Slavs: Territory, Dialectal Split.

The first historically attested determining settlement sites of the Slavs was given by Gothic historian Jordan to the VI century AD:

The abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Novietunum and the lake called Mursiano to the Danaster, and northward as far as the Vistula. They have swamps and forests for their cities. The Antes – the strongest of both tribes spread from Danastr to Danapr, where the Pontic Sea forms a bend; these rivers are separated by the distance of many day's journeys (JORDANES, 1960: 35).

Scrupulous work on the identification and localization of these cities and lakes was carried out by Elena Skrzhinska and established:

The localization of both the lake and the city has no agreement between the researchers. However, the question is where they were located and, therefore, where the dissemination limit of the Sclaveni in the middle of the 6th century lay, interested in historians for more than two centuries and continues to interest so far (SKRZYNSKA E.C. 1957: 6).

The starting point for the search for the lake's location was the city of Mursa (now Eszek) on the lower Drava, the right tributary of the Danube. Accordingly, the city of Novietun was searched somewhere nearby. There were other assumptions, but all in the Danube region. Skrzhinska, based on other information about the Slavs, believed that “looking at the Murcian lake in the Danube region“ seems fundamentally wrong ”(ibid, 14). The issue was complicated by the fact that there were several Novietun cities, but they were all located within the Roman Empire. Empire.

Experts divided the city name into two parts, which first part is "new". The root of the word is PIE and similar words are available in many languages. However, experts pay no attention to the ending of the word, which gives it a completely Slavic sound (PSl. *novyjĭ "new"). Reduced vowel ĭ is not pronounced after the fall of the reduced in the Slavic languages, but once it was pronounced and the word novyjĭ was uttered similar to the first part of the city name novie. The second part of the name means "city", which has an exact match in Germanic languages (eg. OE. tūn "fence", "field", "house", "housing", "village", "town", Eng. town). The Slavic word was borrowed from some of the Germanic languages and taken over time the shape of tyn in a more narrow sense "fence" at present. However, previously it meant "town", as well as the Slavic word gorod "town" had the sense "fence" earlier. Thus, the name Novietun means "new town", with which all experts agree.

Because all ancient historians placed the Slavs to the east of the Vistula River, then the space of Novietun to the Danaster can be nothing as a space from the Russian city of Veliky Novgorod (Great New City) to the Dniester River. As Mursiano Lake, it cannot be anything but the Lake Ilmen on which banks the Great Novgorod stands. Calling the lake so has no explanation, but it can be assumed that it has Anglo-Saxon origin – OE murcian "to complain, care". Such an explanation is possible, as the Anglo-Saxons remained in the vicinity of Novgorod at some time (see the article Andlo-Saxons in East Europe). For skeptics, this argument may seem unconvincing, but for conscientious scientists and without this, the question was clear 120 years ago:

Simple logic – if it is not clouded by preconceived opinion – leads us to the conclusion that the homeland of the Slavs, or at least the center, up until the beginning of the great migration of peoples, must have been outside the sphere of the upheavals that befell the southern Russian steppe from the 4th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. Only after a quiet development during this long period of time, appearing last on the historical arena, could the Slavs play the role that they actually played (BRAUN F. 1899: 76).

And such logic can find objections, so let's turn to archeology. The most of experts, Yu.V. Kukharenko, L.D. Pobol and others, connect the Slavs with the Zarubyntsi culture. However, the scholars have no unity about its origin. One sees its roots in the Scythian, other doe in the Milograd culture, and others yet consider, that Zarubyntsi culture (ZC) has developed based on several cultures. Yu.V. Kukharenko, considering the question about the origin of ZC, wrote:

The commonality for all these points of view is the unconditional recognition of the fact, that the Zarubyntsi culture as such has developed in the basin of the Middle Dnieper on a local basis, and the origin of it, hence, has not been caused by any moving of the population from other places to this territory. In any way, it is impossible to agree with it. The Zarubintsi culture has not developed and could not develop in the basin of the Middle Dnieper where it is not connected genetically with any one of the cultures of previous time. This culture has developed in the western areas of Polesye and Volhynia as a result of the penetration of Baltic Venetian tribes from the northwest, from Pomorze. The appearance of the Zarubintsi culture in the Middle Dnieper area has resulted from the resettlements of Zarubyntsi tribes from the west (KUKHARENKO Yu.V., 1960: 289-290.)

