Textbook on OLD SLAVIC LANGUAGE
http://linguistica.spb.ru/
OLD SLAVONIC LANGUAGE
TUTORIAL
(didactic units)
The concept of the Old Slavonic language. Old Church Slavonic as a written and literary language common to the Slavs. Grouping the languages of the Slavic peoples according to their origin. The place of the Old Church Slavonic language among other Slavic languages.
Old Slavonic letter. Glagolitic and Cyrillic: the question of their origin. Characteristics of Cyrillic writing.
The most important monuments of Glagolitic and Cyrillic writing. Brief description of them.
Sound processes that took place in the early and late periods of the development of the Proto-Slavic language: a) associated with a tendency towards openness of the syllable; b) associated with the operation of the law of syllabic synharmonism; c) alternation of vowel sounds.
Phonetic system of the Old Slavonic language (IX-XI centuries).
1. The sound system of the Old Church Slavonic language of the second half of the 9th century: the phonetic structure of the syllable; vowel sounds, their classification; reduced vowels, their positions; consonant sounds, their classification by deafness/voicedness, hardness/softness;
2. Later sound processes, reflected in the monuments of the 9th and partly the 10th centuries: the fall of reduced vowels and changes in the phonetic system of the language associated with the loss of reduced vowels.
Morphology. Grammatical categories of words in the Old Slavonic language. Noun. Basic grammatical categories: gender, number,
case, types of declension.
Pronoun. Personal pronouns 1 and 2 persons and reflexive pronoun. Expression of 3 persons by forms of demonstrative pronouns. Impersonal pronouns. Their classification by value. Features of the declension of personal and impersonal pronouns.
Adjective. Discharges, nominal and full forms, declension. Numeral. Quantitative, complex and ordinal numerators
Verb. Conjugated and non-conjugated verb forms. Verb classes. Forms of verb tense, their formation and conjugation. Inclinations of the verb, their formation. Nominal forms of the verb, their formation.
Syntax. Simple sentence. Ways of expressing the subject and predicate. Features in the use of case forms. Complex sentences. Negative expression.
Questions to prepare for the test and exam:
The examination ticket includes two theoretical questions: 1) on general issues related to the origin of Old Slavonic writing, the characteristics of the alphabet, written monuments and the phonetic structure of the Old Slavonic language; 2) in morphology - and a practical task: reading, translating an excerpt from the text of Old Slavonic written monuments; its phonetic and morphological analysis (4 - 6 lines).
1. Slavic languages, a place among them is the Old Church Slavonic language.
2. Slavs and Slavic languages. The question of the ancestral home of the Slavs.
3. Common Slavic language, its relation to the Indo-European proto-language. Comparative-historical method of linguistics.
4. The question of the beginning of Slavic writing. Activities of Constantine and Methodius. Folk colloquial basis of the Old Slavonic language.
5. Slavic alphabets, their origin.
6. Glagolitic and Cyrillic monuments of Old Slavonic writing.
7. Characteristics of the Cyrillic alphabet from the side of the alphabetic composition (compared with modern Russian writing).
8. Vowels at the beginning of a word. The system of Indo-European vowels, their quality and quantity.
9. Basic phonetic laws of the Proto-Slavic language.
10. Diphthongs of the Proto-Slavic language and their fate.
11. Diphthongic combinations of vowels with nasal consonants and their transformation in the Proto-Slavic language.
12. Diphthongic combinations *tort, *tolt, *tert, *telt in the Proto-Slavic language and their fate.
13. Diphthongic combinations *ort, *olt in the Proto-Slavic language and their fate.
14. The fate of the combinations *dt, *tt in the Proto-Slavic language.
15. The fate of combinations *tl, *dl in the Proto-Slavic language.
16. Qualitative and quantitative alternations of vowels.
17. Diphthong and positional alternations of sounds.
18. The first and second palatalizations of back-lingual consonants. 19. Change of back-lingual consonants *g, *k, *ch and whistling consonants
*z, *s combined with *j .
20. Change of labial consonants *b, *p, *w, *m in combination with *j. 21.Change of front lingual consonants *d, *t in combination with *j. 22. Changing consonant combinations ( *kw, *gw, *kt, *gt, *st, *sk, *zd),
associated with the operation of the law of syllabic synharmonism. 23. The system of vowels of the Old Church Slavonic language. Vowels at the beginning of a word.
24. Reduced sounds b and b. Strong and weak positions. The fall of the reduced and the consequences of their loss.
25. Reduced sounds s ii. Strong and weak positions. The loss of the reduced and its consequences.
26. The system of consonant sounds in the Old Slavonic language. Their classification.
27. The main grammatical categories of the noun in the Old Slavonic language.
28. Declination with an ancient basis on *-a, -ja and its history. 29. Declination with an ancient basis on *-o, -jo and its history. 30. Declination from an ancient stem to a consonant sound and its history. 31. Declination with ancient stems in *-ŭ and *-ū and their history. 32. Declination with an ancient basis on *-ĭ and its history. 33. Pronouns in the Old Slavonic language. Ranks by value. Oso-
declensions of personal pronouns.
34. Characteristics of demonstrative pronouns and their declension. The origin of n is based on indirect cases of pronouns.
35. Adjective. Ranks of adjectives by meaning. Nominal and member forms of adjectives. Formation of full adjectives and features of their declension.
36. Degrees of comparison of adjectives.
37. The main grammatical categories of the verb in the Old Slavonic language.
38. Two bases of the verb. Verb classes.
39. Present tense of verbs. Features of conjugation of thematic and non-thematic verbs.
40. Aorist, its grammatical meaning. Types of aorist, their formation and conjugation.
41. Imperfect, its grammatical meaning. Formation of the imperfect and features of conjugation.
42. Perfect, its meaning. Formation and conjugation of the perfect. 43. Plyuskvamperfekt, its meaning and education. Features
pluperfect.
44. Forms of the future tense of the verb, their formation and conjugation. 45. Conditional mood of the verb. His education and conjugation.
46. Imperative mood in Old Church Slavonic. His education and conjugation.
47. Infinitive and supin in Old Church Slavonic. Their meaning and education.
48. Participles of the Old Church Slavonic language. Their education and conjugation. 49. Features of the use of the predicate in the Old Slavonic language. 50. Turnover "dative independent" in Old Church Slavonic.
Abstract topics:
1. From the Indo-European language to the Slavic languages.
2. The activities of Constantine and Methodius to create the Slavic alphabet
3. Characteristics of the Slavic alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
4. Monuments of Old Slavonic writing.
5. linguistic, historical, cultural and pedagogical significance of the study of the Old Church Slavonic language.
6. The development of Slavic linguistics and comparative historical method.
7. Slavic languages, their relationship.
8. History of views on the folk basis of the Old Church Slavonic language.
9. Words denoting number in Old Church Slavonic.
10. Syntactic features of the Old Slavonic language.
LITERATURE
1. *Gorshkov A.I. Old Slavonic language. Moscow: Higher school, 1963 1 .
