefix vz- and its opposite prefix za-: cf. vznikati “arise”, “occur”, “begin” and zanikati “perish”, “cease”, “die out”, “fade away”. But the Russian language, which has at its disposal both the root -nik-, and the prefix for-, the verb stutter does not know.

Some word-building elements have different areas of distribution in the Slavic languages. So, if the prefix from- with the meaning of deletion is a characteristic feature of the original South Slavic vocabulary, then the prefix you- with the same meaning is a distinctive feature of East Slavic and West Slavic words (cf. Bulgarian verbs Izvest, exile and Russian output, expel, Czech vyvadeti, vyhnati).

The quantitative ratios in the use of different prefixes and suffixes are not the same in the Slavic languages. Suffix - ar, borrowed in ancient times from Latin, already widely known in the Old Slavonic language as part of the names of actors, is much less common in Russian than in Czech: cf. Czech rybář, řezbář, kovář and rus. fisherman, cutter, blacksmith 28. Ancient Slavic suffix - bba(cf. Rus. fight) is almost completely absent in Polish, while there are quite a lot of words with this suffix in other languages. For the Bulgarian language, nouns with an abstract meaning are not typical, formed with the help of the suffix - ka(cf. Rus. insurance) 29 .

The discrepancy in the morphological structure of words, with a common stock of word-forming elements and word-formation models, also imparts a noticeable individual coloring to the Slavic languages.

On the basis of the languages ​​of the Slavic peoples, as a result of the development of the peoples themselves in the nation, with the advent and strengthening of capitalism, the national languages ​​of the Slavs were formed.

The socio-political and cultural-historical conditions in which the process of formation of national languages ​​among different Slavic peoples took place were heterogeneous, the pace of this process was uneven, the eras were not the same. Therefore, the age of modern Slavic national languages ​​is different. The final formation of most national languages ​​dates back to the period of the 18th-19th centuries. The Macedonian literary language develops much later. Its formation began in the 40s of the current century, when, in the course of the struggle against fascism, it was decided to turn Yugoslavia into a federal state on the basis of the national equality of all its peoples, including the Macedonians.

In connection with the formation of national languages, the emergence of new dialect phenomena in them gradually ceases, and then the erasure of dialect differences gradually begins under the influence of the literary norm of the language.

The expansion and development of the vocabulary during this period occurs both due to word production from the words of the old Slavic stock, and due to various borrowings. Local dialects are gradually being filled with elements of the national language and at the same time introducing their own elements into its general stock, mainly in the field of vocabulary and phraseology. “Such familiar Russian words,” writes Acad. V. V. Vinogradov, - how strawberry, strawberry, spider, heron, plowman, plowing, headwaters, enthusiasm, such as the smile, frail, feigned, importunate, dazzle, nonsense, very, take a nap, beggar, go crazy, herd, fist, laborer, world-eater, at random, clumsy, mumble etc., by their origin are regional ... expressions” 30 .

Merging into a single language in the process of developing a national language norm, part of the dialectal phenomena (especially in the field of vocabulary) enters the national language, while the other part remains for some time, and then is gradually forced out of circulation. To some extent, dialect-regional differences have been preserved for a long time in the composition of the national language, especially among a certain part of the rural population.

The idea of ​​the close relationship of the Slavic languages ​​turns out to be even more complete and comprehensive if, when comparing them, in addition to the facts of national literary languages, we draw on the linguistic (especially vocabulary) material of dialects (local dialects) in all its diversity, i.e., take into account the facts of the language that are not entered the national literary languages ​​during their formation. It is quite clear that the lexicon of the literary language is much richer than the lexicon of dialects that have been little influenced by the bookish language. But in the sphere of dialect speech, the kinship of the Slavic languages ​​can be illustrated by many additional examples that reveal the complexity of the interpenetration and interconnection of elements of different Slavic languages ​​in our time. Thus, individual dialects of the Russian language, often retaining traces of ancient times, in some of their lexical features are closer to the South Slavic or West Slavic languages ​​than the literary language. This proximity is found in the names of specific actions, ancient tools and household items, the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena, in qualitative characteristics, etc.

When comparing the vocabulary of some Old Church Slavonic monuments with the data of the Russian language and its dialects, it turned out that in Russian dialects one can find parallels to very many Old Church Slavonic words 31 .

Thus, the study of various dialects of the Slavic languages ​​allows the researcher to observe more and more new relationships between languages. Further study of the vocabulary of dialects will give a lot to clarify these relationships.

Let us point out some correspondences between the Russian dialect vocabulary material and the data of the Slavic languages.

The Bulgarian bucket (adverb) "clear" (about the weather) is close to Ukrainian. bucket and Russian bucket(noun) "clear, quiet, dry and generally good weather." In Russian dialects, this word is very widespread. It is noted in Moscow, Kalinin, Velikolukskaya, Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda regions. Pre-revolutionary researchers recorded it in the Arkhangelsk, Vyatka provinces.

Wed also Czech. loni, pol. łoni, upper meadow. łoni, Lower Luzh. loni "last year" (Bolg. fallow deer, Serbohorv. lane, Slovenian lani) and Russian dialect loni, loni "last year", noted in Perm, Tver, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Vyatka, Novogorodsk, Zaonezhsky, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Tobolsk dialects of the Urals, Amur dialects of the Far East. This word is also known in Ukrainian Carpathian dialects.

Wed Czech obilí "grain products", "bread in the grain or on the vine", Slovak. obilie "cereals", "bread in the field", "bread as a commodity" and Rus. dialectal abundance, noted in Arkhangelsk dialects in the meaning of "every bread on the vine", in Zaonezhsky dialects in the meaning of "grain bread", in Yaroslavl dialects in the meaning of "bread seeds".

