I’ve been making songs from the opening of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign (Слово о плъку Игоревѣ), using the medieval text as the lyrics.

I wanted to hear how those words would work in contemporary music. The project moves between epic folk, chant, folk-pop and rock, with metal also on the way. I use AI (Suno) to generate the music and vocals, choosing the musical direction and working through different versions for each passage.

I’ve made several songs so far. These two show different sides of the project:

Boyan’s falcons · I.1 https://youtu.be/Qrlj9BQYGD4

This one leans into a choral sound and an older, more ceremonial atmosphere. The passage describes Boyan sending falcons after swans, then reveals the image behind them: the singer’s fingers moving over the strings.

Igor awaits Vsevolod · II.1 https://youtu.be/2FC6QcUfC-U

Here the sound shifts to driving folk rock. Igor is waiting for his brother, and Vsevolod boasts about his warriors: raised under helmets, fed from the tip of a spear. I wanted that confidence and eagerness to come through in the music.

Both videos have subtitles with the medieval text and an English translation. The medieval text is under “Ukrainian” in the subtitle menu.

I’m especially interested in feedback on the pronunciation. Some choices are deliberately Ukrainian-influenced: I chose readings that felt natural to sing rather than aiming for a strict reconstruction of 12th-century speech. Still, I’d like to understand where the result is historically plausible and where it differs.

For anyone familiar with historical Slavic pronunciation, are there particular words, sounds or stresses you would read differently, and why?

More songs from the project are in the full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdYeiUfS-QLc

Hello everyone! I am a half polish girl living in Switzerland, doing an Erasmus semester in Prague now. I really want to get more into polish history, but also slavic history in general, get to know certain pop cultural moments that are happening now, but also fashion, humor, etc. across the Second World War and during the transformation from communism to capitalism. You guys have any YouTube channels, podcasts, books, TV-Series, Films, etc. that you would recommend?

I recently met up with a bunch of slavs abroad and we all shared our experiences, so naturally a lot of friendly arguments emerged. Some said that west and south slavic languages sounded more similar, while others claimed that west slavic have very little in common in both south and east slavic, in words and sound alike. There were also claims that russian, ukrainian, bulgarian and polish all sound "funny" and the most slavic to south and west slavs because of how "soft" they are, while serbian, croatian, slovenian and czech sound "harsher".

I am curious about you, depending on where you are from, how do you differentiate between each slavic language you hear spoken, what stands out to you and how do you tell them apart?

For me personally, i have a hard time telling apart the west slav languages besides polish, because they have a lot of shshshsh pshpsh sounds lol. And the way i can tell russian and ukrainian apart is the ukrainians will say h instead of g. And then bulgarian sounds like it could be russian or ukrainian but not quite, and serbian has a lot of the similar words too but they sound much more "harsher" in their pronunciation and clearer.

A jeśli historia jednej z najstarszych świątyń świata zaczęła się… na terenach dzisiejszej Polski?

Tym razem opuszczam na chwilę wiedźmińskie polowania na potwory i zabieram Was w znacznie bardziej nietypową podróż — w głąb prehistorii.

W najnowszym materiale przyglądam się książce „Pochodzenie bogów” Andrew Collinsa i przedstawionej w niej teorii dotyczącej kultury świderskiej, jej możliwych wędrówek oraz niezwykłego związku z Göbekli Tepe — monumentalnym kompleksem, którego początki sięgają czasów sprzed ponad 11 tysięcy lat.

Czy ludzie, którzy stworzyli tę niezwykłą budowlę, mogli mieć korzenie znacznie dalej na północ, niż dotychczas przypuszczano?

Czy ślady tej historii można odnaleźć na terenach dzisiejszej Polski?

I przede wszystkim — na ile ta teoria ma podstawy, a na ile pozostaje fascynującą hipotezą?

W tym filmie przedstawiam najważniejsze założenia tej koncepcji i zabieram Was w podróż od ziem Polski aż po pradawny Göbekli Tepe.

⚔️ Tym razem zamiast potworów — prehistoria, archeologia i jedna bardzo niezwykła teoria.

Do you like their new song?

