The task for children is to try to read Church Slavonic words. Church Slavonic language

In the 9th century, Saints Cyril and Methodius translated the Gospel into Slavic. Old Church Slavonic was similar to the Old Russian language; it was understood in Rus' without translation.

Here is a fragment of the Gospel in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian. A translation of the Gospel in Russian was published in the middle of the 19th century.

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 send My angel before You, who will prepare Your way before You. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and the people of Jerusalem came out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 And John wore a robe of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie; 8 I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Slavic letters

Vertically:
1. The capital of Ancient Rus'.
3. The name of the city in Macedonia, where the holy brothers Constantine and Methodius, educators of the Slavs, were born.
5. Bread that is blessed in church on Easter.
6. The name of the Patriarch of Constantinople during the life of the holy brothers Constantine and Methodius.
8. Head of a region in the Byzantine Empire during the life of the holy brothers.
9. What does the Greek word "sophia" mean?
Horizontally:
2. A type of painting on wet plaster.
4. Writing material that was used during the time of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
6. What was the name of Constantine among the people?
7. What name did St. Cyril have 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 Rus' was baptized.
11. Set of rules.

Answers

38

(Materials for lessons: in sections 1 and 3 of this collection, as well as in the textbook by N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarov “Native History”, - Novosibirsk: “Ekor”, 1995)

Lesson No. I

Dialogue with students, introduction to the topic. 5 minutes.	What is literacy? The beginning of national writing is the most important milestone in the history of every nation. The origin of Slavic writing. Names of the creators. The contribution of Russian literature to world culture. Historical sources.	See materials on pages 9-13 of section! of this collection.
Historical excursion. Orientation along the time axis. 10 min.	The desire for enlightenment by the faith of Christ led the Slavs to the need for a book language. Who are the Slavs? What do they have in common? Slavs in the 10th century What can become a unifying principle for peoples?
Information on the topic of the lesson. 20 minutes.	Life of the brothers Cyril and Methodius. Konstantin the Philosopher. Translation of the word philosophy (“love of wisdom”). Enlightenment of the Slavic lands with the faith of Christ. Creation of the Slavic alphabet. Death of Konstantin (Kirill) and will 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.
Add. material 10 min.	Prince Vladimir and the Baptism of Rus'	Page 72-79 textbook N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarov "Native History".
	Lesson #2
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? Tracing words.	See the article "Greek Around Us", page 18.
	Church Slavonic language and its role in the formation of the literary Russian language. .	See section 3, pp. 59-65.

Practical lesson. 20 minutes.	Reading some words in Slavic Text for the language, reading text in Church Slavonic, writing Slavic letters and numbers in a notebook.	Reading text, see page 35, lettering and numbers - pages 15-17 of the collection.
House. exercise	Learn the names of Slavic letters.
	Lesson #3
Information on the topic. 35 min.	Memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Glorification of the holy brothers by the Orthodox Church (Feast Day May 24). Icon of Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius.	Icon - on page 57.
	Hymn to Cyril and Methodius: Listening to a tape or singing to piano accompaniment.
	Celebrating the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture in Bulgaria.	See pages 33-34 of this collection.
	An ancient book. What were the first books in Rus', when did they appear, how and by whom were they written? In the 11th century, Rus' was one of the most literate countries in Europe. Yaroslav the Wise. High level of book art in Rus'. Love for the book. Decoration of ancient books. Charter letter.	Textbook N.G. Gorelova, B.I. Pivovarova “Native History”, pp. 261-266.
Additional material. 10 min	Archive. Who are archaeographers? What is an archive, and what can its documents tell us? The first archives in Rus' (XVIII century).	Textbook "Native History", pp. 261-266.

Church Slavonic language for everyone. Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters! The recent trend towards reducing the sacred Church Slavonic text to the human mind through translation, not always successful and accurate, into Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and other languages ​​of the Slavic peoples, as well as the urgent need of every Orthodox soul to read in Church Slavonic language prompted me to specifically write lessons of the Church Slavonic language for posting on the website of our church for everyone who wants to quickly master it.

