Editing Slavs (section)

==Relations with non-Slavic people==
{{See also|Baltic Slavic piracy|Narentines|Germania Slavica|Bavaria Slavica}}
Throughout their history, Slavs came into contact with non-Slavic groups. In the postulated homeland region (present-day [[Ukraine]]), they had contacts with the Iranian [[Sarmatians]] and the Germanic [[Goths]]. After their subsequent spread, the Slavs began assimilating non-Slavic peoples. For example, in the Northern Black Sea region, the Slavs assimilated the remnants of the Goths.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/98572077 Tarasov I.M. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev. 2023. P. 59–60]</ref> In the Balkans, there were [[Prehistory of Southeastern Europe|Paleo-Balkan]] peoples, such as Romanized and [[Hellenization|Hellenized]] ([[Jireček Line]]) [[Illyrians]], [[Thracians]] and [[Dacians]], as well as [[Greeks]] and [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Scordisci]] and [[Serdi]].<ref>''The Cambridge Ancient History'', Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond, {{ISBN|0-521-22717-8}}, 1992, page 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin."</ref> Because Slavs were so numerous, most indigenous populations of the Balkans were Slavicized. Thracians and Illyrians mixed as ethnic groups in this period. 

A notable exception is Greece, where [[Sclaveni#Relationship between the Slavs in Byzantium|Slavs were Hellenized]] because [[Byzantine Greeks|Greeks]] were more numerous, especially with more Greeks returning to Greece in the 9th century and the influence of the church and administration,{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=41}} however, Slavicized regions within [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]], [[Thrace]] and [[Moesia Inferior]] also had a larger portion of locals compared to migrating Slavs.<ref>Florin Curta's An ironic smile: the Carpathian Mountains and the migration of the Slavs, Studia mediaevalia Europaea et orientalia. Miscellanea in honorem professoris emeriti Victor Spinei oblata, edited by George Bilavschi and Dan Aparaschivei, 47–72. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2018.</ref> Other notable exceptions are the territory of present-day [[Romania]] and [[Hungary]], where Slavs settled en route to present-day Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and [[East Thrace]] but assimilated, and the modern [[Albanians|Albanian]] nation which claims descent from Illyrians and other Balkan tribes.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The status of the [[Bulgars]] as a ruling class and their control of the land nominally left their legacy in the [[Bulgaria|Bulgarian country and people]], but Bulgars were gradually also Slavicized into the present-day South Slavic ethnic group known as [[Bulgarians]]. The [[Romance languages|Romance speakers]] within [[Dalmatian city-states|the fortified Dalmatian cities]] retained their culture and language for a long time.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=35}} Dalmatian Romance was spoken until the high Middle Ages, but, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simmonds |first=Lauren |date=May 11, 2023 |title=Croatian Language – The Difference between Dalmatic and Dalmatian |url=https://total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/croatian-language-8/#:~:text=The%20Dalmatic%20language%20does%20not,both%20Slavic%20and%20Romance%20languages}}</ref>

In the Western Balkans, South Slavs and Germanic [[Gepids]] intermarried with invaders, eventually producing a Slavicized population.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} In Central Europe, the West Slavs intermixed with [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], [[Hungarians|Hungarian]], and [[Celts|Celtic]] peoples, while in Eastern Europe the East Slavs had encountered [[Baltic Finns|Finnic]] and [[Varangians|Scandinavian people]]s. Scandinavians ([[Varangians]]) and Finnic peoples were involved in the [[Kievan Rus'|early formation of the Rus' state]] but were completely Slavicized after a century. Some [[Finno-Ugric peoples|Finno-Ugric]] tribes in the north were also absorbed into the expanding Rus population.{{sfn|Balanovsky|Rootsi|2008|pp=236—250}} In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] tribes, such as the [[Kipchaks|Kipchak]] and the [[Pecheneg]], caused a massive migration of East Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.<ref name="The course of the Russian history2">{{cite book |last=Klyuchevsky |first=Vasily |date=1987 |chapter-url=http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kluch/kluch16.htm |title=The course of the Russian history |chapter=1: Mysl |publisher=Мысль |language=ru |isbn=5-244-00072-1 |access-date=9 October 2009}}</ref> In the Middle Ages, groups of [[Saxons|Saxon]] ore miners settled in medieval [[Bosnia]], [[Serbia]] and [[Bulgaria]], where they were Slavicized.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

