The
Slavic languages (also called
Slavonic languages), a group of closely related
languages of the
Slavic peoples and a subgroup of
Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of
Eastern Europe, in much of the
Balkans, in parts of
Central Europe, and in the northern part of
Asia.
Scholars traditionally divide Slavic languages on the basis of geographical distribution into three main branches, some of which feature sub-branches
Some linguists speculate that a North Slavic branch has existed as well. The Old Novgorod dialect may have reflected some idiosyncrasies of this group. On the other hand, the term "North Slavic" is also used sometimes to combine the West and East Slavic languages into one group, in opposition to the South Slavic languages, due to traits the West and East Slavic branches share with each other that they do not with the South Slavic languages.
The most obvious differences between the West and East Slavic branches are in orthography of standard languages; West Slavic languages are written in the Latin alphabet, and have had more Western European influence due to their speakers being historically Roman Catholic, whereas the East Slavic languages are written in the Cyrillic alphabet and with Eastern Orthodox or Uniate faithful, have had more Greek influence.