Wed floor. zawora "wooden latch", "bolt", "lock", Czech. závora, "bolt, latch", Serbohorv. hermit"valve", Ukrainian conspiracy"valve" and Russian dialect forms hermit, zavorina, conspiracy, blockage, zavornya, zavirk and etc. In the Arkhangelsk dialects it is noted hermit"a pole with which a fence is laid" blockages"a passage laid with poles between the fence", in Zaonezhsky dialects - hermit, conspiracy"horizontal stakes in the fence", in Vologda dialects - conspiracy"Gate in the fence" hermits and zavorina"poles", in Novgorod dialects - conspiracy and blockages"gate at the field fences", in Tver dialects - conspiracy"one of the fence strands, which can be easily dismantled and reassembled", conspiracy, blockage, zavornya, zavorina"a pole laid in the passage of the fence", in the former Vyatka province - zavorina"hewn pole, inserted into the gates, that is, into the passage in the hedge", in Yaroslavl dialects - conspiracy"part of the crossbeams in the fence, taken out for the passage of carts", in Tobolsk dialects - blockages"poles in the garden, which can be dismantled for passage."

Wed Bulgarian gba, Czech houba, Slovak huba, Slovenian. goba "mushroom" and Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, Perm lip"any edible mushroom" or "mushroom from the breed of milk mushrooms, but of the worst quality in taste", Vyatka lips, "mushrooms of all kinds", Yaroslavl lips"mushrooms", Gubin"berries, garden vegetables and mushrooms used for food", Vologda Gubin"mushrooms and berries", Smolensk little bastard"mushroom growth on trees".

Wed floor. Korec, Czech. Korec, Ukrainian rind"measure of loose bodies" and Novgorod loin"jug", "ladle", Zaonezhskoe loin"bucket", Yaroslavl, Kalinin, Ryazan, Smolensk loin, Bryansk loin, korchik, Tula and Kaluga loin, korchik.

Wed floor. kąt "corner", Ukrainian kut"corner" and Arkhangelsk kut"the farthest corner in the oven or in the house", Vologda kut"place at the rear wall in the oven", "kitchen", "bedroom", "rear corner", Kutnoy corner"corner at the threshold" kut“the back of the hut by the stove”, “the corner at the door where rubbish is swept away”, Novgorod kut"front corner", Vyatka Kutyans"Spectators at the wedding, crowding in the corner", Tver Kutnik"short shop, going from the longitudinal bench to the door", Yaroslavl kut"corner opposite the stove", "a place behind the stove in the back corner of the hut", "a place in the opposite corner from the stove", Tobolsk kut"part of the hut, located near the front of the stove", Tula and Oryol kut"front corner in the hut, to the right of the front door", Smolensk kut, kutok"red corner", Kaluga kut, kutok, Kutnik“corner in the house”, “part of the land that has sunk into the river”.

Wed floor, gnój "manure, fertilizer", Czech. hnůj, Slovenian. gnoj, Serbohorv. pus, bulg. pus, Ukrainian rotten"manure" and Russian. dialectal pus"manure", known in Ryazan and Smolensk dialects. Wed floor. dzieża and Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk, Penza, Ryazan, Saratov, Tambov deja, bowl, dizhka"kvashnya", Yaroslavl deja"sauerkraut", steward"tire for kvass".

Wed Bulgarian guna, gunya"kind of peasant outerwear, usually white", Serbohorv. (dialect) gua"men's clothing lined with leather or sheepskin" and Tula and Oryol gunka"women's shirt", Vyatka gunya"shirt", Zaonezhskoye gunya"clean clothes" and "worn out clothes", Tver gunya"old, worn out clothes", Arkhangelsk gunyo"old junk, rags, cast-offs", Don guni“rags, rags”, Ryazan and Penza guni “rags, cast-offs”.

Wed Bulgarian whale, kiten"bundle, bundle", "brush", "bouquet", Serbohorv. whale„beam, bouquet“, Slovenian. kitica "flower bouquet", kita "garland", Ukrainian. whale, whale"brush", "bouquet" and the Vologda regional whale"branches near potatoes", "pulled peas", "stems near peas", Kostroma whale"pea", "pea grass", Yaroslavl whale"pea stalk" kititsa"brush", "bunch of grass or flowers".

Wed Bulgarian goiter"feed", Slovenian. zob "grain food", Serbohorv. goiter, goiter"oats" "grain food" goat"field where oats were sown" zombie"feed the grain" goitre"horse feed bag" zobenitsa"oatmeal bread", Ukrainian dialectal dzobenka"a bag, a kind of knapsack worn over the shoulder", and related words from the dialects of the Russian language: Arkhangelsk chisel, piss off“eat berries, peas, cereals and other small items, taking them one by one”, goiter"eat flour, grains", goiter"wicker basket" goitre, goiter"basket of birch bark", Zaonezhskoe goiter“eat dry oatmeal, flour, berries”, “chew”, “eat”, “bite”, goiter, goitre"basket", Novgorod zobelka"a small basket in which mushrooms or berries are collected", zobenka"birch basket", Vologda goiter"eat berries" goiter"basket of birch bark", Tver goiter“to use a lot of something, for example, tobacco, wine”, Vyatka goiter"with greed there is flour, oatmeal", goiter"basket" goiter"chetverik", Yaroslavl zobinka, zobentya"basket with a lid, from bast or shingles", Tula and Orlovskoe goby"Basket for mushrooms from linden basts", Bryansk pastor"strawberry", Kursk grouse"strawberry berries", Irkutsk goiter"sack".

