East Slavic languages

The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Siberia and the Russian Far East.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In part due to the large historical influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian language is also spoken as a lingua franca in many regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Of the three Slavic branches, East Slavic is the most spoken, with the number of native speakers larger than the Western and Southern branches combined.

The common consensus is that Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian are the extant East Slavic languages.Template:Sfn Some linguists also consider Rusyn a separate language,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn although it is sometimes considered a dialect of Ukrainian.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The modern East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor spoken in Kievan Rus' from the 9th to 13th centuries, which later evolved into Ruthenian, the chancery language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Dnieper river valley, and into medieval Russian in the Volga river valley, the language of the Russian principalities including the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

All these languages use the Cyrillic script, but with particular modifications. Belarusian and Ukrainian, which are descendants of Ruthenian, have a tradition of using Latin-based alphabets—the Belarusian Lacinka and the Ukrainian Latynka alphabets, respectively (also Rusyn uses Latin in some regions, e.g. in Slovakia).<ref name="ComrieCorbett2003">Template:Cite book</ref>

Distribution

File:Idioma ucraniano.png

Distribution of the Ukrainian language in Europe

File:Map of Belarusian Language.png

Distribution of the Belarusian language in Europe

File:Russian language status and proficiency in the World.svg

Distribution of the Russian language in Eurasia

Classification

Modern East Slavic languages include Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian. The Rusyn language is sometimes considered the fourth living language of the group, its status as an independent language being the subject of scientific debate.<ref name="Moser2016">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Distinctive features

Vocabulary

The East Slavic territory exhibits a linguistic continuum with many transitional dialects. Between Belarusian and Ukrainian there is the Polesian dialect, which shares features from both languages. East Polesian is a transitional variety between Belarusian and Ukrainian on one hand, and between South Russian and Ukrainian on the other hand. At the same time, Belarusian and Southern Russian form a continuous area, making it virtually impossible to draw a line between the two languages. Central or Middle Russian (with its Moscow sub-dialect), the transitional step between the North and the South, became a base for the Russian literary standard. Northern Russian with its predecessor, the Old Novgorod dialect, has many original and archaic features.

Ruthenian, the ancestor of modern Belarusian and Ukrainian, was the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as "Chancery Slavonic"Template:Citation needed until the end of the 17th century when it was gradually replaced by the Polish language. It was also the native language of the Cossack Hetmanate until the end of the 18th century, when the Ukrainian state completely became part of the Russian Empire in 1764.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk from 1710 is one of the most important written sources of the Ruthenian language. Due to the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth over many centuries, Belarusian and Ukrainian have been influenced in several respects by Polish, a Lechitic West Slavic language. As a result of the long Polish-Lithuanian rule, these languages had been less exposed to Church Slavonic, featuring therefore less Church Slavonicisms than the modern Russian language, for example:

Comparison of the word "sweet"

Ukrainian	Belarusian	Russian
солодкий (solodkyj)	салодкі (salodki)	сладкий (sladkij)

Additionally, the original East Slavic phonetic form was kept in many words in Ukrainian and Belarusian, for example:

Comparison of the word "unit"

Ukrainian	Belarusian	Russian
одиниця (odynycia)	адзінка (adzinka)	eдиница (yedinica)

In general, Ukrainian and Belarusian are also closer to other Western European languages, especially to German (via Polish). At the same time Russian was being heavily influenced by Church Slavonic (South Slavic language), but also by the Turkic and Uralic languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For example:

Comparison of the word "to search"

Ukrainian	Belarusian	Russian
шукати (šukaty)	шукаць (šukać)	искать (iskat́)
Compare Polish "szukać" and Old Low German "sōkian" (German "suchen")		Compare Bulgarian "искам" (iskam) (with a meaning shift: "to want") and Serbo-Croatian "искати" (iskati)

What's more, all three languages do also have false friends, that sometimes can lead to (big) misunderstandings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For example, Ukrainian орати (oraty) — "to plow" and Russian орать (orat́) — "to scream", or Ukrainian помітити (pomityty) — "to notice" and Russian пометить (pometit́) — "to mark".

Orthography

Alphabet

The alphabets of the East Slavic languages are all written in the Cyrillic script, however each of them has their own letters and pronunciations. Russian and Ukrainian have 33 letters, while Belarusian has 32. Additionally, Belarusian and Ukrainian use the apostrophe (') for the hard sign, which has the same function as the letter Ъ in Russian.