2. Gorshkova O.V., Khmelevskaya T.A. Collection of exercises in the Old Slavonic language. M., 1960.
3. Dementiev A.A. Collection of problems and exercises in the Old Slavonic language. Samara: SGPU, 2001
4. Elkina N.M. Old Slavonic language. M., 1963.
5. *Istrin V.A. 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet. M., 1963.
6. *Krivchik V.F., Mozheiko N.S. Old Slavonic language. Minsk: Publishing House "Higher School", 1970.
7. Nikiforov S.D. Old Slavonic language. Ed. 2nd. Moscow: Uchpedgiz, 1955.
8. *Tikhonova R.I. Old Slavonic language. Samara, 1993.
9. *Tikhonova R.I. Old Slavonic language. M., 1995.
10. Khaburgaev G.A. Old Slavonic language. Moscow: Education, 1974.
1 Note: * marks the works, excerpts from which formed a file of materials for study.
THE CONCEPT OF THE OLD SLAVIC LANGUAGE
Old Church Slavonic is the oldest literary language of the Slavs. This is the earliest written processing that has come down to us, the written consolidation of Slavic speech. The first monuments of Old Slavonic writing date back to the 2nd half of the 9th century. (60s of the 9th century). They are both translations from Greek of liturgical books, and later untranslated, original works. Since the Old Church Slavonic language had a sound system, grammatical structure and vocabulary close to other Slavic languages, it very quickly spread in the Slavic countries as the language of church, scientific and partly fiction. All other Slavic languages were fixed in writing much later (the oldest surviving Russian written monuments date back to the second half of the 11th century; Old Czech - to the 13th century; among the surviving Polish monuments, the oldest belong to the 14th century). Thus, the Old Church Slavonic language in a number of cases makes it possible to present Slavic sounds and forms at their most ancient stage of development.
The Old Church Slavonic language came to Russia at the end of the 10th century (988) in connection with the adoption of Christianity as the language of church writing.
At present, the Old Church Slavonic language is dead: it is not spoken or written. The disappearance of the Old Church Slavonic as a living language passed early, no later than the 11th century, and is explained by the fact that, being close to the languages of those Slavic peoples among whom it was widespread, it itself was so exposed to the vernacular languages of these peoples that it lost its original quality and finally disappeared as a language. However, his disappearance did not happen instantly. More and more elements of folk colloquial Slavic speech penetrated into church-religious literature. The type of Russian literary language, which was based on the Old Church Slavonic language, is called Church Slavonic the language of the Russian version.
Church Slavonic has long been a supra-ethnic language, performing the functions of a church-religious language. In Russia they knew him, they studied him, but for the Russians he was not native. Scientists explain the preservation of the Church Slavonic language in Russia until the time of Peter the Great by the needs of the church and cultural traditions.
All Slavic languages of our time are united into three groups: eastern, western and southern2.
2 Old Church Slavonic was part of the South Slavic family of languages.
East Slavic | West Slavic | South Slavic |
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Polish | Bulgarian |
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Macedonian |
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Ukrainian | Slovak |
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Serbo-Croatian |
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Belorussian | Upper Lusatian |
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Slovenian |
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Lower Lusatian |
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All Slavic languages are related in origin. Their common source is the Proto-Slavic, or common Slavic language. Proto-Slavic, or common Slavic, is a language system that summarizes the living speech of the Slavic tribes from the time of their formation (the ancestor of a group of tribes was one tribe) until the time when the early Slavic peoples appeared on their basis, that scientifically restored language that served as a means of communication among the Slavs in the early period their stories 3. Most modern linguists believe that the formation of the Slavs should be attributed to the turn of the III-II millennium BC. This is the stage of tribal life when cattle breeding is already widely developed and agriculture is known.
The collapse of the Slavic unity began with the advent of the "iron" age, i.e. before the dawn of a new era. The final disintegration of the Slavic unity and the formation of three groups of Slavs: eastern, western and southern - coincides with the period of decomposition of the primitive communal classless system. The end of the Proto-Slavic language can be attributed to the second half of the first millennium AD. (VI-VII centuries AD).
The Proto-Slavic language itself is an offshoot of a more ancient linguistic unity - Indo-European. An Indo-European proto-language that existed from the 4th-3rd millennium BC. and further into the depths of centuries, is the common source of all languages called European. Indo-European languages include most of the original languages of Europe and some of the languages of Asia. Later, Indo-European languages spread to the other three continents.
THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF WRITING AMONG THE SLAVES
In 862 or 863, the Moravian prince Rostislav sent an embassy to the Byzantine emperor Michael III with a request to send preachers to Moravia who would teach the Moravians the Christian faith in their native language. Apparently, the request of the Moravian prince was due to the fact that he, fighting against the Latin-German clergy, who was the conductor
3 It is generally accepted to write Proto-Slavic forms under the sign* and in Latin letters: *woda, *sestra, *stolos, etc.
4 The Moravian Principality included the regions of present-day Slovakia.
influence of the German emperor Louis, wanted to get political and ecclesiastical support from Byzantium for his power. In Byzantium, the ambassadors were favorably treated, as this opened the prospect for the spread
and strengthening the influence of Byzantium in the west, in the regions of the Moravian Principality. It was decided to send a mission to Moravia, headed by two Greek brother Constantine and Methodius. The first of them, who devoted himself to the church service, was known for his scholarship and missionary work. His name in the sources is usually used with the epithet "philosopher". Methodius was for some time the ruler of one of the Slavic regions. Both of them are natives of the city of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), which at that time was a Greek colony on Slavic territory and was surrounded by Slavic settlements. Constantine and Methodius knew the language of the Slavs well, who lived both in the city itself and in its environs. This is what, according to the "Life of Methodius", the Byzantine emperor said, referring to the brothers: "You are both Thessalonians, and the Thessalonians all speak Slavic well."
According to the "Lives" of Constantine and Methodius, even before leaving for Moravia, Constantine compiled the Slavic alphabet and began to translate the gospel into Slavic.
The brothers spent more than three years in Moravia, where they trained cadres of Slavic "book people", future ministers of the church, and translated Greek liturgical books into Slavonic. From the very first days, the Slavic language in writing and church ritual was met with hostility by the German clergy, who saw in the activities of Constantine and Methodius a great danger to themselves. To get support, Konstantin
and Methodius with a group of his disciples went to Rome, to the pope. On the way they stopped in Pannonia 5, a Slavic principality inhabited by the ancestors of today's Slovenes. There they were warmly welcomed by Prince Kotsel, who gave them about 50 students to teach Slavic writing.