Such Kukharenko’s sureness is based on the fact that the relics of ZC are connected genetically and without a chronological break with anterior relics only in Western Polesye and in Volhynia. Contrariwise, such a connection is not visible in the other areas of the spreading of ZC. Moreover, this culture arises somehow suddenly on a mixed basis in the basin of the Middle Dnieper area (Ibid, 293, 297). J.V. Kukharenko notes, that the opinion about the expansion of ZC to the basin of the Middle Dnieper from Polesye and Volhynia has been already expressed formerly. This process was connected with the beginning of the movement of Slavic tribes from their previous settlements which were defined so:

In M.I.Artamonov's opinion, Veneti (in the true sense of this word) were carriers of the so-called Culture of Face Urns, or Pomorie culture, which arose as the special phenomenon on the Kashub Heights based on the ancient Lusatian culture (Ibid, 297).

Supporting Artamonov's opinion, Yu.V. Kukharenko believes that the expansion of Pomorian Veneti was "a major factor in the formation of ZC on huge spaces to the east from the Vistula River" (Ibid., 298). The opinion about the possibility of Slavic sources in the Pomorian culture can be found also in V.V. Sedov’s works. He specifies that, since 550 BC, the Culture of Underklosh (“podkloshevyi” in Russian) interments was formed in the eastern areas of the Lusatian culture (on the banks of the Vistula) resulting in the moving of the tribes of the Pomorian culture. This culture may be considered as early actually Slavic which branch became ZC later (SEDOV V.V., 1990-1: 83). J.U. Kukharenko, and, in a certain measure, V.V. Sedov considered, that the expansion of the Pomorians has resulted in the appearance of the Przeworsk culture, but such opinion has no reliable confirmation, and the majority of present-day scholars consider this culture as Germanic. This should be so, as it arose though under the Celtic influence, but on some substratum basis. (BARAN V.D., Otv. Red, 1985: 26). The early Przeworsk clayware has hardly differed from the pottery of the late Lusatian culture (Ibid, TRET'YAKOV P.N., 1952: 132).

The relics of the Przeworsk culture on the territory of Ukraine are spread only in the basin of the Western Bug and the Upper Dniester and the main area of this culture corresponds to the territory of the latest settlements of the Germanic tribes. But as to forming ZC we have to agree substantially with Yu.V. Kukharenko when he describes this process as a gradual Slavic movement upwards the Vistula, then across the Western Bug River in the Pripyat's basin and further eastward to the Dnieper. This movement began from the area east of the Low Vistula till the Upper Neman where we located Slavic ancestors after they left their Urheimat on both banks of the Vilia River. After occupying the southern part of the basin of the Upper Dnieper, the Slavs moved northward to the basin of the Desna and to the region of Gomel and Mogilev spreading their Zarubyntsi culture at the beginning of the 1st mill AD (SHMIDT E.A., 1990: 113).

The Slavic movement was stretched for some centuries. The earliest relics of ZC in Western Polesye are dated by the 2nd century BC, and on the banks of the Desna and the Seym, they appear only toward the 1st and even to the beginning of the 2nd century AD (KUKHARENKO Yu.V., 1960: 297. ZAVIERNIAYEV F.M. 1970). The linguists and archeologists note that the widening of ZC eastward and northward had peaceful character:

… Baltic ethnic elements in the basin of Upper Dnieper did not recede in large measure northwestward while Slav advanced northward. Perhaps, the Slavic movement proceeded as a natural gradual penetration with the assimilation of Baltic elements during the various times on several parts of this territory (TOPOROV V.N., TRUBACHIOV O.N. 1962: 173).