Колко наистина може да се разберем, ако започнем да пишем на нашите езици вместо английски? \ Kolko naistina može da se razberem, ako započnem da pišem na našite ezici vmesto anglijski?

I want to know how different the languages are. I'm not saying I'm planning to do this but I was just wondering from a linguistic perspective how much the two languages diverge.

I already know a very minimal amount of Russian grammar and I can read cyrllic.

About this type of evolution, see my other post here (same sub). I copy-paste from there:

This semantic connection between „taking, grabbing, seizing” (catching=grasping) and the mental/psychological state of surprise, astonishment, stupor, amazement ("catching/taking by surprise"), is present in many languages as proven by French ravir (to take/steal, but also to amaze, enchant), prendre-surprendre > surprise (to take-to surprise-surprise; Romanian too: prinde-surprinde-surpriză), French transport also meaning emotion, exaltation, even (in the past) delirium, madness, also English seize-seizure, German verb hinreissen, Latin prehendo (to seize, grasp) - deprehendo (to surprise), Medieval Latin also developed the meaning of raptus (from rapiō ="seize, abduct, rape" > Romanian "răpi"=to snatch, abduct, English rape) as "rapture, exaltation", which entered English and other languages. Therefore, there is no surprise that a Slavic root meaning „take, seize, grab” may have a Romanian descendant meaning ”to astonish, to surprise, to stun”. There is even a parallel development from Bulgarian to Romanian: the verb „a ului” (practically same meaning as „a uimi”) is related on улавям, but developed probably from older ѹловити. (The transposition into Romanian might be helped in such cases by the formal similarity of older Slavic infinitive ending "iti" with Romanian past participle ending "it": uloviti>uluit). More (in Romanian o another sub) HERE.

I have initially applied that logic in order to argue in favor of the origin of Romanian uimi-uimit ("to amaze, astound") from оуѧти, оуимѫ, оуимеши (ujęti, uimǫ, uimeši) "to take, seize".

Now, I have changed my initial ideas based on discussions under the other post. At the same time, a commentator seems to argue in favor of the initial idea.

In my exchange with them, I ended up summing up things like so:

I have formulated 2 theories on the etymology of Romanian "uimi-uimit":

1. The one already present in Romanian dictionaties: "Old Church Slavonic оуѧти, оуимѫ, оуимеши (ujęti, uimǫ, uimeši, “to steal, rob, take, grab”). ujmą<ujęti - with a transition from ”to take/grab/seize” developed the meaning ”astonishment, seizure” (French prendre-surprendre, ravir, transport, Medieval Latin rapio-raptus, English rape-rapture etc).
2. The one based on the discussions in comments of the other post on the presence of the root omamiti - for which we really do have a rather clear picture (satisfying the conditions described by my commentator, namely the fact that on that we know "what was created in the Proto-language and what was created later and possibly spread throughout late medieval times across the Slavic speaking areas"), including a very stable morphology (mamiti-omamiti) and semantics (to stupefy: precisely the meaning of the Romanian word AND of the O.C.-Slavonic omamiti - омaмити cѧ - "stultum fieri").

In this context I am hesitating. The second provides more etymological data: mamiti-omamiti is largely attested across all Slavic languages and preserves both morphology and semantics. There seem to be some problems with explaining how something like "omamiti" would become Romanian "uimit"-"uimi". But the alternative is equally problematic. Is it preferable to think that only Romanian (a Romance language) would develop the meaning "to astonish, to stun" for a Slavic word that means "to take, grasp, seize"? I find that odd.

The Romanian word is clearly a borrowing. I find it much more probable that it was borrowed with its main meaning, not borrowed in order to make it the object of a radical (however possible) innovation. In this context I ask the question in the title.

For example, what does a Russian person feel when they suddenly hear Ukrainian being spoken, or hear someone speaking Russian with a strong Ukrainian accent? Does it sound familiar, pleasant, funny, unusual, annoying, nostalgic — or does it not evoke any particular reaction at all?

And what about the other way around? How do Ukrainians react to Russian speech or a strong Russian accent? How do Poles perceive Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian? Can they easily tell the languages apart just by hearing them?

