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The Slavic peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of the Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.[1] Many settled later in Siberia[2] and Central Asia[3] or emigrated to other parts of the world.[4][5] Over half of Europe's territory is inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities.[6]
Modern nations and ethnic groups called by the ethnonym Slavs are considerably diverse both in appearance and culturally, and relations between them – even within the individual ethnic groups themselves – are varied, ranging from a sense of connection to feelings of mutual hostility.[7]
Slavic peoples are classified geographically and linguistically into West Slavic (including Czechs, Kashubs, Poles, Slovaks, Sorbs, Silesians, East Slavic (including Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians),[8] and South Slavic (including Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes). For a more comprehensive list, see the ethnocultural subdivisions.
Ethnonym
The Slavic autonym is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as Slověninъ meaning "Slav".[citation needed] The oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest Словѣне Slověne to describe the Slavs. Other early Slavic attestations include Old East Slavic Словене Slověně for "an East Slavic group near Novgorod". However the earliest written references to the Slavs under this name are in other languages. In the 6th century AD Procopius writing in Byzantine Greek, refers to the Σκλάβοι Sklaboi, Σκλαβηνοί Sklabēnoi, Σκλαυηνοί Sklauenoi, Σθλαβηνοί Sthlauenoi, or Σκλαβῖνοι Sklabinoi,[9] while his contemporary Jordanes refers to the Sclaveni in Latin.[10]
The Slavic autonym Slověninъ is usually considered a derivation from slovo "word or speech", originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other, in contrast to Slavic word denoting "foreign people" – němci, meaning "mumbling, murmuring people" (from Slavic němъ – "mumbling, mute"). The latter word may be the derivation of words to denote German/Germanic people in many later Slavic languages: e.g., Polish Niemiec, Czech Němec, Russian and Bulgarian Немец, Serbian Немац, Croatian Nijemac etc.[11]
The English word Slav is derived from the Middle English word sclave, which was borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus "slave",[12] itself a borrowing and Byzantine Greek σκλάβος sklábos "slave", which was in turn apparently derived from a misunderstanding of the Slavic autonym (denoting a speaker of their own languages). The Byzantine term Sklavinoi was loaned into Arabic as Saqaliba by medieval Arab historiographers.[citation needed] However, the origin of this word is disputed (see origin of the word "Slavs")[13][14].
Alternative proposals for the etymology of Slověninъ propounded by some scholars enjoy much less support. B.P. Lozinski argues that the word slava once had the meaning of worshipper, in this context meaning "practicer of a common Slavic religion", and from that evolved into an ethnonym.[15] S.B. Bernstein speculates that it derives from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *(s)lawos, cognate to Ancient Greek λαός laós "population, people", which itself has no commonly accepted etymology.[16] Meanwhile others have pointed out that the suffix -enin indicates a man from a certain place, which in this case should be a place called Slova or Slava, possibly a river name. The Old East Slavic Slavuta for the Dnieper River was argued by Henrich Bartek (1907–1986) to be derived from slova and also the origin of Slovene.[17]
Language
Slavic studies began as an almost exclusively linguistic and philological enterprise. As early as 1833, Slavic languages were recognized as Indo-European.[18]
Proto-Slavic language
Proto-Slavic, the ancestor language of all Slavic languages, is a descendant of common Proto-Indo-European, via a Balto-Slavic stage in which it developed numerous lexical and morphophonological isoglosses with Baltic languages. In the framework of the Kurgan hypothesis, "the Indo-Europeans who remained after the migrations [from the steppe] became speakers of Balto-Slavic".[19]
Proto-Slavic, sometimes referred to as Common Slavic or Late Proto-Slavic, is defined as the last stage of the language preceding the geographical split of the historical Slavic languages. That language was unusually uniform, and on the basis of borrowings from foreign languages and Slavic borrowings into other languages, can't be said to have any recognizable dialects, suggesting a comparatively compact homeland.[20] Slavic linguistic unity was to some extent visible as late as Old Church Slavonic manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech of Thessaloniki in Macedonia, could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.[21]
Origins
Homeland debate
The location of the Slavic homeland has been the subject of considerable debate. The Prague-Penkov-Kolochin complex of cultures of the sixth to seventh centuries AD are generally accepted to reflect the expansion of Slavic-speakers at that time.[22] Serious candidates for the core from which they expanded are cultures within the territories of modern Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. The proposed frameworks are:
- Milograd culture hypothesis: The pre-Proto-Slavs (or Balto-Slavs) were the bearers of the Milograd culture (700 BC to the 100 AD) of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus.
