Friday, April 7, 2017

The CV of Slavophonia

The CV of Slavophonia
ⰆⰋⰂⰑⰕⰑⰑⰒⰋⰔⰀⰐⰋⰅ ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰑⰃⰎⰀⰔⰋⰀ
ЖΙВОТООПΙСАΝΙЕ СΛОВѢΝОГΛАСΙА
Η ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΣΛΑΒΟΦΩΝΙΑΣ
Curriculum Vitae Slavophoniae
The CV of Slavophonia
Q: How did the Slavic language family evolve?

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Before milestone_1.
  • There was a dialect continuum between the Baltic Sea and the region of the middle and lower Danube. How many "languages" participated - we do not know now and we shall never know. Most of the participating dialects-languages died. Those which survived to the modern times are Old Prussian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Slavic.

At milestone_1.
  • The local dialect spoken by the settled population in the region of the middle Danube, the South-West corner of the area of the above-mentioned dialect continuum, will be called Proto-Slavic by the scientists of the 19-th century.

From milestone_1 to milestone_3.
  • Proto-Slavic was exposed to influences from other languages (Germanic, Latin-Romance, Avar-Hunnic-Turkic) and underwent some major language changes.
  • The dialects which did not implement those changes lost intelligibility with proto-Slavic and cannot be ever called Slavic.
  • Proto-Slavic, the dialect which did implement those changes, had to occupy a compact territory. Hence, Proto-Slavic cannot be extended beyond the basin of the middle Danube.
  • Those major changes, listed in time order, were: the 1st palatalization, open syllables, and the 2nd-3rd palatalization.

At milestone_3.
  • We can abandon the term Proto-Slavic and use just Slavic instead. This was the Common Slavic language. Moreover, the Slavic ethnonym (Slovene) had to have appeared at that time.
  • Some isoglosses related to open syllables and to the 2nd-3rd palatalization made the scientists of the 19-th century divide the dialects of Common Slavic into South, East, and West branches.
  • South dialects can be considered as pure Slavic mainstream.
  • East dialects had an additional syllable in some cases (*korwa => корова, *golwa => голова). Slavic mainstream made metathesis in those cases.
  • West dialects changed X to SH according to the 2nd-3rd palatalization. Slavic mainstream changed X to S.

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From milestone_3 to milestone_4.
  • Slave markets caused the modern international word meaning slave to appear.
  • First Slavic migrations: towards Balkans, towards Constantinople and Salonica.
  • First Slavic migrations: to the North, down along the river of Elbe, down along the river of Vistula.

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At milestone_4. There were two arrays of Slavophones, politically divided.
  • Carolingian Slavophonia - королевское славяногласие - that in the Carolingian Empire. This will later develop into the Neo-Slavic branch.
  • Ceasar’s Slavophonia - царское славяногласие - that in the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium). This will later be called Constantinopolitan Slavophonia. This will later develop into the Balkano-Slavic branch.

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From milestone_4 to milestone_5.
  • Slavophonia spread all over the Balkans. There, Slavophonia coexisted with Hellenophonia and Romanophonia (and perhaps Albanophonia).
  • Slavophonia expanded to the Dneper river and perhaps beyond (Novgorod). Kievan Russia appeared.
  • Slavophones migrating to the Balkans should not and did not expect to preserve their paganism there.
  • Slavophones migrating into other directions perhaps were trying to escape from Christianization.
  • Triumphing Slavophonia smoothed away the former dialect continuum.

