1. The document discusses the genetic affiliation and closest linguistic relatives of Slavic languages. It argues that Baltic languages, such as Lithuanian, are the closest relatives to Slavic based on lexical, morphological, syntactic, and prosodic similarities. 2. Old Church Slavonic is examined as the first literary Slavic language, originating from the work of Constantine and Methodius among South Slavic peoples. Church Slavonic then developed into the liturgical language of Eastern Orthodoxy. 3. Features of the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian languages are outlined, including their origins in the Štokavian, Kajkavian, and Čakavian dialects and more recent standardization history.

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SLAV 20100/30100 genetic affiliation of Slavic
Intro to Slavic Linguistics higher-order protolanguages:
Autumn 2012 1. Swedish + Danish + Norwegian ?
Yaroslav Gorbachov
English + Dutch + German ?
gorbachov@uchicago.edu 2. Scandinavian + West Germanic ?
3. Germanic + Slavic + Celtic + Greek… ?
” Indo-European!
other branches of Indo-European?
č ę
genetic affiliation of Slavic genetic affiliation of Slavic
source: http://www.verbix.com/documents/pie/
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genetic affiliation of Slavic closest relative: Baltic
maximum spread of Baltic hydronyms
how close are the IE languages?
E. sister OCS sestrá
E. brother Cz. bratr, OCS brátrŭ
E. widow OCS vĭdová
E. two OCS dŭvá
E. three OCS trĭje
E. sit OCS sěd-
E. nose OCS nosŭ
E. (eye)brow OCS brŭv- source: Marija Gimbutas, The Balts, London, 1963
closest relative: Baltic closest relative: Baltic
1. lexical similarities (both pan-IE and, more OCS glavá Lith. galvá ‘head’
importantly, exclusively BSl.) OCS rǫká Lith. rankà ‘hand’
2. morphology (structure of roots and affixes) OR pĭrstŭ Lith. pir͂štas ‘finger’
OCS lédŭ Lith. lẽdas ‘ice’
3. syntax (rules for constructing phrases and
OCS želězo Lith. geležìs ‘iron’
sentences)
R. bába Lith. bóba ‘old woman’
4. prosody (rhythm, stress, and intonation 150+ BSl. words not found in any other IE
patterns) language, mostly referring to nature (flora,
fauna, landscape, weather, etc.)
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the nature of B.-Slavic affinity Indo-European 'family tree'
Source: Van Wijk, Die baltischen und slavischen Akzent- und Intonations-
systeme (1923)
conservatism of Baltic
OCS synъ = synŭ 'son'
< PSl. *synŭ < Early PSl. *sūnus
Lith. sūnùs
survey of the literary/standard
gen.sg.?
OCS synu 'of (a/the) son,' 'son's' Slavic languages
< PSl. *synu < Early PSl. *sūnåus
Lith. sūnaũs
voc.sg.: OCS synu 'son!' = Lith. sūnaũ 'son!'
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Old Church Slavonic Constantine (Cyril) & Methodius
the first literary (liturgical and ecclesiastic)
language of the Slavs; which branch of Slavic?
Moravians (WS)
Bulgarians, Serbs (SS)
Russians (ES)
genetic affiliation of the lang. of most mss.:
South East Slavic (recall *tj > št, *dj > žd)
i.e., the Bulgarian-Macedonian subgroup
time frame: 9-11th c. monument to SS Cyril & Methodius in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
credit: Vitaly Moskalyuk
Church Slavonic
cover term for the local varieties (recensions) of
OCS (Bulg., Serb., Russ., Rum., etc.)
the supranational literary language of Slavia
Orthodoxa
was in use long after the 11th c.
used for both ecclesiastic and non-ecclesiastic
aspects of literary production
has left an indelible mark on the Russian literary
language (lexicon, бегущий vs. бегучий, etc.)