Cyrillic alphabets comparison table

East Slavic languages
Russian	А	Б	В	Г		Д	Е		Ё	Ж	З	И			Й	К	Л	М	Н	О	П	Р	С	Т	У		Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Belarusian	А	Б	В	Г		Д	Е		Ё	Ж	З		І		Й	К	Л	М	Н	О	П	Р	С	Т	У	Ў	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш		'	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Ukrainian	А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Д	Е	Є		Ж	З	И	І	Ї	Й	К	Л	М	Н	О	П	Р	С	Т	У		Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	'		Ь		Ю	Я

Some letters, that are not included in the alphabet of a language, can be written as digraphs. For example, the sound values of the letter Ё, which doesn't exist in the Ukrainian alphabet, can be written as ЙО (ЬО after consonants), while the letter Щ in Russian and Ukrainian corresponds to ШЧ in Belarusian (compare Belarusian плошча and Ukrainian площа ("area")).

There are also different rules of usage for certain letters, e.g. the soft sign (Ь) cannot be written after the letter Ц in Russian, because the consonant /tsʲ/ does not exist in the Russian language, while in Ukrainian and especially Belarusian, on the contrary, it is relatively common (Ukrainian ць etymologically corresponds to Russian and Belarusian ц; Belarusian ць etymologically corresponds to Russian and Ukrainian ть). Moreover, the letter Щ in standard Russian is always pronounced softly (palatalization).

Standard Ukrainian, unlike all the other Slavic languages (excl. Serbo-Croatian), does not exhibit final devoicing. Nevertheless, this rule is not that clear when listening to colloquial Ukrainian. It's one of the typical deviations that occur in the Ukrainian spoken language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Different sound values of letters

Besides the differences of the alphabets, some letters represent different sounds depending on the language. For example, the letter И (romanized as I for Russian and Y for Ukrainian) in Russian is mostly pronounced as Template:IPA (identical with the Ukrainian І), while in Ukrainian it's mostly pronounced as Template:IPA (very similar to the Russian Ы). Other examples:

"False friends"

Letter		Pronunciation
Belarusian and Russian Е	Ukrainian Template:Lang	Template:IPA
Belarusian and Russian Э	Ukrainian Template:Lang	Template:IPA
Belarusian and Russian Ы	Ukrainian Template:Lang	Template:IPA (B. and R.), Template:IPA (U.)
Belarusian and Ukrainian І	Russian Template:Lang	Template:IPA
Belarusian and Ukrainian Г	no sound in Russian	Template:IPA
Russian Template:Lang	Ukrainian Template:Lang	Template:IPA