Wed Polish verb ochłonąć "calm down, come to your senses", Ukr. get cold"cool down, cool down" and Russian northwestern cool down with the same meaning.

Wed Czech vír "whirlwind", "whirlpool", pol. wir "circle", "whirlpool", "abyss", Serbohorv. vir"source", "pool in the river", "whirlpool", Slovene vir "stream", Bolg. vir"whirlpool", "whirlpool", "reservoir", "pool" and Russian dialect vir, noted in Kursk dialects in the meaning of “whirlpool”, and in Perm, Tver dialects - “a place in the mill where water falls” (cf. the use of this word in the novel “Nowhere” by N. S. Leskov in the speech of the old nanny: “.. ... there is nothing, no coiler, nothing, nothing. We drove into the vir-bog, and we are wading. "Vir-bog has a figurative meaning here -" a deserted, deserted, deaf place").

The list of correspondences between the vocabulary data of Russian dialects and Slavic languages ​​could be extended.

In the dictionary of Russian dialects, the old relationships between some names have long been kept, bringing these dialects closer to other Slavic languages. As mentioned above, in Old Russian. language finger called the thumb, and the rest of the fingers and toes were called fingers. Nowadays words finger and finger with the same meanings are noted in some Vologda dialects (Charozersky district) 32 . In Vyatka dialects at the beginning of the 20th century. word finger also recorded only in the meaning of the thumb (for the index, middle and ring fingers, the name finger) 33 .

Vocabulary links between Slavic dialects and languages ​​are often possible to establish in territories separated by large spaces. V. G. Bogoraz at the beginning of the 20th century. noted in the Russian dialects of Siberia (along the Kolyma River) a number of words that he took for Polish (for example, toucher"strong man" nickname"name", Urma"herd", on uraz"in a fight" dryness“main tributary of the river”, etc.) 3 4 . According to D.K. Zelenin, these features of the language were brought to Siberia in the 16th-17th centuries. descendants of Novogorodtsy, i.e. Ilmen Slovenes. At different times, groups of Baltic Slavs came to the Ilmen Slovenes from the west, who left a peculiar imprint on the speech of the population of the ancient region of Veliky Novgorod. In the north and east of Siberia, the West Slavic features of Russian dialects are better preserved than in European territory 35 .

The proximity between the lexicon of dialects, which was not included in the literary language, and the lexicon of other Slavic languages ​​once again indicates that in the era before the formation of national languages, relations between the Slavic languages ​​were of a different nature compared to modern times.

The Slavic languages ​​contain more similarities inherited from ancient times than differences acquired during the period of separate existence. A representative of any Slavic nationality, after some preliminary preparation, will now understand people who speak other Slavic languages.

The proximity of the Slavic languages ​​in the field of grammatical structure, the stock of word-forming elements and words makes it easier for representatives of fraternal Slavic nationalities to study Slavic languages, and helps to strengthen cultural ties between all Slavic countries.

Slavic programming languages, Slavic languages ​​of the world
branch

Languages ​​of Eurasia

Indo-European family

Compound

East Slavic, West Slavic, South Slavic groups

Separation time:

XII-XIII centuries n. e.

Language group codes GOST 7.75–97: ISO 639-2: ISO 639-5: See also: Project:Linguistics Slavic languages. According to the publication of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Languages ​​of the World", volume "Slavic Languages", M., 2005

Indo-Europeans
Indo-European languages
Anatolian Albanian Armenian Baltic Venetian Germanic Illyrian Aryan: Nuristani, Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Dardic Italian (Romance) Celtic Paleo-Balkan Slavic· Tocharian italicized dead language groups
Indo-Europeans
Albanians Armenians Balts Venetians Germans Greeks Illyrians Iranians Indo-Aryans Italics (Romans) Celts Cimmerians Slavs Tokhars Thracians Hittites in italics now defunct communities
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language Homeland Religion
Indo-European studies p o r

Slavic languages- a group of related languages ​​of the Indo-European family. Distributed throughout Europe and Asia. The total number of speakers is more than 400 million people. They differ in a high degree of closeness to each other, which is found in the structure of the word, the use of grammatical categories, the structure of the sentence, semantics, the system of regular sound correspondences, and morphonological alternations. This proximity is explained by the unity of the origin of the Slavic languages ​​and their long and intense contacts with each other at the level of literary languages ​​and dialects.

The long independent development of the Slavic peoples in different ethnic, geographical, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with various ethnic groups led to the emergence of material, functional and typological differences.

• 1 Classification
• 2 Origin
  • 2.1 Modern research
• 3 Development history
• 4 Phonetics
• 5 Writing
• 6 Literary languages
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes
• 9 Literature

Classification

According to the degree of their proximity to each other, Slavic languages ​​are usually divided into 3 groups: East Slavic, South Slavic and West Slavic. The distribution of Slavic languages ​​within each group has its own characteristics. Each Slavic language includes in its composition the literary language with all its internal varieties and its own territorial dialects. Dialect fragmentation and stylistic structure within each Slavic language is not the same.