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5. 10/11/2012
the scripts: Glagolitic
Codex Zographensis, 10-11th c.; fnd.: Bulgarian Zograf Monastery, Mount Athos
source: А. М. Селищев, Старославянский язык, ч. 2, Москва 1952, стр. 8
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic_alphabet
the scripts: 'Cyrillic'
Ostromirovo Evangelie, Russia, 1056-1057
source: http://www.nlr.ru/exib/Gospel/ostr/index.html
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Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian
formerly known as Serbo-Croatian
speakers: ca. 15 million
four main dialects:
Štokavian (štokavski) – što, šta
Kajkavian (kajkavski) – kaj
Čakavian (čakavski) – ča original distribution of BCS dialects
before the 16th c. migrations
Torlak (torlački)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0tokavian_dialect
Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian
Štokavian is further subdivided into: prior to early 19th c.:
Ekavian (ekavski) – PSl. *ě > e Serbia: Serb. recension of Church Slavonic
(I)jekavian ((i)jekavski) – PSl. *ě > (i)je Dalmatia: old Glagolitic tradition
since 15th c. – a Čakavian-based
Ikavian (ikavski) – PSl. *ě > i
written language
cf. reka, les, mera vs. rijeka, lijes, mjera
1818: Serbian folklorist Vuk Karadžić reforms
NB: modern BCS is a pluricentric language (it the Cyrillic alphabet and adopts the principle
has several written standards) of phonetic spelling ('piši kao što govoriš')
all are based on the Neoštokavian dialect 1868: 'vukovica' is officially adopted in Serbia
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7. 10/11/2012
Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian
1836: Ljudevit Gaj, Đuro Daničić, and a few some exx. of lexical differences btw. S and C:
other Croatian writers abandon the local
jul vs. srpanj (← srp)
Čakavian-based norm and adopt Štokavian as
the new standard oktobar vs. listopad (← list, padati)
1850: Serbian and Croatian linguists sign the fabrika vs. tvornica (← tvoriti)
Vienna Literary Agreement settling on Štok. as muzika vs. glazba (← glas)
the base for a common SC literary language
advokat vs. odvjetnik (← odvjet?)
both Roman 'gajevica' & Cyrillic 'vukovica', the
fudbal vs. nogomet (← noga, metati)
ekavian & ijekavian pronunciation norms, and
lexical differences are recognized as admissible
Glagoljica in Croatia Glagoljica in Croatia
Hrvoje’s Missal (1404) & Prince Novak’s
the Baška Tablet (Bašćanska ploča), ca. 1100; found: Baška, Krk island, Missal (1368) sources:
Croatia source: http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/baska.html http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/et03.html
http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/lika.html#novak
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8. 10/11/2012
the first printed Glagolitic the Zagreb Cathedral
book (Missal), 1483, Croatia
source:
http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/
et03.html source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic_alphabet
phonology
multiple palatal/palatalized consonants ("soft")
consonants:
some salient characteristics P. koń, BCS konj (коњ), R. конь (vs. R. кон)
of Slavic languages minimal pair! /n/ and /nj/ are contrastive!)
postalveolar sibilants: š [ʃ], ž [ʒ]
(a sketch of Slavic typology) Cz. šiška, žába; R. шишка, жаба
+ multiple affricates: ʒ' [dzj], c' [tsj], č [tʃ]
Cz. čas, celý; R. час, целый; OCS ʒělo
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phonology phonology
some "funny" vowels: late Proto-Slavic and early historical Slavic (OCS,
ě (yat') ― [æ], [ie] (depending on the lg.) Old Russ., etc.) were characterized by
y [ɨ] 1. law of open syllables (syllables should be open)
+ nasal vowels (OCS + P.): OCS mǫžь, P. mąż Old Russ. ратьникъ [ra.tĭ.nji.kŭ]
> R. ратник [rat.njik]
multiple morphophonemic alternations
k:č, k:c, g:ž, x:š, s:š, o:a:
2. syllabic synharmony (syllables should be
synharmonic: i.e., every sound within a syllable
R. просить : спрашивать should have the same 'tonality' – high or low)
U. рука : в руцi P. ręka : w ręce Old Russ. поѥши [pɔ.jɛ.ʃi]
OCS rek-ǫ, reč-eši, rě-xъ, rьc-i, rok-ъ > R. поёшь [pǝ.jɔʃ ]
prosody morphology
rich inflectional morphology (many morphological
free and mobile stress (minus West Slavic + M.):
contrasts expressed by suffixes + endings):
cf. R. головá : гóлову : голóв;
robust case systems (NSl., SWSl.)
