The 'Slavic peoples' are a branch of
Indo-European peoples, living mainly in
Europe, where they constitute roughly a third of the population. Since emerging from their original homeland (most commonly thought to be in
Eastern Europe) in the early
6th century, they have inhabited most of eastern
Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the
Balkans. Many settled later in
Northern Asia or emigrated to other parts of the world.
Slavic settlers mixed with existing local populations and later invaders, thus modern Slavs are considered genetically diverse, though connected by speaking often closely related
Slavic languages. Their cultures and traditions show both similarities and dissimilarities, related to their individual histories.
Slavic peoples are traditionally divided along linguistic lines into
West Slavic (including
Czechs,
Poles and
Slovaks),
East Slavic (including
Belarusians,
Russians, and
Ukrainians), and
South Slavic (including
Bosniaks,
Bulgarians,
Croats,
Macedonians,
Montenegrins,
Serbs and
Slovenians). For a more comprehensive list, see
Ethno-cultural subdivisions.
Origin of the term ''Slav''
The origin of the word '' remains controversial. Excluding the ambiguous mention by
Ptolemy of tribes ''Stavanoi'' and ''Soubenoi'', the earliest references of "Slavs" under this name are from the 6th century. The word is written variously as ''Sklabenoi'', ''Sklauenoi'', or ''Sklabinoi'' in
Byzantine Greek, and as ''Sclaueni'', ''Sclauini'', or ''Sthlaueni'' in
Latin. The oldest documents written in
Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest ''slověne'' to describe the Slavs around Thessalonica. Other early attestations include Old Russian ''slověně'' "an East Slavic group near Novgorod", ''Slovutich'' "Dnieper river", and Serbo-Croatian ''Slavonica'', a river.
There are two alternative scholarly theories as to the origin of the ''Slavs'' ethnonym, both very tentative: according to the first theory
[1], it derives from a hypothetically reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European '', cognate to
Greek ''laós'' "population, people", which itself has no commonly accepted etymology. The second theory (forwarded by e.g.
Max Vasmer) suggests that the word originated as a river name (compare the etymology of the
Volcae), comparing it with such cognates as
Latin ''cluere'' "to cleanse, purge", a root not known to have been continued in Slavic, however, and it appears in other languages with similar meanings (cf. Greek ''klyzein'' "to wash", Old English ''hlūtor'' "clean, pure", Old Norse ''hlér'' "sea", Welsh ''clir'' "clear, clean", Lithuanian ''šlúoti'' "to sweep").
Folk etymologies and scholars such as
Roman Jacobson traditionally link the name either with the word ''sláva'' "glory", "fame" or ''slovo'' "word, talk" (both akin to OSl ''slusati'' "to hear" from the
IE root ''
★ kleu-''). Thus ''slověne'' would mean "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other, as opposed to the Slavic word for foreign nations, ''nemtsi'', meaning "speechless people" (from Slavic ''němi'' -
mute, silent,
dumb), as for example in Polish: '' is ''Germany''.
Proto-Slavic language
Main articles: Proto-Slavic language
The ancestor of the
Proto-Slavic language branched off at some uncertain time in a disputed location from common
Proto-Indo-European (possibly passing through a common
Proto-Balto-Slavic stage).
Balto-Slavic is categorized with the ''
satem'' or eastern
isogloss of the Indo-European language family, along with the Baltic and Indo-Iranian groups. In the framework of the
Kurgan hypothesis, "the Indo-Europeans who remained after the migrations became speakers of Balto-Slavic"
[2].
Proto-Slavic proper, defined as the last stage of the language preceding the split of the historical
Slavic languages, predates the 7th century, and was likely spoken during the 5th and 6th century.
Genetic origins
:''See also
Genetic history of Europe and articles on particular haplogroups''.
The modern Slavic peoples come from a wide variety of genetic backgrounds, attesting the complexity of the ethnogenetic processes in Eastern Europe . The frequency of
Haplogroup R1a[1] ranges from 56.4% of the population in Poland and 54% in Ukraine, to 15.2% in Macedonia, 14.7% in Bulgaria and 12.1% in
Herzegovina.
[3] [4] Haplogroup R1a may be connected to the spread of Proto-Indo-Europeans (see
Kurgan hypothesis for more information).
A new study
[5] studied several Slavic populations with the aim of localizing the Proto-Slavic homeland. A significant findings of this study are that:
# Two genetically distant groups of Slavic populations were revealed: One encompassing all Western-Slavic, Eastern-Slavic, and two Southern - Slavic populations, and one encompassing all remaining Southern Slavs. According to the authors most Slavic populations have similar Y chromosome pools - R1a, and this similarity can be traced to an origin in middle
Dnieper basin of the Ukraine from
Ukrainian LGM refuge 15
kya.