Due to unknown circumstances, resistance to newcomers was less strong here, than in the Scythian-Sarmatian South and the Old Lithuanian North. This has led to the strong subsidence Zarubyntsi’s tribes on this territory and to the gradual assimilation of the local population by them. Already in the 1st century AD, Zarubyntsi’s tribes settled on the banks of the Sozh where they (as it was a little before on the Dnieper) subsided on sites of ancient settlements of the Milograd culture (KUKHARENKO Yu.V., 1960: 299).

Little by little Zarubyntsi’s tribes occupied the territory from the Vistula up to the Upper Psel, the Seym, and the Oka rivers. Here, on already known to us ethno-producing areas, the original unitary language of the population split into several distinct dialects. The whole Slavic territory with areas of separate tribes according to primary Slavic dialects is shown in Map 1. The western border of Slavic territory has been established on the Vistula according to historical data:

All ancient authors agreed in the opinion that the Vistula was the border of Germania and Sarmatia, and there is no reason to assume, that this opinion has no real basis (NIDERLE LUBORЪ., 1956: 32).

On this map, in addition to the ranges of the ancient Slavic tribes identified by the graphic-analytical method, the areas of the two main tribes of the Polab Slavs of Bodrichi (Obodrits) and Lutichi, the Pomeranians, and the Lusatian Slavs are shown too. Their location was hypothetically taken given their later habitats (SALYVON A.N.,1981: 131) assuming a consistent movement of the Slavic tribes westward. Having determined the western border of the Slavs along the Vistula River, we received several “free” ranges, where the ancestral homelands of these Slavic tribes were placed. At the same time, the ancestral homeland of the Lusatian Slavs was placed near the ancestral homeland of the Poles and the Czechs, and there were practically no other options for the Polabian and Pomorian Slavs.

Map 1. Settlements of Slavic tribes in the end I mill. BC – in the beginning of I mill. AD.

N.Rus – the ancestors of speakers of the northern Russian dialect, South Rus – the ancestors of speakers of the southern Russian dialect, Ukr – the ancestors of Ukrainians.

Map 1 does not show the hypothetical area of ​​settlements of the ancestors of the Ulichs and Tivertsy, which could have been located on the right bank of the Dnieper, but there are no reliable grounds for this yet, except for the general idea that this area must have been populated by some Slavic tribe, whose descendants dissolved among other ethnic groups (possibly among the Roman population of the Balkan Peninsula).

The hypothetical area of the Bodrichi to the east from the lower Vistula River to the Masurian lakes (see map 2) was apparently settled by the Slavs much later than the others.

Map 2. The Wielbark culture in late Roman times (according Kokowski: Problematyka kultury wielbarskiej w młodszym okresie rzymskim). The fragment of the map (BIRBRAUER F. 1995: 37. Fig. 6).

At the beginning of the millennium Wielbark culture was spread here, the creators of which were the Goths.

Apparently under pressure from Slavs, the Goths were moving along the banks of the Vistula and Wester Bug Rivers to the Volyn and further to the Black Sea steppes (see the map above). Perhaps here some time lived a mixed gothic-Slavic population.