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At milestone_5.
  • Both empires, the Carolingian Empire and the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium), were decisive to finalize the campaign of Christianization.
  • Two missions have to be considered here: the Bulgarian mission and the Moravian mission.
  • The Moravian mission was assigned to the brothers Cyril and Methodius. The assigned task included the Bible translation into Slavic.
  • They were two very energetic persons. By some unknown reason, Cyril decided to invent a totally new alphabet, an alphabet of his own, an alphabet which will be later called Glagolitic, an alphabet different from the other three true alphabets known in Constantinople (the Greek alphabet, the Armenian one, and the Georgian one).
  • The new alphabet invented by St. Cyril needed insistent advertising. That’s why the topic of alphabets has always been an insane subject of over-exposure in some Slavic countries and by many slavists.
  • Anyway, despite of the general failure of the Moravian mission, the Bible translation survived. The two brothers must be honored for that. The Bible translation was delivered to Constantinople and Bulgaria.
  • Performing the Bible translation into Slavic, they had to establish a literary Slavic language, to be later called Old Church Slavonic, based on the Ceasar’s Slavophonia. The two brothers must be honored for that.
  • This was the oldest Slavic language attested. This was just a dialect of the Common Slavic language because at that time and even a century later, that language - Old Church Slavonic - was fully intelligible in Moravia, in Bulgaria, and in Kievan Russia.
  • People charged with the Bulgarian mission remained unknown to us. They did not advertise anything else than the Gospel and the Christianity. They simply did their work.
  • People charged with the Bulgarian mission added 11 new letters to the Greek alphabet and never claimed they invented a new alphabet. As a result, the alphabet now called Cyrillic came into existence. It was better adapted for the Slavic language than the Glagolitic script.
  • People charged with the Bulgarian mission made use of the Bible translation from the Moravian mission.
  • In Bulgaria, the Slavonic liturgy persisted. The Slavonic liturgy had the support by the governments of both Bulgaria and Romania (aka Byzantium, aka the Roman Empire).
  • In Bulgaria, for the needs of the Slavonic liturgy, enough copies - which means many copies - of religious texts have been produced. Some of them were later exported to Kievan Russia.

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At milestone_6.
  • In Bulgaria, the Slavonic liturgy persisted. The Slavonic liturgy had the support by the governments of both Bulgaria and Romania (aka Byzantium, aka the Roman Empire).
  • In Bulgaria, for the needs of the Slavonic liturgy, enough copies - which means many copies - of religious texts have been produced. Some of them were later exported to Kievan Russia.
  • At Peter’s time, Bulgaria’s population was entirely Christian. The Christian liturgy was held in Slavic. By that reason, many people had to switch to Slavic. Thus, based on the Slavophone Christian population of Bulgaria, the modern ethnicity of Bulgarians emerged.
  • At Peter’s time, Bulgaria was governed as part of the Roman Empire. Peter himself was recognised as Ceasar-Emperor, a co-emperor of the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium).
  • On the European territories of Bulgaria and Romania (aka Byzantium), at Peter’s time, these four languages were spoken: Greek, Bulgarian (Balkano-Slavic), Balkano-Romance (now called Romanian), and Albanian. They formed the Balkansprachbund.
  • The Balkansprachbund lasted until the 19th century. It caused a linguistic divisions of the Slavic languages into two groups: Balkano-Slavic (Bulgarian+N.Macedonian) and Neo-Slavic (the rest of Slavic).
  • Along with the Balkansprachbund features such as definite articles and reduced declension, Balkano-Slavic has preserved the past tenses (Aorist, Imperfect, Perfect) from Common Slavic.
  • Neo-Slavic has the declension intact but the three old past tenses (Aorist, Imperfect, Perfect) merged into one Neo-Slavic past tense.

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At milestone_7.
  • King Vladimir of Kiev decided to convert Russia to Christianity. The mission was assigned to Slavophones ethnic Bulgarians. The Slavonic liturgy (and the Old Church Slavonic language) was exported/imported from Bulgaria to Russia. That language became the official language of Russia until the 18th century. After some russification (phonetic and orthographic changes) it underwent, that language is called just Church Slavonic.
  • Expanding Russia from Kiev to the Arctic was at the same time expanding Christianity. In those wide territories to be later called Moskovia or Great Russia, Slavophonia was brought along with Christianity, it was brought mainly by priests and their families. In Moskovia, the modern Russian language emerged as a mixture of the language of Gospel, i.e. Church Slavonic, and the East-Slavic dialect spoken by the priests and their families.
  • In the next centuries, that type of Slavophonia was brought as far as to the Pacific.

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At milestone_8.
  • Panegyrics to the settled population in the basin of the middle Danube.
  • Glory to them. They succeeded to assimilate various nomadic tribes: Huns, Avars.
  • Glory to them. They succeeded to assimilate various Celtic and Germanic tribes.
  • Glory to them. They effused emigration big enough to cause the propagation of Slavophonia and to ensure the current stable state of Slavic.
  • The settled population in the basin of the middle Danube failed to assimilate Hungarians.
  • This was because Hungarians hastened to go to the Christianity. Glory to Szent István.
  • The settled population in the basin of the middle Danube was tired and bored from its Slavophonia, it wished to try something exotic and gave up to the Hungarian language.
  • This was the right milestone to assume splitting the Common Slavic language into different Slavic languages. Balkano-Slavic had already taken its way. South Slavic languages were isolated from the rest of Slavic. At the next milestone, the Horde will divide Russia and religious wars will confirm the separation of Slavophonia.