[6]
# However, some southern Slavic populations such as
Serbians,
Macedonians,
Bulgarians, and
Bosnians are clearly separated from the tight DNA cluster of the rest of 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..."
[7]
Origins and Slavic homeland debate
The location of the speakers of pre-Proto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic is subject to considerable debate. Serious candidates are cultures on the territories of modern
Belarus,
Poland,
European Russia and
Ukraine. The proposed frameworks are:
#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 the
Przeworsk culture (part of the
Chernyakhov culture).
#Milograd culture hypothesis: The pre-Proto-Slavs (or Balto-Slavs) were the bearers of the
Milograd culture
#Chernoles culture hypothesis: The pre-Proto-Slavs were the bearers of the
Chernoles culture of northern Ukraine
The starting point in the autochtonic/allochtonic debate was the year 1745, when
Johann Christoph de Jordan published ''
De Originibus Slavicis.'' 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 as to whether Germanic or Slavic peoples were autochthonous on the land east of the
Vistula river was used by factions to pursue their respective German and Polish political claims to governance of those lands.
Contemporary scholarship in general has moved away from the idea of monolithic nations and the ''
Urheimat'' debates of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and its focus of interest is that of a process of
ethnogenesis, regarding competing Urheimat scenarios as
false dichotomies.
Earliest accounts
Pliny the Elder and
Ptolemy mention a tribe of the
Venedes around the river
Vistula. The lands east of the
Rhine,
Elbe,
Oder, and west of the
Vistula river were referred to as ''
Magna Germania'' by
Tacitus in AD 98. Tacitus. Romans occupied the land west of the Elbe.
From
Romanticism, the allochthonic school theorem is that the 6th century authors re-applied the ethnonym to hitherto unknown Slavic tribes, whence the later designation "
Wends" for Slavic tribes, and medieval legends purporting a connection between Poles and Vandals.
The autochthonic school postulates that the Venedes of Tacitus and the "Slavs proper" between the 1st and the 6th centuries coalesced into the historical Slavic ethnicities.
The Slavs were "known to other people" as those tribes located between the
Vistula and
Dnepr until the middle of the 1st century BCE. After that they expanded to the
Elbe (Labe) River and
Adriatic Sea and down the
Danube.
[8]
The Slavs under name of ''
Venets'', the ''
Antes'' and the ''
Sklavens'' 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 emerging from the area of the
Carpathian Mountains, the lower
Danube and the
Black Sea, invading the Danubian provinces of the
Eastern Empire.
Jordanes mentions that the Venets sub-divided into three groups: the ''Venets'', the ''Ants'' and the ''Sklavens'' (''Sclovenes'', ''Sklavinoi''), collectively called ''Spores''. The Byzantine term ''Sklavinoi'' was loaned as ''
Saqaliba'' by medieval Arab historiographers.
Scenarios of ethnogenesis

Eastern Europe in the 3rd century AD:

Historical distribution of the Slavic languages. The area shaded in light purple is the Prague-Penkov-Kolochin complex of cultures of the 6th to 7th c. AD, likely corresponding to the spread of Slavic tribes at the time. The area shaded in darker red indicates the core area of Slavic river names (after
EIEC p. 524ff.)
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 typical for IE originators numerous
tumuli.
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"
[9] The
Milograd culture (700 BC - 100 AD), centered roughly on present day Belarus, north of the contemporaneous Chernoles culture, have 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 of 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. While the
Chernyakhov culture (2nd to 5th c. AD, identified with the multi-ethnic kingdom established by the Goths immigrating from the Wielbark culture) 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 undisputedly 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 400 AD, which may have triggered the Proto-Slavic expansion to the historical locations of the Slavic languages.
Slavs in the historical period

Slavic realms c. 900AD. Note slavic populations within Avar & Magyar dominions, Carinthia and Bulgaria.
According to allochtonic view: Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germans and Celts in the 5th and
6th centuries AD (necessitated by the onslaught of people from Siberia and Eastern Europe:
Huns,
Avars,
Bulgars and
Magyars) 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.
Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers. The Byzantine records note that after they marched through grass wouldn't regrow under their footprints. After a military movement even the Peloponnese was reported to have Slavic settlements. This southern movement is commonly seen as an invasive expansion, but some consider it to be a return (the Dunabe origin/Ethnogenesis conception).
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, with nobles who pledged allegiance to the
Frankish and
Holy Roman Emperors.
Karantania in today's Austria and Slovenia was one Slavic state; 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, which by the late 9th century became linguistically Slavicized, was founded in 681.
