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{{short description|Subgroup of Slavic peoples who speak the South Slavic languages}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox ethnic group {{Infobox ethnic group
| group = South Slavs
|group = South Slavs<br><small>Južni Slaveni (])<br />Јужни Словени (]/])<br>Južni Slovani (])<br>Южни славяни (])</small>
| native_name = <br />Јужни Славени/Južni Slaveni (])<br />Южни славяни (])<br />Južni Slaveni (])<br />Јужни Словени (])<br />Južni Sloveni/Јужни Словени (])<br />{{lang|sr-Cyrl|i=unset|Јужни Словени}}/{{lang|sr-Latn|i=unset|Južni Sloveni}} (])<br />Južni Slovani (])
|image = ]
| image = ]
|caption =
{{leftlegend|#008080|South Slavic countries|outline=grey}}{{leftlegend|#808080|Other ] countries|outline=grey}} | caption = {{leftlegend|#008080|Countries where a ] is the national language|outline=grey}}{{leftlegend|#808080|Countries where ] and ] are the national language|outline=grey}}
| pop = {{circa}} 30 million
|pop =
| regions = ], ], ], ], ], ], ]
|regions =
| langs = ]:<br/>]<br/>]<br/>]:<br/>]<br>{{small|(], ], ], ])}}<br/>]
Majority: ], ], ], ], ], ], ].
| rels = ] ]:<br/>(], ], ] and ]){{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}<br/><br/>] ]:<br/>(], ], ], ] and ]){{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}<br/><br/>] ]:<br/> (], ], ], ] and ]){{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
Minority: ], ], ] <small>(])</small>, ], ], ], ], ].
| related = Other ]
|langs=
East South Slavic languages:<small><br>], ]</small>
West South Slavic languages:<small><br>], ]</small>
|rels= ], ], ]
|related = Other ] (particularly ])
}} }}
'''South Slavs''' are ] who speak ] and inhabit a contiguous region of ] comprising the eastern ] and the ]. Geographically separated from the ] and ] by ], ], ], and the ], the South Slavs today include ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].
The '''South Slavs''' are a subgroup of ] who speak the ].


In the 20th century, the country of ] (from ], literally meaning "South Slavia" or "South Slavdom") united a majority of the South Slavic peoples and lands—with the exception of Bulgarians and Bulgaria—into a single state. The ] concept of ''Yugoslavia'' emerged in late 17th-century Croatia, at the time part of the ], and gained prominence through the 19th-century ]. The ], renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, was proclaimed on 1 December 1918, following the unification of the ] with the kingdoms of ] and ]. With the ] in the early 1990s, several independent sovereign states were formed.
They inhabit a contiguous region in the ], southern ] and eastern ], and are geographically separated from the body of ] and ] people by the ], ], and ]. The South Slavs include the ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. They are the main population of the ] and ]an countries of ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. Their territories are separated from the rest of the Slavic nations since the 15th century{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} by the modern non-Slavic states of ], ], ] and ], leading to a differing historical progression for the South Slav nations in relation to the ] and ].


The term "]" was and sometimes is still used as a synonym for "South Slavs", but it usually excludes Bulgarians since Bulgaria never formed part of the former Yugoslavia.
In the 20th century the country of ] (lit. "South Slavia") merged the vast region to which most South Slavic nations are autochthonous (with the key exception of ] and the Bulgarians) into a single state. The concept of ''Yugoslavia'', as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the ] of the 19th century. The name was coined{{by whom|date=April 2015}} as a combination of the Slavic words ''jug'' (south) and ''sloveni'' (Slavs).


==History== ==Terminology==
The South Slavs are known in Serbian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin as ''Južni Sloveni'' ({{cyrl|Јужни Словени}}); in Bulgarian as ''Yuzhni Slavyani'' ({{cyrl|Южни славяни}}); in Croatian and Bosnian as ''Južni Slaveni''; and in Slovene as ''Južni Slovani''. The Slavic root '']'' means 'south'. The ] itself was used by 6th-century writers to describe the southern group of Early Slavs (the '']''); West Slavs were called '']'' and East Slavs '']''.{{sfn|Kmietowicz|1976}} The South Slavs are also called ''Balkan Slavs''.<ref>{{harvnb|Kmietowicz|1976}}, {{harvnb|Vlasto|1970}}</ref>


Another name popular in the early modern period was ''Illyrians'', using the name of a pre-Slavic Balkan people, a name first adopted by Dalmatian intellectuals in the late 15th century to refer to South Slavic lands and population.{{sfn|URI|2000|p=104}} It was then used by the ] and ], and notably adopted by the 19th-century Croatian ].{{sfn|Hupchick|2004|p=199}} Eventually, the idea of ] appeared, aimed at uniting all South Slav-populated territories into a common state. From this idea emerged ]—which, however, did not include ].{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
===Early accounts===
{{main|Early Slavs}}
Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century. Their history prior to this can only be tentatively hypothesized via ] archeological and linguistic studies. Much of what we know about their history after the 6th century is from the works of ] historians. In his work ''De Bellis'', ] portrays the Sclavini (supposed to be Slavs) as unusually tall and strong, with a tan complexion and reddish-blonde hair, living a rugged and primitive life. They lived in huts, often distant from one another and often changed their place of abode. They were not ruled by a single leader, but for a long time lived in a "democracy". ], in his ''Ecclesiastical History'' portrays the Slavs as extremely violent people.<ref>John of Ephesus, ''Ecclesiastical History'', VI. 25, 6th century AD: "That same year, being the third after the death of king Justin, was famous also for the invasion of an accursed people, called Slavonians, who overran the whole of Greece, and the country of the Thessalonians, and all Thrace, and captured the cities, and took numerous forts, and devastated and burnt, and reduced the people to slavery, and made themselves masters of the whole country, and settled in it by main force, and dwelt in it as though it had been their own without fear. And four years have now elapsed, and still, because the king is engaged in the war with the Persians, and has sent all his forces to the East, they live at their ease in the land, and dwell in it, and spread themselves far and wide as far as God permits them, and ravage and burn and take captive. And to such an extent do they carry their ravages, that they have even ridden up to the outer wall of the city, and driven away all the king's herds of horses, many thousands in number, and whatever else they could find. And even to this day, being the year 895 (AD 584), they still encamp and dwell there, and live in peace in the Roman territories, free from anxiety and fear, and lead captive and slay and burn..."</ref> They probably believed in many Gods, but Procopius suggests they believed ] god. He has often been identified as ], the creator of lightning. The Slavs went into battle on foot, charging straight at their enemy, armed with spears and small shields, but they did not wear armour.


==History==
This information is supplanted by Pseudo-Maurice's work '']'', describing the Slavs as a numerous but disorganised and leaderless people, resistant to hardship and not allowing themselves to be enslaved or conquered. The lack of understanding may be attributed to ] practiced among Southern Slavs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aron |first=Albert J. |title=iTraces of Matriarchy in Germanic Hero-lore | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=A4wOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=Slavic+matriarchy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gfVdUc26MpHW9QS82oGACg&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Slavic%20matriarchy&f=false |pages=13–14}}</ref><ref name="From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World">{{Cite book |year=2002 |last=French |first=Marilyn |title=From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Hyr9pwbqeqoC&pg=PA55&dq=Slavic+matrilinear&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iftdUb2HOoq-8AToy4G4BA&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Slavic%20matrilinear&f=false |publisher=McArthur}}</ref>
{{main|Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe}}
]


===Early South Slavs===
They made their homes in forests, by rivers and wetlands.<ref>Fouracre, Paul. ''The Cambridge Medieval History'', Volume I.</ref> ] states that the Slavs "have their homelands on the ], not far from the northern bank." Subsequent information about early Slavic states and the Slavs' interaction with the Greeks comes from '']'' by Emperor ], the compilations of '']'', ''History'' by ] and the '']''.
{{main|Early Slavs|Sclaveni|Antes (people)}}


The Proto-Slavic ] is the postulated area of Slavic settlement in ] and ] during the first millennium AD, with its precise location debated by archaeologists, ethnographers and historians.<ref>{{harvnb|Kobyliński|2005|pp=525–526}}, {{harvnb|Barford|2001|p=37}}</ref> None of the proposed homelands reaches the ] in the east, over the ] in the southwest or the ] in the south, or past ] in the west.<ref>{{harvnb|Kobyliński|2005|p=526}}, {{harvnb|Barford|2001|p=332}}</ref> Traditionally, scholars place it in the marshes of Ukraine, or alternatively between the ] and the ];{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=25}} however, according to F. Curta, the homeland of the southern Slavs mentioned by 6th-century writers was just north of the ].{{sfn|Curta|2006|p=56}} Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century, when they began to spread out in all directions.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
===Migrations and postulated homeland===
{{further|Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps}}


] ({{floruit | 6th century CE}}), ] ({{circa | 500}} - {{circa | 565}}) and other ] authors provide the probable earliest references to southern Slavs in the second half of the 6th century.{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=71–73}} Procopius described the ] and ] as two barbarian peoples with the same institutions and customs since ancient times, not ruled by a single ] but living under democracy,<ref>{{harvnb|James|2014|p=95}}, {{harvnb|Kobyliński|1995|p=524}}</ref> while Pseudo-Maurice called them a numerous people, undisciplined, unorganized and leaderless, who did not allow enslavement and conquest, and resistant to hardship, bearing all weathers.{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|pp=524–525}} They were portrayed by Procopius as unusually tall and strong, of dark skin and "reddish" hair (neither ] nor ]), leading a primitive life and living in scattered huts, often changing their residence.{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|p=524}} Procopius said they were ], believing in the god of lightning (]), the ruler of all, to whom they sacrificed cattle.{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|p=524}} They went into battle on foot, charging straight at their enemy, armed with spears and small shields, but they did not wear armour.{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|p=524}}
Scholars have traditionally placed the Slavic '']'' in the ] of ], or alternatively between the ] and the ].<ref name="Fine83-25">Fine (1983), p. 25</ref> In the 5th century Slavs are mentioned as living north of the Danube in the written sources from that era.<ref name="Fine83-25"/> From the 5th century, they supposedly spread outward in all directions. The Balkans was one of the regions which lay in the path of the expanding Slavs.


While archaeological evidence for a large-scale migration is lacking, most present-day historians claim that Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=26–41}} According to this dominant narrative, up until the late 560s their main activity southward across the Danube was raiding, though with limited Slavic settlement mainly through Byzantine colonies of '']''.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=29}} The ] and ] frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=33}} What is today ] was an important geo-strategical Byzantine province, through which the '']'' crossed.{{sfn|Živković|2002|p=187}} This area was frequently intruded upon by ] in the 5th and 6th centuries.{{sfn|Živković|2002|p=187}} From the Danube, the Slavs commenced raiding the Byzantine Empire on an annual basis from the 520s, spreading destruction, taking loot and herds of cattle, seizing prisoners and capturing fortresses. Often, the Byzantine Empire was stretched, defending its rich Asian provinces from Arabs, Persians and others. This meant that even numerically small, disorganised early Slavic raids were capable of causing much disruption, but could not capture the larger, fortified cities.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=29}} The first Slavic raid south of the Danube was recorded by Procopius, who mentions an attack of the Antes, "who dwell close to the Sclaveni", probably in 518.<ref>{{harvnb|James|2014|p=95}}, {{harvnb|Curta|2001|p=75}}</ref> Sclaveni are first mentioned in the context of the military policy on the Danube frontier of Byzantine Emperor ] (r. 527–565).{{sfn|Curta|2001|p=76}} Throughout the 6th century, Slavs raided and plundered deep into the Balkans, from Dalmatia to Greece and Thrace, and were also at times recruited as Byzantine mercenaries, fighting the ].{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=78–86}} Justinian seems to have used the strategy of ']', and the Sclaveni and Antes are mentioned as fighting each other.{{sfn|James|2014|p=97}} The Antes are last mentioned as anti-Byzantine belligerents in 545, and the Sclaveni continued to raid the Balkans.<ref name=Byzantinoslavica-2003-78>{{cite book|title= Byzantinoslavica |volume= 61–62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twwrAQAAIAAJ |year=2003 |publisher= Academia |pages= 78–79}}</ref> In 558 the ] arrived at the Black Sea steppe, and defeated the Antes between the Dnieper and Dniester.{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|p=536}} The Avars subsequently allied themselves with the Sclaveni,{{sfn|Kobyliński|1995|p=537–539}} although there was an episode in which the Sclavene ] ({{fl. | 577–579}}), the first Slavic chieftain recorded by name, dismissed Avar suzerainty and retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs so it shall always be for us", and had the Avar envoys slain.{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=47, 91}} By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organized, and as the Avars exerted their influence, raids became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. Most scholars consider the period of 581–584 as the beginning of large-scale Slavic settlement in the Balkans.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=31}} F. Curta points out that evidence of substantial Slavic presence does not appear before the 7th century and remains qualitatively different from the "Slavic culture" found north of the ].{{sfn|Curta|2001|p=308}} In the mid-6th century, the Byzantines re-asserted their control of the Danube frontier, thereby reducing the economic value of Slavic raiding. This growing economic isolation, combined with external threats from the Avars and Byzantines, led to political and military mobilisation. Meanwhile, the itinerant form of agriculture (lacking ]) may have encouraged micro-regional mobility. Seventh-century archaeological sites show earlier hamlet-collections evolving into larger communities with differentiated zones for public feasts, craftmanship, etc.{{sfn|Curta|2007|p=61}} It has been suggested that the Sclaveni were the ancestors of the Serbo-Croatian group while the Antes were those of the ] ], with much mixture in the contact zones.{{sfn|Hupchick|2004}}{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=26}} The diminished pre-Slavic inhabitants, also including Romanized native peoples,{{Cref2|a}} fled from the barbarian invasions and sought refuge inside fortified cities and islands, whilst others fled to remote mountains and forests and adopted a ] lifestyle.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp= 37}} The Romance-speakers within the fortified ] managed to retain their culture and language for a long time.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=35}} Meanwhile, the numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp= 38, 41}}
Regarding the Slavs mentioned by 6th-century Byzantine chroniclers, Florin Curta states that their 'homeland' was north of the Danube and not in the Belorussian-Ukrainian borderlands.<ref>Curta 2006, p. 56: "The Slavic "homeland," at least for the sixth-century authors who wrote about the Slavs, was north of the Lower Danube, not in the Belorussian-Ukrainian borderlands."</ref> He clarifies that their itinerant form of agriculture (they lacked the knowledge of crop rotation) "may have encouraged mobility on a micro regional scale". Material culture from the Danube suggests that there was an evolution of Slavic society between the early 7th century and the 8th century. As the Byzantines re-asserted the Danubian defences in the mid 6th century, the Slavs' yield of pillaged goods dropped. As a reaction to this economic isolation, and external threats (e.g. from ] and ]), political and military mobilisation occurred. Archeological sites from the late 7th century show that the earlier settlements which were merely a non-specific collection of hamlets began to evolve into larger communities with differentiated areas (e.g. designated areas for public feasts as well as an 'industrial' area for craftsmanship). As community elites rose to prominence, they came to "embody a collective interest and responsibility" for the group. "If that group identity can be called ethnicity, and if that ethnicity can be called Slavic, then it certainly formed in the shadow of Justinian's forts, not in the Pripet marshes."<ref>Curta 2006, p. 61</ref>


Subsequent information about Slavs' interaction with the Greeks and early Slavic states comes from the 10th-century text {{lang|la|]}} (DAI) written by Byzantine Emperor ], from the 7th-century compilations of the '']'' (MSD) and from the ''History'' by ] ({{circa | 630}}). DAI mentions the beginnings of the Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian states from the early 7th to the mid-10th century. MSD and Theophylact Simocatta mention the Slavic tribes in Thessaly and Macedonia at the beginning of the 7th century. The 9th-century '']'' (RFA) also mention Slavic tribes in contact with the ].{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes into two groups: the ] and ].<ref name="Hupchick, Dennis P. 2004">Hupchick, Dennis P. ''The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism.'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 1-4039-6417-3</ref> They are both first encountered in the lower Danube region. Some, such as Bulgarian scholar ], suggest that the first group settled the western Balkans, becoming one of the forerunners of the linguistic group that became the Bosnians, Serbs and Croats,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.se/books?id=qJvbRP5KSq4C&pg=PA14&dq=slaveni+bosnia+betrayed&hl=sv&sa=X&ei=ODTTULfHEvDE4gSA_4HIAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=slaveni%20bosnia%20betrayed&f=false |title=Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed |author=Robert Donia, John VA Fine|year=2005 |work= |publisher= Columbia University Press |accessdate=30 October 2012}}, p. 14-16, 1995,</ref> whilst offshoots of the Antes settled the eastern regions (roughly speaking), becoming one of the ancestors of the ].<ref name="Hupchick, Dennis P. 2004"/><ref>Fine 1983, p. 26</ref> From the Danube, they commenced raiding the Byzantine Empire from the 520s, on an annual basis. They spread about destruction, taking loot and herds of cattle, seizing prisoners and taking fortresses. Often, the Byzantine Empire was stretched defending its rich Asian provinces from Arabs, Persians and Turks. This meant that even numerically small, disorganised early Slavic raids were capable of causing much disruption, but could not capture the larger, fortified cities.<ref name="Fine83-29">Fine, 1983, p. 29</ref>


===Middle Ages===
Large scale Slavic settlement in the Balkans begins in the late 570s and early 580s.<ref name="Fine83-29"/> Menander, a late 6th-century historian speaks of 100,000 Slavs pouring into ] (though likely with some exaggeration)<ref name="Fine83-31">Fine 1983, p. 31</ref> and ], taking cities and settling down. These large scale population movements are associated with the arrival to the area of the ], a nomadic Turkic group that had lost a war against other nomads further east, and settled in the Carpathian basin, subjugating the many small Slavic tribes.<ref name="Fine83-29"/> They were also facilitated by the fact that the Byzantine Empire was embroiled in a ] with ] at the time and was unable to send troops to the Balkans.<ref name="Fine83-30">Fine 1983, p. 30</ref>
{{see also|Saqaliba}}


By 700 AD, Slavs had settled in most of Central and Southeast Europe, from Austria even down to the Peloponnese of Greece, and from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, with the exception of the coastal areas and certain mountainous regions of the Greek peninsula.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=36}} The ], who arrived in Europe in the late 550s and had a great impact in the Balkans, had from their base in the Carpathian plain, west of main Slavic settlements, asserted control over Slavic tribes with whom they besieged Roman cities. Their influence in the Balkans however diminished by the early 7th century and they were finally defeated and disappeared as a power at the turn of the 9th century by ] and the ].{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=29–43}} The first South Slavic polity and regional power was ], a state formed in 681 as a union between the much numerous ] ] and the ] of ]. The scattered Slavs in Greece, the ''Sklavinia'', were Hellenized.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=41}} Romance-speakers lived within the fortified ].{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=35}} Traditional historiography, based on DAI, holds that the migration of ] and ] to the Balkans was part of a second Slavic wave, placed during Heraclius' reign.{{sfn|Curta|2001|p=66}}
By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organized, and as the Avars exerted their influence, raids became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. Most scholars consider the period of 581-584 as the beginning of large scale Slavic settlement in the Balkans.<ref name="Fine83-31"/> Around this time, the chronicle known as the ''Miracles of Saint Demetrius'' speaks of large-scale Slavic settlement in the area around Thessaloniki, although the Slavs never managed to take the city itself.<ref name="Fine83-31"/> In 591, the Byzantines ended their war with the Persians and a ] was made by the ], a skilled strategist.<ref>Fine, 1983, p. 32</ref> Although largely successful, Maurice did not manage to completely eliminate the Avars, and was eventually deposed and murdered in 602 (in part due to his refusal to ransom a large number of captives who were then slaughtered by the Avars).<ref name="Fine83-33">Fine 1983, p. 33</ref> War with the Persians soon ], and the northern border collapsed once more.<ref name="Fine83-33"/>
Inhabiting the territory between the Franks in the north and Byzantium in the south, the Slavs were exposed to competing influences.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=90}} In 863 to Christianized ] were sent two Byzantine brothers monks ], Slavs from Thessaloniki on missionary work. They created the ] and the first Slavic written language, ], which they used to translate Biblical works. At the time, the West and South Slavs still spoke a similar language. The script used, ], was capable of representing all Slavic sounds, however, it was gradually replaced in Bulgaria in the 9th century, in Russia by the 11th century{{sfn|Portal|1969|pp=90–92}} Glagolitic survived into the 16th century in Croatia, used by Benedictines and Franciscans, but lost importance during the ] when Latin replaced it on the Dalmatian coast.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=92}} Cyril and Methodius' disciples found refuge in already ], where the ] became the ecclesiastical language.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=92}} ] was developed during the 9th century AD at the ] in ].<ref>{{cite book | first=Francis | last=Dvornik |title=The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization | url=https://archive.org/details/slavstheirearlyh00dvor | url-access=limited | quote = The Psalter and the Book of Prophets were adapted or "modernized" with special regard to their use in Bulgarian churches, and it was in this school that glagolitic writing was replaced by the so-called Cyrillic writing, which was more akin to the Greek uncial, simplified matters considerably and is still used by the Orthodox Slavs. | year=1956 |place=Boston | publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/southeasterneuro0000curt |url-access=registration |quote=Cyrillic preslav. |title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250|series=Cambridge Medieval Textbooks|author= Florin Curta|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0521815390|pages= –222}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J-H9BTVHKRMC&q=+preslav+eastern&pg=PR3-IA34|chapter= The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire|title= Oxford History of the Christian Church|author= J. M. Hussey, Andrew Louth|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2010|isbn= 978-0191614880|pages= 100|access-date= 20 October 2020|archive-date= 6 October 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145150/https://books.google.com/books?id=J-H9BTVHKRMC&q=+preslav+eastern&pg=PR3-IA34#v=snippet&q=preslav%20eastern&f=false|url-status= live}}</ref> The earliest Slavic literary works were composed in ], ] and Dalmatia. The religious works were almost exclusively translations, from Latin (Croatia, Slovenia) and especially Greek (Bulgaria, Serbia).{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=92}} In the 10th and 11th centuries the ] led to the creation of various regional forms like ] and ].{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=92}} Economic, religious and political centres of ] and ] contributed to the important ] in the ].{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=93}} The ] sect, derived from Manichaeism, was deemed heretical, but managed to spread from ] to Bosnia (where it gained a foothold),{{sfn|Portal|1969|pp=93–95}} and France (]).{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}


] came under Germanic rule in the 10th century and came permanently under Western (Roman) Christian sphere of influence.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=96}} What is today Croatia came under Eastern Roman (Byzantine) rule after the Barbarian age, and while most of the territory was Slavicized, a handful of fortified towns, with mixed population, remained under Byzantine authority and continued to use Latin.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=96}} Dalmatia, now applied to the narrow strip with Byzantine towns, came under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, while the Croatian state remained pagan until Christianization during the reign of ], after which religious allegiance was to Rome.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=96}} Croats threw off Frankish rule in the 9th century and took over the Byzantine Dalmatian towns, after which Hungarian conquest led to Hungarian suzerainty, although retaining an army and institutions.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=96–97}} Croatia lost much of Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice which held it until the 18th century.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=97}} Hungary governed Croatia through a duke, and the coastal towns through a '']''.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=97}} A feudal class emerged in the Croatian hinterland in the late 13th century, among whom were the ], ] and most notably the ].{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=97–98}} Dalmatian fortified towns meanwhile maintained autonomy, with a Roman patrician class and Slavic lower class, first under Hungary and then Venice after centuries of struggle.{{sfn|Portal|1969|p=98}}
] on the Serbo-Romanian border]]


] described two kinds of South Slavic people, the first of swarthy complexion and dark hair, living near the Adriatic coast, and the other as light, living in the hinterland.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
The Avars arrived in Europe in the late 550s.<ref name="Fine83-29"/> Although their identity would not last, the Avars greatly impacted the events of the Balkans. They settled the Carpathian plain, west of the main Slavic settlements.<ref name="Fine83-30"/> They crushed the ] (a Germanic tribe) and pushed the ] into Italy, essentially opening up the western Balkans. They asserted their authority over many Slavs, who were divided into numerous petty tribes.<ref name="Fine83-30"/> Many Slavs were relocated to the Avar base in the Carpathian basin and were galvanized into an effective infantry force. Other Slavic tribes continued to raid independently, sometime coordinating attacks as allies of the Avars. Others still spilled into Imperial lands as they fled from the Avars.<ref name="Fine83-30"/> The Avars and their Slavic allies tended to focus on the western Balkans, whilst independent Slavic tribes predominated in the east. Following the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 626, the Avars' reputation diminished, and the confederacy was troubled by civil wars between the Avars and their Bulgar and Slav clients.<ref>Fine 1983, p. 43</ref> Their rule contracted to the region of the Carpathian basin. Archaeological evidence show that there was intermixing of Slavic, Avar and even Gepid cultures, suggesting that the later ''Avars'' were an amalgamation of different peoples. The Avar Khanate finally collapsed after ongoing defeats at the hands of ], ] and Slavs (c. 810), and the Avars ceased to exist. What remained of the Avars was absorbed by the Slavs and Bulgars.


===Early modern period===
In "De Administrando Imperio", Byzantine emperor ] mentions the ] (originally Βελοχρωβάτοι i Χρωβάτοι) as the place from which, in the 7th century, part of ] started their journey to ] (more specific, today's ] and Bosnia-Herzegovina) after they were invited there by the ] (emperor Flavius Heraclius Augustus) to protect its borders.The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince ] of Dalmatia was called ] of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian ] united all Croats and elevated Croatia into kingdom. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of ] as well as maintaining close ties with ] and ].
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2022}}
Through Islamization, communities of Slavic Muslims emerged, which survive until today in Bosnia, south Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}


While ] has its origins in the 17th-century Slavic Catholic clergymen in the Republic of Venice and Republic of Ragusa, it crystallized only in the mid-19th century amidst rise of nationalism in the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
By 700 AD, Slavs had settled in most of the Balkans, from Austria to the Peloponnese, and from the Adriatic to the Black seas, with the exception of the coastal areas and certain mountainous regions of the Greek peninsula.<ref>Fine 1983, p. 36</ref> The settlement pattern was far from uniform however, with major routes (such as the Morava valley) experiencing greater settlement.<ref name="Fine83-37">Fine 1983, p. 37</ref> Far fewer numbers of Slavs appear to have settled in those parts of Greece where Slavs did settle,<ref name="Fine83-64">Fine 1983, p. 64</ref> and in remote mountainous regions such as Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro.<ref name="Fine83-38">Fine 1983, p. 38</ref> However, archaeological traces of Slavic penetration into the Balkans is scant, especially in the period prior to the 8th century. This has led scholars to cast doubt on the accuracy of the historical sources, often describing large scale settlements by the Slavs throughout the Balkans, including southern Greece.<ref>Curta 2001, pp. 307-308: "Furthermore, the archaeological evidence discussed in this chapter does not match any long-distance migratory pattern. Assemblages in the Lower Danube area, both east and south of the Carpathian mountains, antedate those of the alleged Slavic ''Urheimat'' in the Zhitomir Polesie, on which Irina Rusanova based her theory of the Prague-Korchak-Zhitomir type."</ref>


== Population ==
===Interaction with the Balkan population===
{{Main|Slavs#Population}}
Prior to the advent of Roman rule, a number of native or autochthonous populations had lived in the Balkans since ancient times. South of the ] were the ].<ref>Fine 1983, p. 9</ref> To the north, there were ] in the western portion (]), ] in Thrace (modern Bulgaria and eastern Macedonia), and ] in ] (northern Bulgaria and northeastern Serbia) and ] (modern Romania).<ref>Fine 1983, p. 10</ref> They were mainly tribalistic and generally lacked awareness of any greater ethno-political affiliations. Over the classical ages, they were at times invaded, conquered and influenced by ], ] and ]. Roman influence, however, was initially limited to cities later concentrated along the Dalmatian coast, later spreading to a few scattered cities inside the Balkan interior particularly along the river Danube (], ], ]).<ref name="Fine83-12">Fine 1983, p. 12</ref> Roman citizens from throughout the empire settled in these cities and in the adjacent countryside.<ref name="Fine83-12"/> The vast hinterland was still populated by indigenous peoples who likely retained their own tribalistic character.


==Languages==
Following the fall of Rome and numerous barbarian raids, the population in the Balkans dropped, as did commerce and general standards of living. Many people were killed, or taken prisoner by invaders.<ref name="Fine83-37"/> This demographic decline was particularly attributed to a drop in the number of indigenous peasants living in rural areas. They were the most vulnerable to raids and were also hardest hit by the financial crises that plagued the falling empire. However, the Balkans were not desolate; considerable numbers of indigenous people simply remained.<ref name="Fine83-37"/> Only certain areas tended to be affected by the raids (e.g. lands around major land routes, such as the Morava corridor).<ref name="Fine83-37"/> The pre-Slavic inhabitants sought refuge inside fortified cities and islands, whilst others fled to remote mountains and forests,<ref name="Fine83-37"/> joining their non-Romanized kin and adopting a transhumant pastoral lifestyle. The larger cities were able to persevere, even flourish, through the hard times. Archaeological evidence suggests that the culture in the cities changed whereby Roman-style forums and large public buildings were abandoned and cities were modified (i.e. built on top of hills or cliff-tops and fortified by walls). The centerpiece of such cities was the church. This transformation from a Roman culture to a Byzantine culture was paralleled by a rise of a new ruling class: the old land-owning aristocracy gave way to rule by military elites and the clergy.<ref name="Curta 2006">Curta 2006, p. {{page needed|date=December 2011}}</ref>
{{refimprove section|date=June 2022}}
{{main|South Slavic languages}}


The ], one of three branches of the ] family (the other being ] and ]), form a ]. It comprises, from west to east, the official languages of ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. The South Slavic languages are geographically divided from the rest of the Slavic languages by areas where Germanic (Austria), Hungarian and Romanian languages prevail.
In addition to the autochthons, there were remnants of previous invaders such as "]" and various ] when the Slavs arrived. ] (such as the ]) are recorded to have still lived in the ] region of the Danube.<ref name="Fine83-57">Fine 1983, p. 57</ref>

As the Slavs spread south into the Balkans, they interacted with the numerous peoples and cultures already there. Since their lifestyle revolved around agriculture, they preferentially settled rural lands along the major highway networks which they moved along. Whilst they could not take the larger fortified towns, they looted the countryside and captured many prisoners. In his ''Strategikon'', Pseudo-Maurice noted that it was commonplace for Slavs to accept newly acquired prisoners into their ranks.<ref>Fine 1983, p. 27</ref> Despite Byzantine accounts of "pillaging" and "looting", it is possible that many indigenous peoples voluntarily assimilated with the Slavs. The Slavs lacked an organised, centrally ruled organisation which actually hastened the process of willful Slavicisation. The strongest evidence for such a co-existence is from archaeological remains along the Danube and Dacia known as the ''Ipoteşti-Cândeşti culture''. Here, the villages dating back to the 6th century represent a continuity with the earlier Slavic '']''; modified by admixture with ]-], ] and/or ] elements within the same village. Such interactions awarded the pre-Slavic populace protection within the ranks of a dominant, new tribe. In return, they contributed to the genetic and cultural development the South Slavs. This phenomenon ultimately led to an exchange of various loan-words. For example, the Slavic name for "Greeks", ''Grci'', is derived from the Latin ''Graecus'' presumably encountered through the local Romanised populace. Conversely, the Vlachs borrowed many Slavic words, especially pertaining to agricultural terms. Whether any of the original Thracian or Illyrian culture and language remained by the time Slavs arrived is a matter of debate. It is a difficult issue to analyse because of the overriding Greek and Roman influence in the region. However, what is certain is that the Thracian<ref name="Fine83-37"/> and Illyrian identities disappear from history during this period.

Over time, due to the larger number of Slavs, the descendants most of the indigenous populations of the Balkans were Slavicized, an exception being Greece, where the smaller number Slavs scattered there came to be Hellenized over succeeding centuries (aided in time by more Greeks returning to Greece in the 9th century and the role of the church and administration).<ref>Fine 1983, p. 41</ref> The Romance speakers within the fortified Dalmatian cities managed to retain their culture and language for a long time,<ref>Fine 1983, p. 35</ref> as Dalmatian Romance was spoken until the high Middle Ages. However, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs. In contrast, the Romano-Dacians in Wallachia managed to maintain their Latin-based language, despite much Slavic influence. After centuries of peaceful co-existence, the groups fused to form the ].

===Relationship with Byzantium===
{{further|Sclaviniae}}
Byzantine literary accounts (i.e., ], etc.) mention the Slavs raiding areas of Greece during the 580s. According to later sources such as ''The Miracles of ]'', the ], ], ], ], and ] laid siege to ] in 614–616.<ref>Fine 1991, p. 41: "Between 614 and 616, at the same time that the Avars were leading their major offensive against Dalmatia, ''The Miracles of Saint Demetrius'' describes the attacks by five Slavic tribes by sea in small boats along the coasts of Thessaly, western Anatolia, and various Greek islands. They then decided to capture Thessaloniki in a combined land and sea attack. Under the walls of the city they camped with whole families. They were led by a chief (the Greek title used is ]) named Chatzon."</ref> However, this particular event was in actuality of local significance.<ref>Curta 2001, p. 108: "I suggest therefore that in describing a local event – the attack of the Drugubites, Sagudates, Belegezites, Baiunetes, and Berzetes on Thessalonica – of relatively minor significance, the author of Book II framed it against a broader historical and administrative background, in order to make it appear as of greater importance. When all the other provinces and cities were falling, Thessalonica alone, under the protection of St Demetrius, was capable of resistance."</ref> A ] of the Avars and Slavs two years later also failed to take the city. In 626, a combined ], ] and Slav army ]. The siege was broken, which had repercussions upon the power and prestige of the Avar khanate. Slavic pressure on Thessaloniki ebbed after 617/618, until the ] by a coalition of ], Sagoudatai, Drougoubitai and Stroumanoi attacked. This time, the Belegezites also known as the Velegeziti did not participate and in fact supplied the besieged citizens of Thessaloniki with grain.

A number of medieval sources attest to the presence of Slavs in Greece. While en route to the ] in 732, ] "reached the city of ], in the land of ]". This particular passage from the ''Vita Willibaldi'' is interpreted as an indication of a Slavic presence in the hinterland of the ].<ref name="Fine83-62">Fine 1983, p. 62</ref> In reference to the plague of 744–747, ] wrote during the 10th century that "the entire country was Slavonized".<ref>Davis, Jack L. and Alcock, Susan E. ''Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998, p. 215.</ref> Another source for the period, the '']'' speaks of Slavs overrunning the western Peloponnese, but of the eastern Peloponnese, together with Athens, remaining in Byzantine hands throughout this period.<ref name="Fine83-61">Fine 1983, p. 61</ref> However, such sources are far from ideal,<ref name="Fine83-62"/> and their reliability is debated. For example, while the Byzantinist ] believes the ''Chronicle of Monemvasia'' to be a reliable account, other scholars point out that it greatly overstates the impact of the Slavic and Avar raids of Greece during this time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mee|first1=Christopher|last2=Patrick|first2=Michael Atherton|last3=Forbes|first3=Hamish Alexander|title=A Rough and Rocky Place: The Landscape and Settlement History of the Methana Peninsula, Greece: Results of the Methana Survey Project, sponsored by the British School at Athens and the University of Liverpool|location=Liverpool, United Kingdom|publisher=Liverpool University Press|year=1997|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=h6U0TgxfrXwC|ref=harv}}</ref>

], a prominent linguist and Indo-Europeanist, complements late medieval historical accounts by listing 429 Slavic toponyms from the Peloponnese alone.<ref name="Fine83-62"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://kroraina.com/knigi/en/mv/index.html |author=Max Vasmer |location=Berlin |publisher=Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften |title=Die Slaven in Griechenland |year=1941}}</ref> To what extent the presence of these toponyms reflects compact Slavic settlement is a matter of some debate,<ref>Vacalopoulos, Apostolos E. (translated by Ian Moles). ''Origins of the Greek Nation: The Byzantine Period, 1204–1461''. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1970, p. 6.</ref> and might represent an accumulative strata of toponyms rather than being attributed to the earliest settlement phase

Though medieval chroniclers attest to Slavic "hordes" occupying Byzantine territories, archaeological evidence of actual Slavic presence and its dating is today debated. ] points out that evidence of substantial Slavic presence does not appear before the 7th century<ref name="Curta-308">Curta 2001, p. 308</ref> and remains qualitatively different from the "Slavic culture" found north of the ].<ref name="Curta-308"/> Some authors point to the rapid adoption of local Balkanic cultures by early Slav-speaking groups in specific areas such as ]. There, investigations of burial graves and cemetery types indicate an uninterrupted continuity of traditions from ], reflecting a contiguous demographic spread that chronologically matches with the arrival of Slavic-speaking groups.<ref>Ante Milošević. ''O kontinuitetu kasnoantičkih proizvoda u materijalnoj kulturi ranoga srednjeg vijeka na prostoru Dalmacije, Starohrvatska spomenička baština. Rađanje prvog hrvatskog kulturnog pejzaža''. Exegi monumentum, Znanstvena izdanja 3, Zagreb, 1996, UDK 930.85(497.5), ISBN 953-6100-25-8. p. 39.</ref> Furthermore, when medieval sources speak of places "going to the Slavs", this could primarily mean that Byzantine authority disappeared, not that these regions had witnessed large-scale migration; doubtless many local people simply governed themselves.<ref name="Fine83-63">Fine 1983, p. 63</ref> Indeed, in the wake of Roman collapse, communities in the Balkan interior and hinterland essentially "became Slavs" by creating new identities and adopting a new language, oriented toward east-central Europe rather than the Graeco-Mediterranean world.<ref>Danijel Dzino. ''Becoming Slav, Becoming Croat''. Pg 218</ref> As Timothy Gregory surmises:

{{quote box| align=center|size=100%|quote="It is now generally agreed that the people who lived in the Balkans after the Slavic "invasions" were probably for the most part the same as those who had lived there earlier, although the creation of new political groups and arrival of small immigrants caused people to look at themselves as distinct from their neighbours, including the Byzantines".
|source= T E Gregory, ''A History of Byzantium''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Pg 169
}}

Relations between the Slavs and Greeks were probably peaceful apart from the (supposed) initial settlement and intermittent uprisings.<ref name="Fine83-63"/> Being agriculturalists, the Slavs probably traded with the Greeks inside towns.<ref name="Fine83-61"/> Furthermore, the Slavs surely did not occupy the whole interior or eliminate the Greek population; some Greek villages continued to exist in the interior, probably governing themselves, possibly paying tribute to the Slavs.<ref name="Fine83-61"/> Some villages were probably mixed, and quite possibly some degree of Hellenization of the Slavs by the Greeks of the Peloponnese had already begun during this period, before re-] was completed by the Byzantine emperors.<ref>Hupchick, Dennis. ''The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 1-4039-6417-3</ref>

When the Byzantines were not fighting in their eastern territories, they were able to slowly regain imperial control. This was achieved through its ], referring to an administrative province on which an army corps was centered, under the control of a '']'' ("general").<ref name="Fine83-70">Fine 1983, p. 70</ref> The theme system first appeared in the early 7th century, during the reign of the ], and as the Byzantine Empire recovered, it was imposed on all areas that came under Byzantine control.<ref name="Fine83-70"/> The first Balkan theme created was that in ], in 680 AD.<ref name="Fine83-70"/> By 695, a second theme, that of "]" (or "Helladikoi"), was established, probably in eastern ].<ref name="Fine83-70"/> Subduing the Slavs in these themes was simply a matter of accommodating the needs of the Slavic elites and providing them with incentives for their inclusion into the imperial administration.

It was not until 100 years later that a third theme would be established. In 782–784, the eunuch general ] campaigned from Thessaloniki, south to Thessaly and into the Peloponnese.<ref name="Fine83-79">Fine 1983, p. 79</ref> He captured many Slavs and transferred them elsewhere, mostly ] (these Slavs were dubbed '']'').<ref name="Curta 2006"/> However it is not known whether any territory was restored to imperial authority as result of this campaign, though it is likely some was.<ref name="Fine83-79"/> Sometime between 790 and 802, the ] was created, centered on ] (i.e., east of the ]).<ref name="Fine83-79"/> A serious and successful recovery began under ] (802–811).<ref name="Fine83-79"/> In 805, the ] was created.<ref name="Fine83-80">Fine 1983, p. 80</ref> According to the Chronicle of Monemvasia in 805 the Byzantine governor of Corinth went to war with the Slavs, obliterated them, and allowed the original inhabitants to claim their own;<ref name="Fine83-80"/> the city of Patras was recovered and the region re-settled with Greeks.<ref name="Fine83-82">Fine 1983, p. 82</ref> In the 9th century, new themes continued to arise, although many were small and were carved out of original, larger themes. New themes in the 9th century included those of ], ], ], and ].<ref name="Fine83-83">Fine 1983, p. 83</ref> From these themes, Byzantine laws and culture flowed into the interior.<ref name="Fine83-83"/> By the end of the 9th century most of Greece was culturally and administratively Greek again, with <ref name="Fine83-79"/> the exception of a few small Slavic tribes in the mountains such as the ] and ].<ref name="Fine83-83"/> Although they were to remain relatively autonomous until ] times, such tribes were the exception rather than the rule.<ref name="Fine83-83"/>

], the first alphabet used to transcribe the ] language.]]

Apart from military expeditions against Slavs, the re-Hellenization process begun under Nicephorus I involved (often forcible) transfer of peoples.<ref>Fine, 1983, p. 81</ref> Many Slavs were moved to other parts of the empire, such as Anatolia and made to serve in the military.<ref>Fine 1983, p. 66</ref> In return, many Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor were brought to the interior of Greece, to increase the number of defenders at the Emperor's disposal and dilute the concentration of Slavs.<ref name="Fine83-82"/> Even non-Greeks were transferred to the Balkans, such as ].<ref name="Curta 2006"/> As more of the peripheral territories of the Byzantine Empire were lost in the following centuries, e.g., Sicily, southern Italy and Asia Minor, their Greek-speakers made their own way back to Greece. That the re-Hellenization of Greece through population transfers and cultural activities of the Church was successful suggests Slavs found themselves in the midst of many Greeks.<ref name="Fine83-64"/> It is doubtful that such large number could have been transplanted into Greece in the 9th century; thus there surely had been many Greeks remaining in Greece and continuing to speak Greek throughout the period of Slavic occupation.<ref name="Fine83-64"/> The success of re-Hellenization also suggests the number of Slavs in Greece was far smaller than the numbers found in the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.<ref name="Fine83-64"/> For example, Bulgaria could not be Hellenized when Byzantine administration was established over the Bulgarians in 1018 to last for well over a century, until 1186.<ref name="Fine83-64"/>

Eventually, the Byzantines recovered the imperial border north all the way to today's ] (which would serve as the northern border of the Byzantine Empire until 1018), although independent Slavic villages remained. As the Slavs supposedly occupied the entire Balkan interior, Constantinople was effectively cut off from the Dalmatian cities under its (nominal) control.<ref name="Fine83-65">Fine 1983, p. 65</ref> Thus Dalmatia came to have closer ties with the ], because of ability to maintain contact by sea (however, this too, was troubled by Slavic pirates).<ref name="Fine83-65"/> Additionally, Constantinople was cut off from ], which contributed to the growing cultural and political separation between the two centers of European ].<ref name="Fine83-65"/>

Control of the Slavic tribes was nominal, as they retained their own culture and language. However, the Slavic tribes of Macedonia never formed their own empire or state, and the area often switched between Greek (Byzantine), ], ] and temporarily even ] control. The Byzantines were unable to completely Hellenize Macedonia because their progress north was blocked by the Bulgarian Empire, and later by the Serbian Kingdom, which were both Slavic states. However, Byzantine culture nonetheless flowed further north, seen to this day as ], the ], and ] are part of the ] world. Even in Dalmatia, where Byzantine influence was supplanted by ] and ], the influence of Byzantine culture persists.

==== Sclaviniaes ====
{{main|Sclaviniae}}
During the early Middle Ages, the Byzantine historians categorized the numerous Slavic tribal unions on the early Medieval Balkans as 'Sclavinias' and often associated them with particular tribes.<ref>Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History, Andrew Rossos, Hoover Press, 2008, ISBN 081794883X, Macedonia c. 600-c. 850</ref> The Slavs were self-governing in their extended families and districts, and their tribal organization was sufficiently strong to abolish Byzantine rule in the Balkans.<ref>The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 1, C.500-c.700. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN: 9780521362917, p. 538.</ref> These Slavs however did not have sufficient state-building skills, they failed to unite them and during the 8th century they were reconquered by the Byzantines.<ref>The Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples:, Matjaž Klemenčič, Mitja Žagar, ABC-CLIO, 2004, ISBN 1576072940, pp. 26-27.</ref> Some contemporary Macedonian historians have seen one of these tribal unions, referred to by the Byzantines as ''Sclaviniai'' as proto–state indicative of the formation of a separate Slavic Macedonian state, but this claim is extremely doubtful,<ref>The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century," John Van Antwerp Fine, University of Michigan Press, 1991, ISBN 0472081497, pp. 36-37.</ref> more they also spread into Thrace and Moesia, which are now not seen as part of the today Macedonia.<ref>Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, p. I-II.</ref> On the other hand, according to Florin Curta describes the great Slavic invasion of the 6th and 7th century on the Balkans as a historical exaggeration.<ref>The Macedonians: Their Past and Present, Ernest N. Damianopoulos, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, ISBN 1137011904, p. 210.</ref> Thus, the construction of the first South Slavic states was organized by the Croats, Serbs and Bulgars and the local (Slavic) population in today Republic of Macedonia was first conquered by the Bulgars in the middle of the 9th century.<ref>The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics, Ivo Banac, Cornell University Press, 1988, ISBN 0801494931, p. 33.</ref> However, Florin Curta is a modern historian. his views contradict large amount of byzantine sources citing the opposite.]

====Macedonian sclavinia (548-812)====
{{Fringe theories|POV section|Refimprove section}}
{{POV section}}
{{Refimprove section}}
The first slavic unity is known as Macedonian sclavinia. ] Caesarensis mentions that in the first half of the 6th century, slavs crossed the river Danube and occupied Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus and Dalmatia.
In the second half of 6th ct slavs occupy Salonika region. In the ] is written that slavs attack Salonika in year 584 A.D. In year 586 Avar/Slav army plunders the region of Macedonia. Macedonian slav tribes ], Strumjani - ], ], ], ], Velegiziti- ], Ezeriti - ], ], ], Rinhiniti- ], led by prince Hacon -] attack Salonika in year 614-616 A.D. In 618 Salonika becomes encircled with slavic settlements. In year 630 slavs attempt to take Salonika again. In year 658 Byzantium attempts to subjugate Macedonian sclavinia. Emperor ] undertakes a campaign against Macedonian sclavinia. In year 677 Byzantium prevents establishing a slavic state headed by Rinhinian king (rex) Pribond -]. In year 677-680 Byzantium declares war on Strumjani - ] tribe. 688-689 Byzantium emperor ] attacks sclavinii around Salonika and transfers large number of slavs to Asia minor. Justinian subjugates the slavic tribes around Salonika. In year 758-759 ] attacks and plunders Macedonian sclavinia. In year 773 A.D. Constantine prevents Bulgar khan Telerig from attacking sclavinia "Bersitia" in Macedonia. From Strabonos Epithomatus (8th cantury): "And now in that way, almost all of Epirus, Hellada, Peloponnese and Macedonia have been settled by these Slavs". Year 783 logothetus Stavricus attacks slav tribes around Salonika. Year 799 prince of the Velegiziti, ] participates in the conspiracy against empress ]. Year 809-810 emperor Niceforus colonizes his Asia minor subjects among the slavs. Year 812 Bulgar khan Krum attacks Macedonia. Year 821-823 ], gathered slavic army from Asia, Europe, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly and attacked and besieged Constantinople for a year. In the second half of 9th century, Macedonian slavs come under rule of Byzantium allies, the Bulgars. <ref>|url=https://archive.org/details/ByzantineSourcesForHistoryOfThePeoplesOfYugoslavia </ref>. <ref>|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/South_Slavic_tribes.png </ref>. >ref>|url=http://s561.photobucket.com/user/ARHIV/media/Theophanes-Macedonian-Sclavinia.jpg.html </ref>.{{verification needed}}

===Ottoman period===

So long as the non-Slavic ] was strong it served as an effective buffer to Ottoman incursions into southeastern Europe and in turn the lands of the South Slavs. Eventually its power waned in the face of conquests by other powers, and the rising Turkish Empire found one weakness after another in southeastern Europe.

The Ottomans captured ] from the Venetians in 1387. The Ottoman victory at ] in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, making possible the Ottoman expansion into Europe. ] of Serbia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. The ] in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages, failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks and put an end to the ].

===Modern era===

====Montenegro====
{{further|Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro|Principality of Montenegro|Kingdom of Montenegro}}
{{Empty section|date=September 2011}}

==South Slavic peoples==
South Slavs are divided along linguistic lines into two groups — eastern and western.

List of the South Slavic peoples and ethnic groups, including population estimation figures (2001):<ref>Mile Nedeljković. ''Leksikon naroda Sveta''. Beograd, 2001.</ref>

*] = 10 to 10,500,000
*] = 9,000,000
*] = 6,000,000 to 7,500,000
*] = 3,500,000
*] = 2,500,000
*] = 2,200,000
*] = 340,000
*], ], and other minor ethnic groups
All together: about 40 million including other minor groups

==Countries==
There are seven countries in which South Slavs are the main population:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html|title=The World Factbook|work=cia.gov}}</ref>
*{{BUL}} (85% ])
*{{SRB}} (83% ], 2% Bosniaks, 0.8% Croats, 0.5% Montenegrins)
*{{CRO}} (90% ], 4% Serbs)
*{{BIH}} (48% ], 37% Serbs, 15% Croats)
*{{MKD}} (64% ], 2% Serbs, 1% Bosniaks)
*{{SLO}} (83% ], 2% Serbs, 2% Croats, 1% Bosniaks)
*{{MNE}} (45% ], 29% Serbs, 13% Bosniaks and Muslims by nationality, 1% Croats)

In addition, there are local South Slavic minorities in non-Slavic neighbouring countries such as:
*]: (], ], ], ])
*]: (], ])*
*]: (], ])
*]: (], ], ], ])
*]: (], ])
*]: (], ], ], ]),
*]: (], ], ])

==Cities==
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left;"
|--
!colspan=4 | Cities with South Slavic majority (100,000+ residents)
|--
! City
! Population
! Municipality
! Source
! Image
|--
|{{flagicon|SRB}}] || 1,233,796 || 1,659,440 ||(Census Bureau of Serbia; 2011)<ref>http://media.popis2011.stat.rs/2011/prvi_rezultati.pdf</ref> || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 1,204,685 || 1,359,520 ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011)<ref>2011 census</ref> || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|CRO}}] || 792,875 || 1,110,517 ||(Census Bureau of Croatia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|MKD}}] || 510,000 || 668,518 ||(Census Bureau of the Republic of Macedonia; 2006) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 338,153 || 403,153 ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 334,870 || 343,704 ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BIH}}] || 327,124 || 452,000 ||(Census Bureau of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 2010) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SRB}}] || 277,522 || 341,625 ||(Census Bureau of Serbia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SVN}}] || 272,220 || ||(Census Bureau of Slovenia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BIH}}] || 225,000 || ||(Census Bureau of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 2008) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 200,271 || 212,902 ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SRB}}] || 187,544 || 260,237 ||(Census Bureau of Serbia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|CRO}}] ||165,883 || 349,314 ||(Census Bureau of Croatia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SVN}}] || 157,947 || ||(Census Bureau of Slovenia; 2010) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|MNE}}] || 151,312 || ||(Census Bureau of Montenegro; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SRB}}] || 150,835 || 179,417 ||(Census Bureau of Serbia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 149,642 || ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 138,272 || ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|CRO}}] || 127,498 || ||(Census Bureau of Croatia; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|BUL}}] || 106,954 || ||(Census Bureau of Bulgaria; 2011) || ]
|--
|{{flagicon|SRB}}] || 105,681 || 141,554 ||(Census Bureau of Serbia; 2011) || ]
|}

==Regional groups and other subdivisions==
Please note that some of the subdivisions remain debatable, particularly for smaller groups and national minorities in former Yugoslavia.

Besides ethnic groups, South Slavs often identify themselves with the geographical region in which they live. Some of the major regional South Slavic groups include: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]ni, ], ], ], ], ], ]lije, ], ]{{disambiguation needed|date=March 2013}}, ], ], ], ], ], ]jani, ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]ns, ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and many others.

==Religion==
The religious and cultural diversity of the region the South Slavs inhabit has had a considerable influence on their religion. Originally a polytheistic pagan people, the South Slavs have also preserved many of their ancient rituals and traditional folklore, often intermixing and combining it with the religion they later converted to.

Today, the majority of South Slavs are ]- the most ], ], ] and ], whilst most ] and ] are ]. ], other minor ethnic groups (], ]) and sub-groups (] and ]) are ]. Some South Slavs are ], ] and/or ].

South Slavic ethnic groups by religion:
*Mainly ]
**]
**]
**]
**]
{{Multicol}}
*Mainly ]
**]
**]
{{Multicol}}
*Mainly ]
**]
**]
**] of the ]
**]

==Language==
{{main|South Slavic languages}}


South Slavic ]s are: South Slavic ]s are:
{{col-start}}
*]
{{col-3}}
*]
'''West:'''<br>
*]
] (])<br>
*]
*] {{small|(], ], ], ])}}<br>
*] ]
{{col-3}}
*]
'''East:'''<br>

]<br>
In addition, there are also other South Slavic languages which do not constitute official status in any republic, but have recognised standard formats and are widely used by their speakers. The most common of these is ]. In addition, the ] was formerly listed in the census conducted during the ] administration. Today, ] is also in the accelerated process of being codified in ]. It is slowly being revised, embracing local speech, following the lines taken for ] following the independence of ] from ].
]<br>

{{col-3}}
The division of standard languages is orthogonal to the division based on ]-] criteria. Naming local dialects is made difficult by the fact that Slovenes from Austria and Italy are linked with their most remote South Slavic peoples - the Pomaks and Bulgarians of ] - by a historical dialect continuum. In the 9th century all Slavic dialects formed one dialect continuum, which was subsequently broken after the arrival of Magyars in the area of middle Danube; the subsequent spread of the Germanic, Greek and Romance speakers separated the South Slavic group from West and East Slavic groups leaving it roughly its present-day areal distribution.
{{col-end}}

], ], ], ])]]
Furthermore, as a result of migrations caused by the invasion of Ottoman Turks, dialect continuum was broken in numerous places especially in the so-called "Central South Slavic" area, where some Slavic dialects like ] and ] were suppressed at the expense of ], and some "transitional" dialects like ], originally belonging to West South Slavic group, but having experienced numerous shared innovations with Bularo-Macedonian dialects belonging to East South Slavic.
The Serbo-Croatian varieties have strong structural unity and are regarded by most linguists as constituting one language.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Comrie |editor1-first=Bernard |editor1-link=Bernard Comrie |editor2-last=Corbett |editor2-first=Greville G. |year=2002 |orig-year=1st. Pub. 1993 |title=The Slavonic Languages |location=London & New York |publisher=Routledge |oclc=49550401 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> Today, ] has led to the codification of several distinct standards: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. These Serbo-Croatian standards are all based on the ] dialect group. Other dialect groups, which have lower intelligibility with Shtokavian, are ] in ] and ] in ]. The dominance of Shtokavian across Serbo-Croatian speaking lands is due to historical westward migration during the Ottoman period. Slovene is South Slavic but has many features shared with West Slavic languages. The ] and ] are especially close, and there is no sharp delineation between them. In southeastern Serbia, dialects enter a transitional zone with Bulgarian and Macedonian, with features of both groups, and are commonly called ]. The Eastern South Slavic languages are Bulgarian and Macedonian. Bulgarian has retained more archaic Slavic features in relation to the other languages. Bulgarian has two main ] splits. Macedonian was codified in Communist Yugoslavia in 1945. The northern and eastern ] are regarded as transitional to Serbian and Bulgarian, respectively. Furthermore, in Greece there is a notable Slavic-speaking population ] and ]. Slavic dialects in western Greek Macedonia (], ]) are usually classified as ], those in eastern Greek Macedonia (], ]) and Western Thrace as ] and the central ones (], ]) as either Macedonian or transitional between Macedonian and Bulgarian.<ref name=Trudgill>Trudgill P., 2000, "Greece and European Turkey: From Religious to Linguistic Identity". In: Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford : Oxford University Press, p.259.</ref><ref>Boeschoten, Riki van (1993): Minority Languages in Northern Greece. Study Visit to Florina, Aridea, (Report to the European Commission, Brussels), p. 13 "The Western dialect is used in Florina and Kastoria and is closest to the language used north of the border, the Eastern dialect is used in the areas of Serres and Drama and is closest to Bulgarian, the Central dialect is used in the area between Edessa and Salonica and forms an intermediate dialect"</ref> Balkan Slavic languages are part of a "]" with ]s shared with other non-Slavic languages in the Balkans.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Major Slavic dialectal groupings are
*] - named after the interrogative "kaj", the local word for "what", this dialect is spoken in Croatia and is closely related to the Slovene language (also a "kaj" language).
*] - named after the interrogative ''ča'', the local word for "what", also an exclusively Croatian dialect
*] - the largest and most complex dialect chain, named after "što" - the local word for "what" - itself varies with increased distance. Its subdialect, Neoštokavian, is used as the base for standard ], ], ], ] and ], though in a bit different form (in yat reflex, cf. below)
*] - a non-standard dialect chain separating Western South Slavic and Eastern South Slavic language groups with radical differences, spoken in southern Serbia (including Kosovo), northern Macedonia and north-western Bulgaria, and by all Slavic ethnic groups local to the region, its features include a mixture of the western and eastern linguistic trends. It is also spoken by the ] community in Romania, reflecting their previous geographical settlement.
*] - spoken across most of Macedonia. The standard Macedonian is based on the West-central subdialect. Several regional dialects exist.
*] - a western Bulgarian dialect group bordering with Torlakian areas to its northwest, with Macedonian to its southwest and East Bulgarian to its east.
*] - the standard language of Bulgaria based on the central regions. Several regional dialects exist.
*] - spoken by the Slavic population of Greece, most notably by the Pomaks of Thrace. Often disputed as to whether belonging to Macedonian or Bulgarian, this non-standard language has its dialects sparse but varied according to geographical distribution; with the dialects of Thrace (''Trakiya'') being closer to Bulgarian, and the dialects of ] (''Lerin'') and ] (''Voden'') being closer to Macedonian.
*Flazdian or Flazdim is a southern-Slavic dialect spoken in north of Albania.

The dialects are often further subclassified on arbitrary isoglosses, such as the reflex of Common Slavic ] phoneme which had various reflexes in various Slavic dialects. Yat reflex is noted as a major distinction between Serbian and Croatian - while the former has two distinct variants, based on so-called Ekavian /e/ and Ijekavian {{IPA|/ie̯/}} reflexes, the standard Croatian is based exclusively on the Ijekavian reflex {{IPA|/ie̯/}}.


==Genetics== ==Genetics==
{{See also|Slavs#Genetics}}
]
[[File:A genetic atlas of human admixture history - East Europe II and Mediterranean.png|thumb|Autosomal analysis presenting the historical contribution of different donor groups in some European populations. Polish sample was selected to represent the Slavic influence, and it is suggesting a strong and early impact in Greece (30-37%), Romania (48-57%), Bulgaria (55-59%), and Hungary (54-84%).<ref>{{cite web |work=A genetic atlas of human admixture history |title=Companion website for "A genetic atlas of human admixture history", Hellenthal et al, Science (2014) |url=http://admixturemap.paintmychromosomes.com/ |access-date=10 December 2020 |archive-date=2 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902195508/http://admixturemap.paintmychromosomes.com/ |url-status=live }}<br>
{{cite journal |last1=Hellenthal |first1=Garrett |last2=Busby |first2=George B.J. |last3=Band |first3=Gavin |last4=Wilson |first4=James F. |last5=Capelli |first5=Cristian |last6=Falush |first6=Daniel |last7=Myers |first7=Simon |title=A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History |journal=] |date=14 February 2014 |volume=343 |issue=6172 |pages=747–751 |doi=10.1126/science.1243518 |pmid=24531965 |issn=0036-8075|pmc=4209567 |bibcode=2014Sci...343..747H }}<br> {{cite journal |title=Supplementary Material for "A genetic atlas of human admixture history" |journal = Science|volume = 343|issue = 6172|pages=747–751 |quote=S7.6 "East Europe": The difference between the 'East Europe I' and 'East Europe II' analyses is that the latter analysis included the Polish as a potential donor population. The Polish were included in this analysis to reflect a Slavic language speaking source group." "We speculate that the second event seen in our six Eastern Europe populations between northern European and southern European ancestral sources may correspond to the expansion of Slavic language speaking groups (commonly referred to as the Slavic expansion) across this region at a similar time, perhaps related to displacement caused by the Eurasian steppe invaders (38; 58). Under this scenario, the northerly source in the second event might represent DNA from Slavic-speaking migrants (sampled Slavic-speaking groups are excluded from being donors in the EastEurope I analysis). To test consistency with this, we repainted these populations adding the Polish as a single Slavic-speaking donor group (“East Europe II” analysis; see Note S7.6) and, in doing so, they largely replaced the original North European component (Figure S21), although we note that two nearby populations, Belarus and Lithuania, are equally often inferred as sources in our original analysis (Table S12). Outside these six populations, an admixture event at the same time (910CE, 95% CI:720-1140CE) is seen in the southerly neighboring Greeks, between sources represented by multiple neighboring Mediterranean peoples (63%) and the Polish (37%), suggesting a strong and early impact of the Slavic expansions in Greece, a subject of recent debate (37). These shared signals we find across East European groups could explain a recent observation of an excess of IBD sharing among similar groups, including Greece, that was dated to a wide range between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago (37)|pmc = 4209567|year = 2014|last1 = Hellenthal|first1 = G.|last2 = Busby|first2 = G. B.|last3 = Band|first3 = G.|last4 = Wilson|first4 = J. F.|last5 = Capelli|first5 = C.|last6 = Falush|first6 = D.|last7 = Myers|first7 = S.|pmid = 24531965|doi = 10.1126/science.1243518| bibcode=2014Sci...343..747H }}</ref>]]


According to the 2013 ] ] survey "of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale", the speakers of Serbo-Croatian language share a very high number of common ancestors dated to the ] approximately 1,500 years ago with Poland and Romania-Bulgaria cluster among others in Eastern Europe. It is concluded to be caused by the ] and Slavic expansion, which was a "relatively small population that expanded over a large geographic area", particularly "the expansion of the Slavic populations into regions of low population density beginning in the sixth century" and that it is "highly coincident with the modern distribution of Slavic languages".<ref name="Ralph2013">{{cite journal |author=P. Ralph |title=The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry across Europe |journal=] |volume=11 |issue=5 |year=2013 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001555 |pages=e105090 |pmid=23667324 |pmc=3646727 |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free }}</ref> According to Kushniarevich et al. 2015, the Hellenthal et al. 2014 IBD analysis also found "multi-directional admixture events among East Europeans (both Slavic and non-Slavic), dated to around 1,000–1,600 YBP" which coincides with "the proposed time-frame for the Slavic expansion".<ref name="Kushniarevich2015">{{cite journal |author=A. Kushniarevich |year=2015 |title=Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data |journal=] |volume=10 |issue=9 |pages=e0135820 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0135820 |pmid=26332464|pmc=4558026|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1035820K |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free }}</ref> The Slavic influence is "dated to 500-900 CE or a bit later with over 40-50% among Bulgarians, Romanians, and Hungarians".<ref name="Ralph2013"/> The 2015 IBD analysis found that the South Slavs have lower proximity to Greeks than with East and West Slavs and that there's an "even patterns of IBD sharing among East-West Slavs–'inter-Slavic' populations (], ] and ])–and South Slavs, i.e. across an area of assumed historic movements of people including Slavs". The slight peak of shared IBD segments between South and East-West Slavs suggests a shared "Slavonic-time ancestry".<ref name="Kushniarevich2015"/> The 2014 IBD analysis comparison of Western Balkan and Middle Eastern populations also found negligible gene flow between 16th and 19th century during the ] of the Balkans.<ref name="Kovacevic2014">{{cite journal|author=L. Kovačević|title=Standing at the Gateway to Europe - The Genetic Structure of Western Balkan Populations Based on Autosomal and Haploid Markers|journal=]|volume=9|issue=8|year=2014|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0105090|pages=e105090|pmid=25148043|pmc=4141785|bibcode=2014PLoSO...9j5090K|display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}}</ref>
"Molecular anthropology" can reveal patterns of prehistoric demographic expansions in addition to analysing the “genetic relatedness” between extant population groups.


According to a 2014 ] analysis of Western Balkan, the South Slavs show a genetic uniformity. Bosnians and Croatians were closer to East European populations and largely overlapped with Hungarians from Central Europe.<ref name="Kovacevic2014"/> In the 2015 analysis, Bosnians and Croatians formed a western South Slavic cluster together with Slovenians, in opposition to an eastern cluster formed by Macedonians and Bulgarians, with Serbians in between the two. The western cluster has an inclination toward Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks, while the eastern ones lean toward Romanians and, to some extent, to Greeks.<ref name="Kushniarevich2015"/> The modeled ancestral genetic component of Balto-Slavs among South Slavs was between 55 and 70%.<ref name="Kushniarevich2015"/> In the 2018 analysis of Slovenian population, the Slovenian population clustered with Croatians, Hungarians and was close to Czech.<ref name="Delser2018">{{cite journal |author=P. M. Delser |title=Genetic Landscape of Slovenians: Past Admixture and Natural Selection Pattern|journal=Frontiers in Genetics |volume=9 |pages=551 |year=2018 |doi=10.3389/fgene.2018.00551 |pmid=30510563 |pmc=6252347 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Genetic Structuring and Population Affinities===


The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that the Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis that places the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middle ]".<ref name="Rębała ''et al.'' 2007">{{cite journal | pmid = 17364156 | year = 2007 | last1 = Rebała | first1 = K | last2 = Mikulich | first2 = AI | last3 = Tsybovsky | first3 = IS | last4 = Siváková | first4 = D | last5 = Dzupinková | first5 = Z | last6 = Szczerkowska-Dobosz | first6 = A | last7 = Szczerkowska | first7 = Z | title = Y-STR variation among Slavs: Evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin | volume = 52 | issue = 5 | pages = 406–14 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-007-0125-6 | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | doi-access = free }}</ref> According to genetic studies until 2020, the distribution, variance and frequency of the ] ] and ] and their subclades R-M558, R-M458 and I-CTS10228 among South Slavs are in correlation with the spreading of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day ] and ].<ref>{{cite journal|author=A. Zupan|title=The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251567977|journal=]|volume=40|issue=6|date=2013|doi=10.3109/03014460.2013.813584|pmid=23879710|display-authors=etal|pages=515–526 |s2cid=34621779|quote=However, a study by Battaglia et al. (2009) showed a variance peak for I2a1 in the Ukraine and, based on the observed pattern of variation, it could be suggested that at least part of the I2a1 haplogroup could have arrived in the Balkans and Slovenia with the Slavic migrations from a homeland in present-day Ukraine... The calculated age of this specific haplogroup together with the variation peak detected in the suggested Slavic homeland could represent a signal of Slavic migration arising from medieval Slavic expansions. However, the strong genetic barrier around the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, associated with the high frequency of the I2a1b-M423 haplogroup, could also be a consequence of a Paleolithic genetic signal of a Balkan refuge area, followed by mixing with a medieval Slavic signal from modern-day Ukraine.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Underhill |first1=Peter A. |year=2015 |title=The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=124–131 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2014.50 |pmid=24667786 |pmc=4266736 |quote=R1a-M458 exceeds 20% in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Western Belarus. The lineage averages 11–15% across Russia and Ukraine and occurs at 7% or less elsewhere (Figure 2d). Unlike hg R1a-M458, the R1a-M558 clade is also common in the Volga-Uralic populations. R1a-M558 occurs at 10–33% in parts of Russia, exceeds 26% in Poland and Western Belarus, and varies between 10 and 23% in the Ukraine, whereas it drops 10-fold lower in Western Europe. In general, both R1a-M458 and R1a-M558 occur at low but informative frequencies in Balkan populations with known Slavonic heritage.}}</ref><ref name="Utevska">{{cite thesis |type=PhD |author=O.M. Utevska |date=2017 |title=Генофонд українців за різними системами генетичних маркерів: походження і місце на європейському генетичному просторі |trans-title=The gene pool of Ukrainians revealed by different systems of genetic markers: the origin and statement in Europe |publisher=National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of ] |url=http://nrcrm.gov.ua/science/councils/dissertation/ |language=uk |pages=219–226, 302 |access-date=10 December 2020 |archive-date=17 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717170217/http://nrcrm.gov.ua/science/councils/dissertation/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Neparaczki">{{cite journal |last1=Neparáczki |first1=Endre |last2=Maróti |first2=Zoltán |display-authors=1 |date=2019 |title=Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin |journal=] |publisher=] |volume=9 |issue=16569 |page=16569 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-53105-5 |pmc=6851379 |pmid=31719606 |bibcode=2019NatSR...916569N |quote=Hg I2a1a2b-L621 was present in 5 Conqueror samples, and a 6th sample form Magyarhomorog (MH/9) most likely also belongs here, as MH/9 is a likely kin of MH/16 (see below). This Hg of European origin is most prominent in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, especially among Slavic speaking groups.}}</ref><ref name="HorolmaTibor2019">{{cite book|first1=Horolma|last1=Pamjav|first2=Tibor|last2=Fehér|first3=Endre|last3=Németh|first4=László|last4=Koppány Csáji|title=Genetika és őstörténet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xq2xDwAAQBAJ|year=2019|publisher=Napkút Kiadó|language=hu|isbn=978-963-263-855-3|pages=58|quote=Az I2-CTS10228 (köznevén „dinári-kárpáti") alcsoport legkorábbi közös őse 2200 évvel ezelőttre tehető, így esetében nem arról van szó, hogy a mezolit népesség Kelet-Európában ilyen mértékben fennmaradt volna, hanem arról, hogy egy, a mezolit csoportoktól származó szűk család az európai vaskorban sikeresen integrálódott egy olyan társadalomba, amely hamarosan erőteljes demográfiai expanzióba kezdett. Ez is mutatja, hogy nem feltétlenül népek, mintsem családok sikerével, nemzetségek elterjedésével is számolnunk kell, és ezt a jelenlegi etnikai identitással összefüggésbe hozni lehetetlen. A csoport elterjedése alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy a szláv népek migrációjában vett részt, így válva az R1a-t követően a második legdominánsabb csoporttá a mai Kelet-Európában. Nyugat-Európából viszont teljes mértékben hiányzik, kivéve a kora középkorban szláv nyelvet beszélő keletnémet területeket.|access-date=12 December 2020|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927203723/https://books.google.com/books?id=xq2xDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fóthi">{{Citation |last1=Fóthi |first1=E. |last2=Gonzalez |first2=A. |last3=Fehér |first3=T. |display-authors=etal |title=Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |volume=12 |issue=1 |date=2020 |page=31 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020ArAnS..12...31F |quote=Based on SNP analysis, the CTS10228 group is 2200 ± 300 years old. The group’s demographic expansion may have begun in Southeast Poland around that time, as carriers of the oldest subgroup are found there today. The group cannot solely be tied to the Slavs, because the proto-Slavic period was later, around 300–500 CE... The SNP-based age of the Eastern European CTS10228 branch is 2200 ± 300 years old. The carriers of the most ancient subgroup live in Southeast Poland, and it is likely that the rapid demographic expansion which brought the marker to other regions in Europe began there. The largest demographic explosion occurred in the Balkans, where the subgroup is dominant in 50.5% of Croatians, 30.1% of Serbs, 31.4% of Montenegrins, and in about 20% of Albanians and Greeks. As a result, this subgroup is often called Dinaric. It is interesting that while it is dominant among modern Balkan peoples, this subgroup has not been present yet during the Roman period, as it is almost absent in Italy as well (see Online Resource 5; ESM_5).}}</ref><ref name="Kassian2020">{{citation |last1=Kushniarevich |first1=Alena |last2=Kassian |first2=Alexei |editor=Marc L. Greenberg |date=2020 |title=Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online |chapter=Genetics and Slavic languages |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032367 |access-date=10 December 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341945550 |quote=The geographic distributions of the major eastern European NRY haplogroups (R1a-Z282, I2a-P37) overlap with the area occupied by the present-day Slavs to a great extent, and it might be tempting to consider both haplogroups as Slavic-specic patrilineal lineages}}</ref>
Various methods have been employed for this and consequently produced slightly different results


====Early Studies==== ==See also==
* ]
The earliest studies looked at 'classical markers', i.e. protein and blood group polymorphisms. Such work, e.g. that of Luca Cavali-Sforza and his team, showed that Europeans might cluster into several groups: (1) "Germanic" (Germans, Austrians) (2) "Scandinavian" (Swedes, Norwegians) (3) "Celtic" (Irish, Scottish) (4) south-western European (Spanish, French, Italian) (4) eastern European (Russian, Hungarian, Ukrainian). The analyses found that Yugoslavs did not group into any of the above clusters, but formed a group of their own; a result he attributed to their internal heterogeneity. Bulgarians were not tested in his study.
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


====Y-DNA==== ==Annotations==
{{Cnote2 Begin|liststyle=upper-alpha}}
Aggregated results of Y-DNA (e.g. by way of ] (PCA)) have tended to show that most southern Slavs (i.e. Serbians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Bulgarians, and some Croats) cluster tightly together (characterised by high frequencies of Hg E1b and I2). Western Croats and Slovenians are usually not within this tight South Slavic cluster (due to low E1b levels and comparatively higher R1a and R1b).<ref name="Rębała ''et al.'' 2007">Rębała ''et al.'' 2007.</ref> Non-Slavic Romanians also cluster with the South Slavic group in the Bosch study.
{{Cnote2|a|Prior to the advent of Roman rule, a number of native or autochthonous populations had lived in the Balkans since ancient times. South of the ] were the ]. To the north, there were ], ] and ]. They were mainly tribalistic and generally lacked awareness of any ethno-political affiliation. Over the classical ages, they were at times invaded, conquered and influenced by ], ] and ]. Roman influence, however, was initially limited to cities concentrated along the Dalmatian coast, later spreading to a few scattered cities inside the Balkan interior, particularly along the river Danube (], ], ]). Roman citizens from throughout the empire settled in these cities and in the adjacent countryside. Following the fall of Rome and numerous barbarian raids, the population in the Balkans dropped, as did commerce and general standards of living. Many people were killed or taken prisoner by invaders. This demographic decline was particularly attributed to a drop in the number of indigenous peasants living in rural areas. They were the most vulnerable to raids and were also hardest hit by the financial crises that plagued the falling empire. However, the Balkans were not desolate, and considerable numbers of indigenous people remained. Only certain areas tended to be affected by the raids (e.g. lands around major land routes, such as the Morava corridor).{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=9–12, 37}} In addition to the autochthons, there were remnants of previous invaders such as "]" and various ] when the Slavs arrived. ] such as the ] were still recorded as living in the ] region of the Danube.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=57}} The mixing of Slavs and other peoples is evident in ]. }}
{{Cnote2 End}}


====mtDNA==== ==References==
{{reflist|20em}}
In comparison, mtDNA haplogroups show far more uniform frequency distributions throughout Europe. For example, a study by Bosch ''et al.'' showed that mtDNA samples from all southern Slavs as well as Romanians, Albanians and Greeks, clustered together, and separately from those of Turkish groups. Nevertheless, higher resolution studies have detected that South Slavs can be differentiated from other southern Europeans, including Albanian, Greek and Italian neighbours. Even individual South Slavic groups have revealed distinctive combinations of mtDNA subclusters and sequence types.


==Sources==
====Autosomal DNA====
{{refbegin}}
Whilst useful in postulating population migrations and expansions, mtDNA and ]-DNA do not demonstrate the totality of "genetic make-up", but rather a very small portion of it, namely, a single line of patrilineage (Y-DNA) and matrilineage (mtDNA). Moreoever, given its propensity to drift, population expansions in more recent prehistory can completely overwrite previous patterns. However, the majority of genetic history lies in the thousands of "classical markers" (blood group systems, protein polymorphisms), as well as non-coding ] and ] sequences in ] (atDNA), which is representative of the one's entire ancestry . Several loci, such as the β-globin gene, have been dated to 800, 000 years ago. By contrast, the coalescence time of all mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups reaches back to a maximum of 200, 000 years
;Primary sources
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Moravcsik|editor-first=Gyula|editor-link=Gyula Moravcsik|title=Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio|year=1967|orig-year=1949|edition=2nd revised|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3al15wpFWiMC|isbn=9780884020219|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=20 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120171955/https://books.google.com/books?id=3al15wpFWiMC|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Scholz|editor-first=Bernhard Walter|title=Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories|year=1970|publisher=University of Michigan Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTzl6wFjehMC|isbn=0472061860|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927202758/https://books.google.com/books?id=sTzl6wFjehMC|url-status=live}}


;Books
Most of the larger sequences in atDNA undergo ], thus direct information about ancestral inheritance is difficult to ascertain. However, inferences on the overall genetic substructure and relatedness between populations is best achieved by analysing the hundreds of thousands of loci within atDNA. One recent study by two research teams <ref>{{Citation |author=Novembre J, Johnson T, Bryc K |title=Genes mirror geography within Europe |journal=Nature |volume=456 |issue=7218 |pages=98–101 |date=November 2008 |pmid=18758442 |doi=10.1038/nature07331 |pmc=2735096|bibcode = 2008Natur.456...98N |author2=and others |displayauthors=1 |last3=Bryc |last4=Kutalik |last5=Boyko |last6=Auton |last7=Indap |last8=King |last9=Bergmann |last10=Nelson |last11=Stephens |last12=Bustamante }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |author=Lao O, Lu TT, Nothnagel M |title=Correlation between genetic and geographic structure in Europe |journal=Curr. Biol. |volume=18 |issue=16 |pages=1241–8 |date=August 2008 |pmid=18691889 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.049 |url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960-9822(08)00956-1 |accessdate=2009-07-22|display-authors=etal}}</ref> has shown that:
* {{Cite book|last=Barford|first=Paul M.|title=The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe|year=2001|location=Ithaca, NY|publisher=Cornell University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC|isbn=0801439779|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145142/https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Castellan|first=Georges|title=History of the Balkans: From Mohammed the Conqueror to Stalin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1G5pAAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=East European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-222-4|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145151/https://books.google.com/books?id=1G5pAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|last=Curta|first=Florin|author-link=Florin Curta|title=The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700|year=2001|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcFGhCVs0sYC|isbn=9781139428880|access-date=2 August 2017|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927203144/https://books.google.com/books?id=rcFGhCVs0sYC|url-status=live}}
* {{Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250}}
* {{Cite book|last=Dvornik|first=Francis|author-link=Francis Dvornik|title=The Slavs in European History and Civilization|year=1962|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Rutgers University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/slavsineuropeanh0000dvor|url-access=registration|isbn=9780813507996}}
* {{The Early Medieval Balkans}}
* {{The Late Medieval Balkans}}
* {{Cite book|last=Fine|first=John Van Antwerp Jr.|author-link=John Van Antwerp Fine Jr.|title=When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods|year=2005|location=Ann Arbor, Michigan|publisher=University of Michigan Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEF5oN5erE0C|isbn=0472025600|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927203730/https://books.google.com/books?id=wEF5oN5erE0C|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Hupchick|first=Dennis P.|title=The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N-Dh3D_VPdwC|year=2004|orig-year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-6417-5|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145200/https://books.google.com/books?id=N-Dh3D_VPdwC|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=James|first=Edward|title=Europe's Barbarians AD 200-600|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlYSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-86825-5|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145211/https://books.google.com/books?id=zlYSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Janković|first=Đorđe|title=The Slavs in the 6th Century North Illyricum|journal=Гласник Српског археолошког друштва|year=2004|volume=20|pages=39–61|url=http://www.rastko.rs/arheologija/delo/13047|access-date=8 March 2018|archive-date=23 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123101219/http://www.rastko.rs/arheologija/delo/13047|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jelavich|first=Barbara|author-link=Barbara Jelavich|title=History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries|volume=1|year=1983a|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR4EeOrTm-0C|isbn=9780521274586|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123132943/https://books.google.com/books?id=qR4EeOrTm-0C|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jelavich|first=Barbara|author-link=Barbara Jelavich|title=History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century|volume=2|year=1983b|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hd-or3qtqrsC|isbn=9780521274593}}
* {{cite book|last1=Kaimakamova|first1=Miliana|last2=Salamon|first2=Maciej|title=Byzantium, new peoples, new powers: the Byzantino-Slav contact zone, from the ninth to the fifteenth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85giAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Towarzystwo Wydawnicze "Historia Iagellonica"|isbn=978-83-88737-83-1|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145204/https://books.google.com/books?id=85giAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|first=Frank A.|last=Kmietowicz|title=Ancient Slavs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amTxAAAAMAAJ|year=1976|publisher=Worzalla Publishing Company|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145144/https://books.google.com/books?id=amTxAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Kobyliński|first=Zbigniew|title=The Slavs|work=The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 1, C.500-c.700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C&pg=PA524|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-36291-7|pages=524|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=15 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115221953/https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C&pg=PA524|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Kobyliński|first=Zbigniew|chapter=The Slavs|editor=Fouracre, Paul|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 1: c.500–c.700|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C|isbn=978-0-521-36291-7|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201330/https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Obolensky|first=Dimitri|author-link=Dimitri Obolensky|title=The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453|year=1974|orig-year=1971|location=London|publisher=Cardinal|isbn=9780351176449|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlBoAAAAMAAJ|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=21 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921093756/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlBoAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Ostrogorsky|first=George|author-link=George Ostrogorsky|year=1956|title=History of the Byzantine State|location=Oxford|publisher=Basil Blackwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423035501/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Portal|first=Roger|title=The Slavs|edition=Translated from French|translator=Evans, Patrick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AXMvAQAAMAAJ|year=1969|orig-year=1965|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|pages=<!--90–107, 242–250, 364–389, 440–450-->|isbn=9780297763130|access-date=21 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145144/https://books.google.com/books?id=AXMvAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Runciman|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Runciman|title=A History of the First Bulgarian Empire|year=1930|location=London|publisher=G. Bell & Sons|isbn=9780598749222|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-NBAAAAYAAJ|access-date=20 October 2020|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145648/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-NBAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Samardžić|editor-first1=Radovan|editor-link1=Radovan Samardžić|editor-last2=Duškov|editor-first2=Milan|title=Serbs in European Civilization|year=1993|location=Belgrade|publisher=Nova, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Balkan Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3MtAQAAIAAJ|isbn=9788675830153}}
* {{cite book|last=Singleton|first=Fred|title=A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples|url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofyu0000sing|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-27485-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Stavrianos|first=Leften Stavros|author-link=L. S. Stavrianos|title=The Balkans Since 1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcp7OXQE0FMC|year=2000|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-551-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Vlasto|first=Alexis P.|author-link=Alexis P. Vlasto|title=The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs|year=1970|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ|isbn=9780521074599|access-date=8 March 2018|archive-date=20 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120164740/https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}
*{{cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|year=2002|title=Јужни Словени под византијском влашћу 600-1025|trans-title=South Slavs under the Byzantine Rule (600–1025)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oE-gAAAAMAAJ|location=Belgrade|publisher=Историјски институт САНУ|isbn=9788677430276|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927203640/https://books.google.com/books?id=oE-gAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|year=2008|title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550–1150|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa|isbn=9788675585732|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ|access-date=25 September 2016|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927204207/https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}


;Journals
* There are no clear clusters or groups within the European population
*{{cite book|editor-last1=Gitelman|editor-first1=Zvi|editor-last2=Hajda|editor-first2=Lubomyr A.|editor-last3=Himka|editor-first3=John-Paul|editor-last4=Solchanyk|editor-first4=Roman|title=Cultures and Nations of Central and Eastern Europe: Essays in Honor of Roman Szporluk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FIjAQAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University|isbn=978-0-916458-93-5|ref={{harvid|URI|2000}}|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=6 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006145721/https://books.google.com/books?id=2FIjAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}
* Except for "genetic outliers" such as Saami, Finns, Basques and Sardinians, Europeans are somewhat genetically homogeneous
{{refend}}
* Individual population groups are often closely related to their immediate neighbours (irrespective of language or ethnicity)
* There is a southern to northern genetic cline, and populations in southern Europe are older and more genetically diverse than those in northern Europe.


==Gallery== ==Further reading==
{{commonscatinline}}
;Personalities
{{refbegin}}
<Center>
*Jelavich, C., 1990. South Slav nationalisms—textbooks and Yugoslav Union before 1914. Ohio State Univ Pr.
<gallery>
*Petkov, K., 1997. Infidels, Turks, and women: the South Slavs in the German mind; ca. 1400–1600. Lang.
File:Prešern-Goldenstein.jpg|] - ] poet.
*Ferjančić, B., 2009. Vizantija i južni Sloveni. Ethos.
File:Kralj_Tomislav.jpg |] - first king of Croatia.
*Kovacevic, M.G.J., 1950. Pregled materijalne kulture Juznih Slovena.
File:Tesla3.jpg|] - ] scientist.
*Filipovic, M.S., 1963. Forms and functions of ritual kinship among South Slavs. In V Congres international des sciences anthropologiques et ethnologiques (pp.&nbsp;77–80).
File:Vito nikolic.jpg|] - ] poet and journalist.
*Šarić, L., 2004. Balkan identity: Changing self-images of the South Slavs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural development, 25(5–6), pp.&nbsp;389–407.
File:G_Delchev.jpg|] - ] revolutionary, venetrated as a national hero in Bulgaria and Macedonia.
*Ostrogorsky, G., 1963. Byzantium and the South Slavs. The Slavonic and East European Review, 42(98), pp.&nbsp;1–14.
File:Vasil Levski portrait.jpg|] - national hero of ].
{{refend}}

File:MirsadTürkcan.JPG|] - first Bosniak to play in the ].
</gallery>
</Center>

;Sights
<Center>
<gallery>
File:Royal city of Cetinje.jpg|] - Royal capital of Montenegro.
File:Dubrovnik crop.jpg|] - "Pearl of the Adriatic".
File:Lake Ohrid55.jpg|] - "Macedonian/European Jerusalem".
File:Navy Club in Varna.jpg|] - Marine capital of Bulgaria.
File:Triglav.jpg|] - a symbol of Slovenia.
File:Mostar Old Town Panorama.jpg|] - capital of Herzegovina.
File:Pejzaz9.jpg|] - a popular tourist destination in Serbia.
</gallery>
</Center>

;National costumes
<Center>
<gallery>
File:DKS Obcice center ljudski ples.jpg|Children in national costumes in ], Slovenia.
File:Miljevacka nosnja Visovac 06082011 60.jpg|Girls with ] dress in ], Croatia.
File:43. TKB - Seljo z Sarajewa (Bośnia i Hercegowina) 02.JPG|Girls with ] dress, from Bosnia.
File:Proclamation of the Kingdom of Montenegro.jpg|King ] of Montenegro in national dress.
File:Mariovska Nosija.jpg|Girls from ], Macedonia.
File:Defile2006.JPG|Children in national costumes from ], Serbia.
File:Bulgarian folk group Svetlina.jpg|Bulgarian folk group from ], Bulgaria.
</gallery>
</Center>

==See also==
* ]

==References==
{{reflist|20em}}


===Sources===
{{commons category|South Slavs}}
*{{citation | first = John Van Antwerp | last = Fine | title = The Early Medieval Balkans | publisher = University of Michigan Press | year = 1983 | isbn = 0-472-08149-7 | url= }}
*{{citation | first = John Van Antwerp | last = Fine | title = The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century | publisher = University of Michigan Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-472-08149-3 | url=http://books.google.com/?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C}}
* Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region c. 500-700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
*Curta, Florin and Stephenson, Paul. ''Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250''. Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-81539-8
*Alexander F. Tsvirkun The history of western and southern Slavs. Kharkov., 2008
{{Slavic ethnic groups}} {{Slavic ethnic groups}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2011}}


{{Authority control}} {{Authority control}}


] ]
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Latest revision as of 15:15, 24 November 2024

Subgroup of Slavic peoples who speak the South Slavic languages

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Ethnic group
South Slavs

Јужни Славени/Južni Slaveni (Bosnian)
Южни славяни (Bulgarian)
Južni Slaveni (Croatian)
Јужни Словени (Macedonian)
Južni Sloveni/Јужни Словени (Montenegrin)
Јужни Словени/Južni Sloveni (Serbian)
Južni Slovani (Slovenian)
  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language  Countries where East and West Slavic languages are the national language
Total population
c. 30 million
Regions with significant populations
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia
Languages
Eastern South Slavic:
Bulgarian
Macedonian
Western South Slavic:
Serbo-Croatian
(Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian)
Slovene
Religion
Eastern Orthodoxy:
(Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Serbs)

Roman Catholicism:
(Croats, Slovenes, Bunjevci, Šokci and Banat Bulgarians)

Sunni Islam:
(Bosniaks, Pomaks, Gorani, Torbeši and Ethnic Muslims)
Related ethnic groups
Other Slavs

South Slavs are Slavic people who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, Hungary, Romania, and the Black Sea, the South Slavs today include Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes.

In the 20th century, the country of Yugoslavia (from Serbo-Croatian, literally meaning "South Slavia" or "South Slavdom") united a majority of the South Slavic peoples and lands—with the exception of Bulgarians and Bulgaria—into a single state. The Pan-Slavic concept of Yugoslavia emerged in late 17th-century Croatia, at the time part of the Habsburg monarchy, and gained prominence through the 19th-century Illyrian movement. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, was proclaimed on 1 December 1918, following the unification of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro. With the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, several independent sovereign states were formed.

The term "Yugoslavs" was and sometimes is still used as a synonym for "South Slavs", but it usually excludes Bulgarians since Bulgaria never formed part of the former Yugoslavia.

Terminology

The South Slavs are known in Serbian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin as Južni Sloveni (Cyrillic: Јужни Словени); in Bulgarian as Yuzhni Slavyani (Cyrillic: Южни славяни); in Croatian and Bosnian as Južni Slaveni; and in Slovene as Južni Slovani. The Slavic root *jug- means 'south'. The Slavic ethnonym itself was used by 6th-century writers to describe the southern group of Early Slavs (the Sclaveni); West Slavs were called Veneti and East Slavs Antes. The South Slavs are also called Balkan Slavs.

Another name popular in the early modern period was Illyrians, using the name of a pre-Slavic Balkan people, a name first adopted by Dalmatian intellectuals in the late 15th century to refer to South Slavic lands and population. It was then used by the Habsburg monarchy and France, and notably adopted by the 19th-century Croatian Illyrian movement. Eventually, the idea of Yugoslavism appeared, aimed at uniting all South Slav-populated territories into a common state. From this idea emerged Yugoslavia—which, however, did not include Bulgaria.

History

Main article: Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe

Early South Slavs

Main articles: Early Slavs, Sclaveni, and Antes (people)

The Proto-Slavic homeland is the postulated area of Slavic settlement in Central and Eastern Europe during the first millennium AD, with its precise location debated by archaeologists, ethnographers and historians. None of the proposed homelands reaches the Volga River in the east, over the Dinaric Alps in the southwest or the Balkan Mountains in the south, or past Bohemia in the west. Traditionally, scholars place it in the marshes of Ukraine, or alternatively between the Bug and the Dnieper; however, according to F. Curta, the homeland of the southern Slavs mentioned by 6th-century writers was just north of the Lower Danube. Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century, when they began to spread out in all directions.

Jordanes (fl.  6th century CE), Procopius (c. 500 - c. 565) and other late Roman authors provide the probable earliest references to southern Slavs in the second half of the 6th century. Procopius described the Sclaveni and Antes as two barbarian peoples with the same institutions and customs since ancient times, not ruled by a single leader but living under democracy, while Pseudo-Maurice called them a numerous people, undisciplined, unorganized and leaderless, who did not allow enslavement and conquest, and resistant to hardship, bearing all weathers. They were portrayed by Procopius as unusually tall and strong, of dark skin and "reddish" hair (neither blond nor black), leading a primitive life and living in scattered huts, often changing their residence. Procopius said they were henotheistic, believing in the god of lightning (Perun), the ruler of all, to whom they sacrificed cattle. They went into battle on foot, charging straight at their enemy, armed with spears and small shields, but they did not wear armour.

While archaeological evidence for a large-scale migration is lacking, most present-day historians claim that Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. According to this dominant narrative, up until the late 560s their main activity southward across the Danube was raiding, though with limited Slavic settlement mainly through Byzantine colonies of foederati. The Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical Byzantine province, through which the Via Militaris crossed. This area was frequently intruded upon by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries. From the Danube, the Slavs commenced raiding the Byzantine Empire on an annual basis from the 520s, spreading destruction, taking loot and herds of cattle, seizing prisoners and capturing fortresses. Often, the Byzantine Empire was stretched, defending its rich Asian provinces from Arabs, Persians and others. This meant that even numerically small, disorganised early Slavic raids were capable of causing much disruption, but could not capture the larger, fortified cities. The first Slavic raid south of the Danube was recorded by Procopius, who mentions an attack of the Antes, "who dwell close to the Sclaveni", probably in 518. Sclaveni are first mentioned in the context of the military policy on the Danube frontier of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565). Throughout the 6th century, Slavs raided and plundered deep into the Balkans, from Dalmatia to Greece and Thrace, and were also at times recruited as Byzantine mercenaries, fighting the Ostrogoths. Justinian seems to have used the strategy of 'divide and conquer', and the Sclaveni and Antes are mentioned as fighting each other. The Antes are last mentioned as anti-Byzantine belligerents in 545, and the Sclaveni continued to raid the Balkans. In 558 the Avars arrived at the Black Sea steppe, and defeated the Antes between the Dnieper and Dniester. The Avars subsequently allied themselves with the Sclaveni, although there was an episode in which the Sclavene Daurentius (fl.  577–579), the first Slavic chieftain recorded by name, dismissed Avar suzerainty and retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs so it shall always be for us", and had the Avar envoys slain. By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organized, and as the Avars exerted their influence, raids became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. Most scholars consider the period of 581–584 as the beginning of large-scale Slavic settlement in the Balkans. F. Curta points out that evidence of substantial Slavic presence does not appear before the 7th century and remains qualitatively different from the "Slavic culture" found north of the Danube. In the mid-6th century, the Byzantines re-asserted their control of the Danube frontier, thereby reducing the economic value of Slavic raiding. This growing economic isolation, combined with external threats from the Avars and Byzantines, led to political and military mobilisation. Meanwhile, the itinerant form of agriculture (lacking crop rotation) may have encouraged micro-regional mobility. Seventh-century archaeological sites show earlier hamlet-collections evolving into larger communities with differentiated zones for public feasts, craftmanship, etc. It has been suggested that the Sclaveni were the ancestors of the Serbo-Croatian group while the Antes were those of the Bulgarian Slavs, with much mixture in the contact zones. The diminished pre-Slavic inhabitants, also including Romanized native peoples, fled from the barbarian invasions and sought refuge inside fortified cities and islands, whilst others fled to remote mountains and forests and adopted a transhumant lifestyle. The Romance-speakers within the fortified Dalmatian city-states managed to retain their culture and language for a long time. Meanwhile, the numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population.

Subsequent information about Slavs' interaction with the Greeks and early Slavic states comes from the 10th-century text De Administrando Imperio (DAI) written by Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, from the 7th-century compilations of the Miracles of Saint Demetrius (MSD) and from the History by Theophylact Simocatta (c. 630). DAI mentions the beginnings of the Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian states from the early 7th to the mid-10th century. MSD and Theophylact Simocatta mention the Slavic tribes in Thessaly and Macedonia at the beginning of the 7th century. The 9th-century Royal Frankish Annals (RFA) also mention Slavic tribes in contact with the Franks.

Middle Ages

See also: Saqaliba

By 700 AD, Slavs had settled in most of Central and Southeast Europe, from Austria even down to the Peloponnese of Greece, and from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, with the exception of the coastal areas and certain mountainous regions of the Greek peninsula. The Avars, who arrived in Europe in the late 550s and had a great impact in the Balkans, had from their base in the Carpathian plain, west of main Slavic settlements, asserted control over Slavic tribes with whom they besieged Roman cities. Their influence in the Balkans however diminished by the early 7th century and they were finally defeated and disappeared as a power at the turn of the 9th century by Bulgaria and the Frankish Empire. The first South Slavic polity and regional power was Bulgaria, a state formed in 681 as a union between the much numerous Slavic tribes and the bulgars of Khan Asparuh. The scattered Slavs in Greece, the Sklavinia, were Hellenized. Romance-speakers lived within the fortified Dalmatian city-states. Traditional historiography, based on DAI, holds that the migration of Serbs and Croats to the Balkans was part of a second Slavic wave, placed during Heraclius' reign.

Inhabiting the territory between the Franks in the north and Byzantium in the south, the Slavs were exposed to competing influences. In 863 to Christianized Great Moravia were sent two Byzantine brothers monks Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavs from Thessaloniki on missionary work. They created the Glagolitic script and the first Slavic written language, Old Church Slavonic, which they used to translate Biblical works. At the time, the West and South Slavs still spoke a similar language. The script used, Glagolitic, was capable of representing all Slavic sounds, however, it was gradually replaced in Bulgaria in the 9th century, in Russia by the 11th century Glagolitic survived into the 16th century in Croatia, used by Benedictines and Franciscans, but lost importance during the Counter-Reformation when Latin replaced it on the Dalmatian coast. Cyril and Methodius' disciples found refuge in already Christian Bulgaria, where the Old Church Slavonic became the ecclesiastical language. Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School in Bulgaria. The earliest Slavic literary works were composed in Bulgaria, Duklja and Dalmatia. The religious works were almost exclusively translations, from Latin (Croatia, Slovenia) and especially Greek (Bulgaria, Serbia). In the 10th and 11th centuries the Old Church Slavonic led to the creation of various regional forms like Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian. Economic, religious and political centres of Ohrid and Preslav contributed to the important literary production in the Bulgarian Empire. The Bogomil sect, derived from Manichaeism, was deemed heretical, but managed to spread from Bulgaria to Bosnia (where it gained a foothold), and France (Cathars).

Carinthia came under Germanic rule in the 10th century and came permanently under Western (Roman) Christian sphere of influence. What is today Croatia came under Eastern Roman (Byzantine) rule after the Barbarian age, and while most of the territory was Slavicized, a handful of fortified towns, with mixed population, remained under Byzantine authority and continued to use Latin. Dalmatia, now applied to the narrow strip with Byzantine towns, came under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, while the Croatian state remained pagan until Christianization during the reign of Charlemagne, after which religious allegiance was to Rome. Croats threw off Frankish rule in the 9th century and took over the Byzantine Dalmatian towns, after which Hungarian conquest led to Hungarian suzerainty, although retaining an army and institutions. Croatia lost much of Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice which held it until the 18th century. Hungary governed Croatia through a duke, and the coastal towns through a ban. A feudal class emerged in the Croatian hinterland in the late 13th century, among whom were the Kurjaković, Kačić and most notably the Šubić. Dalmatian fortified towns meanwhile maintained autonomy, with a Roman patrician class and Slavic lower class, first under Hungary and then Venice after centuries of struggle.

Ibn al-Faqih described two kinds of South Slavic people, the first of swarthy complexion and dark hair, living near the Adriatic coast, and the other as light, living in the hinterland.

Early modern period

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Through Islamization, communities of Slavic Muslims emerged, which survive until today in Bosnia, south Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.

While Pan-Slavism has its origins in the 17th-century Slavic Catholic clergymen in the Republic of Venice and Republic of Ragusa, it crystallized only in the mid-19th century amidst rise of nationalism in the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.

Population

Main article: Slavs § Population

Languages

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Main article: South Slavic languages

The South Slavic languages, one of three branches of the Slavic languages family (the other being West Slavic and East Slavic), form a dialect continuum. It comprises, from west to east, the official languages of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. The South Slavic languages are geographically divided from the rest of the Slavic languages by areas where Germanic (Austria), Hungarian and Romanian languages prevail.

South Slavic standard languages are:

West:
Serbo-Croatian (pluricentric)
(Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin)
Slovene

East:
Bulgarian
Macedonian

A map of geographical extension of dialects of languages that belong into South Slavic group (Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian)

The Serbo-Croatian varieties have strong structural unity and are regarded by most linguists as constituting one language. Today, language secessionism has led to the codification of several distinct standards: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. These Serbo-Croatian standards are all based on the Shtokavian dialect group. Other dialect groups, which have lower intelligibility with Shtokavian, are Chakavian in Dalmatia and Kajkavian in Croatia proper. The dominance of Shtokavian across Serbo-Croatian speaking lands is due to historical westward migration during the Ottoman period. Slovene is South Slavic but has many features shared with West Slavic languages. The Prekmurje Slovene and Kajkavian are especially close, and there is no sharp delineation between them. In southeastern Serbia, dialects enter a transitional zone with Bulgarian and Macedonian, with features of both groups, and are commonly called Torlakian. The Eastern South Slavic languages are Bulgarian and Macedonian. Bulgarian has retained more archaic Slavic features in relation to the other languages. Bulgarian has two main yat splits. Macedonian was codified in Communist Yugoslavia in 1945. The northern and eastern Macedonian dialects are regarded as transitional to Serbian and Bulgarian, respectively. Furthermore, in Greece there is a notable Slavic-speaking population in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace. Slavic dialects in western Greek Macedonia (Kastoria, Florina) are usually classified as Macedonian, those in eastern Greek Macedonia (Serres, Drama) and Western Thrace as Bulgarian and the central ones (Edessa, Kilkis) as either Macedonian or transitional between Macedonian and Bulgarian. Balkan Slavic languages are part of a "Balkan sprachbund" with areal features shared with other non-Slavic languages in the Balkans.

Genetics

See also: Slavs § Genetics
Admixture analysis of autosomal SNPs of the Balkan region in a global context on the resolution level of 7 assumed ancestral populations: the African (brown), South/West European (light blue), Asian (yellow), Middle Eastern (orange), South Asian (green), North/East European (dark blue) and beige Caucasus component
Autosomal analysis presenting the historical contribution of different donor groups in some European populations. Polish sample was selected to represent the Slavic influence, and it is suggesting a strong and early impact in Greece (30-37%), Romania (48-57%), Bulgaria (55-59%), and Hungary (54-84%).

According to the 2013 autosomal IBD survey "of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale", the speakers of Serbo-Croatian language share a very high number of common ancestors dated to the migration period approximately 1,500 years ago with Poland and Romania-Bulgaria cluster among others in Eastern Europe. It is concluded to be caused by the Hunnic and Slavic expansion, which was a "relatively small population that expanded over a large geographic area", particularly "the expansion of the Slavic populations into regions of low population density beginning in the sixth century" and that it is "highly coincident with the modern distribution of Slavic languages". According to Kushniarevich et al. 2015, the Hellenthal et al. 2014 IBD analysis also found "multi-directional admixture events among East Europeans (both Slavic and non-Slavic), dated to around 1,000–1,600 YBP" which coincides with "the proposed time-frame for the Slavic expansion". The Slavic influence is "dated to 500-900 CE or a bit later with over 40-50% among Bulgarians, Romanians, and Hungarians". The 2015 IBD analysis found that the South Slavs have lower proximity to Greeks than with East and West Slavs and that there's an "even patterns of IBD sharing among East-West Slavs–'inter-Slavic' populations (Hungarians, Romanians and Gagauz)–and South Slavs, i.e. across an area of assumed historic movements of people including Slavs". The slight peak of shared IBD segments between South and East-West Slavs suggests a shared "Slavonic-time ancestry". The 2014 IBD analysis comparison of Western Balkan and Middle Eastern populations also found negligible gene flow between 16th and 19th century during the Islamization of the Balkans.

According to a 2014 admixture analysis of Western Balkan, the South Slavs show a genetic uniformity. Bosnians and Croatians were closer to East European populations and largely overlapped with Hungarians from Central Europe. In the 2015 analysis, Bosnians and Croatians formed a western South Slavic cluster together with Slovenians, in opposition to an eastern cluster formed by Macedonians and Bulgarians, with Serbians in between the two. The western cluster has an inclination toward Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks, while the eastern ones lean toward Romanians and, to some extent, to Greeks. The modeled ancestral genetic component of Balto-Slavs among South Slavs was between 55 and 70%. In the 2018 analysis of Slovenian population, the Slovenian population clustered with Croatians, Hungarians and was close to Czech.

The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that the Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis that places the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middle Dnieper". According to genetic studies until 2020, the distribution, variance and frequency of the Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and I2 and their subclades R-M558, R-M458 and I-CTS10228 among South Slavs are in correlation with the spreading of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine and Southeastern Poland.

See also

Annotations

  1. Prior to the advent of Roman rule, a number of native or autochthonous populations had lived in the Balkans since ancient times. South of the Jireček line were the Greeks. To the north, there were Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians. They were mainly tribalistic and generally lacked awareness of any ethno-political affiliation. Over the classical ages, they were at times invaded, conquered and influenced by Celts, ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Roman influence, however, was initially limited to cities concentrated along the Dalmatian coast, later spreading to a few scattered cities inside the Balkan interior, particularly along the river Danube (Sirmium, Belgrade, Niš). Roman citizens from throughout the empire settled in these cities and in the adjacent countryside. Following the fall of Rome and numerous barbarian raids, the population in the Balkans dropped, as did commerce and general standards of living. Many people were killed or taken prisoner by invaders. This demographic decline was particularly attributed to a drop in the number of indigenous peasants living in rural areas. They were the most vulnerable to raids and were also hardest hit by the financial crises that plagued the falling empire. However, the Balkans were not desolate, and considerable numbers of indigenous people remained. Only certain areas tended to be affected by the raids (e.g. lands around major land routes, such as the Morava corridor). In addition to the autochthons, there were remnants of previous invaders such as "Huns" and various Germanic peoples when the Slavs arrived. Sarmatian tribes such as the Iazyges were still recorded as living in the Banat region of the Danube. The mixing of Slavs and other peoples is evident in genetic studies included in the article.

References

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    Hellenthal, Garrett; Busby, George B.J.; Band, Gavin; Wilson, James F.; Capelli, Cristian; Falush, Daniel; Myers, Simon (14 February 2014). "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History". Science. 343 (6172): 747–751. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..747H. doi:10.1126/science.1243518. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4209567. PMID 24531965.
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  58. Rebała, K; Mikulich, AI; Tsybovsky, IS; Siváková, D; Dzupinková, Z; Szczerkowska-Dobosz, A; Szczerkowska, Z (2007). "Y-STR variation among Slavs: Evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin". Journal of Human Genetics. 52 (5): 406–14. doi:10.1007/s10038-007-0125-6. PMID 17364156.
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  60. Underhill, Peter A. (2015), "The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a", European Journal of Human Genetics, 23 (1): 124–131, doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.50, PMC 4266736, PMID 24667786, R1a-M458 exceeds 20% in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Western Belarus. The lineage averages 11–15% across Russia and Ukraine and occurs at 7% or less elsewhere (Figure 2d). Unlike hg R1a-M458, the R1a-M558 clade is also common in the Volga-Uralic populations. R1a-M558 occurs at 10–33% in parts of Russia, exceeds 26% in Poland and Western Belarus, and varies between 10 and 23% in the Ukraine, whereas it drops 10-fold lower in Western Europe. In general, both R1a-M458 and R1a-M558 occur at low but informative frequencies in Balkan populations with known Slavonic heritage.
  61. O.M. Utevska (2017). Генофонд українців за різними системами генетичних маркерів: походження і місце на європейському генетичному просторі [The gene pool of Ukrainians revealed by different systems of genetic markers: the origin and statement in Europe] (PhD) (in Ukrainian). National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. pp. 219–226, 302. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  62. Neparáczki, Endre; et al. (2019). "Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin". Scientific Reports. 9 (16569). Nature Research: 16569. Bibcode:2019NatSR...916569N. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53105-5. PMC 6851379. PMID 31719606. Hg I2a1a2b-L621 was present in 5 Conqueror samples, and a 6th sample form Magyarhomorog (MH/9) most likely also belongs here, as MH/9 is a likely kin of MH/16 (see below). This Hg of European origin is most prominent in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, especially among Slavic speaking groups.
  63. Pamjav, Horolma; Fehér, Tibor; Németh, Endre; Koppány Csáji, László (2019). Genetika és őstörténet (in Hungarian). Napkút Kiadó. p. 58. ISBN 978-963-263-855-3. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2020. Az I2-CTS10228 (köznevén „dinári-kárpáti") alcsoport legkorábbi közös őse 2200 évvel ezelőttre tehető, így esetében nem arról van szó, hogy a mezolit népesség Kelet-Európában ilyen mértékben fennmaradt volna, hanem arról, hogy egy, a mezolit csoportoktól származó szűk család az európai vaskorban sikeresen integrálódott egy olyan társadalomba, amely hamarosan erőteljes demográfiai expanzióba kezdett. Ez is mutatja, hogy nem feltétlenül népek, mintsem családok sikerével, nemzetségek elterjedésével is számolnunk kell, és ezt a jelenlegi etnikai identitással összefüggésbe hozni lehetetlen. A csoport elterjedése alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy a szláv népek migrációjában vett részt, így válva az R1a-t követően a második legdominánsabb csoporttá a mai Kelet-Európában. Nyugat-Európából viszont teljes mértékben hiányzik, kivéve a kora középkorban szláv nyelvet beszélő keletnémet területeket.
  64. Fóthi, E.; Gonzalez, A.; Fehér, T.; et al. (2020), "Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes", Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 12 (1): 31, Bibcode:2020ArAnS..12...31F, doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0, Based on SNP analysis, the CTS10228 group is 2200 ± 300 years old. The group's demographic expansion may have begun in Southeast Poland around that time, as carriers of the oldest subgroup are found there today. The group cannot solely be tied to the Slavs, because the proto-Slavic period was later, around 300–500 CE... The SNP-based age of the Eastern European CTS10228 branch is 2200 ± 300 years old. The carriers of the most ancient subgroup live in Southeast Poland, and it is likely that the rapid demographic expansion which brought the marker to other regions in Europe began there. The largest demographic explosion occurred in the Balkans, where the subgroup is dominant in 50.5% of Croatians, 30.1% of Serbs, 31.4% of Montenegrins, and in about 20% of Albanians and Greeks. As a result, this subgroup is often called Dinaric. It is interesting that while it is dominant among modern Balkan peoples, this subgroup has not been present yet during the Roman period, as it is almost absent in Italy as well (see Online Resource 5; ESM_5).
  65. Kushniarevich, Alena; Kassian, Alexei (2020), "Genetics and Slavic languages", in Marc L. Greenberg (ed.), Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online, Brill, doi:10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032367, retrieved 10 December 2020, The geographic distributions of the major eastern European NRY haplogroups (R1a-Z282, I2a-P37) overlap with the area occupied by the present-day Slavs to a great extent, and it might be tempting to consider both haplogroups as Slavic-specic patrilineal lineages
  66. Fine 1991, pp. 9–12, 37.
  67. Fine 1991, p. 57.

Sources

Primary sources
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Further reading

Media related to South Slavs at Wikimedia Commons

  • Jelavich, C., 1990. South Slav nationalisms—textbooks and Yugoslav Union before 1914. Ohio State Univ Pr.
  • Petkov, K., 1997. Infidels, Turks, and women: the South Slavs in the German mind; ca. 1400–1600. Lang.
  • Ferjančić, B., 2009. Vizantija i južni Sloveni. Ethos.
  • Kovacevic, M.G.J., 1950. Pregled materijalne kulture Juznih Slovena.
  • Filipovic, M.S., 1963. Forms and functions of ritual kinship among South Slavs. In V Congres international des sciences anthropologiques et ethnologiques (pp. 77–80).
  • Šarić, L., 2004. Balkan identity: Changing self-images of the South Slavs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural development, 25(5–6), pp. 389–407.
  • Ostrogorsky, G., 1963. Byzantium and the South Slavs. The Slavonic and East European Review, 42(98), pp. 1–14.
Slavic ethnic groups
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