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Proto-Slavic language
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A family tree diagram showing the evolution of Slavic languages from Common Slavic, branching into West, South, and East Slavic groups, with further divisions into specific languages such as Polish, Czech, Russian, and Bulgarian.
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Proto-Slavic language

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A family tree diagram showing the evolution of Slavic languages from Common Slavic, branching into West, South, and East Slavic groups, with further divisions into specific languages such as Polish, Czech, Russian, and Bulgarian.
Slavic languages' family tree Slavic languages' family tree.

Proto-Slavic is the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor language of all known Slavic languages. It is believed to have developed from dialects of Proto-Indo-European around the 2nd millennium BCE. The exact geographic location of Proto-Slavic is debated, but it is thought to have been in eastern Europe, possibly in the area of modern-day Poland or Ukraine.123

Key characteristics of Proto-Slavic include:
* Open Syllables: All syllables ended in a vowel, leading to the loss of final consonants.3
* Inflection: Grammatical meaning was primarily expressed through endings, prefixes, and vowel alternations.4
* Verb Aspect: A prominent feature was the overt marking of verb aspect, indicating the duration or completion of an action.4
* Vocabulary: It retained original vocabulary common to Baltic languages and borrowed terms from Iranian languages.25

Proto-Slavic was spoken until the middle of the 1st millennium CE, after which it began to differentiate into the various East, West, and South Slavic languages.3

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6 Britannica Sources
  1. Slavic languages
  2. Baltic languages - Relationship between Baltic and Slavic
  3. Slavic languages - Hypothetical origins
  4. Slavic languages - Common features
  5. Slavic languages - Syntax
  6. Slavic languages - Vocabulary

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