In the early history of South Slavs, and continuing into the Dark Ages, non-Slavic groups were sometimes dissimilated by Slavic-speaking populations: the
Bulgars became Slavicized and their
Turkic tongue disappeared (except for a number of words). Many of the ancient
Thracians in the central and eastern Balkans, some of them previously Romanized or Hellenized, became Slavicized since the 6th century.
In other cases, the Slavs assimilated other groups such as Vlachs, Magyars, Greeks, Italians,
Illyrians in the western Balkans,
Pechenegs,
Cumans,
Tatars, and other populations from the Eurasian steppe.
Conversely, some slavs were assimilated ''into'' other populations. The south slavs that inhabited the Carpathian basin were Margyarised and Romanised. Much of the substratum of modern day Hungary and Romania was provided by Slavic peoples. Needless to say, Romania and Hungary are not Slavic countries. Similarly, Austria and the eastern parts of Germnay are heavily composed of ancestors of Germanised slavs.
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.
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 all nations that had Slavic origins. Pan-Slavism became compromised when
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 or 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 many South Slavs was
Yugoslavia, but it was broken apart as well.
Slavic populations under foreign rule
In the course of their history, many Slavic-speaking communities came under foreign rule for longer or shorter periods.
Poland underwent partition,
German-speaking empires appeared to absorb the
Czechs for many centuries, and the
Ottomans in their hey-day dominated the
Balkan Slavs. Even the
East Slavs had to submit to the
Tatar yoke after the
Mongol invasion of Rus.
The Slavs living in
Brandenburg and
Pomerania were exterminated or assimilated by Germans in the course of the ''
Drang nach Osten'';
Turkish incursions suppressed the regional hegemonies of Bulgarian and Serbian speakers; Poland suffered decline, partition and extinction as a separate national state in the 18th century. Until the 20th century, certain speech-groups (such as speakers of Slovenian) lacked the resources to establish their own distinctive independent nation-states. Other communities (speakers of
Sorbian or of
Kashubian, for example) remain as minorities in the current system of nation-states.
Some speech-communities have long stood under the influence of others -- even other Slavs: speakers of Ukrainian and Belarusian came under Polish and/or Russian rule; German-speaking overlords have long dominated the Sorbian-speakers. In the case of West Slavic speakers, originally kindred languages diverged when the Poles, Czechs and Slovaks became parts of different countries (Poland, Bohemia, Kingdom of Hungary, respectively), Slovak becoming considerably influenced by Czech after 1400/1500. A political division (Austria, Kingdom of Hungary) also marks the now well-established border between the Slovenian and Croatian language areas, even if some bordering dialects of the two languages indicate an almost smooth transition.
Despite their frequent lack of political power, Slavs demonstrated resilience, sometimes culturally taking over foreign political rulers, as in
Bulgaria, where originally
Bulgar overlords became Slavicized. Similarly, in the
Republic of Dubrovnik, the locally spoken Slavic language became an official language in parallel to
Ragusan Dalmatian and
Latin. Even under the
Ottoman Empire, south-Eastern Europe, except for
Greece proper and
Albanian, Romanian and Hungarian areas, remained Slavic speaking. In the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a
Ruthenian dialect was the language of official documents.
Only centrally located Slavic peoples were never, for period longer than one generation(~20y), ruled by non Slavic minorities. In those areas we observe the concentration of genes of IE originators, the most common to other Slavic groups.
Religion and alphabet
Slavs gradually adopted Christianity between 6th and 10th century, and consequently the old
Slavic religion was suppressed. The two main Christian denominations with Slavs are
Eastern Orthodox and
Greek or
Roman Catholic, others are
Sunni Muslim and a very small minority are
Protestant. The delineations by nationality can be very sharp. In many Slavic ethnic groups the vast majority of religious people share the same religion, although many are
atheist or
agnostic; in the latter cases people still may traditionally associate themselves with a particular religion in a cultural and historical sense.
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 (including Montenegrin) can be written using both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets . There is also a Latinic script to write in
Belarusian, called the
Lacinka alphabet. The
Bosnian language has at times been written using the
Arabic alphabet (mostly in Muslim documents), but it now uses the Roman (in Bosniak, Croat, and Serb areas) and Cyrillic alphabet (in Serb areas).
Ethno-cultural subdivisions
Slavs are customarily divided 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 population of the
Balkans (
Illyrians,
Dacians and
Getae) and with later invaders from the East (
Bulgars,
Avars, and
Alans), then fell under the hegemony of the
Ottoman Empire. The 'West Slavs' 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 timeframe.
Please note that some of the following subdivisions remain highly debatable, particularly for smaller groups and national minorities.