Phonology

Isoglosses	Northern Russian	Standard Russian (Moscow dialect)	Southern Russian	Standard Belarusian	Standard Ukrainian	Examples
reduction of unstressed Template:IPA (akanye)	no	yes<ref group=n>Except for the Polesian dialect of Brest</ref>			no<ref group=n>Except for the Eastern Polesian dialect</ref>	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "head"
pretonic Template:IPA (yakanye)	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA<ref group=n>Consonants are hard before Template:IPA</ref>	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "earth"
Proto-Slavic *i	Template:IPA				Template:IPA<ref group=n>Except for some dialects</ref>	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "leaf"
Proto-Slavic *y	Template:IPA					Template:Nowrap
stressed CoC	Template:IPA				Template:IPA<ref group=n>In some Ukrainian dialects CTemplate:IPAC can be Template:IPA</ref><ref group=n>In some Ukrainian dialects PSl *ě can be Template:IPA</ref>	Template:Nowrap
Proto-Slavic *ě	Template:IPA	Template:IPA				R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "seed"
/e/>/o/ change before nonpalatalized consonants<ref group=n>Also at the end of words (in Russian and Belarusian). In Belarusian (unlike Russian), the change is not present in stressed 2 and 3 sg. pres. ind. endings.</ref>	always	under stress			after /j/, /nʲ/, /lʲ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "green"
Proto-Slavic *c	Template:IPA<ref group=n>Can be Template:IPA in South Russian</ref><ref group=n name="c">In some Northern Russian dialects, Proto-Slavic *c and *č have merged into one sound, variously pronounced as Template:IPA depending on a dialect.</ref>				Template:IPA	R. волчица (volčica) B. ваўчыца (vaŭčyca) U. вовчиця (vovčyc’a) ”female wolf”
Proto-Slavic *č	Template:IPA<ref group=n>Can be Template:IPA in Southern Russian</ref><ref group=n name="c"/>			Template:IPA	Template:IPA	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "hour", B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "time"
Proto-Slavic *skj, zgj	Template:IPA,<ref group=n>Can be Template:IPA, Template:IPA</ref> Template:IPA			Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Template:IPA, Template:IPA	R. ещё /jeˈɕːo/ B. яшчэ /jaˈʂt͡ʂe/ U. ще /ʃt͡ʃe/ “yet”
soft dental stops	Template:IPA, Template:IPA<ref group=n>In Russian light affrication can occur: Template:IPA , Template:IPA</ref>			Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Template:Nowrap
Proto-Slavic *v	Template:IPA<ref group=n>In some Northern Russian sub-dialects Template:IPA is not devoiced to Template:IPA</ref>		Template:IPA	Template:IPA Template:IPA	Template:IPA Template:IPA /u̯/ (at the end of a closed syllable)	Template:Nowrap
Template:IPA (in loanwords)	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Prothetic Template:IPA	no<ref group=n>Except for восемь "eight" and some others</ref>		yes			Template:Nowrap
Proto-Slavic *g	Template:IPA		Template:IPA		Template:IPA	R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "head"
Hardening of final soft labials	no		yes			R. Template:Wikt-lang /sʲtʲepʲ/, B. стэп /stɛp/, U. Template:Wikt-lang /stɛp/ "steppe"
Hardening of soft Template:IPA	no			yes	hardened at the end of a closed syllable and not hardened elsewere	R. матерь (máter’) B. Вікторыя (Viktoryja) U. кобзар (kobzár (nominative case) кобзаря (kobzar’á (genetive case)
Proto-Slavic *CrьC, ClьC, CrъC, CrъC	Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA			Template:IPA, /ro/, Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Protoslavic. ‘*kry (singular accusative case. krьvь); R. кровь (krov’), кровавый (krovávyj) B. кроў (kroŭ), крывавы (kryvávy) U. кров (krov), кривавий (kryvávyj) ”blood, bloody”
Proto-Slavic *-ъj-, -ьj-	Template:IPA, Template:IPA			Template:IPA, Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ьjь	Template:IPA	Template:IPA,<ref group=n name=chsl>Only unstressed, Church Slavonic influence</ref> Template:IPA	Template:IPA<ref group=n>Stressed, unstressed is usually reduced to Template:IPA</ref>	Template:IPA	Template:IPA, Template:IPA
Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ъjь	Template:IPA	Template:IPA,<ref group=n name=chsl/> Template:IPA	Template:IPA<ref group=n>Stressed, unstressed is usually reduced to Template:IPA</ref>	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Loss of the vocative case	no	yes<ref group=n>In colloquial Russian, new vocative has appeared from a pure stem: мам, пап, Маш, Вань etc.</ref>			no
3 sg. & pl. pres. ind.	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:Nowrap
Dropping out of 3 sg. pres. ind. ending (in e-stems)	no		yes			R. скажет (skážet) B. скажа (skáža) U. скаже (skáže) ”(he/she) will say”
3 sg. masc. past ind.	Template:IPA<ref group=n>In the dialect of Vologda</ref>	Template:IPA		Template:IPA		R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Lang Template:IPA "(he) thought"
2nd palatalization in oblique cases	no			yes		R. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, B. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA, U. Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA "hand" (locative or prepositional case)

History

Influence of Church Slavonic

After the conversion of the East Slavic region to Christianity the people used service books borrowed from Bulgaria, which were written in Old Church Slavonic (a South Slavic language).Template:Sfn The Church Slavonic language was strictly used only in text, while the colloquial language of the Bulgarians was communicated in its spoken form.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Throughout the Middle Ages (and in some way up to the present day) there existed a duality between the Church Slavonic language used as some kind of 'higher' register (not only) in religious texts and the popular tongue used as a 'lower' register for secular texts. It has been suggested to describe this situation as diglossia, although there do exist mixed texts where it is sometimes very hard to determine why a given author used a popular or a Church Slavonic form in a given context. Church Slavonic was a major factor in the evolution of modern Russian, where there still exists a "high stratum" of words that were imported from this language.Template:Sfn

See also

• Outline of Slavic history and culture

Sources

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• "Belgorod Residents Speak Their Own Language, Even Russian Linguists Say" by Paul A. Goble, Window on Eurasia (March 24, 2024)