For a long time, Slavists have used data from geographical botany to search for the ancestral homeland of the Slavs, linking the Slavic names of some plants with the territory of their growth (KRAHE HANS. 1961, 30-31). The most convincing results of this approach are presented in the work of the Polish botanist K. Moshinsky, who also studied Slavic linguistics (MOSZYŃSKI KAZIMIERZ. 1957). According to his research, such trees: as beech, yew, ivy, fir, larch, and sycamore were absent in the Slavic territory. The scientist came to this conclusion because the names of these trees in the Slavic languages have a non-Slavic origin, ie are borrowed from other languages. Obviously, they were borrowed by Slavs from the aboriginal population after their spread in the larger space. K. Moshinsky drew a map (see below) of the spread of these trees in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. For two millennia, the climate in Europe has not changed significantly, so we can assume that the total area of distribution of beech, yew, ivy, fir, larch, and sycamore should not overlap the territory of the Slavs. As you can see on the map, overlay still holds for yew and sycamore, beech, and a bit of larch, but mainly on the Elbe Slavs territory, whose language is virtually unknown to us. It is possible that they had their names for these kinds of trees, but we'll never know them.

Map of Slavic peoples territory (marked with red dots) at the beginning of the first thousand and distribution of species:

Black horizontal line – beech (Fagus silvatica); red horizontal line – ivy (Sorbus torminalis>); yellow horizontal line – yew (Taxus baccata); purple vertical line – larch (Larix decidua Miller); green vertical line – sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus); blue vertical line – fir (Abies alba)

The hypothetical area of the forefathers of the Slavic tribes of Uliches and Tivertsi is shown on the map, but we have not reliable bases for such assumption for the present, except for the common reason that this area should be populated with some Slavic tribe which descendants were dissolved among other ethnoi (probably among the Romance population of Balkan peninsula).

Connecting ZC with the Slavs, experts subdivide it into some separate local groups. Yu.V. Kukharenko believed, that such groups were three – the Polesian group, the group of the Upper Dnieper, and the group of the Middle Dnieper (KUKHARENKO Yu.V. 1964). E.V. Maximov has divided all area of wide spreading of ZC into five regions:

1. The area of the Middle Dnieper from the mouth of the Desna up to the mouth of the Tiasmin River.

2. The Pripiat’ Polesye (the rivers Goryn’ and Styr’),

3. The area of the Upper Dnieper, mainly its right side from the Berezina up to the Pripyat, and also on the river Sozh.

4. The basin of the Upper Desna – the territory of the Briansk Region.

5. The basin of the Southern Bug – on the banks of the Southern Bug from the mouth of the Desna up to the river Selnitsia and on the river Sob (MAKSIMOV E.V., 1982: 9 – 10).

The question of the existence of a Zarubinets culture is controversial. Yu. V. Kuhharenko, L.D. Pobol, and some other experts put the common chronological range of ZC existence from the 3rd century BC up to the 3rd and even the 5th century AD (KUKHARENKO Yu.V., 1964: 48, POBOL L.D., 1983: 21), others remove for it a narrower period – from the end of the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD (MAKSIMOV E.V., 1982:173). Thus only one of five possible regions of ZC on the Upper Dnieper remained the chronological range, but the Southern Bug region and the Upper Desna region were formed at the start of our era [Ibid, 173]. Determining the chronological framework of the existence of ZC is crucial for linguists in terms of determining the time of splitting the Proto-Slavic language. It is believed that it ceased to exist in the VI-VII cent. AD. (FILIN F.P., 1972). However, the important facts cited by archaeologists make us think that the process of disintegration stretched out for a long time. These facts indicate that its beginning can be attributed to the first century AD:

We adhere to the point of view that Zarubyntsi culture on the Upper Dnieper in the middle or in the end of I century AD experiences a sharp crisis. At this particular time disappear Zarubyntsi burial grounds in Pripiat’ Polesye, on the middle and upper Dnepr, also later materials on settlements are absent (KOZAK D.N., TERPYLOVS'KIY R.V. 1986: 35).

Similar views were stated also by Yu. V. Kukharenko and E.V. Maximov whereas L.D. Pobol proved, that ZC has not disappeared here in the first centuries of our era, and proceeded also during the later period, in the first half of the 1st mill. AD (POBOL L.D., 1983: 24). V.V. Sedov considered too that classical Zarubyntsi antiquities (the 1st cent. BC – the 1st cent. AD) on the Upper Dnieper were transformed first in the Late ZC and then the Kyiv culture was arisen out of them (the 3rd – the 4th century AD) (SEDOV V.V., 1990-1: 83). The territory of the spread of Kyiv culture quite clearly corresponds to the areas of formation of the South Russian dialect, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovenian languages. Thus, while the process of disintegration could already begin in the western part of the common Slavic territory, its eastern part only began to be settled by Slavs.