Branches of Slavic languages:

East Slavic branch Belarusian (ISO 639-1: be; ISO 639-3: Bel) Old Russian † (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: orv) Old Novgorod dialect † (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: -) Western Russian † (ISO 639-1: - ;ISO 639-3: -) Russian (ISO 639-1: en; ISO 639-3: rus) Ukrainian (ISO 639-1: UK; ISO 639-3: ukr) Rusyn (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: rue)

West Slavic branch Lechitic subgroup Pomeranian (Pomeranian) languages Kashubian (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: csb) Slowinski † (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: -) Polabian † (ISO 639-1: -; ISO 639-3: pox) Polish (ISO 639-1: pl; ISO 639-3: pol) Silesian (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: szl) Lusatian subgroup Upper Lusatian (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: hsb) Lower Sorbian (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: dsb) Czech-Slovak subgroup Slovak (ISO 639-1: sk; ISO 639-3: slk) Czech (ISO 639-1: cs; ISO 639-3: ces) knaanite † (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: czk)

South Slavic branch Eastern group Bulgarian (ISO 639-1: bg; ISO 639-3: bul) Macedonian (ISO 639-1: mk; ISO 639-3: mkd) Old Church Slavonic † (ISO 639-1: cu; ISO 639-3: chu) Church Slavonic (ISO 639-1: cu; ISO 639-3: chu) Western group Serbo-Croatian group/Serbo-Croatian language (ISO 639-1: - ; ISO 639-3: hbs): Bosnian (ISO 639-1: bs; ISO 639-3: boss) Serbian (ISO 639-1: sr; ISO 639-3: srp) Slavic Serbian † (ISO 639-1: - ;ISO 639-3: -) Croatian (ISO 639-1: hr; ISO 639-3: hrv) Kajkavian (ISO 639-3: kjv) Montenegrin (ISO 639-1: - ;ISO 639-3: -) Slovenian (ISO 639-1: sl; ISO 639-3: slv)

Origin

Genealogical tree of modern Slavic languages ​​according to Gray and Atkinson

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

It has not been established in which territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European / Balto-Slavic took place. It can be assumed that it took place to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. 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. Dialect 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 formation of the early Slavic states on the territory of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. This period significantly increased the territory of Slavic settlements. Areas of various geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were mastered, the Slavs entered into relationships with the population of these territories, standing at different stages of cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.

The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the most ancient - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic language contact, the period of the Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

Modern research

In 2003, Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson, scientists from the University of Oclad, published their study of the modern languages ​​of the Indo-European family in the scientific journal Nature. The data obtained indicate that the Slavic linguistic unity broke up 1300 years ago, that is, around the 8th century AD. And the Balto-Slavic linguistic unity broke up 3400 years ago, that is, around the 15th century BC.

History of development

Main article: History of the Slavic languages Bascan Plate, XI century, Krk, Croatia

In the early period of the development of the Slavic proto-language, a new system of vowel sonants developed, consonantism became much simpler, the stage of reduction became widespread in ablaut, and the root ceased to obey the ancient restrictions. The Proto-Slavic language is included in the satem group (sürdce, pisati, prositi, cf. lat. cor, - cordis, pictus, precor; zürno, 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.

Novgorod birch bark of the 14th century

Most of the suffixes were already formed on the Proto-Slavic soil. In the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of transformations in the field of vocabulary. Having retained in most cases the old Indo-European vocabulary, at the same time he lost some lexemes (for example, some terms from the field of social relations, nature, etc.). Many words have been lost in connection with various kinds of prohibitions (taboos). For example, the name of oak was lost - the Indo-European perkuos, whence the Latin quercus. In the Slavic language, the taboo dǫbъ was established, from where “oak”, Pol. dąb, Bulgarian. db, etc. The Indo-European name for the bear has been lost. It is preserved only in the new scientific term "Arctic" (cf. Greek ἄρκτος). The Indo-European word in the Proto-Slavic language was replaced by a taboo combination of the words *medvědь (originally "honey eater", from honey and *ěd-).

Zograph codex, X-XI centuries.

During the period of the Balto-Slavic community, vowel sonants were lost in the Proto-Slavic language, in their place diphthong combinations arose in position before consonants and the sequences of “vowel sonant before vowels” (sьmürti, but umirati), intonations (acute and circumflex) became relevant features. The most important processes of the Proto-Slavic period were the loss of closed syllables and softening of consonants before iot. In connection with the first process, all ancient diphthongic combinations turned into monophthongs, syllabic smooth, nasal vowels arose, a syllable division shifted, which, in turn, caused a simplification of consonant groups, the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes have left their mark on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. "reap - reap"; “to take - I will take”, “name - names”, Czech. ziti - znu, vziti - vezmu; Serbohorv. zheti - zhaњem, uzeti - let's know, name - names. The softening of consonants before the iot is reflected in the form of alternations s - sh, z - zh, etc. All these processes had a strong impact on the grammatical structure, on the system of inflections. due to the softening of consonants before the iot, the process of the so-called. the first palatalization of the posterior palate: k > h, d > f, x > w. On this basis, even in the Proto-Slavic language, the alternations k: h, g: w, x: w were formed, which had a great influence on nominal and verbal word formation.

Later, the second and third palatalizations of the posterior palate developed, as a result of which alternations arose k: c, g: dz (s), x: s (x). The name changed by cases and numbers. In addition to the singular and plural, there was a dual number, which was later lost in almost all Slavic languages, except for Slovene and Lusatian, while the rudiments of dualism are preserved in almost all Slavic languages.

There were nominal stems that performed the functions of definitions. the late Proto-Slavic period arose pronominal adjectives. The verb had the stems of the infinitive and the present tense. From the first, the infinitive, supine, aorist, imperfect, participles in -l, participles of the real past tense in -v, and participles of the passive voice in -n were formed. From the foundations of the present tense, the present tense, the imperative mood, the participle of the active voice of the present tense were formed. Later, in some Slavic languages, the imperfect began to form from this stem.