- Chernoles culture hypothesis: The pre-Proto-Slavs were the bearers of the Chernoles culture (750–200 BC) of northern Ukraine.
- Danube basin hypothesis: postulated by Oleg Trubachyov;[23] sustained at present by Florin Curta.[18]
- Lusatian culture hypothesis: The pre-Proto-Slavs were present in north-eastern Central Europe since at least the late 2nd millennium BC, and were the bearers of the Lusatian culture and later still the Przeworsk culture (2nd century BC to 4th century AD) and the later still Chernyakhov culture (2nd-5th centuries AD).
Research history
The starting point in the autochtonic/allochtonic debate was the year 1745, when Johann Christoph de Jordan published De Originibus Slavicis. The works of Slovak philologist and poet Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861) has influenced generations of scholars. The foundation of his theory was the work of Jordanes, Getica. Jordanes had equated the Sclavenes and the Antes to the Venethi (or Venedi) also known from much earlier sources, such as Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, and Ptolemy.
Pavel Jozef Šafárik bequeathed to posterity not only his vision of a Slavic history, but also a powerful methodology for exploring its Dark Ages: language.[18]
The Polish scholar Tadeusz Wojciechowski (1839–1919) was the first to use place names to write Slavic history. He was followed by A. L. Pogodin and the polish botanist, J. Rostafinski.
The first to introduce archaeological data into the scholarly discourse about the early Slavs, Lubor Niederle (1865–1944), endorsed Rostafinski’s theory in his multi-volume work The Antiquities of the Slavs. Vykentyi V.Khvoika (1850–1914), a Ukrainian archaeologist of Czech origin, linked the Slavs with Neolithic Cucuteni culture. A. A. Spicyn (1858–1931) assigned to the Antes the finds of silver and bronze in central and southern Ukraine. Czech archaeologist Ivan Borkovsky (1897–1976) postulated the existence of a pottery “Prague type” which was a national, exclusively Slavic, pottery. Boris Rybakov, has issue a theory that made a link between both Spicyn’s “Antian antiquities” and the remains excavated by Khvoika from Chernyakhov culture and that those should be should be attributed to the Slavs.[18]
From the 19th century onwards, the debate became politically charged, particularly in connection with the history of the Partitions of Poland and German imperialism known as Drang nach Osten. The question whether Germanic or Slavic peoples were indigenous on the land east of the Oder river was used by factions to pursue their respective German and Polish political claims to governance of those lands.
Geneticists entered the debate in the 21st century. See the Genetics section below.
Earliest accounts
The relationship between the Slavs and a tribe called the Veneti east of the river Vistula in the Roman period is uncertain. The name may refer both to Balts and Slavs.
The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Byzantine historiographers under Justinian I (527-565), such as Procopius of Caesarea, Jordanes and Theophylact Simocatta describe tribes of these names emerging from the area of the Carpathian Mountains, the lower Danube and the Black Sea, invading the Danubian provinces of the Eastern Empire.
Procopius wrote in 545 that "the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a single name in the remote past; for they were both called Spori in olden times." He describes their social structure and beliefs:
For these nations, the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one man, but they have lived from of old under a democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or for ill, is referred to the people. It is also true that in all other matters, practically speaking, these two barbarian peoples have had from ancient times the same institutions and customs. For they believe that one god, the maker of lightning, is alone lord of all things, and they sacrifice to him cattle and all other victims.
He mentions that they were tall and hardy:
"They live in pitiful hovels which they set up far apart from one another, but, as a general thing, every man is constantly changing his place of abode. When they enter battle, the majority of them go against their enemy on foot carrying little shields and javelins in their hands, but they never wear corselets. Indeed, some of them do not wear even a shirt or a cloak, but gathering their trews up as far as to their private parts they enter into battle with their opponents. And both the two peoples have also the same language, an utterly barbarous tongue. Nay further, they do not differ at all from one another in appearance. For they are all exceptionally tall and stalwart men, while their bodies and hair are neither very fair or blond, nor indeed do they incline entirely to the dark type, but they are all slightly ruddy in color. And they live a hard life, giving no heed to bodily comforts...".[24]
Jordanes tells us that the Sclaveni had swamps and forests for their cities.[25] Another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes.[26]
Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius (577-579) that slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he however declined and is reported as saying: "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs [...] so it shall always be for us".[27]
Scenarios of ethnogenesis
The Globular Amphora culture stretches from the middle Dniepr to the Elbe in the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BC. It has been suggested as the locus of a Germano-Balto-Slavic continuum (compare Germanic substrate hypothesis), but the identification of its bearers as Indo-Europeans is uncertain. The area of this culture contains numerous tumuli – typical for IE originators.