The whole territory of ZC and its vocal variants put on the areas of the Slavic languages. The map is based on Kukharenko's work (KUKHARENKO Yu. V. 1964).

The whole border of ZC is marked by red line on data of different scholars. The blue line marks local according to Kukharenko, the green one does the border of Kyiv culture.

We see that one local variant of Zarubynets culture corresponds to a certain extent to the area of formation of the Ukrainian language, another covers the areas of the Slovak, Czech, and Lusatian languages, and the third corresponds to the alleged area of the Uliches and Tivertsi. The time of the formation of these languages can be attributed to the 1-2 cen. AD. In the later inhabited territory of the Kyiv culture, the formation of distinct languages ended by the 5th century.

In such a situation, the resulted graphic model of the relationship of Slavic languages, which suppoes the dwelling of the Slavs in a certain area for a long time, is in doubt. However, it is necessary to take into account that in different ethno-producing areas already existed its own language substrate, which reflected inversely proportional dependence between the number of mutual features in a pair of languages and a distances between the areas. The similar process took place at dismemberment of the Latin language under the influence of different substrate in Spain, France, the Balkans (POKORNY JULIUS, 1968, 178-180). Assuming this, it is necessary to agree with the opinion of archaeologists that the Pre-Slavic population did not move to new places, but was assimilated by the Slavs, although it had a significant impact on the language and customs of the newcomers. For example, you should pay attention to the following observation:

We do not know, how early Zarubyntsi population called the settlements and cemeteries, but the essence of ancient Greek names (polis – necropolis) is surprisingly precisely shown in Zarubyntsi topography – a settlement was located on one cape, the place for alive, a burial ground was on the next cape, the place for died (MAKSIMOV E.V. 1982: 59).

It is possible that the described tradition in the places of distribution of Zarubinets culture existed from the times when the ancestors of the ancient Greeks had their settlements here.

Archaeological studies of settlements, hillforts and barrow burials in the Vitebsk Region show that in some cases these monuments were left by the Balts, in others by the Slavs, and in the third by sime mixed population [LEVKO O. N., 1990: 39]. Such a situation existed almost throughout the entire eastern part of the common Slavic territory, and under such conditions the Proto-Slavic language, having adopted in each area different features of languages or dialects of the native Balt population, was divided into Slavic dialects, which later developed into distinct languages, in accordance with the location of the ethno-producing areas. Thus, the process of dismemberment of the Proto-Slavic languages was accelerated, and therefore it was not necessary that all Slavs would consistently occupy the location indicated on the Map 1 territory.

However, there are grounds to assert that the initial dialectal differences in the language of the Slavs were manifested among the population on the opposite banks of the Dnieper River. Quite distinct traces of these differences can be identified in the lexical and phonetic phenomena of modern Slavic languages. In general, they divided the Proto-Slavs into the western and eastern branches, the border between which became rather blurred over time. The western branch of the Slavic languages were the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Northern Russian, Polish, Lusatian, Czech, and Slovak languages, the South Russian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat, and Slovene languages were eastern. Some common words of the western branch have no etymological correspondences in the languages of the eastern branch. At the same time, their semantic correspondences in these languages do not have no common etymology in most cases. For example, some common "western" words are given in the Table 1 with correspondences in Russian and Croatian. In the same way, some common words of the Eastern branch have no etymological correspondences in the Western one. Table 2 gives examples of such words and semantic correspondences for them in the Ukrainian and Polish languages.

Lexical differencies between West and East Slavic languges

Table 1.