AT Rome, Constantine and Methodius was received by Pope Adrian II, who,
trying to strengthen his influence in Moravia and Pannonia, he recognized the Slavic language in writing and liturgy6. There, Constantine fell ill and died in 869, shortly before his death, taking the vows as a monk under the name of Cyril. After the death of Constantine, Methodius and his disciples first returned to Pannonia. In Moravia, at that time, Svyatopolk, the nephew of Rostislav, came to the throne, changing his political orientation to Latin-German. In order to assert his influence in Moravia and Pannonia, Pope Adrian II founded a special Slavic bishopric for these areas, and Methodius was appointed
5 The territory of Pannonia was located between the upper Danube, Drava and Mur.
6 In the Middle Ages, worship was allowed only in three languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew (according to the gospel legend, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were inscribed on the cross on which Jesus was crucified). Constantine and Methodius obtained from the Pope the recognition of Old Church Slavonic as the fourth language of the church, which was a major victory in their struggle for the rights of the Slavs to worship in their native language.
Appointed Bishop of Pannonia. But he soon fell into the hands of the German clergy and was imprisoned in Bavaria. Methodius stayed there for more than two years. After his release, he returns to Moravia, where great changes have taken place during this time. After the uprising against the Franks, Svyatopolk became the independent ruler of this country. Increasingly subject to German influence, he was not a supporter of Slavic writing. Therefore, the activities of Methodius and his students took place in extremely difficult conditions.
In 885 Methodius died. After his death, the opponents of Slavic writing obtained from Pope Stephen V the prohibition of the Slavic language in the church liturgy. The disciples of Methodius were expelled from Moravia. Leaving its borders, some of them headed south, to the Croats, and others to the southeast, to Bulgaria, where they continued the work of Slavic writing.
Particularly favorable conditions for Slavic writing were created in Bulgaria. The most talented student of Methodius was Clement, whose activities took place in Macedonia and southeastern Albania. In Macedonia, he and his disciples copied Cyril and Methodius originals of liturgical books and made new translations from the Greek language.
The heyday of Slavic writing falls during the reign of Tsar Simeon (893-927), when the capital of Bulgaria, Preslav, becomes not only a state center, but also the center of Slavic writing in eastern Bulgaria. Preslav scribes used the same language as they wrote in Macedonia, but in their manuscripts deviations from the previous linguistic book norms were reflected more significantly than in the west.
In Moravia and Bohemia, after the expulsion of the disciples of Methodius, Slavic writing continued until the end of the 11th century, when in the Czech Sazava monastery, where it was still preserved, Slavonic books were either destroyed by supporters of the Latin script, or so corrupted that they could no longer be read.
Slavic alphabets
The oldest Old Slavonic alphabets that have come down to us are written in two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
Cyrillic later formed the basis of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Serbian alphabets. The Glagolitic alphabet fell into disuse and was preserved only in Croatia in church use (until the 17th century it was used there for secular purposes).
The question of the origin of two Slavic alphabets and their mutual relationship has long occupied scientists. Old Slavonic monuments testify that two alphabets that were very different from each other already existed in ancient times.
The Czech scientist I. Dobrovsky believed that the Cyrillic alphabet was more ancient and that it was compiled by Konstantin. As for the Glagolitic alphabet, in his opinion, it arose around the 14th century. in Croatia. He explains its emergence as follows: the Roman Church in the areas that were under its subordination pursued everything that testified to a connection with Byzantium, i.e. with the Greek Church. And since the Cyrillic alphabet, based on the Greek script, clearly spoke of this connection, it was replaced by the Glagolitic alphabet in order to preserve the service in the Slavic language.
In 1836, the Slavic philologist V. Kopitar discovered an ancient manuscript written in Glagolitic in the library of Count Klots. According to paleographic data, it was much older than those manuscripts that were still known and dated no earlier than the 14th century. This discovery led to a revision of the previous point of view on the origin of the Slavic alphabets. V. Kopitar put forward a hypothesis about the comparative antiquity of the Glagolitic alphabet compared to the Cyrillic alphabet.
Further discoveries in this area confirmed the point of view of V. Kopitar.
About the greater antiquity of the Glagolitic says the following:
1. The Glagolitic alphabet is poorer in terms of the number of letters, and, consequently, the Cyrillic alphabet is a more perfect alphabet.
2. Linguistically, the most ancient monuments are written in the Glagolitic alphabet (for example, the Kyiv leaflets, the Zograf and Mariinsky gospels).
3. There are many manuscripts written in Cyrillic on parchment with
in washed out Glagolitic, but there are no manuscripts written in Glagolitic in washed out Cyrillic.
All this gave reason to believe that the more ancient alphabet created by Constantine was the Glagolitic alphabet. Cyrillic, on the other hand, originated in eastern Bulgaria during the reign of Tsar Simeon (893-927), i.e. then, when the Christian religion had long been accepted there, but the service was performed by the Greek priests in the Greek language. Tsar Simeon wanted to oppose Byzantium not only state power, but also cultural power. In order to protect the independence of Bulgarian culture from unnecessary encroachments of Byzantium, it was necessary to introduce worship in the Slavic language. But the Greek priests had difficulty mastering the Glagolitic alphabet. Therefore, it was necessary to make a compromise solution: to replace the Glagolitic alphabet with another alphabet similar to Greek. It is assumed that, following the model of the Greek alphabet, this new Slavic alphabet was composed by the disciple of Methodius, Presbyter Constantine. Later, Slavic scribes began to identify presbyter Konstantin with the first teacher Konstantin - Cyril, and the alphabet invented by him began to be called by the name of the second - Cyrillic.
In the 9th century, Saints Cyril and Methodius translated the Gospel into Slavonic. Old Slavonic was similar to the Old Russian language, it was understood in Russia without translation.
Here is a fragment of the Gospel in Old Slavonic and modern Russian. In Russian, a translation of the Gospel was published in the middle of the 19th century.
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Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in the prophets: Behold, I am sending my angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths. 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5 And all the land of Judah and Jerusalem went out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, The strongest of me is coming after me; 8 I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. |
Slavic letters
Vertically:
1. The capital of Ancient Russia.
3. The name of the city in Macedonia, where the holy brothers Constantine and Methodius, the Enlighteners of the Slavs, were born.
