HOW CLOSE WERE SLAVIC LANGUAGES 1000 YEARS AGO

[LightHouse89]

West Slavs could easily speak to East Slavs 1,000 years ago. We also used the old Bulgarian language (Old Church Slavic) in church and in literature. Church Slavic influenced the Russian language greatly.

I have always considered Polish and Czech, maybe even Sorbian to be the closest to the actual old slavic languages. As for croatian, serbian and bosniak languages are probably more latin infleunced but could retain the original language much like how germanic languages today are heavily latinized, except icelandic.

[LightHouse89]

The Lord's prayer in Old Church Slavonic:


Serbo-Croatian

Looks very close. To what degree does Latin have on Serbo-Croatian? If any at all?

[Roy]

Certainly they were closer to each other then now but already seperated. Some words or grammar structurse that are common in Serbian were still in use some time ago in Medieval Polish or just have archaic style to them now as you won't here anyone speaking this way so in certain ways it preserved more from Old Slavic.

[Leto]

I have always considered Polish and Czech, maybe even Sorbian to be the closest to the actual old slavic languages. As for croatian, serbian and bosniak languages are probably more latin infleunced but could retain the original language much like how germanic languages today are heavily latinized, except icelandic.

Polish is more latinized than Serbo-Croatian, since Poles are Catholics. But Polish did retain the original nasal sounds other Slavic languages lost. As for Germanic, I've been studying German for about 12 years and can say that it has much fewer Romance words than English. English is only 30% Germanic in terms of vocabulary. In scientific texts Franco-Latin roots constitute up to 70% of all words. It's the most latinized Germanic language.

[FeederOfRavens]

Polish is more latinized than Serbo-Croatian, since Poles are Catholics. But Polish did retain the original nasal sounds other Slavic languages lost. As for Germanic, I've been studying German for about 12 years and can say that has much fewer Romance words than English. English is only 30% Germanic in terms of vocabulary. In scientific texts Franco-Latin roots constitue up to 70% of all words. It's the most latinized Germanic language.

Dutch is in between English and German for latinization.

[Leto]

Looks very close. To what degree does Latin have on Serbo-Croatian? If any at all?

Well, Serbs are Orthodox Christians and they were under Turks for like 500 years. The language has many Turkish loanwords, as far as I know. The Bosnian variety has even more Islamic terms. Croatian was significantly purified during the period of nationalism. They tried to replace foreign words with newly constructed Slavic terms.

[Veneda]

Bogurodzica (Mother of God) - the oldest Polish hymn, 10th-13th century




Bogurodzica dziewica, Bogiem sławiena Maryja,
U twego syna Gospodzina Matko zwolena, Maryja!
Zyszczy nam, spuści nam.
Kyrie elison!

Twego dziela Krzciciela, bożycze,
Usłysz głosy, napełń myśli człowiecze.
Słysz modlitwę, jąż nosimy,
A dać raczy, jegoż prosimy:
A na świecie zbożny pobyt,
Po żywocie rajski przebyt.
Kyrie elison!

English
Virgin, Mother of God, God-famed Mary!
Ask Thy Son, our Lord, God-named Mary,
To have mercy upon us and hand it over to us!
Kyrie eleison!

Son of God, for Thy Baptist's sake,
Hear the voices, fulfill the pleas we make!
Listen to the prayer we say,
For what we ask, give us today:
Life on earth free of vice;
After life: paradise!
Kyrie eleison!

[Leto]

Dutch is in between English and German for latinization.

I understand written Dutch with a dictionary. I'm very insterested in the Germanic languages. Dutch has more French borrowings than German.

[Borna]

Polish was always hardest language to understand for me, for other Slavs, when they speak slowly i can understand up to 60% (Not considering South Slavs but others) but Polish is way to hard.

[dado]

Polish was always hardest language to understand for me, for other Slavs, when they speak slowly i can understand up to 60% (Not considering South Slavs but others) but Polish is way to hard.

so you dont understand some 80 million slavs