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. The West Slavic group had 3 subgroups: Lechit, Lusatian and Czech-Slovak. The South Slavic group was dialectally the most differentiated.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period in the history of the Slavs, when the tribal social system dominated. Significant changes occurred during the period of early feudalism. XII-XIII centuries there was a further differentiation of the Slavic languages, there was a loss of the super-short (reduced) vowels ъ and ь characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language. in some cases they disappeared, in others they turned into full vowels. As a result, there have been significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of the 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 opposition of vowels in longitude / brevity is lost, at the same time in Czech and Slovak languages ​​(excluding North Moravian and East Slovak dialects), in the literary norms of the Shtokavian group (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin), and also partly in Slovene these differences persist. Lechitic languages, Polish and Kashubian, retain nasal vowels that 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 Slovene language areas (in the peripheral dialects of the respective 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 consonants in terms of hardness / softness in the languages ​​of the Czech-Slovak group is significantly limited (in Czech, the opposition t - t', d - d', n - n' has been preserved, in Slovak - t - t', d - d' , n - n', l - l', while in the West Slovak dialect, due to the assimilation of t', d' and their subsequent hardening, as well as the hardening of l', as a rule, only one pair of n - n' is represented, in a number of West Slovak dialects ( Povazhsky, Trnavsky, Zagorsky) 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 language areas - from the old paired soft consonants, only n '(< *nj), l’ (< *lj) не подверглись отвердению (в первую очередь в сербохорватском ареале).

Stress in Slavic languages ​​is realized in different ways. In most Slavic languages ​​(except Serbo-Croatian and Slovene), 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 extinct Polabian language also had a mobile stress). in Central Russian dialects (and, accordingly, in the Russian literary language), in the South Russian dialect, in the North Kashubian dialects, as well as in Belarusian and Bulgarian, this type of stress caused the reduction of unstressed vowels. in a number of languages, primarily in West Slavic, a fixed stress was formed, assigned to a certain syllable of a word or bar group. The penultimate syllable is stressed in the Polish standard language and most of its dialects, in the Czech North Moravian and East Slovak dialects, in the southwestern dialects of the southern Kashubian dialect, and also in the Lemko dialect. The first syllable is stressed in the Czech and Slovak literary languages ​​and most of their dialects, in the Lusatian languages, in the South Kashubian dialect, and also in some Goral dialects of the Lesser Polish dialect. In Macedonian, the stress is also fixed - it falls no further than the third syllable from the end of the word (accent group). In Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, the stress is polytonic, multi-local, the tonic characteristics and the distribution of stress in word forms are different in dialects. In the Central Kashubian dialect, the stress is different, but is assigned to a certain morpheme.

Writing

Slavic languages ​​received their first literary processing in the 60s. ninth century. The creators of Slavic writing were the brothers Cyril (Konstantin the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavonic for the needs of Great Moravia. At its core, the new literary language had a South Macedonian (Thessalonica) dialect, but in Great Moravia it acquired many local linguistic features. Later it was further developed in Bulgaria. In this language (usually called the Old Church Slavonic language), the richest original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From IX century. Slavic texts have not been preserved. The most ancient date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription of 943, the inscription of Tsar Samuil of 993, the Varosha inscription of 996 and others. Starting from the XI century. more Slavic monuments have been preserved.

Modern Slavic languages ​​use alphabets based on Cyrillic and Latin. The Glagolitic alphabet is used in Catholic worship in Montenegro and in several coastal areas in Croatia. In Bosnia, for some time, the Arabic alphabet was also used in parallel with the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

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 Russia - the Old Slavonic language, in the Czech Republic and Poland - the Latin language).

The Russian literary language has gone through a centuries-old and complex evolution. He absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Slavonic language, was influenced by many European languages.

Czech Republic in the 18th century literary language, which reached in the XIV-XVI centuries. great perfection, almost disappeared. cities were dominated by the German language. the period of national revival in the Czech Republic artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the national language. History of the Czech literary language of the 19th-20th centuries. reflects the interaction of the old book language and colloquial. The Slovak literary language had a different history, it developed on the basis of the vernacular. Serbia until the 19th century dominated by the Church Slavonic language. 18th century began the process of rapprochement of this language with the people. As a result of the reform carried out by Vuk Karadzic in the middle of the 19th century, a new literary language was created. The Macedonian literary language was finally formed in the middle of the 20th century.

In addition to the "large" Slavic languages, there are a number of small Slavic literary languages ​​(microlanguages), which usually function along with national literary languages ​​and serve either relatively small ethnic groups or even individual literary genres.

see also

• Swadesh lists for Slavic languages ​​at Wiktionary.

