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Slavic Languages

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.

Branches

Scholars divide the Slavic languages into three main branches, some of which feature sub-branches:
- East Slavic, including Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn.
- West Slavic, which further subdivide into:
- Czech and Slovak,
- Upper and Lower Sorbian (minority languages in Germany),
- Lechitic languages: Polish, Pomeranian/Kashubian and extinct Polabian.
- South Slavic, which further subdivide into:
- Western subgroup composed of Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian. Slavicists often group the latter three together as the Serbo-Croatian language.
- Eastern subgroup composed of Bulgarian and Macedonian. (Some slavicists, especially those in Bulgaria and Greece, regard Macedonian as a "regional norm" of the Bulgarian language rather than as a separate language.) Some scientists postulate that a North Slavic branch has existed as well; the Old Novgorod dialect would be a remnant of it. On the other hand, the term "North Slavic" is also used sometimes to combine the West and East Slavic languages into one group, in opposition to the South Slavic languages. The oldest Slavic literary language was Old Church Slavonic, which later evolved into Church Slavonic.

Distribution of Slavic languages

Map of Slavic languages in Europe

The tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take into account the spoken dialects of each language. Of these, certain so-called transitional dialects and hybrid dialects often bridge the gaps between different languages, showing similarities that do not stand out when comparing Slavic literary (i.e., standard) languages. Enough differences exist between the various Slavic dialects and languages to make communication between speakers of different Slavic languages difficult. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a lesser degree, as those of Russian, or to a much greater degree, as those of Slovenian. Modern mass media, however, has helped to minimize variation in all the Slavic languages. Note too that historical inter-Slav cultural currents, such as the influence of South Slavic Old Church Slavonic and of South Slavic scholars on Russian, have exercised some re-unifying influence.

History

Common roots and ancestry

One can view all Slavic languages as descendants from Proto-Slavic, their parent language. According to some historical linguistics theories, Proto-Slavic in turn developed from the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a common ancestor of Proto-Baltic, the parent of the Baltic languages. According to this theory, the "Urheimat" of Proto-Balto-Slavic lay in the territories surrounding today's Lithuania at some time after the Indo-European language community had separated into different dialect regions (c. 3000 BC). Slavic and Baltic speakers share at least 289 words which could have come from that hypothetical language. According to some linguists the process of separation of Proto-Slavic speakers from Proto-Baltic speakers presumably occurred around 1000 BC. Some linguists maintain however, that the Slavic group of languages differs more radically from the neighboring Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian, and the now-extinct Old Prussian). The Baltic language speakers once lived in a much larger area along the Baltic Sea and south. Starting by AD 600 Slavic language speakers gradually spread and took over large areas of Baltic settlements. (At the same time records note them taking over portions of Greece.) (The first documented attempt at conquest of Baltic speakers by Slavic speakers comes from Adalbert of Prague in the year AD 997.) This group of linguists explain Baltic/Slavic similarities in grammar and vocabulary as a result of this Slav migration into the Baltic-speaking areas and the subsequent proximity of the two groups. A minority of linguists, spurred by the idea of "geolinguistics", view the southern branch of the Slavic languages as possibly autochthonous to the Balkans.

Differentiation of Slavic languages

In the opinion of linguists, probably even in the 10th–12th centuries all Slavs spoke generally the same language, with recognizable regional differences. Linguistic differentiation received impetus from the dispersion of the Slavic peoples over large territory - which in Central Europe exceeded the current extent of Slavic-speaking majorities. Written documents of the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries already have some local linguistic features. For example the Freising monuments show a language which contains some phonetic and lexical elements peculiar to Slovenian dialects (e.g. rhotacism, the word krilatec).

Separation of South and West Slavs

The movement of Slavic-speakers into the Balkans in the declining centuries of the Byzantine empire expanded the area of Slavic speech, but pre-existing languages (notably Greek) survived in this area. The arrival of the Hungarians in Pannonia in the 9th century interposed non-Slavic speakers between South and West Slavs. Frankish conquests completed the geographical separation between these two groups, severing the connection between Slavs in Lower Austria (Moravians) from those in present-day Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, ancestors of present-day Slovenians.

Slavic-speaking populations under foreign rule

Political situations have also affected the use and scope of the Slavic languages. In the course of their history, many Slavic-speaking communities came under foreign rule for longer or shorter periods. Poland underwent partition, German-speaking empires appeared to absorb the Czechs for many centuries, and the Ottomans in their hey-day dominated the Balkan Slavs. Even the Russians had to submit to the Tatar yoke after the Mongol invasion of Russia. The largest geographical extent of Slavic population, which in the Middle Ages included the majority of the present-day German lands of Brandenburg and Pomerania, diminished in the course of the German Drang nach Osten. Turkish incursions suppressed the regional hegemonies of Bulgarian and Serbian speakers; Poland suffered decline, partition and extinction as a separate national state in the 18th century. Until the 20th century, certain speech-groups (such as speakers of Slovenian) lacked the resources to establish their own distinctive independent nation-states. Other communities (speakers of Sorbian or of Kashubian, for example) remain as minorities in the current system of nation-states. Some speech-communities have long stood under the influence of others -- even other Slavs: speakers of Ukrainian and Belarusian came under Polish and/or Russian rule; German-speaking overlords have long dominated the Sorbian-speakers. In the case of Czech- and Slovak-speakers, originally kindred languages diverged when the former came under German rule, the latter under Hungarian. The same division marks the now well-established border between the Slovenian and Croatian language areas, even if some bordering dialects of the two languages indicate an almost smooth transition. Despite their frequent lack of political power, speakers of Slavic languages demonstrated resilience, sometimes culturally taking over foreign political rulers, as in Bulgaria, where Bulgar overlords became Slavicized. Similarly, in the Republic of Dubrovnik Croatian became an official language in parallel to Ragusan Dalmatian and Latin. Even under the Ottoman Empire, south-eastern Europe, except for Greece proper and Albanian, Romanian and Hungarian areas, remained Slavic speaking.

Modern developments

In the 19th century Pan-Slavism combined with nationalism to foster linguistic and literary expansion and revival: often under the aegis of the Russian tsars. The arrival of Communist regimes in the 20th century fostered the separate lingustic development of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Macedonian, for example, but the years from 1945 to 1990 saw the vast majority of Slavic speakers grouped in the institutions of the Warsaw Pact under Soviet Russian domination. The following trend to political independence and the break-up of the old unified polities (Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) has encouraged a greater diversity of Slavic linguistic paths.

