# East Slavic languages

The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Siberia and the Russian Far East. In part due to the large historical influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian language is also spoken as a lingua franca in many regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Of the three Slavic branches, East Slavic is the most spoken, with the number of native speakers larger than the Western and Southern branches combined.
The common consensus is that Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian are the extant East Slavic languages. Some linguists also consider Rusyn a separate language, although it is sometimes considered a dialect of Ukrainian.
The modern East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor spoken in Kievan Rus' from the 9th to 13th centuries, which later evolved into Ruthenian, the chancery language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Dnieper river valley, and into medieval Russian in the Volga river valley, the language of the Russian principalities including the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
All these languages use the Cyrillic script, but with particular modifications. Belarusian and Ukrainian, which are descendants of Ruthenian, have a tradition of using Latin-based alphabets—the Belarusian Lacinka and the Ukrainian Latynka alphabets, respectively (also Rusyn uses Latin in some regions, e.g. in Slovakia).

## Classification

Modern East Slavic languages include Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian. The Rusyn language is sometimes considered the fourth living language of the group, its status as an independent language being the subject of scientific debate.

## Distinctive features
### Vocabulary

The East Slavic territory exhibits a linguistic continuum with many transitional dialects. Between Belarusian and Ukrainian there is the Polesian dialect, which shares features from both languages. East Polesian is a transitional variety between Belarusian and Ukrainian on one hand, and between South Russian and Ukrainian on the other hand. At the same time, Belarusian and Southern Russian form a continuous area, making it virtually impossible to draw a line between the two languages. Central or Middle Russian (with its Moscow sub-dialect), the transitional step between the North and the South, became a base for the Russian literary standard. Northern Russian with its predecessor, the Old Novgorod dialect, has many original and archaic features.
Ruthenian, the ancestor of modern Belarusian and Ukrainian, was the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as "Chancery Slavonic" until the end of the 17th century when it was gradually replaced by the Polish language. It was also the native language of the Cossack Hetmanate until the end of the 18th century, when the Ukrainian state completely became part of the Russian Empire in 1764. The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk from 1710 is one of the most important written sources of the Ruthenian language. Due to the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth over many centuries, Belarusian and Ukrainian have been influenced in several respects by Polish, a Lechitic West Slavic language. As a result of the long Polish-Lithuanian rule, these languages had been less exposed to Church Slavonic, featuring therefore less Church Slavonicisms than the modern Russian language, for example:
Comparison of the word "sweet" :
| Ukrainian | Belarusian | Russian |
| солодкий (solodkyj) | салодкі (salodki) | сладкий (sladkij) |
Additionally, the original East Slavic phonetic form was kept in many words in Ukrainian and Belarusian, for example:
Comparison of the word "unit" :
| Ukrainian | Belarusian | Russian |
| одиниця (odynycia) | адзінка (adzinka) | eдиница (yedinica) |
In general, Ukrainian and Belarusian are also closer to other Western European languages, especially to German (via Polish). At the same time Russian was being heavily influenced by Church Slavonic (South Slavic language), but also by the Turkic and Uralic languages. For example:
Comparison of the word "to search" :
| Ukrainian | Belarusian | Russian |
| шукати (šukaty) | шукаць (šukać) | искать (iskat́) |
| Compare Polish "szukać" and Old Low German "sōkian" (German "suchen") | Compare Polish "szukać" and Old Low German "sōkian" (German "suchen") | Compare Bulgarian "искам" (iskam) (with a meaning shift: "to want") and Serbo-Croatian "искати" (iskati) |
What's more, all three languages do also have false friends, that sometimes can lead to (big) misunderstandings. For example, Ukrainian орати (oraty) — "to plow" and Russian орать (orat́) — "to scream", or Ukrainian помітити (pomityty) — "to notice" and Russian пометить (pometit́) — "to mark".