5. Bread, which is consecrated in the church at Easter.
6. The name of the Patriarch of Constantinople during the life of the holy brothers Constantine and Methodius.
8. The head of the region in the Byzantine Empire during the life of the holy brothers.
9. What does the Greek word "sophia" mean?
Horizontally:
2. Type of painting on wet plaster.
4. Writing material used in the time of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
6. What was the name of Constantine among the people?
7. What was the name of St. Cyril before becoming a monk?
9. What was the name of the Byzantine emperor who sent Constantine to preach to the Slavs?
10. The name of the prince under whom Russia was baptized.
11. A set of rules.
Answers
38
(Materials for the lessons: in sections 1 and 3 of this collection, as well as in the textbook N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarov "Native History", - Novosibirsk: "Ekor", 1995)
Lesson #I
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Dialogue with students, introduction to the topic. |
What is literacy? The beginning of national writing is the most important milestone in the history of every nation. The origin of Slavic writing. The names of the creators. The contribution of Russian literature to world culture. historical sources. |
For materials, see pages 9-13 of the section! of this collection. |
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Historical excursion. |
The desire for enlightenment by the faith of Christ led the Slavs to the need for a bookish language. Who are the Slavs? What do they have in common? Slavs in the 10th century What can become a unifying principle for peoples? | |
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Information on the topic of the lesson. |
Life of brothers Cyril and Methodius. Konstantin Philosopher. Translation of the word philosophy ("love of wisdom"). Enlightenment by the faith of Christ in the Slavic lands. Creation of the Slavic alphabet. Death of Konstantin (Cyril) and testament to his brother. Translation of the Holy Books into Slavic by Saint Methodius. |
A visual aid is an icon, see the intro on page 53 of this collection. |
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Add. material 10 min. |
Prince Vladimir and the Baptism of Russia | Page 72-79 textbook N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarov "Native History". |
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Lesson #2 |
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Basic information on the topic. 20 minutes. |
Slavic alphabet. What alphabet did Constantine create? Cyrillic and Glagolitic. |
Page 12 of this collection. |
| Slavic alphabet and Greek alphabet. Where do Greek words come from in our language? Words-tracing paper. | See article "Greek Around Us", p. 18. | |
| Church Slavonic language and its role in the formation of the literary Russian language. . | See section 3, pages 59-65. |
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Practical lesson. 20 minutes. |
Reading some words in Slavic Text for the language, reading the text in Church Slavonic, writing Slavic letters and numbers in a notebook. | See text for reading on page 35, lettering and numbers - pages 15-17 of the collection. |
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House. exercise |
Learn the names of Slavic letters. | |
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Lesson #3 |
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Information on the topic. 35 min. |
Commemoration of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The glorification of the holy brothers by the Orthodox Church (commemoration day May 24). Icon of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius. |
Icon - on page 57. |
| Hymn to Cyril and Methodius: Listen to a tape or sing along with the piano. | ||
| Celebration of the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture in Bulgaria. |
See pages 33-34 of this collection. |
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| Ancient book. What were the first books in Russia, when did they appear, how and by whom were they written? In the 11th century Russia was one of the most literate countries in Europe. Yaroslav the Wise. High level of book art in Russia. Love for the book. Decoration of ancient books. Statutory letter. | Textbook N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarov "Native History", pp. 261-266. | |
| Additional material. 10 min | Archive. Who are archaeologists? What is an archive, and what can its documents tell about? The first archives in Russia (XVIII century). | Textbook "Native History", pp. 261-266. |
One of the most interesting is the Old Church Slavonic language. The words that were part of his vocabulary, grammar rules, even some phonetic features and the alphabet became the basis of the modern Russian language. Let's take a look at what kind of language it is, when and how it originated, and whether it is used today and in what areas.
We will also talk about why it is studied at universities, and we will also mention the most famous and significant works on Cyrillic and Old Church Slavonic grammar. Let us also remember Cyril and Methodius, the world-famous Thessalonica brothers.
General information
That for more than one century scientists have been paying attention to this language, studying the Old Slavonic alphabet and the history of its development, there is not so much information about it. If the grammatical and phonetic structure of the language, the lexical composition is more or less studied, then everything related to its origin is still in question.
The reason for this is that the creators of writing themselves either did not keep records of their work, or these records were completely lost over time. A detailed study of the writing itself began only a few centuries later, when no one could say with certainty what kind of dialect became the basis of this writing.
It is believed that this language was artificially created on the basis of dialects in the 9th century and was used on the territory of Russia for several centuries.
It is also worth noting that in some sources you can find a synonymous name for the language - Church Slavonic. This is due to the fact that the birth of literature in Russia is connected directly with the church. At first, literature was church: books, prayers, parables were translated, and original scriptures were also created. In addition, in general, only people serving the church spoke this language.
Later, with culture, Old Slavonic was replaced by the Old Russian language, which largely relied on its predecessor. It happened around the 12th century.
Nevertheless, the Old Slavonic initial letter has come down to us practically unchanged, and we use it to this day. We also use the grammatical system, which began to emerge even before the emergence of the Old Russian language.
Creation versions
It is believed that the Old Slavonic language owes its appearance to Cyril and Methodius. And it is this information that we find in all textbooks on the history of language and writing.
The brothers created a new script based on one of the Thessalonica dialects of the Slavs. This was done primarily in order to translate biblical texts and church prayers into the Slavic language.
But there are other versions of the origin of the language. So, I. Yagich believed that one of the dialects of the Macedonian language became the basis of Old Church Slavonic.
There is also a theory according to which the Bulgarian language was the basis of the new written language. She will be nominated by P. Safarik. He also believed that this language should be called Old Bulgarian, and not Old Slavonic. Until now, some researchers are arguing about this issue.
By the way, Bulgarian linguists still believe that the language we are considering is precisely Old Bulgarian, and not Slavic.
We can even assume that there are other, less well-known theories of the origin of the language, but they have either not been considered in scientific circles, or their complete failure has been proven.
In any case, Old Church Slavonic words can be found not only in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, but also in Polish, Macedonian, Bulgarian and other Slavic dialects. Therefore, discussions about which of the languages is closest to Old Church Slavonic are unlikely to ever be completed.
Thessalonica Brothers
The creators - Cyril and Methodius - come from the city of Thessalonica, in Greece. The brothers were born into a fairly wealthy family, so they were able to get an excellent education.
The elder brother - Michael - was born around 815. When he was ordained a monk, he received the name Methodius.
Constantine was the youngest in the family and was born around 826. He knew foreign languages, understood the exact sciences. Despite the fact that many predicted success and a great future for him, Konstantin decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and also became a monk, receiving the name Cyril. He died in 869.
The brothers were actively engaged in the dissemination of Christianity and sacred writings. They visited different countries, trying to convey the word of God to people. But nevertheless, it was the Old Slavonic alphabet that brought them world fame.
Both brothers were canonized. In some Slavic countries, cultures are also celebrated on May 24 (Russia and Bulgaria). In Macedonia, Cyril and Methodius are venerated on this day. Two more Slavic countries - the Czech Republic and Slovakia - moved this holiday to July 5th.
Two alphabets
It is believed that the Old Slavonic letter was created precisely by the Greek enlighteners. In addition, initially there were two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Let's look at them briefly.
The first is a verb. It is believed that Cyril and Methodius were its creator. It is believed that this alphabet has no basis and was created from scratch. In Old Russia, it was used quite rarely, in some cases.
The second is Cyrillic. Its creation is also attributed to the Thessalonica brothers. It is believed that the statutory Byzantine letter was taken as the basis of the alphabet. At the moment - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians - use the letters of the Old Slavonic alphabet, or rather, the Cyrillic alphabet.
As for the question of which one, there is also no unambiguous answer to it. In any case, if we proceed from the fact that both the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets were created by the Solunsky brothers, then the difference between the time of their creation hardly exceeded ten or fifteen years.
Was there a written language before Cyrillic?