Meaning	West	Russian	Croatian
weight	vaga	ves	težina
to care	dǔbati	zabotitsia	brigati
duck	kačka	utka	patka
to love	koxati	lubit’	voljeti
ice floe	kra, kriga	ldina	ledeno koplje
to feel, touch	macati	shchupat’	osjećati
to strive	pragnuti	stremitsia	težiti
annoying	prikrǔ	dosadnyi	dosadan
council	rada	sovet	vijeće
brine	ropa	rossol	rasol
chunk	skiba	lomot’	komad
temple	skronǐ	visok	pećina
snail	slimakǔ	ulitka	puž
barn	stodola	ovin	staja
motley	strokatǔ	piostryi	šaren
to last	trǔvati	dlitsia	trajati
to keep, hold	trimati	deržat’	držati
clothes	šata	odežda	odjeća
harm	škoda	vred	ozljeda
to punch	šturxati	pinat’	gurati
to panhandle	žebrati	poprošayničat’	prositi

Table 2.

Meaning	East	Ukrainian	Polish
sadness	grust'	smutok	smutek
sly	lukav	pidstupnyi	podstępny
chalk	mel	kreyda	kreda
lightning	molnia	blyskavka	błyskawica
banquet	pir	benket	uczta
case, occasion	slučay	vypadok	wypadek
to look, watch	smotreti	dyvytysia	oglądać
to torment	trzati	katuvaty	męczyć
convenient	udoben	zručnyi	wygodny
brine	užin	večera	obiad

A small group of words originally belonged to one of the branches of the Proto-Slavic language, but now these words are represented in it and in one or two languages of the other branch (vada, khyba "defect", khata "cottage", kulik "sandpiper", lytka "calf", "shin", korpati "to mend", luch "ray, beam"). It is uneasily to establish the genesis of these words as even some resulted examples can cause doubt, but the stratigraphy of loan-words in Slavic languages is very complicated without the certain subjectivity. The specified primary division of Slavic peoples can be confirmed by two different forms of some ancient Proto-Slavic words what was already noted by Smal-Stotski . For example, the West Proto-Slavic *popelъ (Ukr. popil, Pol. popiół, Cz. popel, Slvk. popol, Br. popel) corresponds to the eastern Proto-Slavic *pepelъ (Rus. pepel, Bulg. pepel, Serb. pepeo); the West Proto-Slavic *sklo (Ukr. sklo, Pol. szkło, Cz., Slvk. sklo, Lus., Br. šklo,) has the match *stьklo (Rus., Bulg. steklo, Serb. staklo, Slvn. steklo); the West Proto-Slavic *pъtakъ (Ukr., Br. ptakh, Pol., ptak, Cz. pták, Slvk. vták) has the match *pъtica (Rus., Bulg., Serb., ptica, Slvn. ptíca) in Eastern Proto-Slavic, etc. For the first pair such assumption is more authentic, despite of presence Rus. popel, which can be loaned from Ukrainian, but the difference in the form of the second pair, obviously, has arisen later in the assumption Polish influences on Ukrainian and Belarus languages as the Old. Cz. stklo was fixed in the annals. These examples show as it is dangerous to draw far-sighted conclusions on the basis of the individual facts while the statistical data are always more reliable.

Even more reliable evidence of the initial division of the Proto-Slavic language into two original dialects can be found in grammatical forms and phonetic features. An example of one of these forms is the suffix -ik(a), characteristic of the eastern dialect, and its variant -ic(a), characteristic of the western dialect:

In modern West Slavic languages ​​the suffix -ik(a) is practically absent. However, this absence does not mean that it was not characteristic of them at all: apparently, here the phenomenon of the establishment and widespread distribution of -ic(a) occurred instead of the more ancient ik(a… In Ukrainian and Belarusian languages ​​-ik(a does not have specific zones of distribution, formations with it are isolated and scattered. Thus, the main direction of isoglosses is revealed quite clearly: on the one hand, Great Russian-South Slavic, on the other – Ukrainian-Belarusian-West Slavic (VENDINA N.I. 1975. 72-73).

