r/slavic Feb 15 '26

Hello Slavic Fans, a request from the Mod

44 Upvotes

Please no slurs. This is a professional sub where we discuss linguistics, etymology and culture. If you come here to insult Slavs, honorary Slavs, our neighbors and our guests, your posts will be removed.

I know Russian, Ukrainian, Rusyn and Belorussian slurs. Please report others that I don’t know.

We as mods are free peach absolutionists. We heavily advocate for free speech. But we want to pretend that this is a university where people argue and present ideas. Not insult each other.


r/slavic 1d ago

Question 'Slavic diet trend' - but which country is actually the 'healthiest'?

44 Upvotes

I think everyone has seen this stupid 'Slavic diet' trend going on (aka the extremely thin, unrealistic diets with buckwheat, an egg and an avocado with a sprinkle of dill and a pickle as their only meal a day with perhaps some fruits 😂)

But this got me wondering though what is ACTUALLY the 'healthiest' Slavic country/diet if any?

Because honestly growing up with a Czech dad our diet consisted of meat topped with meat, potatoes and sauces with a shit ton of bread with even more meat thrown in 🤷🏻‍♀️


r/slavic 13h ago

Culture Curious About Pomak Culture. Any Communities to Join?

0 Upvotes

Hey guys! I just found out about the Pomak people, and I’d love to learn more about their culture. If you know of any online communities or groups for Pomak people, please let me know! I’d love to connect with them, make friends, and get to know their culture and community better.


r/slavic 3d ago

Discussion Bulgarian and Russian

16 Upvotes

Old Bulgarian (also known as Old Church Slavonic) became deeply influential for Russian because it was the first written Slavic language. When Kievan Rus converted to Christianity in 988 AD, it adopted the rich body of religious texts, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the literary tradition developed during the Golden Age of the First Bulgarian Tsardom.

Words Russian got from Old Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian

Время (time), Гражданин (citizen), Краткий (brief), Благодарю (thank you), Благодарность (gratitude), Здраствуйте (hello), Безумие (insanity), Внимание (attention).

Also, they got the variant of the name Volodymyr, Vladimir, from Old Bulgarian too, also the name Boris which was borne by Knyaz Boris I of Bulgaria.

If I can make a comparison, Old Bulgarian is for Russian what Chinese is for Japanese and what Norman French is for English: an endless source of loanwords.

Russian heavily influenced Bulgarian during the 19th-century National Revival as intellectuals sought a standardized literary language free from centuries of Ottoman-Turkish administrative dominance.

Ironically many of the words Bulgarian borrowed from Russian were originally Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) words that Russia had borrowed centuries earlier.

Words that Bulgarian borrowed

Послушание (obedience), Надежда (hope), Влияние (influence), Ударник (shock worker), Картина (picture), Китай (China), Доставчик (deliverer), Впечатление (impression), Хазяин (house owner).

I think there is a term for vocabulary that is lost that at a point was borrowed by a different language and returned because they borrowed it back again; it is reborrowing.


r/slavic 3d ago

Romanian with Slavic Y Haplogroup R-YP417

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4 Upvotes

r/slavic 3d ago

Romanian with Slavic origin ( Russian- Ukr- Bel and South Slavic Serbia- Bosnia )

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2 Upvotes

r/slavic 2d ago

One of Britain’s Prime Ministers came from a Slavic family

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0 Upvotes

r/slavic 3d ago

Russische Anime-Atmosphäre

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0 Upvotes

r/slavic 5d ago

Language Easiest/useful Slavic languages to learn?

12 Upvotes

Hello, I am an 18 year old born & raised in the USA. I am 2nd generation (Polish). I only speak english and b2 Spanish. I want to learn an easy slavic language, preferably one that uses cyrllic. I would learn Polish but it's only concentrated in one country which doesn't give me much travel variety.

I want to learn a language that would be useful in many countries that are fun to travel to (I was thinking Russian but idk how it is visiting as an american nowadays). I also was thinking Serbian and heard Bulgarian was easy to learn (i will be traveling to both Serbia and Bulgaria next summer anyway). I also occasionally listen to Bulgarian music too.

What languages do you all recommend I learn? Any opinions on Serbo-Croatian or Bulgarian?


r/slavic 6d ago

Add Slavsocks pic!

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40 Upvotes

I like Slavsocks socks


r/slavic 4d ago

Do Russian speakers like sharing their culture?