These lessons are partially based on the materials of the classes that take place in our Sunday school for adults on Sundays at 17-00 (classes in the Church Slavonic language alternate with classes on general questions of faith, catechism, Orthodox worship, dogmatic theology, Orthodoxy in Japan, etc. .) at our church of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul in the city of Shostka. Lessons are intended for rapid practical independent mastery of this church language.

First of all, if you don’t already have it, you need to purchase Orthodox prayer book in Church Slavonic(preferably a pocket edition in a hard cover with a sewn bookmark - such a prayer book is very convenient to use). Please note the following when purchasing:

1) it must be published by the canonical Orthodox Church (for example, the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchate);

2) the text should be two-color - black (the text of the prayers itself) and red (they highlight the names of the prayers and various kinds of instructions, as well as the first capital letter of the prayer);

3) the text itself must be clear, not small, not dense (sometimes this is done to save space), all characters (especially superscripts) must be clearly visible and distinguishable;

4) it should contain everything you need:

— Morning prayers with memorials for the living and for the dead;

— Prayers for those coming to bed;

— Canons (at least three: P damned to our Lord Jesus Christ, m Olebny Ko

Blessed Virgin Mary, and A guardian angel);

— Akathists (at least two: AND to the Sweetest Jesus, P Holy Mother of God);

— Follow up to Holy Communion;

— Troparion (holidays and Sundays);

— Prayers of thanksgiving after Holy Communion;

— Canon and hours of Easter;

— The rite of funeral litia performed by a layman;

— Various prayers (check availability prayers before taking prosphora and holy water –

Unfortunately, it is not found in all prayer books!);

- The Commandments of God and the Beatitudes.

I strongly recommend that you purchase, in addition to the Orthodox prayer book, also Psalter on Church Slavonic language, And New Testament on Church Slavonic language(these requirements apply to those set out above in the first three points when choosing an Orthodox prayer book) .

How gratifying and useful it will be for us to hear in church every word spoken by the reader, deacon, priest, or sung by the choir, and also to take part in the reading during the service. We will begin to distinguish words, get used to them and understand their deepest meaning, going back to the original meaning. They will take shape and accumulate in our hearts, and from the fullness of our hearts our lips will, in their measure, utter eternal verbs pleasing to God; then we will be able to feel the taste and aroma of real prayer. We will breathe deeply with this language, after the stale breath of our secularized, clouded, vain and mundane modern language. What a joy and benefit it is for us to learn it, because only thanks to this will the endless and innumerable mysteries of God be revealed to us, contained both in the words of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, and between their lines; only on it will we be able to humbly speak with God himself, for He himself gave it to us through Saints Cyril and Methodius!

So, my dears, having prayed, let us begin to climb not only the linguistic ladder, but also the spiritual one, raising our minds to this living, pure, kind, spiritually high and sanctified by the Grace of the Holy Spirit Church Slavonic language, leading us along the right path of knowledge of God.

And finally, I would like to introduce you to a wonderful spiritual poem by Viktor Afanasyev about the Church Slavonic language:

He is the most prayerful in the world,

He came into being by the will of God,

The language of our wondrous Psalter

And patristic books;

He is a royal decoration

Church service,

A spring of living grace,

The Lord's comfort to us -

Church Slavonic language.

I wish you while studying Church Slavonic language, as well as reading or praying in it , feel spiritual joy and, inspired, “infect” (in the words of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh) your neighbors with this language, striving for internal self-improvement!

May the Lord and Mother of God bless you all on all the paths of your life!

Sincerely, P. E. Ivlev

Lesson 1. Church Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet

Learning any language begins with the alphabet. This is exactly how the Church Slavonic language has always been taught, starting from Ancient Rus'. But there were no dictionaries, textbooks or grammar then (they appeared only in the 17th century). Therefore, at that time, they first learned letters in order to recognize them, then mastered their combinations in order to pronounce them correctly, then read sentences, and finally, memorized prayers from the Book of Hours and psalms from the Psalter, and thus learned everything! And we will start the same way. We will study letters along with their way(i.e. by style), name(or as they say now, the name), meaning of the name, pronunciation, and its numerical value. Let’s also see how this letter is reflected in our modern writing to see that all Church Slavonic letters form the basis of our modern language and writing.