Slavic influence on neighboring languages

The Romanian and Hungarian languages witness the influence of the neighboring Slavic nations, especially in the vocabulary pertaining to crafts and trade; the major cultural innovations at times when few long-range cultural contacts took place. Despite a comparable extent of historical proximity, German shows no significant Slavic influence, one notable exception being the word for "border", Grenze, from the Slavic
- granĭca.

Detailed list with ISO 639 and SIL codes

The following tree for the Slavic languages derives from the Ethnologue report for Slavic languages[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90673]. It includes the SIL, ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 codes where available. ISO 639-2 uses the code sla in a general way for Slavic languages not included in one of the other codes. East Slavic languages:
- Belarusian (alternatively Belarusan, Belarussian, Belorussian) - (SIL code: bel; ISO 639-1 code: be; ISO 639-2 code: bel)
- The United States State Department, Ethnologue and the Rosetta Project recognize the form Belarusan.
- Ukrainian - (SIL code: ukr; ISO 639-1 code: uk; ISO 639-2 code: ukr)
- Russian - (SIL code: rus; ISO 639-1 code: ru; ISO 639-2 code, rus)
- Rusyn - (SIL code: rue; ISO 639-2 code: sla) West Slavic languages:
- Sorbian section (also known as Wendish) - ISO 639-2 code: wen
- Lower Sorbian (also known as Lusatian) - (SIL code: dsb; ISO 639-2 code: dsb)
- Upper Sorbian - (SIL code: hsb; ISO 639-2 code: hsb)
- Lechitic section
- Polish - (SIL code: pol; ISO 639-1 code, pl; ISO 639-2 code, pol)
- Pomeranian
- Kashubian - (SIL code: csb; ISO 639-2 code: csb)
- Slovincian - extinct
- Polabian - extinct - (SIL code: pox; ISO 639-2 code: sla)
- Czech-Slovak section
- Czech - (SIL code: ces; ISO 639-1 code: cs; ISO 639-2(B) code, cze; ISO 639-2(T) code: ces)
- Knaanic or Judeo Slavic - extinct - (SIL code: czk; ISO 639-2 code: sla)
- Slovak - (SIL code: slk; ISO 639-1 code: sk; ISO 639-2(B) code: slo; ISO 639-2(T) code: slk) South Slavic languages:
- Western Section
- Slovenian - (SIL code: slv; ISO 639-1 code: sl; ISO 639-2 code: slv)
- Croatian (SIL code: hrv; ISO 639-1 code: hr; ISO 639-2/3 code: hrv)
- Bosnian (SIL code: bos; ISO 639-1 code: bs; ISO 639-2/3 code: bos)
- Serbian (SIL code: srp; ISO 639-1 code: sr; ISO 639-2/3 code: srp)
- Eastern Section
- Macedonian - (SIL code: mkd; ISO 639-1 code: mk; ISO 639-2(B) code: mac; ISO 639-2(T) code: mkd)
- Bulgarian - (SIL code: bul; ISO 639-1 code: bg; ISO 639-2 code: bul)
- Old Church Slavonic - extinct (SIL code: chu; ISO 639-1 code: cu; ISO 639-2 code: chu) Note that Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian previously formed a unitary Serbo-Croatian (SIL 14th ed. code: SRC; ISO 639-1 code: sh; ISO 639-2(B) codes: scr and scc). See also: Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. Para- and supranational languages
- Church Slavonic language, derived from Old Church Slavonic, but with significant replacement of the original vocabulary by forms from the Old Russian language and other regional forms. The Russian Orthodox Church and Serbian Orthodox Church continue to use Church Slavonic as a liturgical language. While not used in modern times, the text of a Church Slavonic mass survives in the Czech Republic, which is best known through Janacek's musical setting of it (the Glagolitic Mass). A planned language called Slovio also exists: constructed on the basis of Slavic languages, and intended to facilitate intercommunication between people each of whom already speak at least one Slavic language.

External links

- [http://www.continuitas.com/interdisciplinary.pdf|Ethnic continuity and Slavic ethnogenesis]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90673 Ethnologue report on Slavic languages]
- [http://miejipang.homestead.com/untitled1.html Let's try Slavic languages!]
- [http://www.uni-bonn.de/~dbuncic/fauxamis/biling_un.htm Bilingual lists of Slavic false friends]
- als:Slawische Sprachen ko:슬라브어파 ja:スラヴ語派

Language

A language is a system of symbols, generally known as lexemes and the rules by which they are manipulated. The word language is also used to refer to the whole phenomenon of language, i.e., the common properties of languages. Though language is commonly used for communication, it is not synonymous with it. Human language is a natural phenomenon, and language learning is instinctive in childhood. In their natural form, human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for the symbols in order to communicate with others through the senses. Though there are thousands of human languages, they all share a number of properties from which there are no known deviations. Humans have also invented (or arguably in some cases discovered) many other languages, including constructed human languages such as Esperanto or Klingon, programming languages such as Python or Ruby, and various mathematical formalisms. These languages are not restricted to the properties shared by natural human languages.

Properties of language

Languages are not just sets of symbols. They also contain a grammar, or system of rules, used to manipulate the symbols. While a set of symbols may be used for expression or communication, it is primitive and relatively unexpressive, because there are no clear or regular relationships between the symbols. Because a language also has a grammar, it can manipulate its symbols to express clear and regular relationships between them. For example, imagine going on a walk with a person who only knew individual symbols, or words. If you saw a dog, he might say, "Dog scare" or "Scare Dog". Although any English speaker would have some notion of what he was talking about, the relationship between the words is unclear. Is he scared of dogs? Or just that dog? Or does he want to scare the dog off? Does he think the dog is scared? But if you respond, "I’m not scared of dogs," the relationship between dog and scare is quite apparent and hence the meaning of the utterance. Another important property of language is the arbitrariness of the symbols. Any symbol can be mapped onto any concept (or even onto one of the rules of the grammar). For instance, there is nothing about the Spanish word nada itself that forces Spanish speakers to use it to mean nothing. That is the meaning all Spanish speakers have memorized for that sound pattern. But for Croatian speakers nada means hope. However, it must be understood that just because in principle the symbols are arbitrary does not mean that a language cannot have symbols that are iconic of what they stand for. Words such as meow sound similar to what they represent, but they could be replaced with words such as jarn, and as long as everyone memorized the new word, the same concepts could be expressed with it.

