Balto-Slavic languages - Definition and Overview

The Balto-Slavic languages are an Indo-European language family, consisting of the (possibly genetically related) Baltic languages and Slavic languages. Linguists are divided as to whether a Balto-Slavic language family exists, and this is a linguistic problem that remains unsolved to this day. Linguistic scholars performing primary investigations into the structure of language are split as to the existance of Balto-Slavic. By contrast, most secondary sources (encyclopedias and introductory linguistic textbooks) almost universally affirm Balto-Slavic.

The difficulties associated with the Balto-Slavic Theory include the fact that

• Baltic and Slavic speakers are in close geographical, political and cultural contact, which naturally leads to lexical similarities; that is, the one borrowed words and meanings from the other. Many of the earlier (19th century) scholars used lexical similarities to assign languages to language groups. Modern scholars understand that this is a very poor way to deduce genetic relationships. For example, the majority of English words are Latin-Romance in origin, yet the structural origins of English are fundamentally Germanic.
• Baltic and Slavic languages were not written down until 15th and 9th centuries A.D. thus, there is no historical record to trace the development of the languages.
• There is no commonly accepted criteria in comparative linguistics by which linguistic affinity and genetic origins can be deduced.

Aspects of the debate include:

• Both the Baltic and the Slavic languages are very archaic, and are believed to be more similar to the proto-Indo-European than any other living languages. Baltic and Slavic languages belong to the Satem sub-group of the Indo-European languages.
• Baltic shares some language features with Germanic languages, however Germanic languages belong to the Centum sub-group of Indo-European languages. This difference between Baltic and Germanic languages reflects a deep structural gap that exists between them. Baltic as well as the Slavic languages also show close affinities to Greek, and to Sanskrit.

Some belive recent linguistic results to show that the Balto-Slavic group shows specific and very strong affinities with the Burushaski language spoken in the Karakorum region.

References

• Petras Klimas Baltic and Slavic Revisited (http://www.lituanus.org/1973/73_1_02.htm) Lituanus, (1973) provides a review of the points of debate, and a listing of the scholars and their positions.
• Harvey E. Mayer Was Slavic a Prussian Dialect? (http://www.lituanus.org/1987/87_2_01.htm) Lituanus, (1987) answers the question in the negative.
• Harvey E. Mayer Tokharian and Baltic versus Slavic and Albanian (http://www.lituanus.org/1991_1/91_1_03.htm) Lituanus, (1991)
• Harvey E. Mayer Dacian and Thracian as Southern Baltoidic (http://www.lituanus.org/1992_2/92_2_02.htm) Lituanus, (1992)
• Joseph Pashka, Proto-Baltic (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/6623/proto.htm) (1994) and Proto-Indo-European (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/6623/pie.htm) (1994)
• Lituanus Linguistics Index (http://www.lituanus.org/IndexLanguage.htm) (1954-2004)

External Links

• The University of Texas at Austin The Indo-European Language Family (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/lrc/iedocctr/ie-lg/ie-lg.html)
• Balto-Slavic within the Indo-European language group (http://jilaniwarsi.tripod.com/geno.pdf#search='BaltoSlavic%2Cgroup%2Clanguages')
• Balto-Slavic language group (http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/B/Balto-Slavic-languages.htm)