Editing Languages of Europe (section)

=== Slavic ===
{{See also|Slavic languages|Slavs}}

[[File:Slavic europe (Kosovo unshaded).svg|thumb|300px|Political map of Europe with countries where the national language is Slavic:
{{legend|#7cdc87|West Slavic languages}}
{{legend|#008000|East Slavic languages}}
{{legend|#004040|South Slavic languages}}]]

[[Slavic languages]] are spoken in large areas of Southern, Central and [[Eastern Europe]]. An estimated 315 million people speak a Slavic language,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-02 |title=Slavic languages {{!}} List, Definition, Origin, Map, Tree, History, & Number of Speakers {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavic-languages |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> the largest groups being 
[[Russian language|Russian]] ({{circa}} 110 million in [[European Russia]] and adjacent parts of Eastern Europe, Russian forming the largest linguistic community in Europe),
[[Polish language|Polish]] ({{circa}} 40 million<ref>{{e27|pol|Polish}}</ref>),
[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] ({{circa}} 33 million<ref>{{e27|ukr|Ukrainian}}</ref>), 
[[Serbo-Croatian]] ({{circa}} 18 million<ref>{{e27|hbs|Serbo-Croatian}}</ref>),<!--includes Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin-->
[[Czech language|Czech]] ({{circa}} 11 million<ref>{{e27|ces|Czech}}</ref>),
[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] ({{circa}} 8 million<ref>{{e27|bul|Bulgarian}}</ref>), 
[[Slovak language|Slovak]] ({{circa}} 5 million<ref>{{e27|slk|Slovak}}</ref>),
[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] (c. 3.7 million<ref>{{e27|bel|Belarusian}}</ref>), [[Slovene language|Slovene]] ({{circa}} 2.3 million<ref>{{e27|slv|Slovene}}</ref>)
and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] ({{circa}} 1.6 million<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macedonian-language |title=Macedonian Language |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=12 January 2024|website=Britannica |publisher= Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=24 March 2024 |quote=}}</ref>).

Phylogenetically, Slavic is divided into three subgroups:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slavic {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/4249/ |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}</ref>

* ''[[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]]'' includes [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Polabian language|Polabian]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Knaanic language|Knaanic]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Lower Sorbian language|Lower Sorbian]], [[Upper Sorbian language|Upper Sorbian]], [[Silesian language|Silesian]] and [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]].
* ''[[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]]'' includes [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]], and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]].
* ''[[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]]'' includes [[Slovene language|Slovene]] and [[Serbo-Croatian]] in the southwest and [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] and [[Church Slavonic]] (a [[liturgical language]]) in the southeast, each with numerous distinctive dialects. South Slavic languages constitute a [[Dialect continuum#South Slavic continuum|dialect continuum]] where standard Slovene, Macedonian and Bulgarian are each based on a distinct dialect, whereas [[pluricentric language|pluricentric]] Serbo-Croatian boasts four [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] [[Comparison of standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian|national standard varieties]] all based on a single dialect, [[Shtokavian dialect|Shtokavian]].