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At milestone_9.
  • The Horde divided Russia.
  • Moskovia, aka the Great Russia (great in this context meaning distant, distant from Constantinople, of course), although preserving Christianity and Slavophonia and the Slavonic Liturgy, was part of the Horde. That part of Russia categorically opposed the Unia and the Catholicism.
  • Some part of the former Russia called Belorussia (Belo- meaning West in this context) was an integral and the major part of Lithuania.
  • Another part of the former Russia called Malorussia (Malo- meaning near in this context, near to Constantinople), combined the Unia and the Orthodoxy and was an integral part of the Polish Crown. It was later called Ukraine, the distant part of the territory of the Polish Crown.
  • The imperial language of the Horde was Kipchak, a Turkic language. Modern East Slavic languages, especially Russian, have borrowings from Kipchak.
  • Note that at the time Russia was being divided by the Horde and by the Unia and by Lithuania, Constantinople was being held by Catholic Crusaders (1204..1261).
  • Bulgaria (and Serbia) had also to accept the Unia for some decades. Finally, Bulgaria rejected the Unia and supported St. Sava of Serbia to reject the Unia as well. The Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) was re-established in Constantinople. The Orthodoxy survived.
  • Crusaders affected not only the Orthodox Slavophones. It affected Western Slavophones, too. Catholicism was established and confirmed among them. The Serbo-Croatian split was confirmed.

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At milestone_10.
  • Constantinople, η Νέα Ρώμη, the New Rome, was taken by the muslims. The Roman Empire was converted to the Ottoman Empire. The next Roman Emperors were muslims; called Sultans.
  • Islam came to the Balkans with the Turkish language. Many loanwords from Turkish entered South Slavic (excluding Slovene).
  • Bulgaria lost its literary traditions. There was nobody to support the Slavonic liturgy in Bulgaria.
  • Before the Ottoman Turks, the population on the territory of the 19th century’s Romania made use of the Bulgarian literary traditions and the Slavonic Liturgy supported by Bulgaria. When the Bulgarian literary tradition was extinct, a new literary tradition based on the Romanophonia evolved there. This gave force to the Romanophonia which swept out the Slavophonia there.

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At milestone_11.
  • Moskovia, although preserving Christianity and Slavophonia and the Slavonic Liturgy, was a federal part of the Horde.
  • Moskovia managed to take possession of the Horde.
  • The events related to the Horde taken by Moskovia were in some way a mirror image of the events related to the fall of the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) and Constantinople. (See the previous milestone.)
  • The Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) changed its religion from Christianity to Islam and was renamed to Ottoman Empire. The imperial language also changed from Greek to Turkish.
  • The Horde changed its religion from Islam to Christianity and was renamed to Russia. The imperial language also changed from Kipchak to Russian.
  • Russia gradually collected all the territories of the Horde and expanded beyond: Siberia, Arctics, up to the Pacific, also up to Caspian and to Caucasus, and to Crimea, and to the Black Sea. Russia was targeting Constantinople.
  • Russia "collected" Belorussia and Malorussia (Ukraine). Russia firmly settled at the Baltic coast.
  • The imperial Russian language has been established all over the territory of Russia.
  • So, East Slavic languages are Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian.
  • Russian is the language of Moskovia. It resulted as a mixture of Church Slavonic and East Slavic dialects as it was brought to Moskovia along with Christianity. It became an imperial language.
  • Belorussian emerged as the main language of the medieval Lithuania. At that time, it was called simply Russian. It is endangered now.
  • Ukrainian emerged under the Polish Crown. It was strengthened after Gorbachev (milestone_14).
  • All the three East Slavic languages - Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian, originate from the language of the old Kievan Russia. So, they can be also called Kievan Slavic languages, or, as an alternative, Moskovite Slavic languages.
  • Thus, in the 19th century, according to their political focus, the Slavic languages fall into three groups: Constantinopolitan (the Bulgarian language alone), Kievan-Moskovite (East Slavic), and Viennese* (the rest of Slavic languages).