Human languages

Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science studying them is linguistics. Making a principled distinction between one language and another is usually impossible. For example, the boundaries between named language groups are in effect arbitrary due to blending between populations (the dialect continuum). For instance, there are dialects of German very similar to Dutch which are not mutually intelligible with other dialects of (what Germans call) German. Some like to make parallels with biology, where it is not always possible to make a well-defined distinction between one species and the next. In either case, the ultimate difficulty may stem from the interactions between languages and populations. (See Dialect or August Schleicher for a longer discussion.) The concepts of Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache, and Dachsprache are used to make finer distinctions about the degrees of difference between languages or dialects.

Origins of human language

Scientists do not yet agree on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors). Estimates range from about two million (2,000,000) years ago, during the time of Homo habilis, to as recently as forty thousand (40,000) years ago, during the time of Cro-Magnon man. The nature of speech means that there is almost no data on which to base conclusions on the subject.

Language taxonomy

The classification of natural languages can be performed on the basis of different underlying principles (different closeness notions, respecting different properties and relations between languages); important directions of present classifications are:
- paying attention to the historical evolution of languages results in a genetic classification of languages—which is based on genetic relatedness of languages,
- paying attention to the internal structure of languages (grammar) results in a typological classification of languages—which is based on similarity of one or more components of the language’s grammar across languages,
- and respecting geographical closeness and contacts between language-speaking communities results in areal groupings of languages. The different classifications do not match each other and are not expected to, but the correlation between them is an important point for many linguistic research works. (There is a parallel to the classification of species in biological phylogenetics here: consider monophyletic vs. polyphyletic groups of species.) The task of genetic classification belongs to the field of historical-comparative linguistics, of typological—to linguistic typology. See also: Taxonomy, Taxonomic classification—for the general idea of classification and taxonomies.

Genetic classification

The world’s languages have been grouped into families of languages that are believed to have common ancestors. Some of the major families are the Indo-European languages, the Afro-Asiatic languages, the Austronesian languages, and the Sino-Tibetan languages. The shared features of languages from one family can be due to shared ancestry. (Compare with homology in biology.)

Typological classification

An example of a typological classification is the classification of languages on the basis of the basic order of the verb, the subject and the object in a sentence into several types: SVO, SOV, VSO, and so on, languages. (, for instance, belongs to the SVO language type.) The shared features of languages of one type (= from one typological class) may have arisen completely independently. (Compare with analogy in biology.) Their cooccurence might be due to the universal laws governing the structure of natural languages—language universals.

Areal classification

The following language groupings can serve as some linguistically significant examples of areal linguistic units, or sprachbunds: Balkan linguistic union, or the bigger group of European languages; Caucasian languages. Although the members of each group are not closely genetically related, there is a reason for them to share similar features, namely: their speakers have been in contact for a long time within a common community and the languages converged in the course of the history. These are called areal features. NB. One should be careful about the underlying classification principle for groups of languages which have apparently a geographical name: besides areal linguistic units, the taxa of the genetic classification (language families) are often given names which themselves or parts of which refer to geographical areas.
Constructed languages
One prominent artificial language, called Esperanto, was created by L. L. Zamenhof. It is a compilation of various elements of different languages, and it is intended to be an easy-to-learn language. Another prominent artificial language, called Ido, is intended to be reformed Esperanto. Other constructed languages strive to be more logical than natural languages; a prominent example of this is Lojban. Other writers, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, have created fantasy languages, for literary, artistic, or personal reasons. One of Tolkien’s languages is called Quenya, which is a form of Elvish. It has its own alphabet, and its phonology and syntax are modelled on Finnish. Linguist Mark Okrand has devised Klingon and Vulcan for Star Trek, which have since been developed into full languages.
The study of language
The oldest surviving written grammar for any language is believed to be the Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம்), a book on the grammar of the Tamil language, written around 200 BCE by Tolkāppiyar. Its classification of the alphabet into consonants and vowel was a breakthrough. The historical record of the study of language begins in North India with Pāṇini, the 5th century BCE grammarian who formulated 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology, known as the (अष्टाध्यायी). grammar is highly systematized and technical. Inherent in its analytic approach are the concepts of the phoneme, the morpheme, and the root; the phoneme was only recognized by Western linguists some two millennia later. In the Middle East, the Persian linguist Sibawayh made a detailed and professional description of Arabic in 760 CE in his monumental work, Al-kitab fi an-nahw (الكتاب في النحو, The Book on Grammar), bringing many linguistic aspects of language to light. In his book he distinguished phonetics from phonology. Later in the West, the success of science, mathematics, and other formal systems in the 20th century led many to attempt a formalization of the study of language as a "semantic code". This resulted in the academic discipline of linguistics, the founding of which is attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure.
Animal (nonhuman) language
While the term animal languages is widely used, most researchers agree that they are not as complex or expressive as human language; a more accurate term is animal communication. Some researchers argue that there are significant differences separating human language from the communication of other animals, and that the underlying principles are not related. In several widely publicised instances, animals have been trained to mimic certain features of human language. For example, chimpanzees and gorillas have been taught hand signs based on American Sign Language; however, they have never been taught its grammar. There was also a case in 2003 of Kanzi, a captive bonobo chimpanzee allegedly independently creating some words to mean certain concepts. While animal communication has debated levels of semantics, it has not been shown to have syntax in the sense that human languages do. Some researchers argue that a continuum exists among the communication methods of all social animals, pointing to the fundamental requirements of group behaviour and the existence of "mirror cells" in primates. This, however, may not be a scientific question, but is perhaps more one of definition. What exactly is the definition of the word "language"? Most researchers agree that, although human and more primitive languages have analogous features, they are not homologous.
Formal languages
Mathematics and computer science use artificial entities called formal languages (including programming languages and markup languages, but also some that are far more theoretical in nature). These often take the form of character strings, produced by some combination of formal grammar and semantics of arbitrary complexity.
See also

- Common phrases in different languages
- Computer-assisted language learning (a historical perspective)
- Deception
- Ethnologue, which provides a fairly complete list of languages, locations, population and genetic affiliation
- Extinct language
- FOXP2 (Language gene)
- ILR scale (defines five levels of language proficiency)
- ISO 639 (2- and 3-letter codes for language names)
- Language education
- Language reform
- Language policy
- Language school
- Linguistic protectionism
- Linguistics basic topics
- List of language academies
- List of languages
- List of official languages
- Naming
- Non-verbal communication
- Non-sexist language
- Official language
- Orthography
- Philology and Historical linguistics
- Philosophy of language
- Profanity
- Psycholinguistics
- Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- Slang
- Symbolic communication
- Speech therapy
- Terminology
- Tongue-twister
- Translation
- Whistled language
References

- Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- Crystal, David (2001). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- Katzner, K. (1999). The Languages of the World. New York, Routledge.
- McArthur, T. (1996). The Concise Companion to the English Language. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
- Kandel, Jessel, and Schwartz (1991). Principles of Neural Science. McGraw Hill (esp. p. 1173).
External links

- [http://www.zompist.com/ Mark Rosenfelder’s Metaverse] provides a useful listing of 5000 languages and dialects (grouped by their relationships), where the numbers one to ten in each language may be found
- [http://www.geocities.com/agihard/mohl/mohl_languages.html Museum of Languages]
- The [http://www.ethnologue.com/ Ethnologue], a catalog of the world’s languages
- [http://www.language-capitals.com Language Capitals] Guide to 8 major languages of the world with facts, characteristics and varieties
- [http://www.vistawide.com/languages/ World Languages and Cultures] — Practical information and resources on languages and language learning
- [http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/animals.html Animal sounds in different languages]
- [http://www.netz-tipp.de/languages.html Distribution of languages on the Internet]
- [http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/ Speech accent archive]
- [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/G_Kunkel/homepage.htm a collection of bird songs] provides many kinds of bird songs
- [http://acp.eugraph.com The Animal Communication Project]
- [http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/categories/lang.html Language Articles]
- [http://www.primitivism.com/language.htm Language: Origin and Meaning by John Zerzan] Category:Technology als:Sprache zh-min-nan:Gí-giân ko:언어 ms:Bahasa nb:Språk ja:言語 simple:Language th:ภาษา

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. Contemporary languages in this superfamily include Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (each with more than 100 million native speakers), as well as numerous smaller national or minority languages. The Indo-European is the largest widely accepted family of languages in the world today, spoken by approximately 3 billion native speakers. (The second most common family of tongues being Sino-Tibetan)

Classification

The various subgroups of the Indo-European family include (in historical order of their first attestation):
- Anatolian languages — earliest attested branch, from the 18th century BC; extinct, most notable was the language of the Hittites.
- Indo-Iranian languages, descending from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian
- Indo-Aryan, including Sanskrit, attested from the 2nd millennium BC
- Iranian languages, attested from roughly 1000 BC, including Avestan and Persian.
- Greek language — fragmentary records in Mycenaean from the 14th century BC; Homer dates to the 8th century BC. See History of the Greek language.
- Italic languages — including Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages, attested from the 1st millennium BC.
- Celtic languages — Gaulish inscriptions date as early as the 6th century BC; Old Irish texts from the 6th century AD.
- Germanic languages (including English) — earliest testimonies in runic inscriptions from around the 2nd century, earliest coherent texts in Gothic, 4th century.
- Armenian language — attested from the 5th century.
- Tocharian languages — extinct tongues of the Tocharians, extant in two dialects, attested from roughly the 6th century.
- Balto-Slavic languages, believed by many Indo-Europeanists to derive from a common proto-language later than Proto-Indo-European, while others are skeptical and think that Baltic and Slavic are no more closely related than any other two branches of Indo-European.
- Slavic languages — attested from the 9th century, earliest texts in Old Church Slavonic.
- Baltic languages — attested from the 14th century, and, for languages attested that late, they retain unusually many archaic features attributed to Proto-Indo-European.
- Albanian language — attested from the 15th century (1462); relations with Illyrian, Dacian, or Thracian proposed. In addition to the classical ten branches listed above, there are several extinct languages, about which very little is known:
- Illyrian languages — possibly related to Messapian or Venetic; relation to Albanian also proposed.
- Venetic language — close to Italic.
- Liburnian language — apparently grouped with Venetic.
- Messapian language — not conclusively deciphered.
- Phrygian language — language of ancient Phrygia, possibly close to Greek, Thracian, or Armenian.
- Paionian language — extinct language once spoken north of Macedon.
- Thracian language — possibly close to Dacian.
- Dacian language — possibly close to Thracian and Albanian.
- Ancient Macedonian language — probably related to Greek, others propose relation to Ilyrian, Thracian or Phrygian.
- Ligurian language — possibly not Indo-European; possibly close to or part of Celtic There were no doubt other Indo-European languages which are now lost without a trace. The fragmentary Raetian language cannot be classified with any certainty. Further subfamilies have been suggested, among them Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Aryan. Neither of these is widely accepted. Indo-Hittite refers to the hypothesis that there is a significant separation between Anatolian and all the remaining groups.

Satem and Centum languages

Indo-Hittite/Srubna cultures).]] The Indo-European sub-branches are often classified in a Satem and a Centum group. This is based on the varying treatments of the three original velar rows. Satem languages lost the distinction between labiovelar and pure velar sounds, and at the same time assibilated the palatal velars. The centum languages, on the other hand, lost the distinction between palatal velars and pure velars. Thus, geographically, the "eastern" languages are Satem (Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic, but not including Tocharian and Anatolian), and the "western" languages are Centum (Germanic, Italic, Celtic). The Satem-Centum isogloss runs right between the Greek (Centum) and Armenian (Satem) languages (thought to be related by a number of scholars), with Greek exhibiting some marginal Satem features. Some scholars think that there may be some languages that classify neither as Satem nor as Centum (Anatolian, Tocharian, and possibly Albanian). It should be noted that the grouping does not imply a claim of monophyly: there never was a "proto-Centum" or a "proto-Satem", but the sound changes spread by areal contact among already distinct post-PIE languages (say, during the 3rd millennium BC).

Suggested superfamilies

Some linguists propose that Indo-European languages are part of a hypothetical Nostratic language superfamily, and attempt to relate Indo-European to other language families, such as South Caucasian languages, Altaic languages, Uralic languages, Dravidian languages, Afro-Asiatic languages. This theory is controversial, as is the similar Eurasiatic theory of Joseph Greenberg, and the Proto-Pontic of John Colarusso.

History

See also: Proto-Indo-European, Historical linguistics, Glottochronology. The possibility of common origin for some of these languages was first proposed by Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn in 1647, proposing their derivation from "Scythian". However, the suggestions of van Boxhorn did not become widely known and were not pursued. The hypothesis was again proposed by Sir William Jones, who noticed similarities between four of the oldest languages known in his time, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian. Systematic comparison of these and other old languages conducted by Franz Bopp supported this theory, and Bopp's Comparative Grammar, appearing between 1833 and 1852 is considered the starting point of Indo-European studies as an academic discipline. The common ancestral (reconstructed) language is called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). There is disagreement as to the original geographic location (the so-called "Urheimat" or "original homeland") from where it originated. There are two main candidates today: # the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (see Kurgan) # Anatolia (see Colin Renfrew). Proponents of the Kurgan hypothesis tend to date the proto-language to ca. 4000 BC, while proponents of Anatolian origin usually date it several millennia earlier, associating the spread of Indo-European languages with the Neolithic spread of farming (see Indo-Hittite).

