The Slavic peoples are the Slavic peoples
Ethnographic map of the Slavic peoples prepared by Czech ethnographer Lubor Niederle showing territorial boundaries of Slavic languages in Eastern Europe in the id 1920s
Slavic Peoples
The Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and central Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland (most commonly thought to be in Eastern Europe) to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.Many settled later in Siberia and Central Asia or emigrated to other parts of the world. Over half of Europe is, territorially speaking, inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities.
Modern nations and ethnic groups called by the ethnonym "Slavs" are considerably genetically and culturally diverse and relations between them are varied, ranging from a sense of connection to feelings of mutual resentment.
Slavic peoples are classified geographically and linguistically into
West Slavic:
- Czechs
- Kashubians
- Moravians
- Poles
- Silesians
- Slovaks
- Sorbs
East Slavic:
- Belarusians
- Russians
- Ukrainians
South Slavic:
- Bosniaks
- Bulgarians
- Croats
- FYROMians
- Montenegrins
- Serbs
- Slovenes
Ethnonym
Excluding the ambiguous mention by Ptolemy of tribes Slavanoi and Soubenoi, the earliest references of "Slavs" under this name are from the 6th century AD. The word is written variously as Sklabenoi, Sklauenoi, or Sklabinoi in Byzantine Greek, and as Sclaueni, Sclavi, Sclauini, or Sthlaueni in Latin.
Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language
Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language
Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language
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 traditionally divide Slavic languages on the basis of geographical distribution into three main branches, some of which feature sub-branches:
East Slavic: including Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Rusyn
West Slavic: which further subdivides into:
- Czech and Slovak
- Upper and Lower Sorbian (minority languages in Germany)
- Lechitic languages: Polish, Pomeranian/Kashubian, Silesian and extinct Polabian
South Slavic, which further subdivides into:
- Western subgroup composed of Bosnian, Croatian, Slovene and Serbian
- Eastern subgroup composed of Bulgarian and FYROMian
- The oldest Slavic literary language was Old Church Slavonic, of which Church Slavonic is a later descendant
Origins
Homeland debate
The location of the speakers of pre-Proto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic is subject to considerable debate. Serious candidates are cultures on the territories of modern Belarus, Poland, European Russia and Ukraine.
Slavic migrations
According to eastern homeland theory prior to becoming known to the Roman world, Slavic speaking tribes were part of the many multi-ethnic confederacies of Eurasia - such as the Sarmatian, Hun and Gothic empires. The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germans in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (thought to be in conjunction with the movement of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe: Huns, and later Avars and Bulgars) started the great migration of the Slavs, who settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes fleeing the Huns and their allies: westward into the country between the Oder and the Elbe-Saale line; southward into Bohemia, Moravia, much of present day Austria, the Pannonian plain and the Balkans; and northward along the upper Dnieper river. Perhaps some Slavs migrated with the movement of the Vandals to Iberia and north Africa.
Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers.The Byzantine records note that grass wouldn't regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers.
South Slavs
The South Slavs are a southern branch of the Slavic peoples that live mainly in the Balkans. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the southern Pannonian Plain, the eastern Alps and the Balkan peninsula and they speak South Slavic languages. Numbering close to 35 million,the South Slavs include:
- Bosniaks
- Bulgarians
- Croats
- FYROMians
- Montenegrins
- Serbs
- Slovenes.
Countries
There are seven countries in which South Slavs form the majority of population:
- Slovenia (83% Slovenes, 2% Serbs, 1.8% Croats, 1.1% Bosniaks)
- Croatia (90% Croats, 4.5% Serbs, 0,5% Bosniaks, 0.3% Slovenes, 0,1% Montenegrin)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (48% Bosniaks, 37% Serbs, 14% Croats, 1% others)
- Serbia (82% Serbs, 6% Croats, 2% Bosniaks, 1% Montengrins)
- Montenegro (43% Montenegrins, 32% Serbs, 7,7% Bosniaks, 4% Muslims by nationality, 1,1% Croats)
- FYROM (64% ethnic FYROMians, 1% Bosniaks)
- Bulgaria (84% Bulgarians)
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