Balto-slavic languages

The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally
comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not
found in any other Indo-European branch,[1] which points to a period of common development.
Although the notion of a Balto-Slavic unity has been contested[2] (partly due to political controversies),
there is now a general consensus among specialists in Indo-European linguistics to classify Baltic and
Slavic languages into a single branch, with only some details of the nature of their relationship remaining
in dispute.

A Proto-Balto-Slavic language is reconstructable by the comparative method, descending from Proto-

Indo-European by means of well-defined sound laws, and from which modern Slavic and Baltic
languages descended. One particularly innovative dialect separated from the Balto-Slavic dialect
continuum and became ancestral to the Proto-Slavic language, from which all Slavic languages
descended.

Balto-Slavic Languages:

Baltic languages:

• Latvian, 1.75 million speakers (2015)

* Latgalian[a]

* Lithuanian, 3 million speakers (2012)

West Slavic languages:

* Polish, 55 million speakers (2010)

* Kashubian[a]

* Czech, 10.6 million speakers (2012)

* Slovak, 5.2 million speakers (2011–12)

* Sorbian, ca. 50,000 speakers (est.)

South Slavic languages:

* Serbo-Croatian, 21 million speakers (est.), including second language speakers

* Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin standards with dialectal differences

* Bulgarian, 9 million (2005–12)

* Slovene, 2.5 million speakers (2010)

* Macedonian, 1.4–3.5 million speakers (1986–2011)

* Church Slavonic (liturgical)

East Slavic languages:

* Russian, 150 million speakers (2010), 260 million including L2 (2012)

* Ukrainian, 45 million speakers (2007)

* Belarusian, 3.2 million speakers (2009)

* Rusyn

Also the extinc Balto-Slavic languages:

* Proto-Balto-Slavic language

Slavic

* Proto-Slavic

* Old Church Slavonic, liturgical

* Knaanic, Jewish language

* Old Novgorod

* Old East Slavic, developed into modern East Slavic languages

* Old Ruthenian

* Polabian language

* Pomeranian language, only Kashubian remains as a living dialect

* South Slavic dialects used in medieval Greece

Baltic

* Curonian

* Old Prussian

* Galindan

* Selonian

* Semigallian
* Sudovian

Baltic and Slavic share many close phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic and accentological similarities.

The early Indo-Europeanists like Rasmus Rask and August Schleicher proposed that Balto-slavic
languages were formed from indo-european with german languages and after that Germanic languages
merged from Balto-Slavic. Karl Bruggman refined this proposal and listed 8 inovations as evidence that
Balto-slavic branch was present in the "Outline of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic
Languages". Antoine Meillet a French linguist, in reaction to Brugmann's hypothesis, propounded a view
according to which all similarities of Baltic and Slavic occurred accidentally, by independent parallel
development, and that there was no Proto-Balto-Slavic language. Even though some linguists still reject
a genetic relationship, most scholars accept that Baltic and Slavic languages experienced a period of
common development.

The degree of relationship of the Baltic and Slavic languages is indicated by a series of common
innovations not shared with other Indo-European languages, and by the relative chronology of these
innovations which can be established. The Baltic and Slavic languages also share some inherited words.
These are either not found at all in other Indo-European languages (except when borrowed) or are
inherited from Proto-Indo-European but have undergone identical changes in meaning when compared
to other Indo-European languages.[34] This indicates that the Baltic and Slavic languages share a period
of common development, the Proto-Balto-Slavic language.

Some of Balto-Slavic languages spoken today:

Lithuanian (Baltic)

Latvian (Baltic)

Czech (Slavic)

Polish (Slavic)

Ukrainian (Slavic)

Russian (Slavic)

Croatian (Slavic)

Serbian (Slavic)

Slovak (Slavic)

Russian is probably the first language you think of when it comes to the Slavic language family. Russian is
spoken by 145 million people in Russia and a total of nearly 268 million people worldwide. This makes
Russian top of the list as the most spoken language in Europe. Czech and Polish are often considered the
most difficult Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. That's mainly due to their complex
grammatical structure and difficult pronunciation. The Balto-Slavic languages are mainly spoken in areas
of eastern, northern and southern parts of Europe. There are only two Baltic languages spoken today:
Lithuanian and Latvian.