### Orthography
#### Alphabet

The alphabets of the East Slavic languages are all written in the Cyrillic script, however each of them has their own letters and pronunciations. Russian and Ukrainian have 33 letters, while Belarusian has 32. Additionally, Belarusian and Ukrainian use the apostrophe (') for the hard sign, which has the same function as the letter Ъ in Russian.
Cyrillic alphabets comparison table :
| East Slavic languages |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russian | А | Б | В | Г | | Д | Е | | Ё | Ж | З | И | | | Й | К | Л | М | Н | О | П | Р | С | Т | У | | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | Щ | Ъ | Ы | Ь | Э | Ю | Я |
| Belarusian | А | Б | В | Г | | Д | Е | | Ё | Ж | З | | І | | Й | К | Л | М | Н | О | П | Р | С | Т | У | Ў | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | | ' | Ы | Ь | Э | Ю | Я |
| Ukrainian | А | Б | В | Г | Ґ | Д | Е | Є | | Ж | З | И | І | Ї | Й | К | Л | М | Н | О | П | Р | С | Т | У | | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | Щ | ' | | Ь | | Ю | Я |
Some letters, that are not included in the alphabet of a language, can be written as digraphs. For example, the sound values of the letter Ё, which doesn't exist in the Ukrainian alphabet, can be written as ЙО (ЬО before and after consonants), while the letter Щ in Russian and Ukrainian corresponds to ШЧ in Belarusian (compare Belarusian плошча and Ukrainian площа ("area")).
There are also different rules of usage for certain letters, e.g. the soft sign (Ь) cannot be written after the letter Ц in Russian, because the consonant /tsʲ/ does not exist in the Russian language, while in Ukrainian and especially Belarusian, on the contrary, it is relatively common (Ukrainian ць etymologically corresponds to Russian and Belarusian ц; Belarusian ць etymologically corresponds to Russian and Ukrainian ть). Moreover, the letter Щ in standard Russian is always pronounced softly (palatalization).
Standard Ukrainian, unlike all the other Slavic languages (excl. Serbo-Croatian), does not exhibit final devoicing. Nevertheless, this rule is not that clear when listening to colloquial Ukrainian. It's one of the typical deviations that occur in the Ukrainian spoken language.

#### Different sound values of letters

Besides the differences of the alphabets, some letters represent different sounds depending on the language. For example, the letter И (romanized as I for Russian and Y for Ukrainian) in Russian is mostly pronounced as /i/ (identical with the Ukrainian І), while in Ukrainian it's mostly pronounced as /ɪ/ (very similar to the Russian Ы). Other examples:
"False friends" :
| Letter | Letter | Pronunciation |
| Belarusian and Russian Е | Ukrainian Є | /je/, /ʲe/ |
| Belarusian and Russian Э | Ukrainian Е | /e/ |
| Belarusian and Russian Ы | Ukrainian И | /ɨ/ (B. and R.), /ɪ/ (U.) |
| Belarusian and Ukrainian І | Russian И | /i/, /ʲi/ |
| Belarusian and Ukrainian Г | no sound in Russian | /ɣ/, /ɦ/ |
| Russian Г | Ukrainian Ґ | /ɡ/ |

### Phonology

| Isoglosses | Northern Russian | Standard Russian (Moscow dialect) | Southern Russian | Standard Belarusian | Standard Ukrainian | Examples |
| reduction of unstressed /o/ (akanye) | no | yes | yes | yes | no | R. голова́ /ɡɐlɐˈva/, B. галава́ /ɣalaˈva/, U. голова́ /ɦɔlɔˈʋa/ "head" |
| pretonic /ʲe/ (yakanye) | /ʲe/ | /ʲi/ | /ʲa/ | /ʲa/ | /e/ | R. земля́ /zʲiˈmlʲa/, B. зямля́ /zʲaˈmlʲa/, U. земля́ /zeˈmlʲa/ "earth" |
| Proto-Slavic *i | /i/ | /i/ | /i/ | /i/ | /ɪ/ | R. лист /ˈlʲist/, B. ліст /ˈlʲist/, U. лист /ˈlɪst/ "leaf" |
| Proto-Slavic *y | /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ | /ɪ/ | R./B. ты /ˈtɨ/, U. ти /ˈtɪ/ "thou, you" |
| stressed CoC | /o/ | /o/ | /o/ | /o/ | /i/ | R. ночь /ˈnot͡ɕ/, B. ноч /ˈnot͡ʂ/, U. ніч /ˈnʲit͡ʃ/ "night" |
| Proto-Slavic *ě | /e̝~i̯ɛ~i/ | /e/ | /e/ | /e/ | /i/ | R. се́мя /ˈsʲemʲa/, B. се́мя /ˈsʲemʲa/, U. сі́м'я /ˈsʲimja/ "seed" |
| /e/>/o/ change before nonpalatalized consonants | always | under stress | under stress | under stress | after /j/, /nʲ/, /lʲ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/ | R. зелёный /zʲiˈlʲonɨj/, B. зялёны /zʲaˈlʲonɨ/, U. зеле́ний /zeˈlenɪj/ "green" |
| Proto-Slavic *c | /t͡s/ | /t͡s/ | /t͡s/ | /t͡s/ | /t͡s, t͡sʲ/ | R. волчица (volčica) B. ваўчыца (vaŭčyca) U. вовчиця (vovčyc’a) ”female wolf” |
| Proto-Slavic *č | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡ʂ/ | /t͡ʃ/ | R. час /ˈt͡ɕas/ "hour", B. час /ˈt͡ʂas/, U. час /ˈt͡ʃas/ "time" |
| Proto-Slavic *skj, zgj | /ɕː/, /ʑː/ | /ɕː/, /ʑː/ | /ɕː/, /ʑː/ | /ʂt͡ʂ/, /ʐd͡ʐ/ | /ʃt͡ʃ/, /ʒd͡ʒ/ | R. ещё /jeˈɕːo/ B. яшчэ /jaˈʂt͡ʂe/ U. ще /ʃt͡ʃe/ “yet” |
| soft dental stops | /tʲ/, /dʲ/ | /tʲ/, /dʲ/ | /tʲ/, /dʲ/ | /t͡sʲ/, /d͡zʲ/ | /tʲ/, /dʲ/ | R. де́сять /ˈdʲesʲitʲ/, B. дзе́сяць /ˈd͡zʲesʲat͡sʲ/, U. де́сять /ˈdesʲatʲ/ "ten" |
| Proto-Slavic *v | /v, f/ | /v, f/ | /w/ | /v/ [v, w] | /ʋ/ [β, w] /u̯/ (at the end of a closed syllable) | R. о́стров /ˈostraf/, B. во́страў /ˈvostrau̯/, U. о́стрів /ˈostriu̯/ "island" |
| /f/ (in loanwords) | /f/ | /f/ | /x~xv~xw~xu̯/ | /f/ | /f/ | |
| Prothetic /v~w~u̯/ | no | no | yes | yes | yes | R. о́стров /ˈostraf/, B. во́страў /ˈvostrau̯/, U. о́стрів /ˈostriu̯/ "island" |
| Proto-Slavic *g | /ɡ/ | /ɡ/ | /ɣ/ | /ɣ/ | /ɦ/ | R. голова́ /ɡɐlɐˈva/, B. галава́ /ɣalaˈva/, U. голова́ /ɦɔlɔˈʋa/ "head" |
| Hardening of final soft labials | no | no | yes | yes | yes | R. степь /sʲtʲepʲ/, B. стэп /stɛp/, U. степ /stɛp/ "steppe" |
| Hardening of soft /rʲ/ | no | no | no | yes | hardened at the end of a closed syllable and not hardened elsewere | R. матерь (máter’) B. Вікторыя (Viktoryja) U. кобзар (kobzár (nominative case) кобзаря (kobzar’á (genetive case) |
| Proto-Slavic *CrьC, ClьC, CrъC, CrъC | /rʲe/, /lʲe/, /ro/, /lo/ | /rʲe/, /lʲe/, /ro/, /lo/ | /rʲe/, /lʲe/, /ro/, /lo/ | /rɨ/, /ro/, /lʲi/, /lɨ/ | /rɪ/, /lɪ/, /ro/, /lo/ | Protoslavic. ‘*kry (singular accusative case. krьvь); R. кровь (krov’), кровавый (krovávyj) B. кроў (kroŭ), крывавы (kryvávy) U. кров (krov), кривавий (kryvávyj) ”blood, bloody” |
| Proto-Slavic *-ъj-, -ьj- | /oj/, /ej/ | /oj/, /ej/ | /oj/, /ej/ | /ɨj/, /ij/ | /ɪj/ | |
| Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ьjь | /ej/ | /ij/, /ej/ | /ej/ | /ij/ | /ɪj/, /ij/ | |
| Proto-Slavic adj. end. *-ъjь | /oj/ | /ɨj/, /oj/ | /oj/ | /ɨj/ | /ɪj/ | |
| Loss of the vocative case | no | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| 3 sg. & pl. pres. ind. | /t/ | /t/ | /tʲ/ | /t͡sʲ/ | /tʲ/ | R. ду́мают /ˈdumajut/, B. ду́маюць /ˈdumajut͡sʲ/, Uk. ду́мають /ˈdumajutʲ/ "(they) think" |
| Dropping out of 3 sg. pres. ind. ending (in e-stems) | no | no | yes | yes | yes | R. скажет (skážet) B. скажа (skáža) U. скаже (skáže) ”(he/she) will say” |
| 3 sg. masc. past ind. | /v~w~u̯/ | /l/ | /l/ | /u̯/ | /u̯/ | R. ду́мал /ˈdumal/, B. ду́маў /ˈdumau̯/, U. ду́мав /ˈdumau̯/ "(he) thought" |
| 2nd palatalization in oblique cases | no | no | no | yes | yes | R. руке́ /ruˈkʲe/, B. руцэ́ /ruˈt͡se/, U. руці́ /ruˈt͡sʲi/ "hand" (locative or prepositional case) |