The Chernoles culture (8th to 3rd c. BC, sometimes associated with the "Scythian farmers" of Herodotus) is "sometimes portrayed as either a state in the development of the Slavic languages or at least some form of late Indo-European ancestral to the evolution of the Slavic stock."[28] The Milograd culture (700 BC - 100 AD), centered roughly on present-day Belarus, north of the contemporaneous Chernoles culture, has also been proposed as ancestral to either Slavs or Balts.
The ethnic composition of the bearers of the Przeworsk culture (2nd c. BC to 4th c. AD, associated with the Lugii) of central and southern Poland, northern Slovakia and Ukraine, including the Zarubintsy culture (2nd c. BC to 2nd c. AD, also connected with the Bastarnae tribe) and the Oksywie culture are other candidates.
The area of southern Ukraine is known to have been inhabited by Scythian and Sarmatian tribes prior to the foundation of the Gothic kingdom. Early Slavic stone stelae found in the middle Dniestr region are markedly different from the Scythian and Sarmatian stelae found in the Crimea.
The (Gothic) Wielbark Culture displaced the eastern Oksywie part of the Przeworsk culture from the 1st century AD, some modern historians dispute the link between the Wielbark culture and the Goths. While the Chernyakhov culture (2nd to 5th c. AD, identified with the multi-ethnic kingdom established by the Goths) leads to the decline of the late Sarmatian culture in the 2nd to 4th centuries, the western part of the Przeworsk culture remains intact until the 4th century, and the Kiev culture flourishes during the same time, in the 2nd-5th c. AD. This latter culture is recognized as the direct predecessor of the Prague-Korchak and Pen'kovo cultures (6th-7th c. AD), the first archaeological cultures the bearers of which are indisputably identified as Slavic.
Proto-Slavic is thus likely to have reached its final stage in the Kiev area; there is, however, substantial disagreement in the scientific community over the identity of the Kiev culture's predecessors, with some scholars tracing it from the Ruthenian Milograd culture, others from the "Ukrainian" Chernoles and Zarubintsy cultures and still others from the "Polish" Przeworsk culture. The Kiev culture was overrun by the Huns around 370 AD, which may have triggered the Proto-Slavic expansion to the historical locations of the Slavic languages.
Genetics
The modern Slavic peoples carry a variety of Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups and Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups. Yet two paternal haplogroups predominate: R1a1a [M17] and I2a2a [L69.2=T/S163.2]. The frequency of Haplogroup R1a ranges from 63.39% in the Sorbs, through 56.4% in Poland, 54% in Ukraine, 52% in Russia, Belarus, to 15.2% in Republic of Macedonia, 14.7% in Bulgaria and 12.1% in Herzegovina.[29] The correlation between R1a1a [M17] and the speakers of Indo-European languages, particularly those of Eastern Europe and Central and Southern Asia, was noticed in the late 1990s. From this Spencer Wells and colleagues, following the Kurgan hypothesis, deduced that R1a1a arose on the Pontic-Caspian steppe.[30]
Specific studies of Slavic genetics followed. In 2007 Rębała and colleagues studied several Slavic populations with the aim of localizing the Proto-Slavic homeland.[31] The significant findings of this study are that:
- Two genetically distant groups of Slavic populations were revealed: One encompassing all Western-Slavic, Eastern-Slavic, and few Southern-Slavic populations (north-western Croats and Slovenes), and one encompassing all remaining Southern Slavs. According to the authors most Slavic populations have similar Y chromosome pools — R1a. They speculate that this similarity can be traced to an origin in the middle Dnieper basin of Ukraine during the Late Glacial Maximum 15 kya.[32]
- However, some southern Slavic populations such as Bulgarians, Serbs and Macedonians are clearly separated from the tight DNA cluster of the rest of the Slavic populations. According to the authors this phenomenon is explained by "...contribution to the Y chromosomes of peoples who settled in the Balkan region before the Slavic expansion to the genetic heritage of Southern Slavs...."[32]
Marcin Woźniak and colleagues (2010) searched for specifically Slavic sub-group of R1a1a [M17]. Working with haplotypes, they found a pattern among Western Slavs which turned out to correspond to a newly-discovered marker, M458, which defines subclade R1a1a1g. This marker correlates remarkably well with the distribution of Slavic-speakers today. The team, led by Peter Underhill, which discovered M458 did not consider the possibility that this was a Slavic marker, since they used the "evolutionary effective" mutation rate, which gave a date far too old to be Slavic. Woźniak and colleagues pointed out that the pedigree mutation rate, giving a later date, is more consistent with the archaeological record.[33]
Pomors are distinguished by the presence of Y Haplogroup N among them. Postulated to originate from southeast Asia, it is found at high rates in Uralic peoples. Its presence in Pomors (called "Northern Russians" in the report) attests to the non-Slavic tribes (mixing with Finnic tribes of northern Eurasia).[34]
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.[35] 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.[36]
Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers.[37] The Byzantine records note that grass wouldn't regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers. After a military movement even the Peloponnese and Asia Minor were reported to have Slavic settlements.[38] This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive expansion.[39] By the end of the 6th century, Slavs had settled the Eastern Alps region.