Kurgan hypothesis

The Kurgan hypothesis was originally suggested by Marija Gimbutas in the 1950s. According to the Kurgan hypothesis, early PIE was spoken in the chalcolithic steppe cultures of the 5th millennium BC between the Black Sea and the Volga. Timeline
- 4500–4000: Early PIE. Sredny Stog, Dnieper-Donets and Sarama cultures, domestication of the horse.
- 4000–3500: The Yamna culture, the prototypical kurgan builders, emerges in the steppe, and the Maykop culture in the northern Caucasus. Indo-Hittite models postulate the separation of Proto-Anatolian before this time.
- 3500–3000: Middle PIE. The Yamna culture is at its peak, representing the classical reconstructed Proto-Indo-European society, with stone idols, early two-wheeled proto-chariots, predominantly practicing animal husbandry, but also with permanent settlements and hillforts, subsisting on agriculture and fishing, along rivers. Contact of the Yamna culture with late Neolithic Europe cultures results in the "kurganized" Globular Amphora and Baden cultures. The Maykop culture shows the earliest evidence of the beginning Bronze Age, and bronze weapons and artefacts are introduced to Yamna territory. Probable early Satemization.
- 3000–2500: Late PIE. The Yamna culture extends over the entire Pontic steppe. The Corded Ware culture extends from the Rhine to the Volga, corresponding to the latest phase of Indo-European unity, the vast "kurganized" area disintegrating into various independent languages and cultures, still in loose contact enabling the spread of technology and early loans between the groups, except for the Anatolian and Tocharian branches, which are already isolated from these processes. The Centum-Satem break is probably complete, but the phonetic trends of Satemization remain active.
- 2500–2000: The breakup into the proto-languages of the attested dialects is complete. Proto-Greek is spoken in the Balkans, Proto-Indo-Iranian north of the Caspian in the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. The Bronze Age reaches Central Europe with the Beaker culture, likely composed of various Centum dialects. Proto-Balto-Slavic (or alternatively, Proto-Slavic and Proto-Baltic communities in close contact) develops in north-eastern Europe. The Tarim mummies possibly correspond to proto-Tocharians.
- 2000–1500: The chariot is invented, leading to the split and rapid spread of Iranian and Indo-Aryan from the Andronovo culture and the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex over much of Central Asia, Northern India, Iran and Eastern Anatolia. Proto-Anatolian is split into Hittite and Luwian. The pre-Proto-Celtic Unetice culture has an active metal industry (Nebra skydisk).
- 1500–1000: The Nordic Bronze Age develops (pre-)Proto-Germanic, and the (pre-)Proto-Celtic Urnfield and Hallstatt cultures emerge in Central Europe, introducing the Iron Age. Proto-Italic migration into the Italian peninsula. Redaction of the Rigveda and rise of the Vedic civilization in the Punjab. Flourishing and decline of the Hittite Empire. The Mycenaean civilization gives way to the Greek Dark Ages.
- 1000 BC–500 BC: The Celtic languages spread over Central and Western Europe. Northern Europe enters the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the formative phase of Proto Germanic. Homer initiates Greek literature and early Classical Antiquity. The Vedic Civilization gives way to the Mahajanapadas. Zoroaster composes the Gathas, rise of the Achaemenid Empire, replacing the Elamites and Babylonia. The Cimmerians (Srubna culture) are replaced by Scythians in the Pontic steppe. Armenians succeed the Urartu culture. Separation of Proto-Italic into Osco-Umbrian and Latin-Faliscan, and foundation of Rome. Genesis of the Greek and Old Italic alphabets. A variety of Paleo-Balkan languages are spoken in Southern Europe. The Anatolian languages are extinct.

Competing hypotheses

Colin Renfrew in 1987 suggested that the spread of Indo-European was associated with the Neolithic revolution, spreading peacefully into Europe from Asia Minor from around 7000 BC with the advance of farming (wave of advance). Accordingly, all of Neolithic Europe would have been Indo-European speaking, and the Kurgan migrations would at best have replaced Indo-European dialects with other Indo-European dialects. Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov in 1984 placed the Indo-European homeland on Lake Urmia. They suggested that Armenian was the language which stayed in the Indo-European cradle while other Indo-European languages left the homeland. They are also the originators of the Glottalic theory. Some people have pointed to the Black Sea deluge theory, dating the genesis of the Sea of Azov to ca. 5600 BC, as a direct cause of the Indo-European expansion. This event occurred in still clearly Neolithic times and is rather too early to fit with Kurgan archaeology. It may still be imagined as an event in the remote past of the Sredny Stog culture, and the people living on the land now beneath the Sea of Azov as possible pre-Proto-Indo-Europeans. Other theories exist, often with a nationalistic flavour, sometimes bordering on national mysticism, typically positing the development in situ of the proponents' respective homes. One prominent example of such are the Indian theories that derive Vedic Sanskrit from the Indus valley civilization, postulating that Vedic Sanskrit is essentially identical to Proto-Indo-European, and that all other dialects must ultimately trace back to the early Indus valley civilization of ca. 3000 BC. This theory is not widely accepted by scholars. See Indo-Aryan migration for a discussion. Another example may be the Paleolithic Continuity Theory proposed by Italian theorists that derives Indo-European from the European Paleolithic cultures.

References

-
- August Schleicher, A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages (1861/62).
- Leszek Bednarczuk (red.), Języki indoeuropejskie. PWN. Warszawa. 1986 (in Polish).

