Editing Slavic languages (section)

==Branches==
[[File:Slavic languages tree.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.36|Balto-Slavic language tree.{{citation needed|reason=This diagram is based on a self-made work without any references to reliable data sources |date=December 2022}}]]
[[File:Slavic languages.png|thumb|300px|Linguistic maps of Slavic languages]]
Since the interwar period, scholars have conventionally divided Slavic languages, on the basis of geographical and genealogical principle, and with the use of the extralinguistic feature of script, into three main branches, that is, East, South, and West (from the vantage of linguistic features alone, there are only two branches of the Slavic languages, namely North and South).{{sfn|Trudgill|2003|loc=p. 36, 95–96, 124–125}} These three conventional branches feature some of the following sub-branches:

{{tree list}}
* '''Slavic'''
** [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]]{{sfn|Ivanov|2021|loc=section 2: "The Slavic language group is classified into three branches: (1) the South Slavic branch, with its two subgroups Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-Slovene and Bulgarian-Macedonian, (2) the West Slavic branch, with its three subgroups Czech-Slovak, Sorbian, and Lekhitic (Polish and related tongues), and (3) the East Slavic branch, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian"}}
*** [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]
*** [[Podlachian language|Podlachian]] (often seen as a dialect of Belarusian or Ukrainian)
*** [[Russian language|Russian]]
*** [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]] (seen as Ukrainian dialect by Ukrainian cultural officials){{sfn|IRB|2004}}
*** [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
**** [[West Polesian]]
** [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]]
*** Eastern
**** [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
**** [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]
**** [[Old Church Slavonic]]
*** Western
**** [[Serbo-Croatian]]
***** [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
***** [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
***** [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
***** [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]]
**** [[Slovene language|Slovene]]
** [[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]]
*** [[Czech–Slovak languages|Czech–Slovak]]
**** [[Czech language|Czech]]
**** [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
*** [[Lechitic languages|Lechitic]]
**** [[Polabian language|Polabian]]
**** [[Polish language|Polish]] 
**** [[Pomeranian language|Pomeranian]]
***** [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]]
***** [[Slovincian language|Slovincian]] (often seen as a dialect of Kashubian)
**** [[Silesian language|Silesian]]
*** [[Sorbian languages|Sorbian]]
**** [[Lower Sorbian language|Lower Sorbian]]
**** [[Upper Sorbian language|Upper Sorbian]]
{{tree list/end}}

Some linguists speculate that a [[North Slavic languages|North Slavic]] branch has existed as well. The [[Old Novgorod dialect]] may have reflected some idiosyncrasies of this group.<ref>{{Cite web |title=North Slavic languages {{!}} Information, explanation, historical facts {{!}} iNFOPEDIA |url=https://infodlapolaka.pl/en/infopedia/North-Slavic-languages/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Info dla Polaka - Ważne informacje: Polityka, Sport, Motoryzacja |language=en}}</ref>

Although the Slavic languages diverged from a common [[proto-language]] later than any other groups of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]], enough differences exist between the any two geographically distant Slavic languages to make spoken communication between such speakers cumbersome. As usually found within other [[language groups]], mutual intelligibility between Slavic languages is better for geographically adjacent languages and in the written (rather than oral) form.<ref>Fesenmeier, L., Heinemann, S., & Vicario, F. (2014). "The mutual intelligibility of Slavic languages as a source of support for the revival of the Sorbian language" [Sprachminderheiten: gestern, heute, morgen- Minoranze linguistiche: ieri, oggi, domani]. In Language minorities: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-04817-9/11</ref>   
<ref>Fischer, A., Jágrová, K., Stenger, I., Avgustinova, T., Klakow, D., & Marti, R. (2016). Orthographic and morphological correspondences between related Slavic languages as a base for modeling of mutual intelligibility. 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2016.</ref> 
<ref>Fischer, A. K., Jagrova, K., Stenger, I., Avgustinova, T., Klakow, D., & Marti, R. (2016, 2016/05/01). LREC - Orthographic and Morphological Correspondences between Related Slavic Languages as a Base for Modeling of Mutual Intelligibility.</ref> 
<ref>Golubović, J. (2016). "Mutual intelligibility in the Slavic language area". Dissertation in Linguistics, 152. https://www.narcis.nl/publication/RecordID/oai%3Apure.rug.nl%3Apublications%2F19c19b5b-a43e-47bf-af6e-f68c0713342b;  https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/mutual-intelligibility-in-the-slavic-language-area ; 
https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/31880568/Title_and_contents_.pdf ; 
https://lens.org/000-445-299-792-024</ref> 
<ref>Golubovic, J., & Gooskens, C. (2015). "Mutual intelligibility between West and South Slavic languages". Russian Linguistics, 39(3), 351-373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-015-9150-9</ref> 
<ref>Kyjánek, L., & Haviger, J. (2019). "The Measurement of Mutual Intelligibility between West-Slavic Languages" [Article]. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 26(3), 205-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2018.1464546</ref> 
<ref>Lindsay, R. (2014). "Mutual intelligibility of languages in the Slavic family". Academia. 
Stenger, I., Avgustinova, T., & Marti, R. (2017). "Levenshtein distance and word adaptation surprisal as methods of measuring mutual intelligibility in reading comprehension of Slavic languages". Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies: International Conference ‘Dialogue 2017’ Proceedings, 16, 304-317. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85021828413&partnerID=40&md5=c9a8557c3da885eb1be39898bfacf6e4 
</ref>  At the same time, recent studies of [[mutual intelligibility]] between Slavic languages revealed, that their traditional three-branch division does not  withstand quantitative scrutiny.<ref>Golubović, J.,  Gooskens, C. (2015). "Mutual intelligibility between West and South Slavic languages" [Article]. Russian Linguistics, 39(3), 351-373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-015-9150-9</ref> While the grouping of [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]] and [[Polish language|Polish]] into [[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]] turned out to be appropriate, Western South Slavic [[Serbo-Croatian]] and [[Slovene language|Slovene]] were found to be closer to [[Czech language|Czech]] and [[Slovak language|Slovak]] (West Slavic languages) than to Eastern South Slavic [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]].

The traditional tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take into account the spoken [[dialect]]s of each language. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a lesser degree, as those of Russian, or to a much greater degree, like those of Slovene. In certain cases 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. For example, Slovak (West Slavic) and Ukrainian (East Slavic) are bridged by the [[Rusyn language]] spoken in [[Transcarpathia|Transcarpatian Ukraine]] and adjacent counties of Slovakia and Ukraine.{{Sfn|Magocsi|Pop|2002|loc=p. 274}} Similarly, the Croatian [[Kajkavian]] dialect is more similar to [[Slovene language|Slovene]] than to the standard Croatian language.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Modern [[Russian language|Russian]] differs from other Slavic languages in an unusually high percentage{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tsvetkova |first=Svetoslava |title=How Russian differs from other Slavic languages |url=https://www.gw2ru.com/education/88191-russian-differs-slavic-language}}</ref> of words of non-Slavic origin, particularly of [[Dutch language|Dutch]] (e.g. for [[naval]] terms introduced during the reign of [[Peter I of Russia|Peter I]]), [[French language|French]] (for household and culinary terms during the reign of [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]]) and [[German language|German]] (for medical, scientific and military terminology in the mid-1800s).

Another difference between the East, South, and West Slavic branches is in the orthography of the standard languages: West Slavic languages (and Western South Slavic languages – [[Croatian language|Croatian]] and [[Slovene language|Slovene]]) are written in the [[Latin script]], and have had more [[Western Europe]]an influence due to their proximity and speakers being historically [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]], whereas the East Slavic and Eastern South Slavic languages are written in [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] and, with [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] or [[Eastern Catholic Churches#Uniate|Uniate]] faith, have had more [[Greek language|Greek]] influence.{{sfn|Kamusella|2005|loc=p. 77}} Two Slavic languages, [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Serbo-Croatian]], are biscriptal, i.e. written in either alphabet either nowadays or in a recent past.