ношý : нóсишь two adjective forms (short + long)
pitch accent (Proto-Slavic + BCS): two-three numbers, three genders…
acute, circumflex ― inherited from BSl., many tenses (SESl.)
three moods
cf. Lithuanian!
verb aspects (perfective + imperfective)
vowel quantity/length (BCS + Cz.); uni-/multidirectional (aka determinate/indeterm.)
lost or transformed to vowel height
verbs: R. нести : носить; лететь : летать,
elsewhere (e.g., P. ó, P. dial. å, ė, R. dial ô)
Cz. nést : nosit, letět : létat; P. lecieć : latać)
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morphology syntax
"free" word order (the word order is determined
multiple noun + verb classes:
by pragmatic factors such as topic and focus)
P. gen. brat-a vs. siostr-y
"scrambling" (in the sense discontinuity of
P. inst. brat-em vs. siostr-ą
constituents resulting in a crossing of lines in the
R. 2.sg. pres. нес-ёшь vs. нос-ишь tree structure!)
"fusional" (endings may carry multiple functions):
R. в (его) дом-ах 'in (his) houses'
vs. Tatar торак-лар-(ын)-да 'idem'
or Georg. sakhl-eb-ši 'in houses' новую книгу читаю новую читаю книгу
syntax syntax
but not so free within constituents (e.g., within examples of clitics (Bg.):
NPs):
Вчера Петко ми го даде.
R. человек слова (noun + adnominal genitive) yesterday Petko me.DAT it gave
R. честный человек (modifier + head noun)
Ти си му ги показвал.
not so free in general in Bg. and M.! you have him.DAT them shown
outright restricted so far as clitics are concerned Си му гиi дал ли паритеi?
have.2.SG. him.DAT them given Q money.THE
complex systems of (verb-adjacent) pronominal +
verbal auxiliary clitics in WSl.+SSl. (obj. doubling!)
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syntax
extensive agreement system
subject/verb AGR: дети читают
noun/modifier AGR: новую книгу
genitive of negation: R. они не едят мяса
finite subordinated (embedded) clauses
introduced by a clause-initial conjunctions
participles may be used for relative clauses
WSl. + SSl. are largely null subject languages (but
again, ESl. which happen to lack overt present
tense copula are not)
writing Slavic down
what are the difficulties?
more sounds than there are Rom. characters
problematic areas:
Slavic alphabets
marking "soft" (palatalized/palatal cons.)
"(ortho)graphic" strategies rendering postalveolars: š [ʃ], ž [ʒ]
rendering affricates: ʒ' [dzj], c' [tsj], č [tʃ ]…
some vowels: jers, jat', /ɨ/, nasal vowels
+ prosodic features (length, pitch, etc.)