Notes

1. Balto-Slavonic Natural Language Processing 2009
2. http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/worldlang.htm
3. Languages ​​Spoken by More Than 10 Million People (Languages ​​spoken by more than 10 million people) according to the Encarta encyclopedia. Archived from the original on October 31, 2009.
4. Omniglot
5. 1 2 Sometimes separated into a separate language
6. see Meillet's law.
7. Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. - 1st ed. - T. 1-4. - M., 1964-1973.
8. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 15. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
9. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 10. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
10. Lifanov K. V. Dialectology of the Slovak language: Textbook. - M.: Infra-M, 2012. - S. 34. - ISBN 978-5-16-005518-3.
11. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - p. 16. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)
12. Suprun A. E., Skorvid S. S. Slavic languages. - S. 14-15. (Retrieved March 26, 2014)

Literature

• Bernstein S. B. Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Introduction. Phonetics. M., 1961.
• Bernstein S. B. Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Alternations. nominal bases. M., 1974.
• Birnbaum H. Proto-Slavic language. Achievements and problems of its reconstruction, trans. from English, M., 1987.
• Boshkovich R. Fundamentals of Comparative Grammar of Slavonic Languages. Phonetics and word formation. M., 1984.
• Gilferding A.F. Common Slavonic alphabet with the application of examples of Slavic dialects. - St. Petersburg: Type. Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1871.
• Kuznetsov P. S. Essays on the morphology of the Proto-Slavic language. M., 1961.
• Meie A. Common Slavic language, trans. from French, Moscow, 1951.
• Nachtigal R. Slavic languages, trans. from Slovenia., M., 1963.
• National revival and formation of Slavic literary languages. M., 1978.
• Entry to the historically historical development of the words of the Yan language. For red. O. S. Melnichuk. Kiev, 1966.
• Vaillant A. Grammaire comparee des langues slaves, t. 1-5. Lyon - P., 1950-77.
• Russell D. Gray & Quentin D. Atkinson. Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature, 426: 435-439 (November 27, 2003).

proto-Slavic † (proto-language)
Oriental	Old Novgorod † (Old Pskov †) Old Russian † Western Russian † Belarusian (dialects) Russian (dialects) Ukrainian (Rusyn dialects)
Western
Southern
Other	literary microlanguages ​​Pan-Slavic languages
† - dead, split or changed languages

Slavic microlanguages
Oriental	Galshansky | Carpatho-Ruthenian | Podlasie | Western Polissian
Western	vich | Eastern Slovak | lyash | Pannonian-Rusyn
southwestern	Venetian-Slovenian | Gradish-Croatian | Kajkavian | Moliz-Slavic | Prekmursko-Slovenian | Rezyan | Chakavian
southeastern	Banat-Bulgarian | Pomak | Aegean-Macedonian
see also

Slavic languages, Slavic languages ​​of India, Slavic languages ​​of Spain, Slavic languages ​​of Kazakhstan, Slavic languages ​​of cats, Slavic love languages, Slavic world languages, Slavic flame languages, Slavic programming languages, Slavic markup languages

Slavic languages ​​Information About

Slavic countries are states that have existed or still exist, with most of their population of Slavs (Slavic peoples). The Slavic countries of the world are those countries in which the Slavic population is about eighty to ninety percent.

What countries are Slavic?

Slavic countries of Europe:

But still, to the question “the population of which country belongs to the Slavic group?” The answer immediately suggests itself - Russia. The population of the Slavic countries today is about three hundred million people. But there are other countries in which Slavic peoples live (these are European states, North America, Asia) and speak Slavic languages.

The countries of the Slavic group can be divided into:

• West Slavic.
• East Slavic.
• South Slavic.

The languages ​​in these countries originated from one common language (it is called Proto-Slavic), which once existed among the ancient Slavs. It was formed in the second half of the first millennium AD. It is not surprising that most of the words are consonant (for example, Russian and Ukrainian languages ​​are very similar). There are also similarities in grammar, sentence structure, and phonetics. This is easy to explain if we take into account the duration of contacts between the inhabitants of the Slavic states. The lion's share in the structure of the Slavic languages ​​is occupied by Russian. Its carriers are 250 million people.

Interestingly, the flags of the Slavic countries also have some similarities in color scheme, in the presence of longitudinal stripes. Does it have something to do with their common origin? More likely yes than no.

The countries where Slavic languages ​​are spoken are not so numerous. Nevertheless, Slavic languages ​​still exist and flourish. And it's been hundreds of years! This only means that the Slavic people are the most powerful, steadfast, unshakable. It is important that the Slavs do not lose the originality of their culture, respect for their ancestors, honor them and keep traditions.

Today there are many organizations (both in Russia and abroad) that revive and restore Slavic culture, Slavic holidays, even names for their children!

The first Slavs appeared in the second or third millennium BC. It goes without saying that the birth of this mighty people took place in the region of modern Russia and Europe. Over time, the tribes developed new territories, but still they could not (or did not want to) go far from their ancestral home. By the way, depending on the migration, the Slavs were divided into eastern, western, southern (each branch had its own name). They had differences in lifestyle, agriculture, some traditions. But still the Slavic "core" remained intact.

A major role in the life of the Slavic peoples was played by the emergence of statehood, war, and mixing with other ethnic groups. The emergence of separate Slavic states, on the one hand, greatly reduced the migration of the Slavs. But, on the other hand, from that moment on, their mixing with other nationalities also fell sharply. This allowed the Slavic gene pool to firmly gain a foothold on the world stage. This affected both the appearance (which is unique) and the genotype (hereditary traits).

Slavic countries during World War II

The Second World War brought great changes to the countries of the Slavic group. For example, in 1938 the Czechoslovak Republic lost its territorial unity. The Czech Republic ceased to be independent, and Slovakia became a German colony. The following year, the Commonwealth came to an end, and in 1940 the same thing happened with Yugoslavia. Bulgaria sided with the Nazis.

But there were also positive aspects. For example, the formation of anti-fascist trends and organizations. A common misfortune rallied the Slavic countries. They fought for independence, for peace, for freedom. Especially such movements gained popularity in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia.

The Soviet Union played a key role in World War II. The citizens of the country selflessly fought against the Hitler regime, against the cruelty of the German soldiers, against the Nazis. The country has lost a huge number of its defenders.

Some Slavic countries during the Second World War were united by the All-Slavic Committee. The latter was created by the Soviet Union.