External links

- [http://www.HJHolm.de Slide-show of subgrouping roughly agreeing with the figures of the article.]
- [http://www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/indoeuropean.html The Evolution of the Indo-European Languages, by Dr. C. George Boeree].
- [http://www.bartleby.com/61/IEroots.html Indo-European Roots, from the American Heritage Dictionary].
- [http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/lrc/iedocctr/ie.html Indo-European Documentation Center] at the University of Texas
- [http://www.grsampson.net/Q_PIE.html Say something in Proto-Indo-European] (by Geoffrey Sampson)
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90017 IE language family overview (SIL)]
- [http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/psych/research/Evolution/Gray&Atkinson2003.pdf Gray & Atkinson, article on PIE Phylogeny]
- [http://www.geocities.com/protoillyrian Indo-European Root/lemmas] (by Andi Zeneli)
- [http://www.indoeuropean.nl The Indo-European Database]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/17084 Discussion on proto-Satem]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6507/chronicle120.html The Early History of Indo-European Languages]
- ja:インド・ヨーロッパ語族 ko:인도유럽어족 th:ภาษากลุ่มอินโด-ยูโรเปียน

Balkans

: Balkan redirects here. For the Turkmen province, see: Balkan Province The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe a region of south-eastern Europe. The region has a combined area of 728,000 km² and a population of around 53 million. The region takes its name from the Balkan mountains which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia. Serbia

Definitions and boundaries

Balkan Peninsula

The Balkans are sometimes referred to as the "Balkan Peninsula" as they are surrounded by water on three sides: the Black Sea to the east and branches of the Mediterranean Sea to the south and west (including the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and Marmara seas). While it is not geographically a peninsula as it has no isthmus to connect it to the mainland of Europe, this name is nonetheless commonly used to denote the wider region.

The Balkans

The identity of the Balkans owes as much to its fragmented and often violent common history as to its mountainous geography. The region was perennially on the edge of great empires, its history dominated by wars, rebellions, invasions and clashes between empires, from the times of the Roman Empire to the latter-day Yugoslav wars. Its fractiousness and tendency to splinter into rival political entities led to the coining of the term Balkanization (or balkanizing). The term Balkan commonly connotes a connection with violence, religious strife, ethnic clannishness and a sense of hinterland. The Balkans, as they are known today, have changed dramatically over the course of history.

Etymology and evolving meaning

The region takes its name from the "Balkan" mountain range in Bulgaria (from a Turkish word meaning "a chain of wooded mountains"). On a larger scale, one long continuous chain of mountains crosses the region in the form of a reversed letter S, from the Carpathians south to the Balkan range proper, before it marches away east into Anatolian Turkey. On the west coast, an offshoot of the Dinaric Alps follows the coast south through Dalmatia and Albania, crosses Greece and continues into the sea in the form of various islands. . The word was based on Turkish balakan 'stone, cliff', which confirms the pure 'technical' meaning of the term. Actually the mountain range that runs across Bulgaria from west to east (Stara Planina) is still commonly known as the Balkan Mountains. As time passed the term gradually obtained political connotations far from its initial geographic meaning, arising from political changes from the late 1800s to the creation of post-WW1 Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians). Zeune's goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer, and - to a large extentdue to oscillating political circumstances. After the split of Yugoslavia beginning with June 1991, the term 'Balkans' got again a negative meaning, even if this is casual again. For example, Romania is also labelled a 'Balkanic country' even if this is not compliant with either its initial meaning or later evolutions of the term. Over the last decade, in the wake of the former Yugoslav split, Croatians and especially Slovenians have rejected their former label as 'Balkan nations'. This is in part due to the pejorative connotation of the term 'Balkans' in the 1990s, and continuation of this meaning until now. Today the term Southeast Europe is preferred or, in the case of Slovenia and sometimes Croatia, Central Europe. Even if incorrect, both historically and politically, it is probable that "Balkans" will continue to have a wider, and pejorative, meaning. Quite often this is rather a cliché covering ignorance or ill intentions.

Southeastern Europe

Due to the aforementioned connotations of the term "Balkan", many people prefer the term Southeastern Europe instead. The use of this term is slowly growing; a European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and the online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003. The use of this term to mean the Balkan peninsula (and only that) technically ignores the geographical presence of northern Romania and Ukraine, which are also located in the southeastern part of the European continent.

Ambiguities and controversies

The northern border of the Balkan peninsula is usually considered be the line formed by the Danube, Sava and Kupa rivers and a segment connecting the spring of the Kupa with the Kvarner Bay. Some other definitions of the northern border of the Balkans has been proposed:
- the line Danube - Sava - Krka (river in Slovenia) - Postojnska Vrata - Vipava River - Isonzo River (also known as Soča river)
- the line Danube - Sava - Ljubljansko polje - Idrijca river - Soča river.
- the line Dniester - Timişoara - Zagreb - Triglav (mountain). Triglav The most commonly used Danube-Sava-Kupa northern boundary is arbitrarily set as to the physiographical characteristics, however it can be easily recognized on the map. It has a historical and cultural substantiation. The region so defined (together with Romania and excluding Montenegro, Dalmatia, and the Ionian Islands) constituted most of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire from the late 15th to the 19th century. The Kupa forms a natural boundary between south-eastern Slovenia and Croatia and has been a political frontier since the 12th century, separating Carniola (belonging to Austria) from Croatia (belonging to Hungary). The Danube-Sava-Krka-Postojnska Vrata-Vipava-Isonzo line ignores some historical and cultural characteristics, but can be seen as a rational delimitation of the Balkan peninsula from a geographical point of view. It assigns all the Karstic and Dinaric area to the Balkan region. The Sava bisects Croatia and Serbia and the Danube, which is the second largest European river (after Volga), forms a natural boundary between both Bulgaria and Serbia and Romania. North of that line lies the Pannonian plain and (in the case of Romania) the Carpathian mountains. Although Romania (with the exception of Dobrudja) is not geographically part of the Balkans, it is conventionally included as a successor state to the old Ottoman Empire. According to the most commonly used border, Slovenia lies to the north of the Balkans and is considered a part of Central Europe. Historically and culturally, it is also more related to Central Europe, although the Slovenian culture also incorporates some elements of culture of Balkanic peoples. However, as already stated, the northern boundary of the Balkan peninsula can also be drawn otherwise, in which case at least a part of Slovenia and a small part of Italy (Province of Trieste) may be included in the Balkans. Slovenia is also sometimes regarded as a Balkan country due to its association with the former Yugoslavia. When the Balkans are described as a twentieth-century geopolitical region, the whole Yugoslavia is included (so, Slovenia, Istria, islands of Dalmatia, northern Croatia and Vojvodina too). The aforementioned historical justification for the Sava-Kupa northern boundary would preclude including a big part of Croatia (whose territories were by and large part of the Habsburg Monarchy and Venetian Republic during the Ottoman conquest). Other factors such as prior history and culture also bind Croatia to Central Europe and the Mediterranean region more than they bind it to the Balkans. Nevertheless, its peculiar geographic shape inherently associates it with the region Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of, as well as the recent history with Yugoslavia etc.