The deep analysis of the main phonetic features, which revealed themselves at the Proto-Slavic period, but didn’t capture all the Slavic generality, has been carried out by Polish linguist A. Furdal (FURDAL ANTONI., 1961). He considered that the first dialect splitting of the Proto-Slavic language occurred after the following changes:

In accordance with the manifestation of these changes, A. Furdal drew up a geographical scheme of the Proto-Slavic territory, in which he singled out four regions. I made minor corrections in the scheme for the location of the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages (See Fig. 10).

Fig. 10. The first dialectical splitting of the Slav languages.

The first area A – the large space in the west of Proto-Slavic territory where groups kv, gv and tl, dl were kept and has taken place transformation χ and sk in š and šč accordingly. This space, as considered A. Furdal, unequivocally correspond with the Polish, Czech, Slovak and Lusatian languages. The Polish scientist does not join the Ukrainian and Belarus languages to this group, though the some facts of preservation of groups kv, gv and transformations χ in š are present in the Ukrainian and Belarus languages (for an example Ukr., Br. kvitka, Ukr. dial., Br. šaryj , etc). A. Furdal, as other scholar of his time, considered such facts as Polish influences though he noted, that groups kv, gv are presented also in Russian dialects, not being Polish influences. Further, A. Furdal allocated a small northern area B on the circuit which corresponds with the Novgorod and Pskov dialects characterized by the transformation tl, dl → kl, gl, fragmentary preservation of groups kv, gv, šč and some other features. The obvious explanation to all these facts can be such. The preservation of groups kv, gv and tl, dl and transformation χ → s’ and sk in š and šč occurred in the western branch of the Proto-Slavic language from which were developed except the Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lusatian, and other West Slavic languages also the Ukrainian, Belarus, and the Northern Russian languages. After the moving northward of the speakers of the North-Russian language it was developing on its own laws and received the phonetic features specified by A. Furdal in the modern North-Russian dialect. As the groups kv, gv were kept in some variants of the South-Russian dialect, though in smaller quantity than in the Ukrainian and Belarus languages were, it is obvious that process of transition of the primary kv, gv in cv, zv began in the eastern part of the Slavic territory under influence of the Finno-Ugric languages and occurred less intensively farther to the west. Therefore the groups kv, gv were kept in Ukrainian and Belarus in the greater degree though the forms cv, zv in these languages could be widened partly by the influence of the Russian language during later period.

The made conclusions are confirmed also by two other phonetic areas of A.Furdal's circuit. The large area D in the east of the Slavic territory which is characterized by the transition tl, dl → l and by the palatalization of kv, gv in cv, zv, and also by transitions χ in s’ and sk in s'c’ correspond to Southern Russian dialect and all the South-Slavic languages except for Slovene.The embodiment to this area the Ukrainian and Belarus languages, made by A. Furdal, is groundless as he himself recognized that the transition tl, dl → l had no precise borders, and its presence in different languages can be explained by simplification in the groups of consonants. The drop – out of t/d could occur in different places both at various times and everywhere have the same result which gives no warrant to the certain conclusions. And, at last, the transitive area C, which is connected by A. Furdal with Slovene, once again confirms that two primary branches of the Proto-Slavic language had no precise phonetic border, and, on the contrary, there was a transitive strip along the Dnieper, where phonetic phenomena have affected in different forms on the modern Ukrainian, Belarus, Slovene languages and The Northern Russian dialect.