An interesting fact is that some researchers of the history of the language believe that there was a written language in Russia even before Cyril and Methodius. The “Book of Veles”, which was written by the ancient Russian Magi before the adoption of Christianity, is considered a confirmation of this theory. At the same time, it has not been proven in which century this literary monument was created.
In addition, scientists argue that in various records of ancient Greek travelers and scientists there are references to the presence of writing among the Slavs. It also mentions the agreements that the princes signed with Byzantine merchants.
Unfortunately, it has not yet been definitely established whether this is true, and if so, what kind of writing was in Russia before the spread of Christianity.
Learning Old Church Slavonic
Regarding the study of the Old Church Slavonic language, it was of interest not only to scientists studying the history of the language, dialectology, but also to Slavic scientists.
Its study began in the 19th century with the development of the comparative historical method. We will not dwell on this issue in detail, since, in fact, a person who is not closely familiar with linguistics will not be interested and familiar with the names and surnames of scientists. Let's just say that more than one textbook was compiled on the basis of research, many of them are used to study the history of language and dialectology.
In the course of the research, theories of the development of the Old Church Slavonic language were developed, dictionaries of Old Church Slavonic vocabulary were compiled, grammar and phonetics were studied. But at the same time, there are still unsolved mysteries and mysteries of the Old Slavonic dialect.
We also allow ourselves to give a list of the most famous dictionaries and textbooks of the Old Church Slavonic language. Perhaps these books will be of interest to you and help you delve into the history of our culture and writing.
The most famous textbooks were published by such scientists as Khabugraev, Remneva, Elkina. All three textbooks are called "Old Church Slavonic".
A rather impressive scientific work was published by A. Selishchev. He prepared a textbook, consisting of two parts and covering the entire system of the Old Slavonic language, containing not only theoretical material, but also texts, a dictionary, and also some articles on the morphology of the language.
The materials devoted to the Thessalonica brothers, the history of the origin of the alphabet are also interesting. So, in 1930, the work "Materials on the History of the Origin of Writing", written by P. Lavrov, was published.
No less valuable is the work of A. Shakhmatov, which was published in Berlin in 1908 - "The Legend of the Translation of Books into Slovenian". In 1855, O. Bodiansky's monograph "On the time of origin of Slavic writings" saw the light of day.
Also, the "Old Slavonic Dictionary" was compiled, based on the manuscripts of the 10th - 11th centuries, which was edited by R. Zeitlin and R. Vecherka.
All these books are widely known. On their basis, not only write essays and reports on the history of the language, but also prepare more serious work.
Old Slavonic layer of vocabulary
A rather large layer of Old Slavonic vocabulary was inherited by the Russian language. Old Slavonic words are quite firmly entrenched in our dialect, and today we will not even be able to distinguish them from native Russian words.
Let's consider a few examples in order for you to understand how deeply the Old Church Slavonicisms penetrated into our language.
Such church terms as "priest", "sacrifice", "rod" came to us precisely from the Old Slavonic language, abstract concepts such as "power", "disaster", "consent" also belong here.
Of course, there are much more Old Slavonicisms themselves. We will give you a few signs that indicate that the word is Old Slavonicism.
1. The presence of prefixes in and through. For example: return, excessive.
2. Compound lexemes with the words god-, good-, sin-, evil- and others. For example: malevolence, fall into sin.
2. The presence of suffixes -stv-, -zn-, -usch-, -yushch-, -ash- -yashch-. For example: burning, melting.
It would seem that we have listed only a few signs by which Old Slavonicisms can be identified, but you probably already remembered more than one word that came to us from Old Slavonic.
If you want to know the meaning of Old Slavonic words, we can advise you to look into any explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Almost all of them have retained their original meaning, despite the fact that more than one decade has passed.
Use at the present stage
At the moment, Old Church Slavonic is studied at universities in separate faculties and specialties, and is also used in churches.
This is due to the fact that at this stage of development, this language is considered dead. Its use is possible only in the church, since many prayers are written in this language. In addition, it is worth noting the fact that the first sacred writings were translated into the Old Slavonic language and are still used by the church in the same form as centuries ago.
Regarding the world of science, we note the fact that Old Church Slavonic words and their individual forms are often found in dialects. This attracts the attention of dialectologists, allowing them to study the development of the language, its individual forms and dialects.
Researchers of culture and history also know this language, since their work is directly related to the study of old memos.
Despite this, at this stage, this language is considered dead, since no one has been communicating in it, like in Latin, ancient Greek, and only a few know it.
Use in the church
This language is most widely used in the church. So, Old Slavonic prayers can be heard in any Orthodox church. In addition, excerpts from church books, the Bible are also read on it.
At the same time, we also note that church employees, young seminarians also study this dialect, its features, phonetics and graphics. Today, Old Church Slavonic is rightfully considered the language of the Orthodox Church.
The most famous prayer, which is often read in this particular dialect, is “Our Father”. But there are still many prayers in the Old Slavonic language that are less known. You can find them in any old prayer book, or you can hear them by visiting the same church.
Studying at universities
The Old Church Slavonic language is today quite widely studied at universities. Pass it at the philological faculties, historical, legal. In some universities, it is also possible to study for philosophy students.
The program includes the history of origin, the Old Slavonic alphabet, features of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar. Basics of syntax.
Students not only study the rules, learn how to decline words, parse them as part of speech, but also read texts written in a given language, try to translate them and understand the meaning.
All this is done so that philologists can further apply their knowledge to study ancient literary memoirs, features of the development of the Russian language, its dialects.
It is worth noting that it is quite difficult to learn Old Church Slavonic. The text written on it is difficult to read, since it contains not only many archaisms, but also the very rules for reading the letters "yat", "er" and "er" are at first difficult to remember.
Thanks to the acquired knowledge, history students will be able to study ancient monuments of culture and writing, read historical documents and annals, and understand their essence.
The same applies to those who study at the faculties of philosophy, law.
Despite the fact that today Old Church Slavonic is a dead language, interest in it has not subsided so far.
conclusions
It was Old Church Slavonic that became the basis of the Old Russian language, which, in turn, replaced the Russian language. Words of Old Slavonic origin are perceived by us as primordially Russian.
A significant layer of vocabulary, phonetic features, grammar of the East Slavic languages - all this was laid down during the development and use of the Old Church Slavonic language.
Old Church Slavonic is a formally dead language, which at the moment is spoken only by church ministers. It was created back in the 9th century by the brothers Cyril and Methodius and was originally used to translate and record church literature. In fact, Old Church Slavonic has always been a written language that was not spoken among the people.
Today we no longer use it, but at the same time it is widely studied at the philological and historical faculties, as well as in theological seminaries. Today, Old Slavonic words and this ancient language can be heard by visiting, since all prayers in Orthodox churches are read in it.
