2005 (UTC)

This periodization of Proto-Slavic (PS) is not generally accepted. However, most scholars agree that the PS period lasted for 2,000 years or so. It is impossible that the language would not have been changing for so long. That is why reconstructed forms labelled "Proto-Slavic" are very various indeed (*supnas, *supnu, *sunu and *sъnъ ('a dream' or 'sleeping') can all be termed Proto-Slavic). There is not even the agreement when the period ended. Some give even 600 AD as the final date (after which individual languages existed), others say that OCS (ca. 850 AD) was still a literary form of the latest Proto-Slavic (of course, with strong dialectal, local features). And there do not seem to be any real basics for any periodization of PS. Specialists argue even on relative chronology of some language phenomena (inc. phonetic changes, for example some would see the sequence -as > -us > -uš > -u > -ъ, i.e. first changing and losing of -s, next vowel reduction, while others would assume -as > -us > -ъs > -ъ, i.e. first vowel reduction, then loss of final consonants). And to say nothing of the absolute chronology!

The situation is even more complicated when we took into consideration that most of the literature on the subject is not English and the authors use terms which are not strict renderings for English Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic. In fact, in Slavic languages there exists the term praslavyanski (or silmilar) where pra- means the same as great in great grandfather (= praded or similar). This term should be translated as Old Slavic then. Besides, the term protoslavyanski (=Proto-Slavic) refers - at least in some sources - to the early period of the Slavic language commonwealth (less or more, equal to Schenker's EPS). and finally, the (Russian) term obshcheslavyanski ('Common Slavic', Polish ogólnosłowiański with the same meaning) refers to features which are present in each modern Slavic language rather than to their common ancestor.

Anyway, I see no reasons for keeping two different articles, one on Proto-Slavic, the other for Common-Slavic, whatever these terms mean.

 12:18, 13 August