Early Slavic states
When their migratory movements ended, there appeared among the Slavs the first rudiments of state organizations, each headed by a prince with a treasury and a defense force. Moreover, it was the beginnings of class differentiation, and nobles pledged allegiance either to the Frankish/ Holy Roman Emperors or the Byzantine Emperors.
In the 7th century, the Frankish merchant Samo, who supported the Slavs fighting their Avar rulers, became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe, which, however, most probably did not outlive its founder and ruler. This provided the foundation for subsequent Slavic states to arise on the former territory of this realm with Carantania being the oldest of them. Very old also are the Principality of Nitra and the Moravian principality (see under Great Moravia). In this period, there existed central Slavic groups and states such as the Balaton Principality, but the subsequent expansion of the Magyars, as well as the Germanisation of Austria, separated the northern and southern Slavs. The First Bulgarian Empire, ruled by a core of Bulgars, was founded in AD 681. After their subsequent Slavicisation, Bulgaria was instrumental in the spread of Slavic literacy and Christianity to the rest of the Slavic world.
Assimilation
Throughout their history, Slavs came into contact with non-Slavic groups. In the postulated "homeland" region (present-day Ukraine), they had contacts with Sarmatians and the Germanic Goths. After their subsequent spread, they began assimilating non-Slavic peoples. For example, in the Balkans, there were Paleo-Balkan peoples, such as Thracians, Illyrians and Greeks.[40] Having lost their indigenous language, what remained of the Thracians and Illyrians were completely absorbed into the Slavic tribes, the most notable exceptions being Romanians and Albanians. Later invaders such as Bulgars and even Cumans mingled with the Slavs also, particularly in eastern parts (i.e. Bulgaria). Despite their cultural assimilation, one source states that only 15% of modern-day Bulgarians are of Slavic genetic origin, compared to 49% Thracian.[41]
In the western Balkans, south Slavs and Germanic Gepids intermarried with Avar invaders, eventually producing a Slavicised population. In central Europe, the Slavs intermixed with Germanic, Celtic and Raetian peoples, while the eastern Slavs encountered Uralic and Scandinavian peoples. Scandinavians (Varangians) and Finnic peoples were involved in the early formation of the Rus state but were completely Slavicised after a century. Some Finno-Ugric tribes in the north were also absorbed into the expanding Rus population.[34] At the time of the Magyar migration, the present-day Hungary was inhabited by Slavs, numbering about 200,000,[42] who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Magyars.[42] In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of East Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.[43] In the Middle Ages, groups of Saxon ore miners settled in medieval Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria where they were Slavicised.
Polabian Slavs (Wends) settled in parts of England (Danelaw), apparently as Danish allies.[44] Polabian-Pomeranian Slavs are also known to have even settled on Norse age Iceland[citation needed]. Saqaliba refers to the Slavic mercenaries and slaves in the medieval Arab world in North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. Saqaliba served as caliph's guards.[45][46] In the 12th century, there was intensification of Slavic piracy. The Wendish Crusade was started against the Polabian Slavs in 1147, as a part of the Northern Crusades. Niklot, pagan chief of the Slavic Obodrites began his open resistance when Lothar III, Holy Roman Emperor invaded Slavic lands. In August 1160 Niklot was killed and German colonization (Ostsiedlung) of the Elbe-Oder region began. In Hanoverian Wendland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lusatia invaders started germanization. Early forms of germanization were described by German monks: Helmold in the manuscript Chronicon Slavorum and Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.[47] The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.[48]
Cossacks, although Slavic-speaking and Orthodox Christians, came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, including Tatars and other Turks. Many early members of the Terek Cossacks were Ossetians.
The Gorals of southern Poland and northern Slovakia are partially descended from Romance-speaking Vlachs who migrated into the region from the 14th to 17th centuries and were absorbed into the local population.
Conversely, some Slavs were assimilated into other populations. Although the majority continued south, attracted by the riches of the territory which would become Bulgaria, a few remained in the Carpathian basin and were ultimately assimilated into the Magyar or Romanian population. There is a large number of river names and other placenames of Slavic origin in Romania.[49] Similarly, the populations of the respective eastern parts of Austria and Germany, and to a much lesser extent eastern Italy, are to some degree made up of people with Slavic ancestry.
Modern history
As of 1878, there were only three free Slavic states in the world: Russian Empire, Serbia and Montenegro. Bulgaria was also free but was de jure vassal to the Ottoman Empire until official independence was declared in 1908. In the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire of approximately 50 million people, about 23 million were Slavs. The Slavic peoples who were, for the most part, denied a voice in the affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were calling for national self-determination. During World War I, representatives of the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes set up organizations in the Allied countries to gain sympathy and recognition.[50] In 1918, after World War I ended, the Slavs established such independent states as Czechoslovakia, the Second Polish Republic, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of World War II was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all East and West Slavs from their native lands so as to make living space for German settlers. This plan of genocide[51] was to be carried into effect gradually over 25 to 30 years.
Because of the vastness and diversity of the territory occupied by Slavic people, there were several centers of Slavic consolidation. In the 19th century, Pan-Slavism developed as a movement among intellectuals, scholars, and poets, but it rarely influenced practical politics and didn't find support in some nations that had Slavic origins. Pan-Slavism became compromised when the Russian Empire started to use it as an ideology justifying its territorial conquests in Central Europe as well as subjugation of other ethnic groups of Slavic origins such as Poles and Ukrainians, and the ideology became associated with Russian imperialism. The common Slavic experience of communism combined with the repeated usage of the ideology by Soviet propaganda after World War II within the Eastern bloc (Warsaw Pact) was a forced high-level political and economic hegemony of the USSR dominated by Russians. A notable political union of the 20th century that covered most South Slavs was Yugoslavia, but it ultimately broke apart in the 1990s along with the Soviet Union.
The word "Slavs" was used in the national anthem of the Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Yugoslavia (1943–1992) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2003), later Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006).
Religion and alphabet
Most Slavic populations gradually adopted Christianity between 6th and 10th century, and consequently their old pagan beliefs declined. See also Rodnovery.
The majority of contemporary Slavs who profess a religion are Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic. A very small minority are Protestant, mainly in the north. In the south, Bosniaks and some minority groups are Sunni Muslim. Religious delineations by nationality can be very sharp; in many Slavic ethnic groups the vast majority of religious people share the same religion. Some Slavs are atheist or agnostic: recent estimates suggest 18% in Russia.[52] and 59% in the Czech Republic.[53]
Template:Multicol Mainly Eastern Orthodox:
Mainly Protestant:
- Silesians (mainly in Cieszyn Silesia)
Template:Multicol-break Mainly Roman Catholic:
Template:Multicol-end Template:Multicol Mainly Muslim:
- Bosniaks
- Gorani
- Pomaks
- Torbesh (Macedonian Muslims)
- Muslims by nationality
Template:Multicol-break Mainly Atheist or agnostic:
Religious mixtures:
The Orthodox/Catholic religious divisions become further exacerbated by the use of the Cyrillic alphabet by the Orthodox and Greek Catholics and of the Roman alphabet by Roman Catholics. However, the Serbian language and Montenegrin language can be written using both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. There is also a Latin script to write in Belarusian, called the Lacinka alphabet.
Ethnocultural subdivisions
Slavs are customarily divided along geographical lines into three major subgroups: East Slavs, West Slavs, and South Slavs, each with a different and a diverse background based on unique history, religion and culture of particular Slavic group within them. The East Slavs may all be traced to Slavic-speaking populations that were loosely organized under the Kievan Rus' empire beginning in the 10th century A.D.
Almost all of the South Slavs can be traced to ethnic Slavs who mixed with the local European population of the Balkans (Illyrians, Dacians/Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Celts); with some Slavs of modern-day Bulgaria mixing with later invaders from the East, the Bulgars. They were particularly influenced by the Byzantine Empire and the Orthodox Church, although Catholicism and Latin influences were more pertinent in Dalmatia. The West Slavs and the Slovenes do not share either of these backgrounds, as they expanded to the West and integrated into the cultural sphere of Western (Roman Catholic) Christianity around this time also mixing with nearby Germanic tribes.
In addition there has been a tendency to consider the category of Northern Slavs. Presently this category is considered to be of East and West Slavs, in opposition to South Slavs, however in 19th century opinions about individual languages/ethnicities varied.
Some of the following subdivisions remain debatable, particularly for smaller groups and national minorities.
East Slavs
West Slavs
Czech-Slovak group
Template:Multicol-break Template:Multicol-end
Lechitic group
- Obodrites/Abodrites
South Slavs
Eastern group
Template:Multicol-break Template:Multicol-end
Western group
- Croats
- Janjevci (Catholic Slavs in Kosovo)
- Burgenland Croats (in Austria)
- Molise Croats (in eastern Italy)
- Krashovans (Croats in Romania)
- Šokci
- Bunjevci
- Bosniaks (Croats in Hungary) (Croats in Hungary)
Notes to list of ethnocultural divisions
^e Extinct
^1 Also considered part of Rusyns
^2 Considered transitional between Ukrainians and Belarusians
^3 Also considered part of Ukrainians
^4 The ethnic affiliation of the Lemkos has become an ideological conflict. It has been alleged that among the Lemkos the idea of "Carpatho-Ruthenian" nation is supported only by Lemkos residing in Transcarpathia and abroad[55]
^5 Also considered part of Poles
^7 Most Shopi self-declare as Bulgarians. Cognate with Torlaks.
^8 Most Torlaks self-declare as Serbs. Cognate with Shopi.
^10 Both occur widely in northeastern Croatia and also in northern Serbia; their Ikavian dialect is subequal as southern Croats in Hercegovina and Dalmatian mainland from where they once emigrated. Considered part of Croats by most of them, although recently (since Yugoslav disaster) some within Serbia consider themselves a separate peoples
^11 These Gorani are a Slavic nation living mainly in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania; not to be confound with other Gorani (or Gorinci) in the highlands of western Croatia (Gorski Kotar county).
^12 A census category recognized as an ethnic group. Most Slavic Muslims (especially in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia) now opt for Bosniak ethnicity, but some still use the "Muslim" designation.
^13 This identity continues to be used by a minority throughout the former Yugoslav republics. The nationality is also declared by diasporans living in the USA and Canada. There are a multitude of reasons as to why people prefer this affiliation, some published on the article.
^14 Generally, heavily mixed with German people
Note: Besides ethnic groups, Slavs often identify themselves with the local geographical region in which they live. Some of the major regional South Slavic groups include: Zagorci in northern Croatia, Istrijani in westernmost Croatia, Dalmatinci in southern Croatia, Boduli in Adriatic islands, Vlaji in hinterland of Dalmatia, Slavonci in eastern Croatia, Bosanci in Bosnia, Hercegovci in southern Bosnia (Herzegovina), Krajišnici in western Bosnia, Semberci in northeast Bosnia, Srbijanci in Serbia proper, Šumadinci in central Serbia, Vojvođani in northern Serbia, Sremci in Syrmia, Bačvani in northwest Vojvodina, Banaćani in Banat, Sandžaklije (Muslims in Serbia/Montenegro border), Kosovci in Kosovo, Crnogorci in Montenegro proper, Bokelji in southwest Montenegro, Trakiytsi in Upper Thracian Lowlands, Dobrudzhantsi in north-east Bulgarian region, Balkandzhii in Central Balkan Mountains, Miziytsi in north Bulgarian region, Warmiaks and Masurians in north-east Polish regions Warmia and Mazuria, Pirintsi[56] in Blagoevgrad Province, Ruptsi in the Rhodopes etc.
Another interesting note is that the very term Slavic itself was registered in the US census of 2000 by more than 127,000 residents.
See also
- Early Slavs
- Slavic languages
- Early East Slavs
- East Slavs
- European ethnic groups
- Gord (Slavic settlement)
- Lech, Czech and Rus
- List of ethnic groups
- Pan-Slavic colours
- Pan-Slavism
- Slavic mythology
- South Slavs
- West Slavs
- North Slavic languages
- Slavisphere
- Slavistics
- Slavic names
- Other European ethnic groups:
Notes
- ^ Geography and ethnic geography of the Balkans to 1500
- ^ Fiona Hill, Russia — Coming In From the Cold?, The Globalist, 23 February 2004
- ^ Robert Greenall, Russians left behind in Central Asia, BBC News, 23 November 2005.