'East Slavs'
''Main article:
East Slavs''
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Russians
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Pomors
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Lipovan Russians
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Goryuns
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Ukrainians
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Bojko
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Huculs
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Lemko 4
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Poleszuks
2
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Rusyns 3
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Lemko 4
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Belarusians
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Poleszuks
2
'West Slavs'
''Main article:
West Slavs''
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Lechitic group
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Poles
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Masovians
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Polans
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Vistulans
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Silesians 5
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Pomeranians
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Kashubians 5
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Slovincians
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Polabians †
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Obodrites/Abodrites
†
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Veleti †
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Volinians (Velunzani)
†
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Pyritzans (Prissani)
†
★ Czech-Slovak group
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Czechs
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Moravians 6
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Slovaks
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Pannonian Rusyns 1
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Sorbs (Serbo-Lusatians)
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Milceni (Upper Sorbs)
†
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Lusatians (Lower Sorbs)
'South Slavs'
''Main article:
South Slavs''
★ Eastern (Bulgaro-Macedonian) group
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Bulgarians
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Pomaks (
Muslim Bulgarians)
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Palćene (
Banat Bulgarians)
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Bessarabian Bulgarians
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Anatolian Bulgarians†
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Shopi7
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Macedonians (ethnic group)
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Torbesh (
Muslim Macedonians)
★ Western group
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Slovenians
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Karantanians†
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Carinthian Slovenes
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Serbs
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Torlaks8
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Montenegrins9
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Croats
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Janjevci (Catholic Slavs in Kosovo)
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Molise Croats (in eastern Italy)
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Krashovans (Croats in Romania)
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Burgenland Croats (in Austria)
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Bunjevci 10
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Šokci 10
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Bosniaks
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Gorani 11
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Yugoslavs (mostly in Serbia, Bosnia, few in Croatia)
12
† Extinct
1 Also considered part of Rusyns
2 Considered transitional between Ukrainians and Belarusians
3 Also considered part of Ukrainians
4 A part of Lemkos indentify themselves as Ukrainians and another part as Rusyns
[2]
5 Also considered part of Poles
6 Today, often considered part of Czechs, originally closer to Slovaks
7 Most Shopi self-declare as Bulgarians. Cognate with Torlaks.
8 Most Torlaks self-declare as Serbs. Cognate with Shopi.
9 Some opt Serb ethnicity, with a historical tradition, dating back to the Serb tribes that settled Montenegro many centuries ago. While others opt for Montenegrin ethnicity, also historically emphasised, but used ubiquitously along with Serb one. Some of the ethnic Montenegrins, mostly supporters of Montenegrin independence and adherents of
Montenegrin Orthodox Church call their native language
Montenegrin, considering it a separate language from
Serbian.
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 Slavs in Kosovo; but not to be confound with other Gorani (or Gorinci) in the highlands of western Croatia (Gorski Kotar county).
12 A census category regocnised as an ethnic group. Most Slavic Muslims 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.
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,
Istrani in westernmost Croatia,
Dalmatinci in southern Croatia,
Boduli in Adriatic islands,
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,
Trakiytci in Upper Thracian Lowlands,
Dobrudzhantci in north-east Bulgarian region ,
Balkandzhiiin Central Balkan Mountains,
Miziytci in north Bulgarian region,
Pirinski Macedonci in Blagoevgrad Province,
Rupchi 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.
Notes
References
1. Bernstein S. B., Очерк сравнительной грамматики славянских языков, vol. 1-2, Moscow, 1961.
2. F. Kortlandt, The spread of the Indo-Europeans, p.4
3. ''Full paper "High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe" ''
4. ''Abstract "High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe" ''
5. Rebala K et al. (2007), ''Y-STR variation among Slavs: evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin'', Journal of Human Genetics, 52:406-14
6. ibid., p. 408
7. ibid., p. 410
8. 'Slavic languages', 'The New Encyclopædia Britannica' ISBN 0-85229-571-5
9. James P. Mallory, "Chernoles Culture", EIEC
See also
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Slavic mythology
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Gord (Slavic settlement)
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Early East Slavs
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Lech, Czech and Rus
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Pan-Slavism
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Pan-Slavic colours
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East Slavs
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West Slavs
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South Slavs
External links
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The Name SLAV by B. Philip Lozinski.
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The Slavonic Antiquity: Scythians, Sarmatians, Meotians and Slavs by Sergei V. Rjabchikov.
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FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN TO SLAVIC, by Frederik Kortlandt.
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THE ORIGIN OF THE BALTIC, GERMAN AND SLAVIC PEOPLE. THE ICELAND AGES
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SLOVENI: UNDE ORTI ESTIS? SLOVÁCI, KDE SÚ VAŠE KORENE?, by Cyril A. Hromník (mainly in Slova).
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Site about Slavics, Slavic Countries, Cultures, Languages, etc (mainly in Russian)
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"The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective"