West Slavic languages

Countries in which West Slavic languages ​​are predominantly spoken

West Slavic languages ​​and their dialects

The West Slavic languages are, along with the South and East Slavic languages, one of the three branches of the Slavic languages , which in turn belong to the Indo-European language family . They are spoken by around 56 million people in eastern Central Europe , especially in Poland , the Czech Republic , Slovakia and Lusatia .

The West Slavic language family includes:

• Czech group
  • Polish
  • Elbe and Baltic Slavic languages
    • Polabisch (Elbslawisch) †
    • Pomoran (Baltic Slavic):
      • (West) Pomoran (Baltic Slavic) †
      • Kashubian-Slowinese (Eastern Pomoran):
        • Kashubian
        • Slowinese †
• Sorbian group
  • Lower Sorbian
  • Upper Sorbian
• Czech-Slovak group
  • Czech
  • Knaan †
  • Slovak
  • partly: Batschka Russian

The characteristics of the West Slavic languages ​​compared to the East and South Slavic are:

• Original Slavic * tj and * dj are represented as c and (d) z, respectively;
  see. Polish świeca , Czech svíce , Slovak svieca , Kashubian- Świeca , upper and Lower swěca <Proto-Slavic * světja 'light candle'
  or polish Miedza , Czech meze , Slovak medza , Sorbian mjeza , Lower mjaza <Proto-Slavic * Medja 'Rain'.
• Ur-Slavic * or, * ol, * er, * el between consonants are represented in the Czech-Slovak group as ra, la, rě, lě and in the other West Slavic languages ​​as ro, lo, re, le (so-called liquid ametathesis );
  see. Polish, Upper Sorbian mróz , Lower Sorbian mroz with Czech mráz , Slovak mráz < Ur- Slavic * morzъ 'Frost'
  or Polish mleko , Czech mléko , Slovak mlieko < Ur- Slavic * melko 'milk'. In Sorbian there is mostly a change e> o in these groups, therefore Upper Sorbian mlóko (orthographic mloko ), Lower Sorbian mloko .

See also

• Western Slavs