The Russian alphabet originates from the Church Slavonic alphabet, which is called “ Cyrillic"in honor of its creator - Saint Cyril Equal to the Apostles(only 50 days before his death, Saint Constantine took the schema with the name Cyril; he rested in Rome on February 14, 869 at the age of 42; his relics are in the Church of Saint Clement in Rome) with the assistance of his brother - Saint Methodius(he died on April 6, 885 at the age of about 60 years and was buried in the cathedral church of Velehrad, the capital of Moravia).

Let me remind you that the first Slavic alphabet, which was created by St. Cyril in the 9th century, was the Glagolitic alphabet. It was she who was the first writing that was revealed to him by God in prayers, and which best corresponded to the sounds of Slavic speech, and was also suitable for expressing Christian concepts. With its help, it was possible to construct phrases in such a way that a coherent and consistent narrative was obtained - the same as in the Greek originals. (Actually, the word “glagolitic” is not a special name; literally translated into modern language, “glagolitic” means “an initial letter, a system of letters (or sounds).” Therefore, any alphabet can be called Glagolitic. The word “glagolitic” becomes the name of a certain writing system much later). At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century in

Bulgaria began to replace the “Glagolitic” alphabet with the “Cyrillic alphabet”. In the last column of the table I have given the Glagolitic alphabet to compare it with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Let's look at the Church Slavonic alphabet. It consists of 40 letters:

Church Slavonic alphabet Cyrillic:

No.		Name of letters (its name)		Numerical meaning of letters	Letters
1	Ah, ah	а44зъ	[A]	a\ = 1
2	B, b	beeches	[b]	No
3	In, in	lead	[V]	in\ = 2
4	G, g	verb	[g] / [n]	r\ = 3
5	D, d	good2	[d]	d\ = 4
6	E, e, e	there are	[e]	є\ = 5
7	F, F	live	[and]	No
8	Ѕ, ѕ	Selw2	[z] (used to be [d])	ѕ\ = 6
9	Z, z,	earthS	[h]	z\ = 7
10	And, and	and4zhe (and octal)	[And]	and\ = 8
11	I, i	u3(and decimal)	[And]	i\ = 10
12	K, k	ka1kw	[To]	k\ = 20
13	L, l	people	[l]	l\ = 30
14	Mm	you think	[m]	m\ = 40
15	N, n	na1sh	[n]	n\ = 50
16	O, o, oh	џнъ	[O]	o\ = 70
17	W,w	size	[O]	(t = 800 )
	Q,q	It's solemn
18	P, p	rest	[P]	n\ = 80

No.	Image of Cyrillic letters (style)	Name of letters (its name)	Modern pronunciation of letters	Numerical meaning of letters	Letters
19	R, R	rtsy2	[R]	p\ = 100
20	With, with	word	[With]	c\ = 200
21	T, t	firmly	[T]	t\ = 300
22	U, u, y	yk	[y]	µ\ = 400
23	F, f	fe1rt	[f]	f\ = 500
24	X, x	dick	[X]	x\ = 600
25	T,t	џтъ	[from]	t = 800
26	Ts, ts	tsy2	[ts]	ts\ = 900
27	H, h	worm	[h]	h\ = 90
28	Sh, sh	sha2	[w]	No
29	sch, sch	now2	[sch]	No
30	b, b	є4ръ	hard sign (means the hardness of the previous consonant; sometimes replaced by a sign called paerok or erok)	No
31	Y, y	є3ры2	[s]	No
32	b, b	є4рь	soft sign (means the softness of the previous consonant)	No
33	Uh, uh	I4t	[e]	No
34	Yu, Yu	yu5	[Yu]	No
35	I, I	i5	[I]	No	No
36	Z, z	yu4s small	[I]	No
37	X, x	xi2	[ks]	x\ = 60	No
38	P,p	psi2	[ps]	p\ = 700	No
39	F, f	fita2	[f]	f\ = 9
40	V, v	and4zhitsa	[i] / [in]	No

