The term
North Slavic languages (or,
North Slavonic languages) has two unrelated, mutually exclusive, meanings.
It is sometimes used to combine the
West SlavicThe West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian.Classification:* Indo-European** Balto-Slavic*** Slavic**** West Slavic***** Czech-Slovak****** Czech****** Slovak...
and the
East Slavic languagesThe 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...
into one group, as opposed to the
South Slavic languagesSouth Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages . There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans...
(much like
South GermanicSouth Germanic is a term used for a number of proposed groupings of the Germanic tribes or dialects. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. The following uses are found:* As a straightforward synonym for West Germanic...
combining the West and East Germanic branches). This grouping of East and West Slavic as opposed to the South Slavic group does not have any reasonable genetic justification.
The term
North Slavic languages (or,
North Slavonic languages) has two unrelated, mutually exclusive, meanings.
North versus South Slavic
It is sometimes used to combine the
West SlavicThe West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian.Classification:* Indo-European** Balto-Slavic*** Slavic**** West Slavic***** Czech-Slovak****** Czech****** Slovak...
and the
East Slavic languagesThe 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...
into one group, as opposed to the
South Slavic languagesSouth Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages . There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans...
(much like
South GermanicSouth Germanic is a term used for a number of proposed groupings of the Germanic tribes or dialects. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. The following uses are found:* As a straightforward synonym for West Germanic...
combining the West and East Germanic branches). This grouping of East and West Slavic as opposed to the South Slavic group does not have any reasonable genetic justification. Since, however, the Southern group was separated from the rest of the Slavic dialects by the
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
invasion of the 9th century, the term is widely used by
SlavistsSlavic studies or Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was primarily a linguist or philologist who researches Slavistics, a Slavic or Slavonic scholar...
as a matter of convenience.
An extinct branch of Slavic
Some Slavists believe that a separate, now extinct, branch of North Slavic languages once existed, different from both East and West Slavic. The dialect formerly spoken in the vicinity of Novgorod (the so-called
Old Novgorod dialectOld Novgorod dialect is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the astonishingly diverse linguistic features of the Old East Slavic birch bark writings from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings...
) contains several
Proto-SlavicProto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged. It was spoken before the seventh century. As with all other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstructed by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic...
archaisms that did not survive in any other Slavic language, and can in their opinion be considered a remnant of an ancient North Slavic branch.
Constructed North Slavic languages
There is also a group of about ten
artistic languageAn artistic language or alternative language is a constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure. Unlike engineered languages or auxiliary languages, artistic languages usually have irregular grammar systems, much like natural languages. Many are designed within the context of fictional...
s forming a
fictional North Slavic branch of the
Slavic languagesThe Slavic 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 traditionally divide Slavic...
. The authors of these languages were inspired by the existence of West, East and South Slavic languages and the absence of a (known) North Slavic group. Most of these languages therefore have an experimental character; they suppose a certain influence of the
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, the
Finno-UgricFinno-Ugric is a group of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and related languages.It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.-Status:...
and/or the
Baltic languagesThe Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
. Despite the fact that the creators of these languages have worked independently from each other and in different time frames, these languages have several elements in common. The best-known examples of constructed North Slavic languages are: Sevorian (
Sievrøsku), Nassian (
Nassika), Seversk, Slavëni, Vozgian and Novegradian.
External links