什麼是斯拉夫諸語言

印歐語系的一支，在中歐、東歐與北亞有超過三億一千五百萬人使用。斯拉夫諸語言一般分為數個子羣：西斯拉夫語，包括波蘭語、斯洛伐克語（Slovak）、捷克語與索布語（Sorbian，包括盧薩特語〔Lusatian〕、文德語〔Wendish〕）；東斯拉夫語，包括俄語、烏克蘭語（Ukrainian）與白俄羅斯語；南斯拉夫語，有斯洛維尼亞語（Slovene）、塞爾維亞－克羅埃西亞語、保加利亞語（Bulgarian）與馬其頓語（Macedonian）（參閲Bulgarian language）。波蘭語屬於列克提克（Lechitic; Lekhitic），為西斯拉夫語的子羣，其中包括卡舒比語（Kashubian; Cassubian），這在今日波蘭西部有少於十五萬人使用（在波蘭被視為方言），以及數個現今已經消失的語言。這個子羣的特色在於保存了原始斯拉夫語的鼻音母音。另一個殘存的語言為索布語，在東德有六到七萬人使用。西列克提克語與索布語為原來更為巨大的中歐斯拉夫語區的遺存，約在九世紀後逐漸日耳曼化。在印歐諸語言中，斯拉夫語最接近波羅的海語。

Slavic languages

Branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by more than 315 million people in central and eastern Europe and northern Asia. The Slavic family is usually divided into three subgroups: West Slavic, comprising Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Sorbian (Lusatian, Wendish); East Slavic, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian; and South Slavic, comprising Slovene, Serbian and Croatian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian (see Bulgarian language). Polish belongs to the Lechitic (Lekhitic) subgroup of West Slavic languages, which also includes Kashubian (Cassubian)—now spoken in western Poland by fewer than 150,000 people and regarded in Poland as a Polish dialect—and the several now-extinct languages. A distinctive feature of this subgroup is its preservation of the Proto-Slavic nasal vowels. Another remnant language is Sorbian, spoken by 60,000-70,000 people in eastern Germany. western Lechitic and Sorbian are all that remains of what was once a much greater Slavic speech area in central Europe; that area was gradually Germanized from about the 9th century. Among Indo-European languages, Slavic is closest to the family of Baltic languages.