[[File:Slavic raids on Scandinavia, Nar.Muz.Mor., Gdańsk, Poland.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Map showing [[Baltic Slavic piracy|Slavic raids]] on Scandinavia in the mid-12th century]]

''[[Saqaliba]]'' refers to the Slavic [[Mercenary|mercenaries]] and [[Slavery|slave]]s in the medieval Arab world in [[North Africa]], [[Sicily]] and [[Al-Andalus]]. Saqaliba served as caliph's guards.<ref name="fordham2">{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html |title=ch 1 |author=Lewis |year=1994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010401012040/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html |archive-date=1 April 2001}}</ref><ref>Eigeland, Tor. 1976. [http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197605/the.golden.caliphate.htm "The golden caliphate"]. ''Saudi Aramco World'', September/October 1976, pp.&nbsp;12–16.</ref> In the 12th century, [[Baltic Slavic piracy|Slavic piracy in the Baltics]] increased. The [[Wendish Crusade]] was started against the Polabian Slavs in 1147, as a part of the [[Northern Crusades]]. The pagan chief of the Slavic [[Obotrites|Obodrite]] tribes, [[Niklot]], began his open resistance when [[Lothar III]], [[Holy Roman Emperor]], invaded Slavic lands. In August 1160, Niklot was killed, and German colonization (''[[Ostsiedlung]]'') of the Elbe-Oder region began. In [[Hanoverian Wendland]], [[Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]] and [[Lusatia]], invaders started [[germanization]]. Early forms of germanization were described by German monks: [[Helmold]] in the manuscript ''[[Chronicon Slavorum]]'' and [[Adam of Bremen]] in ''[[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum]].''<ref name="britannica2">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639735/Wend |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507201210/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639735/Wend |archive-date=2008-05-07 |title=Wend |website=Britannica.com |date=13 September 2013 |access-date=4 April 2014}}</ref> The [[Polabian language]] survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of [[Lower Saxony]].<ref name="britannica42">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Polabian-language |title=Polabian language |website=Britannica.com |access-date=4 April 2014}}</ref> In [[Eastern Germany]], around 20% of Germans have historic Slavic paternal ancestry, as revealed in Y-DNA testing.<ref>{{cite journal|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=2013|title=Contemporary paternal genetic landscape of Polish and German populations: from early medieval Slavic expansion to post-World War II resettlements|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=21|issue=4|pages=415–22|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2012.190|pmc=3598329|pmid=22968131}}</ref> Similarly, in Germany, around 20% of the foreign surnames are of Slavic origin.<ref>{{cite journal|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=2006|title=Y-chromosomal STR haplotype analysis reveals surname-associated strata in the East-German population|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=14|issue=5|pages=577–582|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201572|pmid=16435000|doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[History of the Cossacks|Cossacks]], although Slavic and practicing [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]], came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, including [[Tatars]] and other peoples.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} The [[Gorals]] of southern [[Poland]] and northern [[Slovakia]] are partially descended from the originally Balkan Romance speaking [[Vlachs]], who migrated into the region from the 14th to 17th centuries and were quickly absorbed into the local population, especially since the majority of Vlachs were already [[Slavicisation|slavicized]] and the term became synonymous with Ruthenians. The populations of [[Moravian Wallachia]], [[Carpathian Ruthenia]] and parts of northern Slovakia are also descended partially from the Vlachs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wołoscy pasterze w Ochotnicy oraz tutejsze nazwy pochodzenia wołoskiego |url=http://skansen-studzionki.pl/wolosi-w-ochotnicy |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=skansen-studzionki.pl |language=pl-PL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Redakcja |date=2017-11-23 |title=Skąd pochodzą górale? Inwazja Wołochów zmieniła historię polskich gór |url=https://naszahistoria.pl/skad-pochodza-gorale-inwazja-wolochow-zmienila-historie-polskich-gor/ar/12701192 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Nasza Historia |language=pl-PL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |title=With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns |date=2015 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-615-5053-46-7 |location=Budapest}}</ref> Conversely, some Slavs were assimilated into other populations. Although the majority continued towards Southeast Europe, attracted by the riches of the area that became the state of Bulgaria, a few remained in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe and were assimilated into the [[Hungarian people|Magyar]] people. Numerous rivers and places in [[History of Romania|Romania]] have a name with Slavic origins.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nandriș |first=Grigore |title=The Relations between Toponymy and Ethnology in Rumania |jstor=4204755 |volume=34 |number=83 |date=June 1956 |pages=490–494 |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |publisher=[[Modern Humanities Research Association]]}}</ref>