The triple division of the Slavic languages
by anthro.atlas
The Slavic languages, one of the major subfamilies of the Indo-European languages, are usually divided into three branches: East (e.g., Russian and Belarussian), South (e.g., Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian), and West (e.g., Polish and Slovak). Some scholars contend, however, that this division is mostly based on extralinguistic factors, such as the speakers’ divergent ideological and religious views. For instance, some argue that some languages and dialects are misclassified due to political factors (e.g., Rusyn and Silesian) and that there are only two main branches, the South and the North (which includes the East and West Slavic languages). Sources: Ethnologue (2023) & Tomasz Kamusella’s paper, “The Triple Division of the Slavic Languages” (2005)