As we can see from the table, each letter of the Cyrillic alphabet has its own image or outline, i.e. like she from image looks, looks or is written. This is exactly how icon painters paint them with a brush on their icons (after all, an image becomes an icon only after an inscription is made on it). Previously, scribes used a specially sharpened quill pen or cane stick for their work, and devoted themselves to writing and decorating books with great reverence. There is a very interesting art of Church Slavonic calligraphy (some call it cursive), but it is extremely difficult to find a specialist in it. Without touching on the theme of the decor and pattern of ancient books, it is worth saying that not only the name of the letter, but also its image (inscription) had a mysterious meaning, were deeply symbolic and carried higher knowledge, calling us to be closer to heaven. The image of the Cyrillic letters that you see in the table, and which is now used everywhere when printing prayer books and liturgical books in Church Slavonic, goes back to such a solemn and slow type of writing as charter, when the letters were written strictly vertically, they had strong main pillars and thin strokes and serifs. Each letter was written out separately with a cane or broad-pointed pen, in several steps.

Let me also mention that to highlight book titles and various titles, it is used ligature(in Rus' already in the 15th century it was widely used and was most often made with red paint based on cinnabar). This is a continuous pattern of letters that makes up a decorative letter, where there are no spaces between words, all letters are of different heights and widths. Several letters, merging, could become one, and some voids could be filled with patterns.

Elm: “From Mark the Holy Gospel”

Next we see in the table Name each letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. Previously, the alphabet was taught by the names of the letters, and the alphabet, by its name, by name, composed a sermon, and various prayers were composed from the names of the letters. Currently, unfortunately, we call our letters only “a”, “be”, “ve”, etc. (due to the spelling reform of 1917 - 1918 carried out by the Bolsheviks) - this is all that remains of their beautiful, pure, mysterious and deeply meaningful names: “a44зъ” ( A h), “beeches” (b at ki), “lead” (in e di), etc. If we put three modern letters “a b c” side by side, what do we get? Nothing! Because they were depersonalized, deprived of their name. Now let’s put the first three letters of the Cyrillic alphabet next to each other by name, and we will get a44з ььки веди, and now you have already said in Church Slavonic “I recognized the letters”

or “Know the ABC” or, going back to the original meaning: “My presence (stay) here on earth is to know the Holy Scriptures.” You hear?! What “smart beads” were made from just three letters, and what spiritual tension we felt, didn’t we? It is precisely this high style (raising and making us transcendental), and the fullness of the meaning that have been lost! I think that this was precisely the goal of the “creators” of the Russian language reform at the beginning of the 20th century.

ABOUT meaning of letter names and them pronunciation we will find out in the next lesson when we talk about reading and using letters.

Also in the table you can see a column with numerical value of letters. In Church Slavonic, numbers are indicated only by letters. Arabic and Latin numerals are not used in Church Slavonic texts. We will talk about this in more detail in a separate lesson dedicated to the depiction of numbers in the Church Slavonic language.

God bless you all and Mother of God!

One of the most interesting is the Old Church Slavonic language. The words that were part of his vocabulary, the rules of grammar, even some phonetic features and the alphabet became the basis of the modern Russian language. Let's look at what kind of language it is, when and how it arose, and whether it is used today and in what areas.

We will also talk about why it is studied at universities, and also mention the most famous and significant works devoted to the Cyrillic alphabet and Old Church Slavonic grammar. Let us also remember Cyril and Methodius, the world-famous Thessaloniki brothers.

General information

That for centuries scientists have been paying attention to this language, studying the Old Church Slavonic alphabet and the history of its development, but there is not much information about it. If the grammatical and phonetic structure of the language, the lexical composition has been 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 regarding their work, or these records were completely lost over time. A detailed study of the writing itself began only several 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 in Rus' 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 origin of literature in Rus' is directly connected with the church. At first, literature was church literature: books, prayers, parables were translated, and original scriptures were created. In addition, mainly only people serving the church spoke this language.

Later, with culture, Old Church Slavonic was replaced by the Old Russian language, which largely relied on its predecessor. This happened around the 12th century.

Nevertheless, the Old Church Slavonic initial letter has reached us practically unchanged, and we use it to this day. We also use a grammatical system that began to emerge even before the emergence of the Old Russian language.

Creation versions

It is believed that the Old Church 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 writing based on one of the Solunsky 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. Thus, I. Yagic believed that the basis of Old Church Slavonic was one of the dialects of the Macedonian language.

