什么是斯拉夫诸语言

印欧语系的一支，在中欧、东欧与北亚有超过三亿一千五百万人使用。斯拉夫诸语言一般分为数个子群：西斯拉夫语，包括波兰语、斯洛伐克语（Slovak）、捷克语与索布语（Sorbian，包括卢萨特语〔Lusatian〕、文德语〔Wendish〕）；东斯拉夫语，包括俄语、乌克兰语（Ukrainian）与白俄罗斯语；南斯拉夫语，有斯洛维尼亚语（Slovene）、塞尔维亚－克罗埃西亚语、保加利亚语（Bulgarian）与马其顿语（Macedonian）（参阅Bulgarian language）。波兰语属於列克提克（Lechitic; Lekhitic），为西斯拉夫语的子群，其中包括卡舒比语（Kashubian; Cassubian），这在今日波兰西部有少於十五万人使用（在波兰被视为方言），以及数个现今已经消失的语言。这个子群的特色在於保存了原始斯拉夫语的鼻音母音。另一个残存的语言为索布语，在东德有六到七万人使用。西列克提克语与索布语为原来更为巨大的中欧斯拉夫语区的遗存，约在九世纪後逐渐日耳曼化。在印欧诸语言中，斯拉夫语最接近波罗的海语。

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.