Slav Languages

Slav Languages, a large group of languages which collectively form a main branch of the Aryan linguistic family, intermediate between the Lithuanian and Teutonic branches, but much more closely related to the former than to the latter. No trace remains of the primitive Slav tongue, whence the members of the group have diverged, and the oldest known form dates only from 800 A.D., when it was reduced to writing by Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slav peoples. Their version of the Bible, one MS. of which is dated 1056, gives this idiom a certain pre-eminence as the liturgical language of the Slav Christians; but it is not the Slav mother-tongue, any more than the Gothic of Ulfilas is the mother-tongue of existing Teutonic languages. It is even uncertain in what region of the Slav world thls particular dialect was current, althongh by most authorities it is localised in Bulgaria, and even called "Old Bulgarian" in contradistinction to the extremely corrupt "Modern Bulgarian" now spoken in that district. The other chief members of the family are Great and Little Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Chekh, Polish, and Wendish (Lusatian), whose domain and numbers coincide with those of the respective Slav nations, as tabulated in the following article, SLAV RACE (q.v.). In fact, the table there given is based far more on linguistic than on ethnical considerations, as must always be the case in classifications of mixed peoples. In general the Slav languages, always excepting Modern Bulgarian; are more conservative, that is, preserve more of the primitive Aryan formative elements than do their Teutonic, Celtic, and Italic congeners, but in this respect stand on a much lower level than Lithuanian. Thus the Slav declension is still highly synthetic, retaining many of the old case endings which have disappeared from the modern Germanic and Neo-Latin tongues. All three genders persist, as do also very full dual forms of the noun, pronoun, and verb, while the verb itself presents a rich array of personal endings, moods, participles, and tenses, some organic, some later developments, like the Romance future. The Slavonic languages are written with three different alphabets - the Cyrillic, adapted from the Greek with numerous additions by Cyril and Methodius, and generally retained by the Orthodox Slavs with some slight modifications; the Glagolitic, of unknown origin, confined to the Southern Slavs, and now little used; the Roman, in use amongst all the Uniates (Catholics), with numerous diacritical marks and uncouth combinations to express sounds peculiar to the several idioms. The efforts made to reform these somewwhat rude graphic systems have hitherto been attended with litle success.