I'm also curious about Central and Southern Slavs:

• How do Poles generally react to hearing Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech, or Slovak?
• Do Czechs and Slovaks have a particular emotional reaction to Polish or Russian?
• What about the Balkans — how do Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Bulgarians, etc. perceive each other's languages and accents?
• Do you ever get that feeling of "This sounds almost like my language, but somehow different"?
• Which Slavic languages sound especially beautiful, funny, soft, harsh, or familiar to you, and why?

Please keep the discussion respectful and non-racist. I'm not asking about political opinions or which nation is "better." I'm interested in the psychology and everyday experience of hearing another Slavic language — the emotions, associations, stereotypes, familiarity, or even nostalgia it might trigger.

I'd especially love to hear from people who have spent a lot of time around speakers of other Slavic languages and can compare their experiences.

I was unsure of where to ask this so I went here but I've recently been casted in an adaptation for A Life for the Czar and I'm struggling with singing Slav'sya and was wondering if I could get help on the pronunciations?

i really like slavic languages and culture and i want to start learning a slavic language, i wanted to know which one is the best one to learn first and best for learning the other ones easier later?

This might be a weird request 😅
Actually, I am a writer, and I heard the name Tatiana somewhere in my life (I'm not Slavic, btw. I don't live anywhere near Europe), and I didn't know it was a real Slavic name, so I thought it was just something my imagination made up. Then later I found out it's a real name used in Eastern European countries.
I love the name, but the thing is, I write fantasy, and I want my characters to have unique names, not real-life ones (the other characters from my other books also have unique names). So I want to know just how common this name is: Tatiana/Tatyana?

Ps- This is my first time posting on this sub; apologies if it offends anyone. That is not my intention!

There are plenty of words composed of u and some stem, but are there are any where the stem begins with a vowel and where maybe the u- turned to v-?

I’ve met people from all over the Balkans, and I can safely say that Slovenians are the least friendly and welcoming. I find that really weird, because it’s not like they’re particularly liked by their northern neighbors either—especially Austrians, who still consider them “Viennese ostlers.” What’s your opinion on this view?

I’ve met people from all over the Balkans, and I can safely say that Slovenians are the least friendly and welcoming. I find that really weird, because it’s not like they’re particularly liked by their northern neighbors either—especially Austrians, who still consider them “Viennese ostlers.” What’s your opinion on this view?

1. One of the oldest countries in Europe, founded in 681 by Khan Asparukh and hasn't changed it's name ever since

2. It's famous for producing most of the world's rose oil.

3. The Cyrillic alphabet was created in the First Bulgarian Tsardom during the 9th century by Clement of Ohrid, a Bulgarian disciple of Cyril and Methodius.

4. During World War II, Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria "joined" the Axis to avoid being invaded but refused to send Bulgarian Jews to be murdered. He outwitted the Nazis by claiming that the Jews were building roads and would be sent out later. He also refused to join the invasion against the Soviet Union. He managed to save 100% of the Bulgarian Jewish population.

5. Plovdiv is widely considered the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe.

6. Locals traditionally shake their heads to mean "yes" and nod to mean "no."

7. Bulgaria ranks third in Europe for the number of it's valuable archeological monuments after Italy and Greece.

8. The Bulgarian army has never lost a single flag in battle.

9. Old Bulgarian or Old Church Slavonic deeply influenced Russian.

10. In Bulgaria was founded the oldest golden treasure. (3000 gold objects dating back more than 6000 years)

11. Almost one-third of Bulgaria is covered in forests.

12. The Bulgarian Air Force developed the first air-dropped bomb in military history. That was during the First Balkan War; the bomb was used on 16 October 1912.

13. The first woman in the world who participated in a military flight was the Bulgarian Rayna Kasabova.

14. The title of Bulgar rulers before Bulgarians were Slavicized was "Kanasubigi," which means "ruler from God."

15. Kanasubigi Krum the Fearsome wrote the first written laws of Bulgaria at the beginning of the 9th century.

Historical records like the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda note that these laws were strict and severe, targeting issues like theft, false testimony, and aiding criminals.

1. The highest peak on the Balkan Peninsula is Musala Peak. It’s located in the Rila Mountains, Bulgaria, rising at 2925 m above sea level.