What is Pan-Slavism?

The concept of pan-Slavism is interesting. This is a direction that appeared in the Slavic states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was aimed at uniting all the Slavs of the world on the basis of their national, cultural, everyday, linguistic community. Pan-Slavism promoted the independence of the Slavs, praised their originality.

The colors of Pan-Slavism were white, blue and red (the same colors appear on many national flags). The emergence of such a direction as pan-Slavism began after the Napoleonic wars. Weakened and "tired", the countries supported each other in difficult times. But over time, Pan-Slavism began to be forgotten. But now there is again a tendency to return to the origins, to the ancestors, to the Slavic culture. Perhaps this will lead to the formation of the Neo-Pan-Slavist movement.

Slavic countries today

The twenty-first century is a time of some kind of discord in the relations of the Slavic countries. This is especially true for Russia, Ukraine, EU countries. The reasons here are more political and economic. But despite the discord, many residents of countries (from the Slavic group) remember that all the descendants of the Slavs are brothers. Therefore, none of them wants wars and conflicts, but only warm family relations, as our ancestors once had.

There are, however, differences of a material, functional, and typological nature, due to the long-term independent development of Slavic tribes and nationalities in different ethnic, geographical, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with kindred and unrelated ethnic groups.

Slavic languages ​​are usually divided into 3 groups according to the degree of their proximity to each other: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) and West Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish with a Kashubian dialect that retained a certain genetic independence , Upper and Lower Lusatian). There are also small local groups of Slavs with their own literary languages. Thus, the Croats in Austria (Burgenland) have their own literary language based on the Chakavian dialect. Not all Slavic languages ​​have come down to us. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. the Polish language disappeared. The distribution of Slavic languages ​​within each group has its own characteristics (see East Slavic languages, West Slavic languages, South Slavic languages). Each Slavic language includes a literary language with all its stylistic, genre and other varieties and its own territorial dialects. The ratios of all these elements in the Slavic languages ​​are different. The Czech literary language has a more complex stylistic structure than Slovak, but the latter better preserves the features of dialects. Sometimes the dialects of one Slavic language differ from each other more than independent Slavic languages. For example, the morphology of the Shtokavian and Chakavian dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language differs much more deeply than the morphology of the Russian and Belarusian languages. The proportion of identical elements is often different. For example, the category of diminutive in Czech is expressed in more diverse and differentiated forms than in Russian.

Of the Indo-European languages, C. I are the closest to the Baltic languages. This proximity served as the basis for the theory of " Balto-Slavic proto-language", according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first separated from the Indo-European proto-language, later splitting into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, most modern scientists explain their special closeness by the long contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs. It has not been established in which territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European took place. It can be assumed that it took place to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. There are many such theories, but all of them do not localize the ancestral home where the Indo-European proto-language could be. On the basis of one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavonic), the Proto-Slavic language was later 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 the same structure. Later, dialect variants appear. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language, its dialects into independent S. Ya. was long and difficult. It was most active in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e., during the formation of the early Slavic feudal states in the territory of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. During this period, the territory of Slavic settlements increased significantly. Areas of various geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were mastered, the Slavs entered into relationships with peoples and tribes standing at different stages of cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.

The Proto-Slavic language was preceded by the period of the Proto-Slavic language, elements of which can be restored with the help of ancient Indo-European languages. The Proto-Slavic language in its main part is restored using the data of S. Ya. different periods of their history. The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the most ancient - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic language contact, the period of Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

The individuality and originality of the Proto-Slavic language began to take shape even in the early period. It was then that a new system of vowel sonants was formed, consonantism became much simpler, the stage of reduction became widespread in the ablaut, the root ceased to obey the ancient restrictions. According to the fate of the middle palate k ’and g’, the Proto-Slavic language is included in the satəm group (sürdce, pisati, prositi, cf. lat. cor - cordis, pictus, precor; zürno, znati, zima, cf. lat. granum, cognosco, hiems). However, this feature was implemented inconsistently: 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. Most of the suffixes were already formed on the Proto-Slavic soil. Proto-Slavic vocabulary is distinguished by great originality; already in the early period of its development, the Proto-Slavic language experienced a number of significant transformations in the field of lexical composition. Having retained in most cases the old Indo-European lexical fund, at the same time he lost many old Indo-European lexemes (for example, some terms from the field of social relations, nature, etc.). Many words have been lost due to various kinds of prohibitions. Forbidden, for example, was the name of the oak - Indo-European. perku̯os, whence lat. quercus. The old Indo-European root has come down to us only in the name of the pagan god Perun. In the Slavic languages, the taboo dǫbъ was established, from where Rus. "oak", Polish. dąb, Bulgarian db, etc. The Indo-European name for the bear has been lost. It is preserved only in the new scientific term "Arctic" (cf. Greek ἄρκτος). The Indo-European word in the Proto-Slavic language was replaced by the taboo word formation medvědъ ‘honey eater’. During the period of the Balto-Slavic community, the Slavs borrowed many words from the Balts. During this period, vowel sonants were lost in the Proto-Slavic language, diphthongic combinations appeared in their place in position before consonants and the sequences of “vowel sonant before vowels” (sьmürti, but umirati), intonations (acute and circumflex) became relevant features. The most important processes of the Proto-Slavic period were the loss of closed syllables and softening of consonants before iot. In connection with the first process, all ancient diphthongic combinations turned into monophthongs, syllabic smooth, nasal vowels arose, a syllable division moved, which, in turn, caused a simplification of consonant groups, the phenomenon of intersyllabic dissimilation. These ancient processes have left their mark on all modern Slavic languages, which is reflected in many alternations: cf. Russian "reap - reap"; “to take - I will take”, “name - names”, Czech. žíti - žnu, vzíti - vezmu; Serbohorv. zhȅti - zhmȇm, uzeti - ȕzmȇm, ȉme - names. The softening of consonants before iot is reflected in the form of alternations s - š, z - ž, etc. All these processes had a strong impact on the grammatical structure, on the system of inflections. In connection with the softening of the consonants before the iot, the process of the so-called first palatalization of the posterior palate was experienced: k > č, g > ž, x > š. On this basis, even in the Proto-Slavic language, the alternations k: č, g: ž, x: š were formed, which had a great influence on nominal and verbal word formation. Later, the so-called second and third palatalization of the posterior palate began to operate, as a result of which the alternations k: c, g: ʒ (z), x: s (š) arose. The name changed by cases and numbers. In addition to the singular and plural, there was a dual number, which was later lost in almost all Slavic languages. There were nominal stems that performed the functions of definitions. In the late Proto-Slavic period, pronominal adjectives arose. The verb had infinitive and present tense stems. From the first, the infinitive, supine, aorist, imperfect, participles in -l, participles of the active voice of the past tense in -vъ and participles of the passive voice in -n were formed. From the foundations of the present tense, the present tense, the imperative mood, the participle of the active voice of the present tense were formed. Later, in some Slavic languages, the imperfect began to form from this stem.