Current common definition

Venetian Republic In most of the English-speaking, western world, the countries commonly included in the Balkan region are:
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-
-
-
-
- ^¤
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- , but only the European part of it around Istanbul (traditionally called Rumelia or Eastern Thrace) Some other countries are sometimes included in the list as well:
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- Many regions in the countries listed as Balkan states can be in many respects rather distinct from the remainder of the region, so countries that are borderline cases (often far away from the Balkan mountain itself) usually prefer not to be called Balkan countries. Prime examples of this are Romania, Slovenia and Croatia, sometimes also Greece.

Related countries

Other countries not included in the Balkan region that are close to it and/or play or have played an important role in the region's geopolitics, culture and history:
- Cyprus (see also Cyprus dispute)
- Hungary (see also Austria-Hungary)
- Austria (see also Austria-Hungary, Assassination in Sarajevo)
- Italy (see Croatia: Dalmatia, Zara, Fiume; History of Slovenia)
- Russia (see History of Serbia)

Nature and natural resources

Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from south-west to north-east. The main ranges are the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, the Šar massif which spreads from Albania to Republic of Macedonia and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece. In Bulgaria there are ranges running from east to west: the Balkan mountains and the Rhodope mountains at the border with Greece. The highest mountain of the region is Musala in Bulgaria at 2925 m, with Mount Olympus in Greece being second at 2919 m and Vihren in Bulgaria being the third at 2914. It is also worth mentioning Stefani in Greece at 2,912 which is known as the ancient throne of Zeus in the Olympus range. On the coasts the climate is Mediterranean, in the inland it is moderate continental. In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, winters are frosty and snowy, while summers are hot and dry. In the southern part winters are milder. During the centuries many woods have been cut down and replaced with bush and brush. In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation. In the inland there are woods typical of Central Europe (oak and beech, and in the mountains, spruce, fir and pine). The tree-line in the mountains lies at the height of 1800-2300 m. The soils are generally poor, except on the plains where areas with natural grass, fertile soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot summers and poor soils, although certain cultures such as olives and grapes flourish. Resources of energy are scarce. There are some deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum, is present in Greece, Serbia, Albania and Croatia. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower stations are largely used in energetics. Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare but in some countries there is a considerable amount of copper, zinc, tin, chromite, manganese, magnesite and bauxite. Some metals are exported.

History and geopolitical significance

:Main article: History of the Balkans The Balkan region was the first area of Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia, and spread west and north into Pannonia and Central Europe. In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, and other ancient groups. Later the Roman Empire conquered most of the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires. By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire became the controlling force in the region, although it was centered around Anatolia. In the past 550 years, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans, and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans has been the least developed part of Europe. The Balkan nations began to regain their independence in the 19th century(Greece), and in 1912-1913 a Balkan League reduced Turkey's territory to its present extent in the Balkan Wars. The First World War was sparked in 1914 by the assassination in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union and communism played a very important role in the Balkans. During the Cold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were ruled by Soviet-supported communist governments. However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria, and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even joining many third world countries in the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position. The only non-communist countries were Greece and Turkey, which were (and still are) part of NATO. In the 1990s, the region was gravely affected by armed conflict in the former Yugoslav republics, resulting in intervention by NATO forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia. The status of Kosovo and ethnic Albanians in general is still mostly unresolved. Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the USA. Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981; Slovenia and Cyprus since 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are set to become members in 2007. Croatia is also expected to become part of these organizations, however due to lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in a manhunt for fugitive general Ante Gotovina, in March 2005 its entrance has been postponed. Turkey initially applied in 1963 and as of 2004 accesion negotiations have not yet begun, although some customs agreements have been signed. As of 2004 Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia are also members of NATO. All other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.

Population composition by nationality and religion

The region's principal nationalities include Greeks (10.5 million, with about 10 million of them being in Greece), Turks (9.2 million in the European part of Turkey), Serbs (8.5 million), Bulgarians (7 million), Albanians (6 million, with about 3.3 millions of them being in Albania), Croats (4.5 million), Bosniaks (2.4 million), Macedonian Slavs (1.4 million) and Montenegrins (0.265 million). If Romania and Slovenia are included, then also Romanians (26 million) and Slovenians (2 million). Practically all Balkan countries have a smaller or larger Roma (Gypsy) minority. Other much smaller stateless minorities include the Gagauz, the Gorani, the Karakachans, the Arvanites and the Aromanians. The region's principal religions are (Eastern Orthodox and Catholic) Christianity and Islam. A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church. Eastern Orthodoxy is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Bulgaria
- Greece
- Romania
- Serbia and Montenegro
- Macedonia Catholicism is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Croatia
- Slovenia Islam is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Albania
- Turkey Following countries have many religious groups which exceed 10% of the total population:
- Albania: Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism.
- Bulgaria: Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam.
- Republic of Macedonia: Slavic population is mostly Eastern Orthodox, Albanian population is mostly Muslim.
- Serbia and Montenegro: Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam. For more detailed information and a precise ethnic breakdown see articles about particular states:
- Albania, Demographics of Albania
- Croatia, Demographics of Croatia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Demographics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria, Demographics of Bulgaria
- Greece, Demographics of Greece
- Republic of Macedonia, Demographics of the Republic of Macedonia
- Serbia and Montenegro, Demographics of Serbia and Montenegro
- Turkey, Demographics of Turkey

External links

- [http://www.balkanforums.com/ Balkan Forums]- Online Balkan Community
- [http://www.boeckler.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3D0AB75D-EE15F528/hbs/hs.xsl/179.html South-East Europe Review]
- [http://www.balkanalysis.com/ Balkanalysis.com]
- [http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/ Balkan History by Steven W. Sowards]
- [http://www.civilitasresearch.org/ Civilitas Research]
- [http://www.rferl.org/balkan-report/ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Balkan Weekly Report]
- [http://www.seeurope.net/ SEEurope.net] - news coverage on Southeastern Europe
- [http://www.balkantimes.com/ Southeast European Times]
- [http://www.csees.net/ The Centre for South East European Studies]
- [http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/balkans.html Balkans region: Oil and Gas Fact Sheet] - United States Department of Energy Analysis Brief
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4397497.stm Balkans urged to curb trafficking - BBC]
- [http://www.balkanbaby.blogspot.com/ Balkan Baby: English Language blog about a students real experiences in the Balkans] ko:발칸 반도 ja:バルカン半島 th:คาบสมุทรบอลข่าน