The primary division of the Slavic folks into the western and eastern branches is confirmed also by ethnography. Among plenty of the common for all the Slavs of ceremonies, a number of the wedding customs are typical only for Poland, Moravia, Ukraine, Belarus, the North-western part of Russian, e.g. kindling fire at a wedding and jumps through it, setting brides on a tub etc. On the same territories, ritual enmity between girls and married women is played (GURA A.V. 1981: 263). Some customs are typical only for the southern Russians and the southern Slavs (Ibid: 264). It is necessary also to pay attention that there is in house-building terminology of the Slavs nothing of the common, apart from such general words as "wall", "furnace", "threshold", "door", and "window". But the West-Slavic languages including Ukrainian and Belarus have such common terminology. This, on the one hand, confirms the specified division of the Slavic folks into two branches, and, on the other hand, denies the existence of a special East-Slavic language unity at the time of the advanced housing construction among the Slavs which can be attributed long before the period of the Kyiv Rus’. This primary division of Slavic peoples has contradicted lexical peculiarities common only for the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarus languages, but it would be strange to think that similar words did not arise in the languages of the peoples having a joint historical destiny. However, this lexical community concerns already to later historical times.

The space of Milograd and Yukhnovo cultures.

The territory of the settlement of the western branch of the Slavs largely coincides with the territory of Milograd culture and the eastern branch does with the territory of Yukhnovsky culture. Milograd culture (IX-III cent. BC) should be associated with the tribes of the Balts, who in addition to their native places are also inhabited the right bank of Pripyat. Obviously, it has become the cultural and linguistic substratum, on which ethnic groups of Western Slavs were formed. V. Eremenko, considering the differences between the Milograd and Zarubintsi cultures, comes to the conclusion that there is no reason to “assert that the Milograd culture survived until the II-I centuries BC, and even more so to prove the origin of the Zarubinets culture from Milograd one” (YEREMENKO V.Ye. 1997, 62), but does not deny a certain typological similarity between their elements. Yukhnovo culture existed at the same time, which can be associated with the Anglo-Saxons, formerly having been the creators of Lebediv culture, traces of which are seen in Yukhnovo one. However, its relation to Bondarikha culture can let talking about the possibility of living here Anglo-Saxon-Mordvinic population.

As already noted, there is no unity of views on the origin of Zarubinets culture among archaeologists. They were divided into supporters of the concept of migration and integration of its origin:

Supporters of the concept of migration origin of Zarubintsy culture don't recognize or almost don't recognize the participation of the indigenous population in its creation. They believe that between local previous cultures and the appearance of the Zarubintsy monuments has a chronological gap – hiatus, which was accompanied by the absence of the populations on these territories. Followers of the theory of integration, on the other hand, recognize the role of local communities as Zarubintsy substrate. The main argument for them is the similarity of some technological artifacts (PACHKOVA S.P. 1999: 9)

We know that the Slavs were no autochthonous inhabitants in the territory of Zarubintsy culture, but the influence of the local substrate on its formation could be (see. Map below)

A schematic map of Zarubintsy culture under the influence of the local substrate.
18/5000 Legend:
1 – areas of Zarubintsy culture.
2 – the territory of Poeneshti-Lukashevka culture.
3 – the borders and the territory of Pomorian culture.
4 – the borders and territory of Milograd culture
5 – the borders and the territory of the forest-steppe Scythian culture of the Kyiv-Cherkasy group.
6 – the borders and the territory of the forest-steppe Scythian culture of the Sula group (ibid, 10. Fig. 1).
Map tinted with color by the author.

Location Zarubintsy culture areas on the map do not contradict the view that Zarubintsy culture was formed by carriers of Pomor culture but under the influence of the local substrate.

Evolutionary psychology studies the mechanisms by which human behavioral patterns are passed down from generation to generation. They have been formed over many millennia since the prehistoric era:

The flourishing field of evolutionary psychology argues that many of our present-day social and psychological characteristics were shaped during this long pre-agricultural era (HARARI Yu.N. 2016, 57).

The differences in the languages ​​of the Western and Eastern branches of Slavs discussed above, reflect the differences in the fundamental behavior of the Western and Eastern Slavs in the new understanding proposed here.