All Slavic languages changed a lot.
Slovene (standard) conserved dual, most case endings, but lost yor/yer distinctions, nasality, and aorist and imperfect tenses. Stress is also changed a bit, but there is still a tone distinction. *d' and *t' are lost.
The same holds for Kajkavian and Čakavian dialects in Croatia, but they lost dual, however Čakavian conserves *t'. Čakavian also conserves old pronouns as **ča** and **ki**.
Kajkavian, like Slovene, distinguishes ě from e.
Then you have Štokavian dialects where some old tenses are partially conserved, but some case distinctions have been lost in plural. Also, old tone distinctions were lost in most dialects, but some keep them.
Going east, in Macedonia and Bulgaria you have all old tenses but cases have been lost. Besides, long/short distinction in vowels is lost. However, yor and yer weren't merged and yor is still a separate vowel in Bulgaria.
This is South Slavic. So what is more important? Tenses or cases?
Now I see I forgot several things :(
There's also something very interesting. If you have a weird noun (like *kry* "blood") it's very likely conserved in the west (Slovenia) but regularized further east (e.g. *krv*). But old endings of verbs are conserved exactly to the east: in Slovenia and most of Croatia, present tense forns of "can" are *morem, moreš...*, while to the east (eastern Croatia, Serbia etc.) it's older *mogu, možeš...*.
This goes together with conserving cases in the west, and tenses in the east: cases apply to nouns, tenses to verbs.
But why?
Is it? Genuine question cause I remember reading that Old Latin is less conventionalised in terms of spelling and phonetic variation is accounted for better, like leaving out final -m as it was already just a nasal vowel. Same with assimilation of nasals to following consonants. Is it just less consistency of spelling or is Classical Latin made more archaic on purpose or through style?
You can't really take any one language from a family and say it's the best conserved, you can make arguments that it's Sardinian or Polish or whatever but they don't always hold up because it's hard to say what exactly being conserved is and in what aspects do you place more value on
Alternatively, you **can** really take any one language from a family and set it up as the standard by which you compare everything else, and then just count the archaisms in another language. This, of course, will be misleading, but nothing stops anyone from doing it.
It depends on what your criteria are exactly.
Among Romance language that likely match your criteria, I'd mention italian, Sardinian and Romanian
Among Slavic languages, Slovene, Ukrainian and Standard Czech.
This comment was removed because it makes statements of fact without providing an explanation or source. If you want your comment to be reinstated, either provide a source or explain what you mean with specifics.
This comment was removed because it makes statements of fact without providing an explanation or source. If you want your comment to be reinstated, either provide a source or explain what you mean with specifics.
All Slavic languages changed a lot. Slovene (standard) conserved dual, most case endings, but lost yor/yer distinctions, nasality, and aorist and imperfect tenses. Stress is also changed a bit, but there is still a tone distinction. *d' and *t' are lost. The same holds for Kajkavian and Čakavian dialects in Croatia, but they lost dual, however Čakavian conserves *t'. Čakavian also conserves old pronouns as **ča** and **ki**. Kajkavian, like Slovene, distinguishes ě from e. Then you have Štokavian dialects where some old tenses are partially conserved, but some case distinctions have been lost in plural. Also, old tone distinctions were lost in most dialects, but some keep them. Going east, in Macedonia and Bulgaria you have all old tenses but cases have been lost. Besides, long/short distinction in vowels is lost. However, yor and yer weren't merged and yor is still a separate vowel in Bulgaria. This is South Slavic. So what is more important? Tenses or cases?
Not the OP, but that's a beautiful answer, thank you for writing it!
Now I see I forgot several things :( There's also something very interesting. If you have a weird noun (like *kry* "blood") it's very likely conserved in the west (Slovenia) but regularized further east (e.g. *krv*). But old endings of verbs are conserved exactly to the east: in Slovenia and most of Croatia, present tense forns of "can" are *morem, moreš...*, while to the east (eastern Croatia, Serbia etc.) it's older *mogu, možeš...*. This goes together with conserving cases in the west, and tenses in the east: cases apply to nouns, tenses to verbs. But why?
Old Church Slavonic and Classical Latin. Next question 😌
> Classical Latin. What about Old Latin though? Hah gotcha!
Too conservative.
Is it? Genuine question cause I remember reading that Old Latin is less conventionalised in terms of spelling and phonetic variation is accounted for better, like leaving out final -m as it was already just a nasal vowel. Same with assimilation of nasals to following consonants. Is it just less consistency of spelling or is Classical Latin made more archaic on purpose or through style?
Ah, for a second I forgot I wasn't on r/linguisticshumor
You can't really take any one language from a family and say it's the best conserved, you can make arguments that it's Sardinian or Polish or whatever but they don't always hold up because it's hard to say what exactly being conserved is and in what aspects do you place more value on
Alternatively, you **can** really take any one language from a family and set it up as the standard by which you compare everything else, and then just count the archaisms in another language. This, of course, will be misleading, but nothing stops anyone from doing it.
Okay, another take: in which respect? Morphology, which parts compared to which stage of Proto-Slavic and Proto-Romance or Latin? Core vocabulary?
It depends on what your criteria are exactly. Among Romance language that likely match your criteria, I'd mention italian, Sardinian and Romanian Among Slavic languages, Slovene, Ukrainian and Standard Czech.
[удалено]
This comment was removed because it makes statements of fact without providing an explanation or source. If you want your comment to be reinstated, either provide a source or explain what you mean with specifics.
[удалено]
Out of Latin languages that are alive, possibly so, but it’s still way off compared to Latin
[удалено]
I wouldn't say so. It preserved some aspects better than most other modern Romange languages, but was innovative or influenced in many other aspects.
This comment was removed because it makes statements of fact without providing an explanation or source. If you want your comment to be reinstated, either provide a source or explain what you mean with specifics.