There is also a theory according to which the basis of the new writing was the Bulgarian language. She will be nominated by P. Safarik. He believed that this language should be called Old Bulgarian, and not Old Slavonic. Some researchers are still arguing about this issue.

By the way, Bulgarian linguists still believe that the language we are considering is Old Bulgarian, and not Slavic.

We can even assume that there are other, less well-known theories of the origin of language, but they either have not been considered in scientific circles, or they have been proven completely untenable.

In any case, Old Church Slavonic words can be found not only in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages, but also in Polish, Macedonian, Bulgarian and other Slavic dialects. Therefore, discussions about which language is closest to Old Church Slavonic are unlikely to ever be completed.

Thessalonica brothers

The creators, Cyril and Methodius, came from the city of Thessaloniki in Greece. The brothers were born into a fairly wealthy family, so they were able to receive an excellent education.

The elder brother, Mikhail, was born around 815. When ordained as a monk, he received the name Methodius.

Constantine was the youngest in the family and was born around 826. He knew foreign languages ​​and understood the exact sciences. Despite the fact that many predicted success and a magnificent future for him, Constantine 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 involved in spreading Christianity and the scriptures. They visited different countries, trying to convey the word of God to people. But nevertheless, it was the Old Church Slavonic alphabet that brought them world fame.

Both brothers were canonized. In some Slavic countries, May 24 is also celebrated by cultures (Russia and Bulgaria). In Macedonia, Cyril and Methodius are honored on this day. Two more Slavic countries - the Czech Republic and Slovakia - moved this holiday to July 5.

Two alphabets

It is believed that the Old Slavonic initial letter was created precisely by the Greek enlighteners. In addition, there were originally two alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Let's look at them briefly.

The first one is Glagolitic. It is believed that its creators were Cyril and Methodius. It is believed that this alphabet has no basis and was created from scratch. In Old Rus' it was used quite rarely, in isolated cases.

The second is Cyrillic. Its creation is also attributed to the Thessaloniki brothers. It is believed that the statutory Byzantine letter was taken as the basis for the alphabet. At the moment, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians use the letters of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, or rather the Cyrillic alphabet.

As for the question of which one, there is also no clear answer. In any case, if we assume that both the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet were created by the Thessaloniki brothers, then the difference between the time of their creation hardly exceeded ten to fifteen years.

Was there writing before the Cyrillic alphabet?

It is also interesting that some researchers of the history of language believe that there was writing in Rus' even before Cyril and Methodius. This theory is confirmed by the “Book of Veles,” which was written by the ancient Russian Magi even before the adoption of Christianity. At the same time, it has not been proven in what century this literary monument was created.

In addition, scientists claim that in various records of ancient Greek travelers and scientists there are references to the presence of writing among the Slavs. Also mentioned are the agreements that the princes signed with Byzantine merchants.

Unfortunately, it has not yet been established exactly whether this is true, and if so, what exactly was the written language in Rus' 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 and dialectology, but also to Slavic scholars.

Its study began in the 19th century with the emergence 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 in the names of scientists. Let's just say that more than one textbook has been compiled on the basis of research, many of them are used to study the history of language and dialectology.

In the course of research, theories of the development of the Old Church Slavonic language were developed, dictionaries of Old Church Slavonic vocabulary were compiled, and grammar and phonetics were studied. But at the same time, there are still unsolved secrets and mysteries of the Old Church Slavonic dialect.

We will also allow ourselves to give a list of the most famous dictionaries and textbooks of the Old Church Slavonic language. Perhaps these books will interest you and help you delve deeper 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 Church Slavonic language, containing not only theoretical material, but also texts, a dictionary, and some articles on the morphology of the language.

The materials devoted to the Solunsky brothers and the history of the alphabet are also interesting. Thus, 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 the Slovenian Language.” In 1855, O. Bodyansky’s monograph “On the Time of the Origin of Slavic Writings” was published.

An “Old Church Slavonic Dictionary” was also compiled, based on manuscripts of the 10th and 11th centuries, which was published under the editorship of R. Tseitlin and R. Vecherka.

All these books are widely known. Based on them, they not only write abstracts and reports on the history of the language, but also prepare more serious works.