- ^ Terry Kirby, 750,000 and rising: how Polish workers have built a home in Britain, The Independent, 11 February 2006.
- ^ Poles in the United States, Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Barford 2001: 1
- ^ Bideleux 1998
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (2006-09-18). "Slav (people) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Procopius, History of the Wars, VII. 14. 22-30, VIII.40.5
- ^ Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, V.33.
- ^ Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe (2000), p. 193.
- ^ Slav, on Oxford Dictionaries
- ^ F. Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. 2002, siehe «Sklave»
- ^ Ф. М. Достоевский. Полное собрание сочинений: в 30-ти т. Т. 23. М., 1990, с. 63, 382.
- ^ Lozinski B.P., The Name SLAV, Essays in Russian History, Archon Books, 1964.
- ^ Bernstein 1961
- ^ Etudes slaves et est-européennes: Slavic and East-European studies, Volume 3 (1958), p.107.
- ^ a b c d Florin Curta, The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500-700 (Cambridge University Press).
- ^ F. Kortlandt, The spread of the Indo-Europeans, Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 18 (1990), pp. 131-140. Online version, p.4.
- ^ F. Kortlandt, The spread of the Indo-Europeans, Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 18 (1990), pp. 131-140. Online version, p.3.
- ^ J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (2006), pp. 25-26.
- ^ Peter Heather, Empires and Barbarians: Migration, development and the birth of Europe (2009), pp. 389-396.
- ^ Trubačev 1985
- ^ Procopius, History of the Wars, VII. 14. 22-30.
- ^ Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, V. 35.
- ^ Maurice's Strategikon: handbook of Byzantine military strategy, trans. G.T. Dennis (1984), p. 120.
- ^ Curta (2001), pp. 91–92, 315.
- ^ James P. Mallory, "Chernoles Culture", EIEC
- ^ Peričić et al. 2005.
- ^ Wells et al, The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 98 no.18 (2001), pp. 10244-10249; The connection between Y-DNA R-M17 and the spread of Indo-European languages was first proposed by T. Zerjal et al, The use of Y-chromosomal DNA variation to investigate population history: recent male spread in Asia and Europe, in S.S. Papiha, R. Deka and R. Chakraborty (eds.), Genomic Diversity: applications in human population genetics (1999), pp. 91–101.
- ^ Rębała et al. 2007.
- ^ a b Rębała et al. 2007: 408
- ^ M. Woźniak et al., Similarities and distinctions in Y Chromosome gene pool of Western Slavs, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 142, no. 4 (2010), pp. 540-548.
- ^ a b Balanovsky et al. 2008
- ^ Velentin Sedov: Slavs in Middle Ages
- ^ Mallory & Adams "Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
- ^ Mango 1980
- ^ Tachiaos 2001
- ^ Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou 1992: Middle Ages
- ^ John of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, VI. 25, 6th century AD: "That same year, being the third after the death of king Justin, was famous also for the invasion of an accursed people, called Slavonians, who overran the whole of Greece, and the country of the Thessalonians, and all Thrace, and captured the cities, and took numerous forts, and devastated and burnt, and reduced the people to slavery, and made themselves masters of the whole country, and settled in it by main force, and dwelt in it as though it had been their own without fear. And four years have now elapsed, and still, because the king is engaged in the war with the Persians, and has sent all his forces to the East, they live at their ease in the land, and dwell in it, and spread themselves far and wide as far as God permits them, and ravage and burn and take captive. And to such an extent do they carry their ravages, that they have even ridden up to the outer wall of the city, and driven away all the king's herds of horses, many thousands in number, and whatever else they could find. And even to this day, being the year 895 (AD 584), they still encamp and dwell there, and live in peace in the Roman territories, free from anxiety and fear, and lead captive and slay and burn..."
- ^ iGENEA official site and literature therein
- ^ a b A Country Study: Hungary. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ^ Klyuchevsky, Vasily (1987). The course of the Russian history. v.1: "Myslʹ. ISBN 5-244-00072-1. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Shore, Thomas William (2008). Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race - A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People. READ BOOKS. pp. 84–102. ISBN 1408637693.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help)|title=
- ^ Lewis 1994: ch. 1
- ^ Eigeland 1976
- ^ Wend – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ Polabian language
- ^ Alexandru Xenopol, Istoria românilor din Dacia Traiană, 1888, vol. I, p. 540
- ^ Austria-Hungary
- ^ Eichholtz 2004
- ^ Religare.ru 2007
- ^ Český statistický úřad 2006
- ^ "Yugoslavia-Ethnic Composition". Mongabay.com. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
- ^ Who are we, LEMKOs
- ^ Buchanan 2006: 11
References
- Balanovsky, Oleg, et al.. 2008. Two Sources of the Russian Patrilineal Heritage in Their Eurasian Context. American Journal of Human Genetics, 10 January 2008, 82(1): 236-250.