In the Church Slavonic language, the alphabet consists of 40 letters, most of which correspond to Russian letters in spelling and pronunciation. Each letter of the Church Slavonic language has its own traditional name.
| Letters | letter names | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| A a | az | [a] |
| B b | beeches | [b] |
| in in | lead | [in] |
| G g | verb | [G] |
| D d | good | [e] |
| E e є | there is | [e] |
| F | live | [and] |
| Ѕ ѕ | green | [h] |
| W h | Earth | [h] |
| And and | Izhe | [and] |
| І і | and | [and] |
| K to | how | [to] |
| L l | people | [l] |
| Mm | think | [m] |
| N n | our | [n] |
| Oh oh oh | he | [about] |
| P p | peace | [P] |
| R p | rtsy | [R] |
| C with | word | [With] |
| T t | firmly | [t] |
| U u | uk | [y] |
| f f | firth | [f] |
| x x | dick | [X] |
| T t | from | [from] |
| C c | tsy | [c] |
| h h | worm | [h] |
| W w | sha | [w] |
| u u | shcha | [sch] |
| b | ep | Indicates the hardness of the previous consonant. Sometimes replaced by the sign 8 , which is called paerok or erok. |
| s | epY | [s] |
| b | er | Indicates the softness of the previous consonant. |
| uh uh | yat | [e] |
| yu yu | Yu | [Yu] |
| I am | I | [I] |
| Ww Q q | omega | [about] |
| Zz | yus small | [I] |
| X x | xi | [ks] |
| Pp | psi | [ps] |
| F f | fitA | [f] |
| Vv | Izhitsa | v is pronounced like [v] if it is preceded by the letter a or e. Otherwise, v is pronounced like [and], at the same time, there is a v3 Ђ m icon above it [Pavel, є3vaggelie, mwmsey, v3ssHv] |
The following letters and combinations of letters are spelled differently, but pronounced the same way:
- е є е
- and i m v3 Ђ
- o w q
- t from
- x ks
- p ps
The Church Slavonic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek. This explains the presence of a number of letters (f w x p v ), which are redundant for the transmission of Slavic speech. Greek influence also explains the rule according to which the combination of yy is read as [ng], and the combination of gk is read as [nk], for example: є3vaggelie, smgkli1tb.
The letter e was used to convey a special vowel sound presented in many Slavic dialects. In some dialects of the Russian language there are different sounds e and e. In Western Ukraine, when reading ordinary Church Slavonic texts, e is pronounced under stress as [i].
Superscripts and punctuation marks
The Church Slavonic language uses special characters that are placed above the line level and are called superscript. it accent marks, special aspiration sign and word abbreviation signs. A strict system of using superscripts comes rather late. The oldest manuscript with accent marks is the Chudovsky New Testament (mid-14th century), a new translation from Greek into Slavonic, made, according to legend, by St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow. The system of superscript characters was finally formed by the beginning of the 18th century.
accent marks
There are three types of stress in Church Slavonic:
- a - acute accent, or nxjz
- A - heavy accent, or varjz
- † - light stress, or kam0ra
The difference in stress marks is not related to the peculiarities of pronunciation. So, the words slave and p†bb, earthS and earths are read the same way. Church Slavonic stress marks are borrowed from Greek. An acute stress is placed over a vowel at the beginning and middle of a word, for example ѓдъ, create1ti. Heavy is set if the word ends in a stressed vowel, for example crucify2 є3go2. However, if after such a word there are words: bo, the same, whether, mz, mi, tz, ti, sz, si, us, you, which do not have their own stress, then acute stress remains on the previous vowel, for example: the earth is invisible and unsettled[Gen. 12].
Light stress serves to distinguish between singular and plural (dual) forms. For example:
- king (I. ed) - king (R. pl.)
- kingS (R. unit) - king ‰ (I. or V. dv.)
Aspiration sign
If the word begins with a vowel, then an aspiration sign is placed above this vowel, which in Slavic is called a vowel: ґ. This icon is not pronounced. It appeared in Slavic texts in connection with the orientation towards Greek orthography. In ancient Greek, aspiration marks influenced pronunciation.
An aspiration sign can be combined with an accent sign. The combination of these signs have special names. The combination of acute stress and aspiration ѓ is called i4so, and the combination of aspiration with heavy stress a5 is called ѓpostrophy
Title signs
A number of words in the Church Slavonic language are not written in full, but in abbreviated form. Abbreviations are distinguished using a special sign, which is called the title sign. Under the title are written words related to the sacred sphere, i.e. denoting sacred, revered objects, for example bGъ - God, bcda - Mother of God, sp7s - Saved.
In some cases, the title sign is used to distinguish God (this word is written under the title sign when it refers to the God in whom Christians believe) from pagan gods (in this case b0g, b0zi is written without the title sign). In the same way, when it comes to the angels of God, the word ғгGлъ is written under the sign of the title, and if it is a fallen angel, Satan, then the word ғгглъ is written completely without the sign of the title and is read [aggel].
There are several variants of the title sign:
- 7 - a simple title.
- letter titles, (i.e. a way to reduce a word when one of the missing letters is placed above the line):
- d dobro-titlo - btsda
- g verb-titlo - є3ђlie
- b he-titlo - prb0k
- > rtsy-titlo - i3m>k
- c word-title - krt
Punctuation marks
In Church Slavonic, the rules for punctuation are less strict than in Russian, i.e. in the same case, there may be different characters, or there may be no punctuation mark at all. Attention should be paid to the most significant differences between Church Slavonic punctuation marks and modern Russian ones:
- The semicolon in Church Slavonic indicates interrogative intonation, i.e. performs the same functions as the question mark in modern Russian: little faith, almost2 ўsumnёlsz є3с2; - Unbelieving, why did you doubt?[Mt. 14.31].
- In liturgical books, instead of frequently repeated prayers and exclamations, only the first words are given. So instead of shouting Glory nц7Y i3 sn7u i3 s™0mu d¦u, i3 nhne i3 p1snw i3 forever and ever, hmi1n the words Glory are given, and 3 nhne:. In this case, instead of an ellipsis, a colon is put. If in the liturgical book it is written §e nash:, then in this place the prayer is read in its entirety Our Father[Mt. 6.9-13].
- We have seen that in Church Slavonic the sign<;>(semicolon) corresponds to the question mark of the modern Russian language. The function of the semicolon in Church Slavonic is the dot, which in this case is called small dot. In size, it is no different from a regular dot, but after it the sentence continues with a small letter.
- There are no strict rules for setting commas in Church Slavonic. But commas, as in modern Russian, help to understand the division of a sentence and highlight its main parts.
Numeric values of letters
Church Slavonic texts do not use Arabic and Latin numerals. To write numbers, the letters of the Church Slavonic alphabet are used, which have numerical values. In this case, a title sign is placed above the letter.
If the number is written in two or more letters, then the title sign is usually placed above the second letter from the end.