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At milestone_12. The Danubian Empire.
  • This is to give reasons for the Viennese political focus of some Slavic languages.
  • The Danubian Empire of Habsburgs has been the greatest power in the Central Europe for centuries.
  • The Danubian Empire had no ethnic background - it was a true Empire. German-speaking population, Hungarian-speaking population, and Slavophones lived in the Empire and were loyal enough to Vienna.
  • It may be assumed that the Polish language had a Krakowian focus. However, in the 19-th century, Krakow itself belonged to Vienna. Hence, for the Polish language, a Viennese political focus can be assumed as well.
  • Formally speaking/writing, Slavic languages having Viennese political focus make use of the letter J in their orthography, mainly following the German orthography.
  • Main Slavic languages having Viennese political focus developed in this way:
  • The Polish language: focused to Krakow.
  • The Czech language: under Austria and to the North of it.
  • The Slovak language: under Hungary and to the North of it.
  • The Slovene language: under Austria and to the South of it.
  • The Croatian language: under Hungary and to the South of it.
  • In 1850, the Vienna Literary Agreement came into existence. Serbian joined Croatian in standardizing a common Serbo-Croatian language. Serbian broke with its old Church Slavonic tradition and also focused to Vienna.
  • In 1878, the Great Powers including the Danubian Empire admitted Bulgaria to be re-established. On the territory of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian language resigned from its former Constantinopolitan focus it had for more than a millennium and swung towards the Moskovite focus.

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At milestone_13.
  • In Saraevo, the manifestation of Slavic passions started WW1.
  • Via WW1, Europe committed suicide.
  • After WW1, the stars of America rose in the west. WW2 was just a continuation of WW1.
  • During WW1, Russia (the Russian Empire) passed to the possession of Sauron and became a real Mordor.
  • After WW1, the Ottoman Empire was destroyed. The last person claiming to be the Roman Emperor was deposed. That was the formal end of the Roman Empire.
  • After WW1, the Ottoman Empire was destroyed. The last person claiming to be the caliph of the muslim people world-wide, was deposed. Since then, there are no respectable and reasonable persons among muslims whose opinions are to be considered the last instance on the earth. No one can stop by his speech the islamic terrorists now, e.g.
  • After WW1, the Danubian Empire, having been the homeland of many Slavophones for centuries, was destroyed. The Viennese focus of some Slavic languages faded.
  • Slavic peoples which had lived for centuries together in the Danubian Empire were unable to live together in the newly established states and did separate at the first occasion.
  • United Poland re-appeared. The homeland of the Polish language.
  • Czechoslovakia appeared to be the homeland of both Czech and Slovak languages. At any occasions, it was broken to Czech republic and Slovakia.
  • Serbia was expanded to Jugoslavia. It "collected" Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Banat, and N.Macedonia. The invented name Jugoslavia (South Slavia) was expressing Serbia’s dormant claim to whole Bulgaria as well.
  • In Jugoslavia, the former Danubian Empire got the label der Völkerkerker, the prison of nations, in order to hide the fact that Jugoslavia itself became a prison of nations.
  • Terrible totalitarian regimes were established in many European countries. In politics, the reason receded in front of the passion.

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At milestone_14. Gorbatchev.
  • The Soviet Empire, that of Sauron, lost the First Cold War, CW1.
  • Jugoslavia, der wirkliche Völkerkerker, collapsed in blood.
  • Czechoslovakia divorced peacefully.
  • A nuclear war between Russia and Ukraine was barely prevented. CW2 is in progress. The Ukrainian language got strength.
  • Many Slavophones became citizens of the European Union. Perhaps, they frightened away some Anglophones which are about to leave.
  • There are two political focuses of the Slavophonia: the older Moskovite focus and the new Brussellese focus.
  • The Bulgarian language resigned from the Moskovite focus and turned to Brussels.

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References

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Comments, Q&As


Comments and questions will be copied into this section. My comments and answers will appear in this section, too.

  • ◄►  ::christo.tamarin, 2017-04-07 20:21:: This text was first published here.

  • ◄►  ::christo.tamarin, 2017-09-09 20:42:: About the vowels [ъ] and [ь] in Slavic.

  • ◄►  ::christo.tamarin, 2017-09-17 00:00:: About the terminology.

  • ◄►  ::christo.tamarin, 2018-04-28 00:00:: Some considerations about the Slavic motherland.

  • ►►  ::christo.tamarin, 2020-01-28 14:10:: Cyril and Methodius - Spiritual Fathers of Slavic Civilization:

  • ►►  ::christo.tamarin, 2020-05-02 15:48:: Balkano-Slavic and Neo-Slavic (Славяногласие: царское и королевское)

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