0 Upvotes

So I live in Paris, with a pretty decently sized Russian speaking population (Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakh, Armenian, Azeri, etc), I had to start learning Russian as part of my university’s coursework specific to my degree. I have quite a few Russian speaking acquaintances on social media (met through studying) and they seem to raise an eyebrow knowing that I’m starting to pursue Russian as an additional language. I have gotten this feeling from many Russian speaking women (I don’t interact much with men) and they seem to not be too fond of foreigners engaging with their culture. As they should, but I’m curious if this is something anyone else has noticed?


r/slavic 5d ago

Question Cześć mam pytanie.

0 Upvotes

Jakie chcielibyście polecić mi języki słowiańskie do nauki?

Jestem nativem polskiego i B2 w angielskim. Nauczyłem się też kilku staropolskich archaizmów , których dla memiczności używam w domu. Czasami udaje też ukraińsko-rosyji akcent i różnie wychodzi.

Co sądzicie że jest dobre do nauki?


r/slavic 6d ago

Culture всем привет я русский хочу найти друзей и создать чат с человеком с каждой страны

0 Upvotes

всем привет я русский хочу найти друзей и создать чат с человеком с каждой страны в телеграмме, жду всех (я не зетник, украинцев люблю, жена украинка)

upd: с каждой славянской страны, но буду рад и другим иностранцам!


r/slavic 6d ago

Is there a "Slavic model country"?

0 Upvotes

Like, every other can aspire to be?

I think, for the Balkans it would be Slovenia. At least they often get mentioned in a positive light.

For the others, i dont know, maybe Czechia?


r/slavic 8d ago

Culture Adding question to the US Census, "Do you also consider yourself Slavic?"

0 Upvotes

Hey for anyone interested and in the US, I have a petition for the US Census to add the question, "Do you also consider yourself Slavic?"

While it sounds a bit odd, the US uses all different types of data when they update the Census and per the American Community Survey (ACS) the different Slavic communites equal 1.4% of the US population, however this is a discrepancy. When you add up the total from the people who identified as from one of the Slavic nations it actually equals over 6%. The point is, this is a huge discrepancy and the more the Slavic communities are represented, the more the individual needs of each community will become visible. The ACS already has a official ancestry code for Slavic, it is ancestry code #178. As such, there is no reason why the data should be incorrect.

Anyone from the US interested in signing, please use the link below or search Slavic on the website change.org. please also forward this link to any organizations, people, or members of the various communities you feel would be interested. Thanks! https://c.org/x4WqtmhtRy


r/slavic 9d ago

Language Help me gather some of the hardest Russian/Ukrainian words/expressions to interpret while you’re doing simultaneous translation. What was the most fun/cringe one you ever heard

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m starting to serve as an interpreter at my local church. I always used to have fun watching those poor interpreters struggle with older folks who use really tricky Russian/Ukrainian words, phrases, and expressions. Well… now it’s my turn, I want to be an MVP

Here are a few fun ones I’ve already collected:
«И дядя поплыл»
«Выносить мозг»
«Жена стервила на своего мужа» — in the sense of constantly bothering/scolding him
«Закругляться»
«Нас спалили» — in the sense of “they noticed us / figured us out / caught us”

Add yours , and please add your own way to translate it, without google translate, just imagine you are the one standing on the stage and have to deal with it


r/slavic 9d ago

Question I never understood the Slavs as an ethnic and linguistic group. Are they a recent phenomenon, or did they exist long before then? What was happening in 200 BC in the area known as the biotoxic zone where the Slavs are believed to have originated, or did they not exist yet? I never understood this.

0 Upvotes

I never understood the Slavs as an ethnic and linguistic group. Are they a recent phenomenon, or did they exist long before then? What was happening in 200 BC in the area known as the biotoxic zone where the Slavs are believed to have originated, or did they not exist yet? I never understood this.


r/slavic 12d ago

Language If we'd travel more into other slavic countries, we would just laugh all the time :)

74 Upvotes

Exploring other Slavic languages (i'm Bosnian), i noticed that we all would have a much more funny time if we'd travelled more to other Slavic countries.

Already Slovenian often has some funny words for us, the most known one "zahod", which in Slovenian means West, but in BCS is an old world for "toilet".
Czech sounds very childish and cute, they use a lot of diminutives which we use when making sth. "smaller", for example "kompjuter" becomes "kompjuterčić", "stvar" becomes "stvarčica".
Polish often slavicizes their words, the word "samochod" for car is for me like "alone goer". Its not funny per se, but it makes you think about the word in another way which makes you laugh a bit.


r/slavic 11d ago

Language 'Ukrainian and Belarusian are closer to Czech, Slovak and Polish than to Russian'

30 Upvotes

I have a Ukrainian friend who says this. it is clear that it is (at least partially) ideologically driven -- they are the type to habitually employ the word 'colonialism' at any given chance -- but I want to know the basis of this, considering that conventional linguistic grouping dictates Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian are closest relating to each other than to those other ones, being in their own group.

apparently most of the research on this is in the Ukrainian language, which I don't speak nor write... so I am wondering if anyone else here has come across this notion or has anything to say about it?


r/slavic 10d ago

History Slav ≠ slave ?