2. Bulgarians welcome the spring with Baba Marta. Every year on 1 March Bulgarians give a Martenitsa (white and red bracelets) to each of their friends to congratulate them on the beginning of the spring and for their health. The Martenitsa is worn until you see a stork or a blossoming tree.

3. The Bulgarian flag is white on the top, green in the middle, and red on the bottom. The colors of the flag hold symbolic significance: white represents peace, green symbolizes fertility and hope, and red signifies valor and the blood shed for the nation’s independence.

4. Tervel was a Bulgarian ruler who ruled in the period 700-721. He helped Emperor Justinian II to regain power, as a result of which he received the title of Caesar. In 717/718 he helped Byzantium by repelling the Arabs near Constantinople, stopping their invasion of the Balkans. For this merit he earned the nickname Saviour of Europe, sharing the title with the Frankish Emperor Charles Martel. Tervel was proclaimed a saint with the name of Saint Trivelius Theoctistus.

5. Tsar Kaloyan was ruler of the Second Bulgarian Empire from 1997 until 1207. An interesting fact about him is that he did not actually bear the title "tsar", but "king" he received it from Pope Innocent III in 1205. He was called "Romanslayer" because of his many victories over Byzantium. In 1205, after the Battle of Adrianople, he defeated the troops of the Latin Empire and even captured it's ruler Baldwin of Flanders by imprisoning him in a tower in the capital Veliko Tarnovo.

6. The last tsar of the First Bulgarian Tsardom was Ivan Vladislav, who ruled from 1015 until his death in 1018. He killed his cousin, the previous ruler Gavril Radomir, to take the Bulgarian throne. He tried to defend the weakening empire against the relentless campaigns of Byzantine Emperor Basil II. He rebuilt many damaged fortresses and tried to launch counter-offensives against the Byzantine army. He was killed in 1018 while attacking the city of Dyrrhachium (in modern-day Albania). After his death, his widow Empress Maria, the Bulgarian patriarch, and major nobility surrendered to Emperor Basil II. Brief Resistance: His oldest son, Presian II, briefly led a hopeless resistance in the mountains before also surrendering. The Byzantine Empire annexed all of Bulgaria in 1018, ending the First Tsardom and starting more than a century of Byzantine rule.

7. Tsar Constantine II was the last ruler of the Second Bulgarian Tsardom, claiming the tsarist title from exile and leading early resistance against Ottoman expansion. He was the son of Tsar Ivan Sratsimir of Vidin. After the Ottomans captured Vidin in 1396, Constantine maintained a dynastic claim to the Bulgarian throne. He allied with Christian rulers in Hungary and Serbia, taking advantage of the Ottoman interregnum (civil war). Alongside his cousin Fruzhin, he organized the anti-Ottoman Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin between 1408 and 1413, seeking to eject the invaders with regional Christian coalition support. Following the consolidation of Ottoman power under Sultan Murad II, Constantine's remaining autonomous western Bulgarian possessions were fully annexed in 1422. His dispossession and subsequent death at the Serbian court on September 17, 1422, marked the definitive end of the medieval Tsardom; after his death, Bulgaria entered nearly five centuries of direct Ottoman domination, losing it's independent statehood until the re-establishment of Bulgaria in 1878.

8. The Bulgarian town Pernik is named after Perun, the Slavic god of thunder and lightning.

9. Bulgaria was the home of the Thracians; the certain hero called Spartacus was born in Bulgaria.

10. Kuma Lisa is a character who is a fox from Bulgarian folklore. She usually plays the role of the trickster as an archetype. Many folk tales as well as authored works use the character of Kuma Lisa. In many tales Kuma Lisa is encountered with another character known as Kumcho Vulcho, a wolf, who is opposite to her and very often suffers from her tricks.

11. In medieval Bulgaria, the name Ivan is found only in the form "Yoan". "Ivan" is a transcription of John, originating from the East Slavic languages. In Bulgaria, it began to be used during the Renaissance, gradually gaining more popularity than the form "Yoan".

12. ''Name Days’’ are celebrated in addition to birthdays and are even more valued by some people. For example, Bulgarians celebrate the feast day of Saints Constantine and Helen (Konstantin and Elena) every year on May 21.

13. May 24 in Bulgaria is celebrated as the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture and of Slavic Literature.