Central Europe

] Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term has come back into fashion since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (which had divided Europe into East and West). The region is generally considered to contain (from North to South): Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and more rarely Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Republic of Macedonia. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are sometimes also included, although in the UK they are usually considered part of Western Europe (in Germany itself Germany is usually considered part of Central Europe). Historically, there are no physical landmarks that would commonly be seen as its borders. Rather, it is a concept of shared history, in opposition against the East represented by the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia, and up to World War I distinguished from the West as the area of relative political conservatism opposing the modern liberal ideas acquired by overseas trading; and ultimately from the French Revolution. Following World War I, and even more so after World War II, these modern ideas in general, and liberal democracy in particular, expanded its dominance to Austria and Germany. The concept of Central Europe fell out of usage during Cold War, shadowed by notions of Eastern and Western Europe. It may be seen in historical and cultural contexts, where it denotes areas where Germans settled and mixed with Slavs and Magyars, and where Roma and Jewish minorities made important cultural contributions. This notion has lost much of its relevance due to the Holocaust and the following ethnic division over the Oder-Neisse line with Germans transferred to the West both physically and ideologically. The term is being increasingly used again, with the recent expanses of European Union. It is sometimes joked that Central Europe is the part of the continent that is considered Eastern by Western Europeans and Western by Eastern Europeans.

Between the Alps and the Baltics

European Union According to several English-language encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopædia Britannica, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica and the Columbia Encyclopedia, as well as the CIA World Factbook, the term Central Europe is taken to include: In the article on Europe, the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia counts Germany (that then reached east of the Baltic) but not Switzerland to Central Europe; Liechtenstein is not mentioned. In other articles of that encyclopedia, France and Switzerland are included. The notion of Alpine Countries extending to the Baltic Sea and the North Sea is not uncontroversial. While Germany without any doubt formerly has been considered a Central European land, both by Germans and by others, it has at least for the 19th and 20th century had an identity and self-image as located North of the Alps rather than in the Alps. This holds true even for Bavaria, the most Alpine of the German states, where most people live below the Alps.

Culturally Central-European

Several other countries also have regions that retain a Central European character, having historically been part of the central European kingdoms and empires such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Imperial Germany. They include:
- Belarus (western parts)
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- Romania
- Serbia (Vojvodina)
- Ukraine (Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia)

Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain

Following World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the Eastern bloc, which effectively neutralized the concept of Central Europe. Following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War, this distinction has again come into use, often to cover those countries that had been Warsaw Pact members but are now members of NATO and the European Union, reflecting remaining differences between countries that were socialist or capitalist. The English term Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the western-most former Warsaw Pact countries (Poland to Hungary) to specify them as culturally-akin socialist countries. This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition. In everyday usage, this is the most common meaning of Central Europe, not least among Central Europeans for whom it is often important to point out the difference to that "Eastern Europe" that they otherwise are grouped together with. So defined, the following countries are entirely included:
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- Romania
- Slovenia Usually excluded are:
- the Baltic countries
- Russian Orthodox and Muslim lands
- the Balkans Although Slovenia as a part of Yugoslavia was strictly speaking not a member of the Warsaw Pact, Slovenia's 20th century history has much in common with that of the other Central European countries. East Germany, on the other hand, was from 1949–1990 a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, but would now rather be seen as the inheritors of Protestant Prussian culture than of Catholic Central Europe.

The new members of the European Union

After the enlargement of the European Union of 1 May 2004, the term Central Europe is sometimes used in a way that means "the new members of EU"— from Estonia to Malta— perhaps in particular by writers who want to avoid the term coined by Donald Rumsfeld, New Europe, which may be perceived to carry too much American ignorance of matters European. Malta and Cyprus, as well as Estonia and Latvia, are sometimes now also included, but as these new members of the EU are clearly more differentiated from most of the western EU members economically it is arguably an inaccurate construction in its own right. It can be also questioned what there is that unites the nations of a region so constructed apart from a less advanced economy. A usage that closer adheres to the common cultural traits, and also the shared experience of post-war Stalinist rule, may be less prone to cause confusion.

Remnants of the Holy Roman Empire

The German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe) is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'; it refers to territories under German(ic) cultural hegemony until World War I (encompassing Austria and Germany in their interbellum-formations but usually excluding Balticum north of East Prussia). ko:중앙유럽 ja:中央ヨーロッパ

East Slavic languages

The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. It is the group with the largest numbers of speakers, far out-numbering the Western and Southern Slavic groups. Current East Slavic languages are Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn (a small language spoken in Eastern Slovakia, South Eastern Poland, Eastern Hungary and South Western Ukraine and regarded by many as a Ukrainian dialect). Classification:
- Indo-European languages
- Satem
- Balto-Slavic
- Slavic languages
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- East Slavic languages or Old East Slavic language †
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- Old Russian language †
-
- Russian language
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- Ruthenian language †
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- Ukrainian language
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- Belarusian language
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- Rusyn language, Rusin language

Current status

All these languages are nowadays considered to be separate languages in their own right, though in the 19th century it was usual to call Ukrainian ("Little Russian") and Belarusian ("White Russian") dialects of one common "Russian" language (the most prestigious dialect of which was called "Great Russian"). Despite the vast territory occupied by the East Slavs, their languages are astonishingly similar to one another, with transitional dialects in border regions. All these languages use the Cyrillic alphabet, but with particular modifications.

History

When the common Old East Slavic language became separated from the ancient Slavic tongue common to all Slavs is difficult to ascertain (6th–11th century). The history of the East Slavic languages is a very 'hot' subject, because it is interpreted from various political perspectives by the East Slavs "like all mortals, wishing to have an origin as ancient as possible" ("sicut ceteri mortalium, originem suam quam vetustissimam ostendere cupientes"), as Aeneas Sylvius observed in his Historia Bohemica in 1458. Therefore, a crucial differentiation has to be made between the history of the East Slavic dialects and that of the literary languages employed by the Eastern Slavs. Although most ancient texts betray the dialect their author(s) and/or scribe(s) spoke, it is also clearly visible that they tried to write in a language different from their dialects and to avoid those mistakes that enable us nowadays to locate them. In both cases one has to keep in mind that the history of the East Slavic languages is of course a history of written texts. We do not know how the writers of the preserved texts would have spoken in every-day life, let alone how an illiterate East Slavic peasant spoke to his family.

History of the literary languages

What follows is a short overview over the Old and Middle periods. For more detail see Old East Slavic language, Ruthenian language, and History of the Russian language. After the conversion of the East Slavic region to Christianity the people used service books borrowed from Bulgaria, which were written in "Old Bulgarian" or