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12. 10/11/2012
writing Slavic down writing Slavic down
Freising Fragments, Old Slovene (late 10th c. AD) Freising Fragments, Old Slovene (late 10th c. AD)
Eccę bi detd nas ne zegresil te u veku Ešče bi děd(ъ) naš ne sъgrěšil(ъ) tъ vъ věku
gemu be siti starosti ne prigemlióki jemu by žiti starosti ne prijьml'ǫči
writing Slavic down
Freising Fragments, Old Slovene (late 10th c. AD)
'If our forefather had not sinned, he would have
lived forever without growing old'
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13. 10/11/2012
writing Slavic down writing Slavic down
Glagolitic: Cyrillic: Glagolitic: Cyrillic:
¶ = ž [ʒ] ¶ ¶ = ž [ʒ] ¶
È = š [ʃ] È È = š [ʃ] È °=Α
Ç = č [tʃ] Y Ç = č [tʃ] Y ²=Β
Î = c [ts] Æ Î = c [ts] Æ ³=Γ
@ = ě [æ] or [ie] @ the rest are Greek @ = ě [æ] or [ie] @ ´=Δ
’ = ę [ɛ̃]  ’ = ę [ɛ̃]  ¸=Η
™ = ǫ [ɔ̃] ™ ™ = ǫ [ɔ̃] ™ ¿=Π
Ê = ъ [ʊ̆ ] Ê Ê = ъ [ʊ̆ ] Ê Ä=Φ
Ì = ь [ɪ ̆] Ì Ì = ь [ɪ ̆] Ì Å=Χ etc.
Ë (ъ + i) = y [ɨ] or [ɯ] Ë (ъ + i) Ë (ъ + i) = y [ɨ] or [ɯ] Ë (ъ + i)
marking post-alveolar cons. marking "softness"
the post-alveolar affricates and sibilants Czech:
inherited from Proto-Slavic: *š *ž *č *šč t' d' Ť Ď ň Ň d'ábel, kůň, daň, daňový ráj [ɲɔ]
Russian: ш ж ч [tɕ] щ [ɕtɕ] > [ɕ:] but necitlivý vs. něco [ɲɛ]; dým vs. dimenze [ɟi]
Bulgarian: ш ж ч щ [ɕtɕ] > [ɕt] > [ʃt] Polish (+ Sorbian/Lusatian):
BCS Cyrillic: ш ж ч [tʃ] шт + ћ [tɕ] ђ [dʑ] џ nie wiem [ɲɛ vjɛm]; konia [kɔɲɑ]
BCS Roman: š ž č št + ć đ dž koń [kɔɲ]; coś [tsɔsj] > [tsɔɕ] (laminal palatalized)
Czech: š ž č št' Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian:
Polish: sz [ʂ] ż/rz [ʐ] cz [tʂ] szcz [ʂtʂ] + dż [dʐ] konj, коњ (н + ь) [ɲ]; zemlja, земља (л + ь) [ʎ]
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marking "softness" marking prosodic features
Russian лог [lɔk] лёг [ljɔk] stress, pitch, and vowel quantity (length):
лук [luk] люк [ljuk] Czech á é í ú ů: pták chléb úraz kůň můj vozů
сэр [sɛr] сер [sjɛr] Polish ó + dial. å ė: mój ptåk chlėb
Slovak Í ŕ (long syllabic liquids): stÍp, vŕba
мат [mɑt] мят [mjɑt]
BCS stress + quantity + pitch
are C and C' distinct sounds or positional variants ȁ ȍ … = short falling grȁd mȍra pȁs lȕk
(allophones) of the same phoneme? ȃ ȏ … = long falling grȃd mȏra pȃs lȗk
/ __ С,# кон [kɔn] конь [kɔnj] коньки à ò … = short rising kòsa mòra
дан дань á ó … = long rising Kósa móra
why not mark palatalization on consonants?!! ā ō … = long unstressed (flat intonation)
writing the 'funny' vowels two transliterations systems
*y [ɨ]:
merged with i everywhere (except P., R., B.)
the "linguistic" system vs. the LOC system
nasal vowels:
OCS ѧ ѫ: пѧть дѫбъ Cyrillic ш ж ч ц х я ю е э й ъ ь
Pol. (i)ę (i)ą: pięć dąb
but Cz. pět dub, BCS pȇt dȗb, R. пять дуб 'linguistic' š ž č c x ja ju e è j " '
*ě [æ]/[ie]:
LOC sh zh ch ts kh ia iu e ė ĭ " '
merged w. 'a, e, i (miasto město mȅsto mȉsto)
distinct in R. dial ê, U. i, Jek. BCS (i)je (mjȅsto)
*ь *ъ:
'fell' everywhere (vocalized or dropped)
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