Numbers from 11 to 19 are written as follows: in the first place - letters denoting units, and in the second letter i, which has the digital value "ten", for example, No. i - 11, v7i - 12, Gi - 13, etc.; numbers from 21 onwards are written as follows: first, a letter is written denoting a dozen, then a letter denoting a unit, for example k7z - 27, n7g - 53, o7a - 71. This rule is easy to remember if you understand that the letters in the Church Slavonic number are written like this, how to pronounce the number, for example 11 - one-over-twenty (twenty - ten), 13 - three-over-twenty, 23 - two-twenty-three
Thousands are indicated by the sign ¤, which can be attached to any letter below the line level, for example ¤v7 - 2000, ¤f7 - 9000, ¤ ... - 60 000, ¤f \ - 500 000.
The reckoning can be conducted both from the Nativity of Christ and from the creation of the world. The time interval between these events, according to church tradition, is 5,508 years. Therefore, if the date is indicated as ¤з7ф (7 500), then this means 1992 from the birth of Christ, or in Slavonic ¤ац§в
MATERIALSTO STUDY
Church Slavonic
LANGUAGE
Introduction
How to master the Church Slavonic language? It is clear that in one or two months no one is able to master this task. As in learning any foreign language, you need perseverance, desire, and personal work. Every (modern) person at school struggled (some under duress, and who did not) to cope with such a task, but often it turned out to be unbearable so that it seems to many that knowledge of languages is the lot of only the elect, capable of them. But is this really true, or is the problem something else? N. F. Zamyatkin, who has studied many foreign languages on his own, asserts with full confidence that the problem is essentially the same - in the methodology. He outlined his method in mastering foreign languages in the book “It is impossible to teach you a foreign language.”
What is the essence of his method?
Create a separate language center in the central nervous system by listening to dialogues in this language for a long time;
Upload the “language matrix” to this center by repeatedly reciting the above dialogues in a foreign language aloud;
Fill it with vocabulary and grammar (the best way is to read books with minimal use of the dictionary), use and enjoy.
Why exactly this approach?
To suppress the initial reaction of rejection of a foreign language by your "I", which is most closely connected with the native language. To develop close to perfect pronunciation. To learn basic grammar. To memorize basic vocabulary in context. To teach elementary reading, the next step will be the transition to a “marathon” reading of non-adapted literature. To develop the initial skills of understanding foreign speech by ear. To enter into the rhythm and harmony of a foreign language. To create a springboard from which you will conduct a further attack on the "enemy".
How to use this method in the study of the Church Slavonic language?
For us, this language is not completely unfamiliar, distant, we encounter it constantly, and this is a big plus. The existing tradition of pronunciation-reading to the limit facilitates the path of "entry" into the language. Indeed, in Church Slavonic there is no reduction known to many other languages, when "Manchester is heard, but Liverpool is written." So, the first stage will pass for us easily and naturally. Probably, there is no such cleric who would not have any studio recording of the psalter or the gospel in Church Slavonic. If it is not technically possible to cut small passages, then at least you can listen to short psalms, then repeat them several times. To carefully study the meaning of these texts, of course, is not difficult - everyone has a bible.
The only problem that can arise is spiritual and moral. These texts are sacred, prayerful for us, and it is problematic to repeat them purely technically, not prayerfully.
Next stage. After we have learned to read selected places well enough in Church Slavonic, we proceed to free reading. Many grammatical forms of Church Slavonic are close to us because of their great similarity with the Russian language. Many words are also close. All this also facilitates the solution of the task.
The presented course of the Church Slavonic language is, in fact, an introduction to its study, a tool with the help of which, with constant diligence, it is quite possible to master the language and at least understand it perfectly.
Instruction to the church reader on how to read in the temple,
compiled according to the teachings of the holy fathers and ascetics, according to the instructions of the church charter and on the basis of the centuries-old experience of Divine services of the Russian Orthodox Church (abridged)
Read reverently, with the fear of God
1. A God-fearing reader must always remember that he proclaims doxologies and prayers for himself and for all those who pray in the temple, where God Himself, His Most Pure Mother, Angels and saints are always invisibly present. The Lord the Knower of Hearts knows the feeling and attitude with which the reader performs his duties.
2. A God-fearing reader knows that those present in the temple notice his mistakes, his inattention, etc., and can be tempted by this. Therefore, he does not allow negligence, he is afraid to anger God. For the Scripture says: “Cursed is every man who does the work of the Lord with negligence” (Jer. 48, 10). Reading prayers aloud for all believers in the holy temple, we are fulfilling the work of God, so read reverently and gracefully, clearly and slowly.
Prepare carefully for reading
3. You must carefully prepare for the reading that you must perform: familiarize yourself with it in advance and read the text thoughtfully, paying attention to the pronunciation of words, stress, and content in order to read correctly, consciously and meaningfully. If you read badly, do not be lazy to practice reading more often, read several times and ask someone who knows to check you.
Read Meaningfully
4. Read in such a way that, first of all, you yourself understand what you are reading, and so that the prayers and psalms you read penetrate your heart.
5. At the same time, do not forget the people standing in the temple, and read in such a way that the people understand you, so that they, together with you, the reader, with one mouth and one heart, pray and glorify the Lord - for this we are going to holy temple.
6. When reading in the Church, always remember that your mouth pronounces and ascends to the Throne of God the prayer of all those present, and that every word you utter should penetrate the ear and soul of everyone praying in the temple.
Read slowly, clearly and distinctly
7. Therefore, do not rush when reading holy prayers, and do not humiliate prayers with hasty reading, do not anger God. Hasty and indistinct reading is not perceived by the hearing, thought and heartfelt feeling of the listeners. Such reading and singing, according to the words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, is “pleasing to the lazy, sadness of the heart and sighing to the good, temptation and harm to all who come (to the temple”).
8. A God-fearing reader will not, for the sake of a few, read quickly and carelessly, so as not to deprive all those who pray of the opportunity to pray reverently and attentively. For he well understands that many are confused and tempted by the negligence of the reader, and may even leave the temple. Persons who are inclined towards sectarianism or who are generally inclined to see shortcomings in Orthodoxy, having heard careless and irreverent reading and singing in our churches, may completely fall away from Orthodoxy into sectarianism or grow cold towards faith. Thus, through the fault of careless readers and singers, our Orthodox worship, churches, clergy, and Orthodoxy itself are dishonored, and those who pray are deprived of many meaningful prayers and religious and moral edification.
In view of this, the church reader should not allow hasty reading, turning into carelessness, and should not fulfill the requests of those who require him to violate his duty of reverent reading. For it is more fitting to obey God than men (Acts 5:29).
9. In order to know the measure yourself, with what speed to read, it is necessary to read with an understanding of what is being read, and not mechanically, and not only pay attention to the external side of reading, but also to the content, while praying in your soul yourself.
One must learn to read so freely, without tension, that when reading there is no difficulty in pronouncing words, abbreviations (titles), stresses, in choosing the pitch and strength of the voice, raising and lowering the voice, and so on, in short, so that attention is as little distracted as possible. on the very technique of reading, and focused more on the meaning of what was read and its heartfelt perception by the reader.
