Which Slavic Language Should You Learn?

The fact is, Slavic Language connects all countries under a sign of unique and beautiful sounds. In Europe, people speak many languages, but when it comes to learning Slavic languages, you must try to pick the best one.

However, the Russian language is the common Slavic language. Still there are several options that you can learn and soon you will also realize there are several opportunities to clench some exciting associated languages.

There are several benefits included when you learn a foreign language, but it is crucial to consider which foreign language to learn.  Get started with the Slavic languages, and here you find everything you need to know about a choosing one that interest you the most and helps you to learn it quickly.

History of the Slavic Languages

Slavic Languages are a collection of related languages that become known among the Slavs, a cultural group whose basis are identified a little.

As per the AHE (Ancient History Encyclopedia), the original well-known records of Slavs emerged in the sixth century. However, the collection itself probably had further older origins.

The Slavic language is a notion to stalk from Proto-Slavic that itself stalks from Proto-Indo-European. As per the origins of the linguist view of the Slavs, the first split from Proto-Indo- European happened around 3000BC. From that time onwards, Indo-European languages evolved continuously into different languages, including the main language of all Slavic languages the Proto-Slavic languages that are spoken currently.

The family of Indo-European is large that is why Slavic languages have a lot of sister, brothers, aunts, cousins, and also have a few uncles who have been pushed to the border of the family tree for their natural tricks.

However, the Slavic languages are moderately different from their associates in several ways, and this interrelation allows you to learn some suitable learning shortcuts that you will get learn explicitly.

Where Slavic Speakers Are?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, there are approximately 315 million people speak Slavic languages. These languages are spoken in the Balkans, Centre Europe, in a large area of Northern Asia, and most people from Eastern Europe speak a type of Slavic language.

Resources for Learning Slavic Languages

Before you understand the ins & outs of these popular languages, you should get to know the different resources that you can utilize to concentrate on learning your favorite language.

It is crucial to note that the more limited the family group is, the more alike the languages will be.

In various cases, the languages that are related closely may even be equally comprehensible, which means speakers of one language can identify the other to some extent. A good example would be Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian.

Another example; Bulgarian and Macedonian are the members of the South Slavic Eastern Group branch, so they are related closely. Slovene and Serbo-Croatian are from the South Slavic Western Group branch. They are bit distantly related, but Russian is more distinctly connected. As a general thumbhole you could say that the closer the countries are, the more similarities the languages show.

For language learners, why all this is matter?

Well – it is important to consider as it helps you learn different languages at the same time. Paring related languages is a suitable way to learn multiple languages at once, and also they are easy to learn simultaneously.

Here you can find some of the common Slavic languages that you can consider.

West Slavic Languages

The West Slavic language group includes some of the western most Slavic languages

Lechitic Family – Polish

However, Polish is not the just the member of the Lechitic group, but it is definitely the most popular language. According to Ethnologue reports, there are approximately 37-million Polish speakers speak the language within Poland and around 3-million speakers around the world.

The people who are interested in learning the language are mostly interested in learning Polish because it is one of the most commonly spoken Slavic languages, but it still utilizes the Latin alphabet.  This can make little less intimidating for English speakers than other famous Slavic languages such as Ukrainian and Russia that need learning an entirely new alphabet.

Though there are several tricky features of the Polish language like  challenging pronunciations.

Czech-Slovak Family – Czech

As per the Ethnologue, approximately 10 million people speak the Czech language in the Czech Republic and around three million people around the world.

It is a popular language because the Czech Republic is predominantly popular among tourists. Similar like the Polish language it also uses a Latin alphabet.

However, Slovak and Czech differ in various ways, they do have adequate reciprocated simplicity to facilitate you to understand the other language. Of course, this only works if you are able to speak either one of them.

South Slavic Languages

South Slavic languages fall under the southeastern of Europe group, mainly in the Balkans.

Western Family – Slovene

Did you know that the current form of  Solvenian is a newer Slavic Language that has been established in the 1700s from a collection of dialect groups? It is still considered as one of the most assorted Slavic languages out there with a large range of different vernacular.

However, there are officially connected, Slovene is not mainly equally comprehensible with Serbo- Croatian, excluding for a few vernacular along the border of Slovenian. There is also some comparison between West Slavic and Slovene languages, but not a lot.

Case system is used in Slovene and it contains some difficult accent and features other complicated grammar rules. For example, though most European languages contain plural and singular nouns, Slovene also contains a dual grammatical number to articulate when there are two entities. Also, the Huffington post comments that the large range of dialects can make it tough for speakers of Slovene to comprehend one another.

Though Slovene has its drawbacks, still the language learners’ appreciate the language. It uses the Latin alphabet and the exclusiveness of the language makes it different from others.

A good one for the language-freaks amongst us!

Serbo-Croatian

BSC or Serbo-Croatian is a macro language invented by Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Bosnian. However, Montenegrin and Serbian are often organized together, and there are some small differences and these same languages are equally understandable and the separation between them is mainly political.

As per the Ethnologue reports, approximately 15-million people speak Serbo-Croatian, and around 1.1 million people speak Bosnia in Bosnia and around 400,000 more speak the language around the world. Around 4.2 million people speak Croatian in about 2.3 million speak the language globally.  Approximately 6.3 million people speak Serbian/Montenegrin in Montenegro and Serbia and around 2.1 million people globally speak this language.

In the year 2000, Montenegro separated from Serbia, and this language is evolving more and developing its standards. One of the prominent differences that you will see between these languages is the alphabet usage. Serbian utilizes both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Bosnian usually utilizes both alphabets, but the language uses the Latin alphabet. Also, Croatian uses the Latin alphabet. Currently, the Montenegrin language expands and there is an inclination for the Latin alphabet.

However, the language learners may have trouble with the Slavic challenging language like the case system.  Also, language learners benefit from choosing the favorite language between Cyrillic and Latin alphabet.  When learning a language, you don’t get this kind of options, and it is a very rare opportunity.

Also, the place is famous among tourists, so apparently some students may want to learn Serbo-Croatian for the convenient travel.

Eastern Family – Macedonian

Bulgarian and Macedonian are equally understandable. Actually, Macedonian has very much familiar with Bulgarian that some residents consider it a language instead of distinct language.

Macedonian also very difficult to pronounce as it uses Cyrillic. These features might be challenging for learners. But, compared to various other Slavic languages, this Macedonian language does not use infinitive forms of verbs.