Some linguists include Upper and Lower Sorbian in the Lechitic branch, but other linguists regard it as a separate branch.[5] The reason for this is that 'the Sorbian dialects are extremely diverse, and there are virtually no linguistic features common to all Sorbian dialects which distinguish them as a group from the other Slavic languages' (Sussex & Cubberley 2006).[5] Czech and Slovak are more closely related to each other than to the other West Slavic languages, and also closer to each other than Polish and Sorbian are.[5] Czecho-Slovak (Slovak in particular) shares certain features with other Slavic languages, such asSlovene andBCMS.[5]
Some distinctive features of the West Slavic languages, as from when they split from theEast Slavic andSouth Slavic branches around the 3rd to 6th centuries AD (alternatively, between the 6th and 10th centuries[6]), are as follows:[7]
Development ofProto-Slavic*tj,*dj into palatalizedts,(d)z, as in modern Polish/Czech/Slovaknoc ("night"; compare Russianночь (noch));
Retention of the groupskv,gv as in Polishkwiat ("flower");gwiazda ("star") (Compare Russianцвет (cvet);звезда (zvezda));
Retention oftl,dl, as in Polish/Slovak/Czechradło/radlo/rádlo ("ard"; compare Russianрало);
Palatizedx developed intoš, as in Polishmusze (locative case ofmucha, "fly");
The groupspj,bj,mj,vj developed into (soft) consonant forms without theepenthesis ofl, as in Polishkupię ("I shall buy"; compare Russianкуплю);
A tendency towardsfixed stress (on the first syllable in Czech and Slovak and on the penultimate syllable in Polish);
Use of the endings-ego or-ého for the genitive singular of the adjectival declension;
Extension of the accusative form*tъnъ to nominative in place of*tъ, leading to Slovak/Polish/Czechten ("this" (masc.); compare Russianтот;Old Church Slavonicтъ);
Extension of the genitive form*čьso to nominative and accusative in place ofčь(to), leading to Polish/Czechco ("what", compare Russianчто; OCSчьто, genitive чьсо).
Although influences from other language families have contributed a large number ofloanwords, and to a lesser extent to verbmorphology and syntax, the Slavic languages retained a distinctly Slavic character, with clear roots in Indo-European.[6]
The West Slavic languages are all written in theLatin script, while the East Slavic branch uses Cyrillic[8] and the South Slavic branch is mixed.[6][9][10]
The Bohemians established theDuchy of Bohemia in the 9th century, which was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in the early 11th century. At the end of the 12th century the duchy was raised to the status ofkingdom, which was legally recognized in 1212 in theGolden Bull of Sicily.Lusatia, the homeland of the remaining Sorbs, became acrown land of Bohemia in the 11th century, and Silesia followed suit in 1335. TheSlovaks, on the other hand, never became part of the Holy Roman Empire, being incorporated into theKingdom of Hungary. Hungary fell underHabsburg rule alongside Austria and Bohemia in the 16th century, thus uniting the Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, and Silesians under a single ruler. While Lusatia was lost toSaxony in 1635 and most of Silesia was lost toPrussia in 1740, the remaining West Slavic Habsburg dominions remained part of theAustrian Empire and thenAustria-Hungary, and after that remained united until 1992 in the form ofCzechoslovakia.[citation needed]