Even in the depths of the Proto-Slavic language, dialect formations began to form. The most compact was the group of Proto-Slavic dialects, on the basis of which the East Slavic languages ​​later arose. There were 3 subgroups in the West Slavic group: Lechit, Lusatian and Czech-Slovak. The most differentiated dialectally was the South Slavic group.

The Proto-Slavic language functioned in the pre-state period in the history of the Slavs, when tribal social relations dominated. Significant changes occurred during the period of early feudalism. This was reflected in the further differentiation of the Slavic languages. By the 12th-13th centuries. there was a loss of super-short (reduced) vowels ъ and ь, characteristic of the Proto-Slavic language. In some cases they disappeared, in others they turned into full vowels. As a result, there have been significant changes in the phonetic and morphological structure of the Slavic languages. Many common processes have gone through the Slavic languages ​​in the field of grammar and lexical composition.

For the first time, Slavic languages ​​received literary processing in the 60s. 9th c. The creators of Slavic writing were the brothers Cyril (Konstantin the Philosopher) and Methodius. They translated liturgical texts from Greek into Slavonic for the needs of Great Moravia. At its core, the new literary language had a South Macedonian (Thessalonica) dialect, but in Great Moravia it adopted many local linguistic features. Later it was further developed in Bulgaria. In this language (usually called the Old Church Slavonic language), the richest original and translated literature was created in Moravia, Pannonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Serbia. There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. From the 9th c. Slavic texts have not been preserved. The most ancient date back to the 10th century: the Dobrudzhan inscription 943, the inscription of Tsar Samuil 993, etc. From the 11th century. many Slavic monuments have already been preserved. Slavic literary languages ​​of the era of feudalism, as a rule, did not have strict norms. Some important functions were performed by foreign languages ​​(in Russia - Old Church Slavonic, in the Czech Republic and Poland - Latin). The unification of literary languages, the development of written and pronunciation norms, the expansion of the sphere of use of the native language - all this characterizes the long period of formation of the national Slavic languages. The Russian literary language has gone through a centuries-old and complex evolution. He absorbed folk elements and elements of the Old Slavonic language, was influenced by many European languages. It developed without interruption for a long time. The process of formation and history of a number of other literary Slavic languages ​​went differently. In the Czech Republic in the 18th century. literary language, which reached in the 14-16 centuries. great perfection, almost disappeared. The German language dominated in the cities. During the period of the national revival, the Czech "wake-ups" artificially revived the language of the 16th century, which at that time was already far from the vernacular. The entire history of the Czech literary language in the 19th-20th centuries. reflects the interaction of the old bookish language and spoken language. The development of the Slovak literary language proceeded differently. Not burdened by old book traditions, it is close to the folk language. Serbia until the 19th century. the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version dominated. In the 18th century began the process of rapprochement of this language with the people. As a result of the reform carried out by V. Karadzic in the middle of the 19th century, a new literary language was created. This new language began to serve not only the Serbs, but also the Croats, in connection with which it began to be called Serbo-Croatian or Croatian-Serbian. The Macedonian literary language was finally formed in the middle of the 20th century. Slavic literary languages ​​have developed and are developing in close communication with each other. For the study of Slavic languages, see Slavic studies.

• Meillet A., Common Slavonic language, trans. from French, M., 1951;
• Bernstein S. B., Essay on comparative grammar of Slavic languages. Introduction. Phonetics, M., 1961;
• his own, Essay on Comparative Grammar of Slavonic Languages. Alternations. Name bases, M., 1974;
• Kuznetsov PS, Essays on the morphology of the Proto-Slavic language. M., 1961;
• Nachtigal R., Slavic languages, trans. from Slovenian, M., 1963;
• Entry to the historical-historical development of the words of the Yan language. For red. O. S. Melnichuk, Kiev, 1966;
• National revival and formation of Slavic literary languages, M., 1978;
• Boskovic R., Fundamentals of Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages. Phonetics and word formation, M., 1984;
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• Vaillant A., Grammaire comparée des langues slaves, t. 1-5, Lyon-P., 1950-77.