Editing Slavs (section)

==Languages==
{{main|History of the Slavic languages|Slavic languages}}
[[File:Lenguas_eslavas_orientales.PNG|thumb|upright|left|East Slavic languages{{imagefact|date=November 2022}}
{{legend|#008080|[[Russian language|Russian]]}}
{{legend|#00FF7F|[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]}}
{{legend|#FFD700|[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]}}
{{legend|#FF7F50|[[Rusyn language|Rusyn]]}}]]
[[File:South_Slavic_dialect_continuum.svg|thumb|right|South Slavic dialect continuum with major dialect groups]]
[[File:Lenguas eslavas occidentales.PNG|thumb|upright|left|West Slavic languages{{imagefact|date=November 2022}}<br />
{{legend|#FF0000|[[Polish language|Polish]]}}
{{legend|#A52A2A|[[Kashubian language|Kashubian]]}}
{{legend|#FF6347|[[Silesian language|Silesian]]}}
{{legend|#8B008B|[[Polabian language|Polabian]] †}}
{{legend|#FF00FF|[[Lower Sorbian]]}}
{{legend|#EE82EE|[[Upper Sorbian]]}}
{{legend|#FF8C00|[[Czech language|Czech]]}}
{{legend|#FFD700|[[Slovak language|Slovak]]}}
]]
[[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]], the supposed ancestor language of all Slavic languages, is a descendant of common [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], via a [[Proto-Balto-Slavic|Balto-Slavic stage]] in which it developed numerous lexical and morphophonological isoglosses with the [[Baltic language]]s. In the framework of the [[Kurgan hypothesis]], "the Indo-Europeans who remained after the migrations [from the steppe] became speakers of Balto-Slavic".<ref name="kortlandt"/>

Proto-Slavic is defined as the last stage of the language preceding the geographical split of the historical [[Slavic languages]]. That language was uniform, and on the basis of borrowings from foreign languages and Slavic borrowings into other languages, it cannot be said to have any recognizable dialects, which suggests that there was, at one time, a relatively-small [[Slavic urheimat|Proto-Slavic homeland]].<ref name="kortlandt5" /> However, from a historical and archaeological point of view, the existence of a homogeneous Proto-Slavic people is judged improbable.{{sfn|Brather|2008|pp=54-55}}

Slavic linguistic unity was to some extent visible as late as [[Old Church Slavonic]] (or [[Old Bulgarian]]) manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech of [[Thessaloniki]], could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.<ref>J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, ''The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World'' (2006), pp. 25–26.</ref>

[[Standard language|Standardised]] Slavic languages that have official status in at least one country are: [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Slovene language|Slovene]], and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]. Russian is the most spoken Slavic language, and is the most spoken [[native language]] in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|title=Russian|publisher=[[University of Toronto]]|quote=Russian is the most widespread of the Slavic languages and the largest native language in Europe.|access-date=26 March 2022}}</ref>

The alphabets used for Slavic languages are usually connected to the dominant religion among the respective ethnic groups. Orthodox Christians use the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic alphabet]] while Catholics use the [[Latin alphabet]]; the Bosniaks, who are Muslim, also use the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia. Additionally, some [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern Catholics]] and [[Latin Church|Western Catholics]] use the Cyrillic alphabet. Serbian and Montenegrin use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin script to write in Belarusian, called [[Belarusian Latin alphabet|Łacinka]] and in Ukrainian, called [[Ukrainian Latin alphabet|Latynka]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}