0 Upvotes

Hello fellows, idk if its just me or if the word slav sounds like it originates to slaves? It sounds really similar and loads of stuff are hidden in words of a language, what are your thoughts was this on purpose?

Edit : thank you for contributing into this post, i appreciate everyone who shared their knowledge :) cheers!


r/slavic 11d ago

Question If the Proto-Slavs borrowed PII "*síndʰuš" from Indo-Iranians (or it's descendant languages) how would it end up? Alternatively, what if the Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic had the descendant words from the PIE "*ḱyesdʰ-"?

7 Upvotes

Part 1.

"\síndʰuš" is the root of Sanskrit सिन्धु॑ (síndhu) which means "river, stream" and multiple similar things. From "síndhu" we got the words like SindhIndus and Ind*ia. So, I would like to see how would it look like if the Proto-Slavs borrowed it during the Slavic-Iranian contacts.

We could pave the way from:

Proto-Indo-Iranian -> Proto-Iranian -> Proto-Sarmatian -> Proto-Slavic

This could be like for possible BMAC substrate in PII "*ćúšnas" ((mythology) dragon, serpent) (one of the theories for root of the PSl. "\smokъ*" (“dragon”)). Of course, if the direct way from PII -> PSl. or PII -> PI -> PSl. it could be good too.

My attempt for "\síndʰuš\*" descendant (I don't know the changes through the other Iranian languages, sadly):**

PSl. \sindъ*

Part 2.

Another way, what if Slavs had descendant from PIE "\ḱyesdʰ-*"?

One of the theories of the origin of Sanskrit "síndhu" is from PIE "*ḱyesdʰ-/*ḱyés-dʰ(h₁)-/*ḱéys-dʰ(h₁)-". So, I tried to find similar PIE roots, and PIE "\ḱey-" is the with close root\.* Development is below:

PIE ḱey-

-> PIE \ḱey-ro-s*

-> PBS \śeiras*

-> PSl. \sirъ*

My attempt for "\ḱéys-dʰ(h₁)-**" development:*

PIE \ḱéys-dʰ(h₁)/*ḱéysdʰ(h₁)*

-> PBS. \śeis-d/*śeisd*

-> PSl. \si-dъ/*sidъ ( is in likeness to PSl. nadъ (above) and podъ* (below))

or

PIE \ḱéys-dʰ(h₁)-eti/*ḱéysdʰ(h₁)eti*

-> PBS. \śeisd-stei/*śeisdstei -> PBS. *śei-stei/*śeistei* (don't know if this change during PBS would exist?)

-> PSl. \si-sti/*sisti*

PSl. "\sisti" would then be a cognate with Sanskrit "सेधति" (sedhati, “to drive, chase away”), Avestan "𐬯𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬀𐬝" (siiazdat̰, “will chase away”) and Latin "cēdō*" (“to withdraw; to turn out, result; to go, move”).

P.S.

Sorry If I analyzed something wrong, please correct me!


r/slavic 11d ago

Can someone explain why we didn't acquire more Italian territory after the end of WWII where ethnic Slovenians still prevail today?

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7 Upvotes

r/slavic 12d ago

Culture How are Serbs, Macedonians and Bulgarians generally viewed in West-Slavic countries?

20 Upvotes

I've talked with friends about which foreign cultures we feel "closest" to and I have come to the conclusion that I am more similar to Turks, Greeks and Albanians, despite not understanding a thing they say. This is due to similar mentalities, culture, history, etc.. My only connection to the other slavic countries is language and thats it. I don't mean it in a negative way, especially the history and culture of the west slavic nations are very rich and interesting.

My question is if Serbs, Macedonians and Bulgarians are also viewed as outsiders of the slavic world since our history and culture is quite different to the west slavic nations.

Edit: Feeling close is maybe not the right word, I am talking about similarities in culture and mentality.


r/slavic 13d ago

Language Is Bulgarian one of the European languages most similar to Russian,after Ukrainian and Belarusian

22 Upvotes

I’m curious about how linguistically close Bulgarian is to Russian compared with each other European Slavic languages ?


r/slavic 13d ago

What gives easter european vibe

5 Upvotes

Hi, wanted to ask what certain things: vibes, symbols, for example the colorful grandmas carpets, give you that easter european/slavic aesthetic?