Such an instinct is acquired by a reverent reader when he himself, in church and at home, tries to pray attentively with his mind and heart. Then he will realize by experience that with quick reading it is impossible for those who pray to have time to grasp the content of the prayer and to pray with both mind and heart.
When reading, one should avoid the other extreme: one should not stretch out the reading unnecessarily.
Read with semantic stops
Read correctly, in the church
13. When reading, the pronunciation of words should be Slavic, that is, each letter in the word should be pronounced as printed, for example: solid, but not solid(in the Slavic language there is no letter ё); father, but not atez, century, but not vic, his, but not evo or yoga, miserable, but not miserably. However, here, as in other cases, there are no rules without exceptions. Yes, the words Aggel, Loggin, Pagkraty are pronounced: Angel, Longinus, Pankratius.
14. When reading in Slavonic, one should pay attention to stresses and titles (signs of abbreviations) in order to pronounce words correctly.
15. It is necessary to observe the ancient way of church reading. When reading, one should not artificially set off or, as it were, emphasize the meaning of what is being read. Secular artistic expressiveness is inappropriate in church reading. You need to read without pouring out your feelings with modulations and changes in voice; tenderness, tenderness, sternness, or any other feeling should not be attached to the voice - a church reader is not an actor. Let the holy prayers act on the listeners with their own spiritual dignity. The desire to convey one's feelings and experiences to others or to influence them by changing one's voice is a sign of conceit and pride (Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov).
18. It is necessary to read in a moderate voice, not to weaken or strengthen it too much, but to measure it in such a way that all words clearly reach the ears of each person praying. It goes without saying that the larger the temple or the more people, the more it is necessary to amplify the voice, but in no way turn it into a cry.
19. The reader should stand straight in front of the book, without bowing, and read without shifting his legs, without setting them aside, do not swing his body, have his hands freely lowered, do not shake his head, read slowly, but do not pull, pronounce the words clearly, clearly (with clear diction and correct articulation), making semantic stops in the sentence itself.
If it is read on a stand (lectern), the reader must ensure that the veil on the stand lies straight and not crooked, and if it has fallen low, raise it.
G.I. Shimansky (1915–1970)
Part 1. Church Slavonic alphabet and reading rules
The modern Russian alphabet goes back to the Old Slavonic, hence the great similarity in writing letters. There are some letters in the Church Slavonic alphabet that are unknown to modern writing. This is “green” - /z/, “i” - /i/, “omega” - /o/, digraph “from” - /from/, “yat” - /e/, “yus small” - /i/ , "xi" - /ks/, "psi" - /ps/, "fita" - /f/, "izhitsa" - /i/, /v/. Also, a somewhat peculiar style has "uk" inside the word and "I". Details about the rules for reading letters are in a separate appendix. A number of letters - Zelo, Firth, Xi, Psi, Fita and Izhitsa are used only in foreign words; "i" (i) is written before a vowel, and in position before consonants - in case of borrowing. After "a" and "e" Izhitsa (v) denotes the sound "in", in other positions - "and".
Yat - in ancient times there was a separate sound, historically long / e / and somewhat reminiscent of a diphthong / ie / . Back in the days of Lomonosov, some dialects distinguished him with a separate sound. At the present time, this sound has completely merged with /e/. In Church Slavonic, he continues to play a large role.
Another feature of Slavic graphics is stress. There are sharp, heavy, clothed stresses, as well as aspiration; combinations of aspiration with acute and heavy stress. In reality, differences in stress do not play a role for reading, this is the “Greek” heritage of Church Slavonic. The clothed stress plays a grammatical role: it is placed over the forms of the plural and dual numbers, if they coincide with any form of the singular.
Of great importance in the alphabet is the role of the title - an abbreviation icon on the letter of one or more letters. Tilo is placed above words denoting special reverence and respect. There are combined titles - when the letters “d”, “r”, “g”, “s”, “o” fall out on the letter. A word with a title is read the same way as without a title. At the end of the appendix, a list of words is given with an abbreviation under the title.
The special purpose of the title is the designation of numbers. The Church Slavonic alphabet, following the Greek tradition, expresses numbers through the letters of the alphabet. The title is placed above the letter denoting the number, if this number is single digits or ten. If the number is written in two or more characters-letters, then the title is placed above the second one from the end. The list of numbers is placed in the appendix.
Sometimes on a letter you can find a small loop above a consonant in the middle of a word or at the end of a preposition - this is “erok”. It means "b". Accordingly, it is not pronounced. A feature of Church Slavonic is the obligatory presence of an unpronounceable "ъ" after a consonant, if the word ends with it. This is a legacy of the ancient Russian and Old Slavonic traditions of reading and writing.
So, in Church Slavonic there is a rule: as it is written, so it is read. The exceptions are the combinations -ia, -aa in names, months, and some other words, where they are read as -iya, -aya. In the words God, blessing, Lord and in their derivatives, there is a tradition to pronounce "g" as a voiced variant of "x".
Reading exercises: one). Listen to the reading of the first psalm in audio format several times. 2). Follow the text while listening several times. 3). Read on your own several times. four). Check your reading with the speaker's reading, correct your pronunciation.
5). Compare this text with the Russian translation:
Blessed is the man who does not go to the council of the wicked and does not stand in the way of sinners and does not sit in the assembly of corrupters, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on His law day and night! And he will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which bears its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither; and in everything he does, he will succeed. Not so - the wicked; but they are like dust tossed by the wind. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, and sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Repeat the same exercise with the second psalm:
Why do the peoples rage, and the tribes plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the princes confer together against the Lord and against His Anointed One. "Let us break their bands, and let us cast off their fetters." He who lives in heaven will laugh, the Lord will mock them. Then he will say to them in his anger and with his fury he will cause them confusion: "I have anointed my King over Zion, my holy mountain; I will declare the decree: The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you; inheritance unto Thee, and the ends of the earth to be Thy possession; So take heed, kings; learn, judges of the earth! Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Honor the Son, lest He be angry, and lest you perish along the way, for His wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all who trust in Him.
The main problem of mastering the vocabulary of the Church Slavonic language is the presence of paronyms - words that have historically changed their meaning, and for this reason it has become difficult to guess the meaning of such a word. Example: stagger - rush about, exalt; punishment - instruction, admonition. Such words should be given special attention. To memorize such words should be in context - an associative series is created. There is a dictionary that is desirable to use when studying such words: Sedakova O.A. Church Slavonic-Russian paronyms. - M .: Greek-Latin cabinet Yu.A. Shichalina, 2005.
In the Church Slavonic language there is such a phenomenon - positional softening of consonants - palatalization. Otherwise, the transition of some consonants (k, g, x) to others (h / c, f / z, sh / s):
This is due to the fact that in ancient times the sounds k, g and x were always hard and for this reason they were replaced by hissing or whistling. The transition to the hissing (w, w) is possible only in the vocative case (in circulation).
