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Zmey
A Slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian '' zmei'' (or ''zmey''; ), Ukrainian ''zmiy'' (), and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian ''zmey'' (), the Slovak ''drak'' and ''šarkan'', Czech ''drak'', Polish , the Serbo-Croatian ''zmaj'' (), the Macedonian ''zmej'' (змеј) and the Slovene ''zmaj''. The Romanian '' zmeu'' is also a Slavic dragon, but a non-cognate etymology has been proposed. A ''zmei'' may be beast-like or human-like, sometimes wooing women, but often plays the role of chief antagonist in Russian literature. In the Balkans, the ''zmei'' type is overall regarded as benevolent, as opposed to malevolent dragons known variously as '', '' ala'' or ''hala'', or ''aždaja''. The Polish ''smok'' (e.g. Wawel Dragon of Kraków) or the Ukrainian or Belarusian ''smok'' (смок), ''tsmok'' (цмок), can also be included. In some Slavic traditions ''smok'' is an ordinary snake which may turn into a dragon with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Dragon
The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe. The Roman poet Virgil in his poem ''Culex'' lines 163-201, describing a shepherd having a fight with a big constricting snake, calls it " serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words probably could mean the same thing. In and after the early Middle Ages, the European dragon is typically depicted as a large, fire-breathing, scaly, horned, lizard-like creature; the creature also has leathery, bat-like wings, four legs, and a long, muscular prehensile tail. Some depictions show dragons with one or more of: feathered wings, crests, ear frills, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down its spine, and various exotic decorations. In folktales, dragon's blood often contains unique powers, keeping them alive for longer or giving them poisonous or acidic properties. The typical dragon in Christian culture protects a cavern or castle filled with gold and tre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zmei (Russian)
A ''Zmei Gorynich'' or ''zmei'' (russian: змей; plural: ru , змеи , translit = zmei), in ''skazki'' (Russian folktales) and ''byliny'' (Russian epic poetry), is a dragon or serpent, or sometimes a human-like character with dragon-like traits. Zmei Gorynych and Tugarin Zmeyevich, two well-known ''zmei'', appear as adversaries of the bogatyri (heroes) Dobrynya Nikitich or Alyosha Popovich. Etymology The word zmei in Russian is the masculine form of ''zmeya'', a feminine noun, meaning "snake". General traits Gender The dragon in Russian folk fiction may be female, in which case she is called ''zmeya''. The tendency is for the prose folktale versions to have male dragons, and the byliny poetry to have the females. This will affect the behavior of the dragons. For instance, only the male dragons will capture or captivate a princess or a maiden as a love interest. Multiheadedness The zmei is often depicted with multiple heads, and the number of heads may be 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zmeu
The ''Zmeu'' (plural: ''zmei'', feminine: ''zmeoaică'' / ''zmeoaice'') is a fantastic creature of Romanian folklore and Romanian mythology. Though referred by some sources as a dragon, the zmeu is nevertheless distinct, because it usually has clear anthropomorphic traits: it is humanoid and has legs, arms, the ability to create and use artifacts such as weapons, and to ride a horse, and has the desire to marry young girls. There are commentators that class it as a giant (equivalent of an ogre), or a devil, or even a vampire. In some stories, Zmeu appears in the sky and spits fire, or has the ability to change form. In other stories, it has a magical precious stone on its head that shines like the sun. It likes beautiful young girls, whom it kidnaps, usually for the purpose of marrying them. It is almost always defeated by a daring prince or knight-errant. The zmei has also been conflated with or confused with the ''dracu'' or with the ''balaur'' type dragon. Etymology Most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavic Doragon
Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slavic peoples, western group of Slavic peoples ** Slavic Americans, Americans of Slavic descent * Anti-Slavic sentiment, negative attitude towards Slavic peoples * Pan-Slavic movement, movement in favor of Slavic cooperation and unity * Slavic studies, a multidisciplinary field of studies focused on history and culture of Slavic peoples Languages, alphabets, and names * Slavic languages, a group of closely related Indo-European languages ** Proto-Slavic language, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages ** Old Church Slavonic, 9th century Slavic literary language, used for the purpose of evangelizing the Slavic peoples ** Church Slavonic, a written and spoken variant of Old Church Slavonic, standardized and widely adopted b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguistics is concerned with both the cognitive and social aspects of language. It is considered a scientific field as well as an academic discipline; it has been classified as a social science, natural science, cognitive science,Thagard, PaulCognitive Science, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). or part of the humanities. Traditional areas of linguistic analysis correspond to phenomena found in human linguistic systems, such as syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences); semantics (meaning); morphology (structure of words); phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures in sign languages); phonology (the abstract sound system of a particular language); and pragmatics (how social c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language, and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age. The majority of linguistic work during the 19th century was devoted to the reconstruction of PIE or its daughter languages, and many of the modern techniques of linguistic reconstruction (such as the comparative method) were developed as a result. PIE is hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from 4500 BC to 2500 BC during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, though estimates vary by more than a thousand years. According to the prevailing Kurgan hypothesis, the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been in the Pontic–Caspian steppe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zero Grade
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut (, from German '' Ablaut'' ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its related noun ''song'', a paradigm inherited directly from the Proto-Indo-European stage of the language. Traces of ablaut are found in all modern Indo-European languages, though its prevalence varies greatly. History of the concept The phenomenon of Indo-European ablaut was first recorded by Sanskrit grammarians in the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), and was codified by Pāṇini in his ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' (4th century BCE), where the terms ' and '' '' were used to describe the phenomena now known respectively as the ''full grade'' and ''lengthened grade''.Burrow, §2.1. In the context of European languages, the phenomenon was first described in the early 18th century by the Dutch linguist Lambert ten Kate, in his b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th century A.D. As with most other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; scholars have reconstructed the language by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic languages and by taking into account other Indo-European languages. Rapid development of Slavic speech occurred during the Proto-Slavic period, coinciding with the massive expansion of the Slavic-speaking area. Dialectal differentiation occurred early on during this period, but overall linguistic unity and mutual intelligibility continued for several centuries, into the 10th century or later. During this period, many sound changes diffused across the entire area, often uniformly. This makes it inconvenient to maintain the traditional definition of a pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belarusian Language
Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries. Before Belarus gained independence in 1991, the language was only known in English as ''Byelorussian'' or ''Belorussian'', the compound term retaining the English-language name for the Russian language in its second part, or alternatively as ''White Russian''. Following independence, it became known as ''Belarusan'' and since 1995 as ''Belarusian'' in English. As one of the East Slavic languages, Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Belarusian retain a degree of mutual intelligibility. Its predecessor stage is known in Western academia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town with Wawel Royal Castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the first 12 sites granted the status. The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second-most-important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was reported by Ibrahim Ibn Yakoub, a merchant from Cordoba, as a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 985. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