- Barford, P. M. 2001. The Early Slavs. Culture and Society in Early Medieval Europe. Cornell University Press. 2001. ISBN 0-9014-3977-9.
- Bernstein, S. B. 1961. Очерк сравнительной грамматики славянских языков, vol. 1-2. Moscow.
- Bideleux, Robert. 1998. History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change. Routledge.
- Buchanan, Donna Anne. 2006. Performing Democracy: Bulgarian Music and Musicians in Transition. (Google Books preview.) Univ. of Chicago Press. Series: Chicago studies in ethnomusicology. ISBN 0-226-07826-4
- Český statistický úřad (Czech Statistical Office). 2006. Obyvatelstvo hlásící se k jednotlivým církvím a náboženským společnostem.
- Eichholtz, Dietrich. 2004. »Generalplan Ost« zur Versklavung osteuropäischer Völker. UTOPIE kreativ, September 2004, 167: 800-808.
- Eigeland, Tor. 1976. The golden caliphate. Saudi Aramco World, September/October 1976, pp. 12–16.
- Lacey, Robert. 2003. Great Tales from English History. Little, Brown and Company. New York. 2004. ISBN 0-316-10910-X.
- Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East. Oxford Univ. Press.
- Mango, Cyril. 1980. Cyril Mango. Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome. Scribner's.
- Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou, Maria. 1992. The "Macedonian Question": A Historical Review. © Association Internationale d'Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen (AIESEE, International Association of Southeast European Studies), Comité Grec. Corfu: Ionian University. (English translation of a 1988 work written in Greek.)
- Peričić, Marijana, et al.. 2005. High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2005 22(10): 1964-1975; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi185.
- Rębała, Krzysztof, et al.. 2007. Y-STR variation among Slavs: evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin. Journal of Human Genetics, May 2007, 52(5): 408-414.
- Religare.ru. 2007. Опубликована подробная сравнительная статистика религиозности в России и Польше. 6 June 2007.
- Semino, Ornella, et al.. 2000. The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: a Y Chromosome Perspective. (Abstract.) Science, 10 November 2000, 290: 1155-1159.
- Tachiaos, Anthony-Emil N. 2001. Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica: The Acculturation of the Slavs. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.
- Trubačev, O. N. 1985. Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics. Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES), 13: 203-256.
Further reading
- P.M. Barford, The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe, British Museum Press, London 2001, ISBN 9780714128047
- F. Curta, The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0 521 80202 4.
- P. Vlasto, The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom, An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1970, ISBN 9780521074599, ISBN 9780521107587
External links
- The Slavic Ethnogenesis, Identifying the Slavic Stock and Origins of the Slavs
- Some problems of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs and of the settlement process of the Central Danubian Slovenes – Slovaks in the 6th and 7th century
- The Ancient Slavs ancientmilitary.com
- The expansion of The Slavs, Third Millenium Library
- Lozinski, B. Philip (1964, 2004). Ferguson, Alan D.; Levin, Alfred (eds.). "Essays in Russian History, A collection dedicated to George Vernadsky". Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, Vassil Karloukovski: 19–30.
{{cite journal}}
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(help). - Kortlandt, Frederik. "FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN TO SLAVIC" (PDF). Frederik Kortlandt. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
- THE ORIGIN OF THE BALTIC, GERMAN AND SLAVIC PEOPLE. THE ICELAND AGES
- "Najstariji period istorije Slovena (Venedi, Sloveni i Anti)" - N. S. Deržavin
- SLOVENI: UNDE ORTI ESTIS? SLOVÁCI, KDE SÚ VAŠE KORENE?, by Cyril A. Hromník (mainly in Slova).
- Site about Slavics, Slavic Countries, Cultures, Languages, etc (mainly in Russian)
- The early wars between the Macedonian Slavs and the Byzantines (from medieval sources)
- Halecki, Oscar. "BORDERLANDS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION A History of East Central Europe" (PDF). Oscar Halecki. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
- "The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective"
- Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny in Eastern and Western Slavs, B. Malyarchuk, T. Grzybowski, M. Derenko, M. Perkova, T. Vanecek, J. Lazur, P. Gomolcaknd I. Tsybovsky, Oxford Journals
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .