Slavs
The Slavs are diverse peoples of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe whose languages belong to the Slavic branch of the Indo-European family.
Slavic languages: A branch of Indo-European languages spoken by Slavic peoples, divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups. Shared linguistic ancestry is the clearest basis for identifying Slavic peoples.
Early Slavs: The communities identified as Slavic in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, before modern national identities formed. Their emergence is the historical starting point for accounts of Slavic peoples.
Josef Dobrovský: A Czech philologist whose work helped establish the comparative study of Slavic languages. His scholarship helped turn linguistic kinship into a systematic account of Slavic peoples.
Pan-Slavism: A nineteenth-century movement advocating cultural or political solidarity among Slavic peoples. It promoted unity across Slavic communities, while their languages, interests, and political histories remained diverse.
Proto-Slavic: The reconstructed common ancestor of the Slavic languages, spoken before their historical diversification. Its development and fragmentation help trace the early formation of Slavic-speaking communities.
Slavic migrations: The movements of Slavic-speaking populations across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, especially during the sixth and seventh centuries. Migration carried Slavic languages and communities into regions where many Slavic peoples later developed.
Ján Kollár: A Slovak poet and Lutheran pastor who promoted cultural unity among Slavic peoples in the nineteenth century. His writing gave influential expression to the idea of Slavic cultural solidarity.
Slavic neopaganism: Modern religious movements that reconstruct or reinterpret pre-Christian Slavic traditions. It is sometimes presented as a shared ancestral faith, although historical Slavic religions varied and are incompletely documented.
Indo-European languages: A language family encompassing languages from English and Persian to Hindi and the Slavic languages. Slavic languages belong to this larger family and share deeper linguistic ancestry with its other branches.
Prague-Korchak culture: An archaeological culture of the sixth and seventh centuries often associated with early Slavic communities. Its material remains are among the principal archaeological evidence used to investigate early Slavic settlement.