I was talking with a friend the other day. He claimed that Russian is a dialect of Polish. And that Czech is a dialect of Russian. I was at a loss. As a admirer of the Slavic languages, I did not think that those three languages were so close that they could be considered dialects of the same language. Could someone give me a quick rundown of the history of the Slavic languages, and explain whether or not Russian is indeed a dialect of Polish?
You're going to force a sockpuppet of the ghost of Draqon to come visit this forum just by creating such a topic. Be afraid. Be very afraid. ~String
Linguists divide the Slavic languages into three groups. East Slavic: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus West Slavic: Czech, Slovak, Polish, Sorbian, Pomeranian, Silesian South Slavic: Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian. Old Church Slavonic was a member of this group, as is modern Church Slavonic, a liturgical language. Within the groups, some of the relationships are close enough to muddle the distinction between dialects (mutually comprehensible with a little effort) and languages (not). The designation of Czech and Slovak as languages rather than dialects is more of a political issue than a linguistic one; the same is true of Russian and Belarus. Some say the same about Ukrainian, but not the Ukrainians. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! My mother spoke Czech (we called it Bohemian in those days) and she said it wasn't too hard for Czechs and Poles to understand each other if they spent a lot of time together. But Russian? No. Of course Russian and Polish are more closely related than, say, English and German or French and Italian, so a Russian and a Pole can work out a pidgin and communicate at a very basic level. But they're not truly "mutually comprehensible," at a functional adult level, without a lot of study. If you're looking for a reference standard for the distinction between dialects and languages, consider the English of rural Scotland versus the English of rural Alabama. Those are about as far apart as two variants of speech can get, and still be "mutually comprehensible with a little effort." The gap between Czech and Russian is way beyond that.
A plus to Fraggle Rocker. As a Russian speaker I claim my native language is not mutually comprehensible with either Polish or Czech, except for specific word roots, which can be rather understood when reading than in a fluent conversation. However, my other native language, Ukrainian, is much closer to both Polish and Czech, that's why it helps me understand Poles and Czechs pretty well. And my Russian-only speaking wife can hardly understand Ukrainian.