Old Slavonic layer of vocabulary

A fairly large layer of Old Church Slavonic vocabulary was inherited by the Russian language. Old Church Slavonic words are quite firmly entrenched in our dialect, and today we cannot even distinguish them from native Russian words.

Let's look at a few examples so that you understand how deeply Old Slavonicisms have penetrated into our language.

Such church terms as “priest”, “victim”, “rod” came to us precisely from the Old Slavonic language, and abstract concepts such as “power”, “disaster”, “harmony” also belong here.

Of course, there are many more Old Slavonicisms themselves. We will give you several signs that indicate that the word is Old Church Slavonic.

1. Availability of prefixes voz- and through-. For example: return, excessive.

2. Compound lexemes with the words god-, good-, sin-, evil- and others. For example: evil, fall.

2. The presence of suffixes -stv-, -zn-, -ush-, -yush-, -ash- -yash-. For example: burning, melting.

It would seem that we have listed only a few signs by which Old Church Slavonicisms can be identified, but you probably already remembered more than one word that came to us from Old Church Slavonic.

If you want to find out the meaning of Old Church Slavonic words, we can advise you to look in 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.

Modern use

At the moment, the Old Church Slavonic language is studied at universities in individual 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 church, since many prayers are written in this language. In addition, it is worth noting the fact that the first sacred scriptures were translated into the Old Church 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 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 ancient monuments.

Despite this, at this stage this language is considered dead, since, like Latin and Ancient Greek, no one has been communicating in it for a long time, and only a few know it.

Use in church

This language is most widely used in the church. Thus, Old Slavonic prayers can be heard in any Orthodox church. In addition, excerpts from church books and the Bible are also read on it.

At the same time, we also note that church employees and young seminary students also study this adverb, 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 dialect, is “Our Father.” But there are still many prayers in Old Church Slavonic that are less known. You can find them in any old prayer book or hear them by visiting the same church.

Study at universities

Today, the Old Church Slavonic language is studied quite widely in universities. They take it at the faculties of philology, history, and law. In some universities it is also possible to study for philosophy students.

The program includes the history of origin, the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, features of phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar. Basic syntax.

Students not only study the rules, learn to inflect 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 monuments, features of the development of the Russian language, and its dialects.

It is worth noting that it is quite difficult to study the Old Church Slavonic language. The text written on it is difficult to read, since not only does it contain many archaisms, but the very rules for reading the letters “yat”, “er” and “er” are difficult to remember at first.

Thanks to the knowledge gained, history students will be able to study ancient cultural and written monuments, read historical documents and chronicles, and understand their essence.

The same applies to those who study at the faculties of philosophy and law.

Despite the fact that today Old Church Slavonic is a dead language, interest in it still does not subside.

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 Church Slavonic origin are perceived by us as originally Russian.

A significant layer of vocabulary, phonetic features, grammar of the East Slavic languages ​​- all this was laid down during the period of development and use of the Old Church Slavonic language.

Old Church Slavonic is a formally dead language, in which only church ministers currently communicate. It was created back in the 9th century by the brothers Cyril and Methodius and was initially used for translating and recording 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 in philological and historical faculties, as well as in theological seminaries. Today, Old Church Slavonic words and this ancient language can be heard by visiting, since all prayers in Orthodox churches are read in it.

MATERIALS

TO STUDY

CHURCH SLAVIC

LANGUAGE

Introduction

How to master the Church Slavonic language? It is clear that no one is able to complete this task in one or two months. As in learning any foreign language, you need perseverance, desire, and personal work. Every (modern) person in school tried (some under pressure, some anyway) to cope with such a task, but often it turned out to be so overwhelming that many people think that mastering languages ​​is the lot of only a select few who are capable of them. But is this really the case, 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 for mastering foreign languages ​​in the book “It is impossible to teach you a foreign language.”

What is the essence of his method?

1. 
   Create a separate language center in the central nervous system by listening to dialogues in this language for a long time;
2. 
   Load a “language matrix” into this center by repeatedly speaking loudly the above dialogues in a foreign language;
3. 
   Fill it with vocabulary and grammar (the best way is to read books with minimal use of a dictionary), use and enjoy.

If you follow such a program of action, the result will be obvious. N.F. Zamyatkin suggests using a matrix at the first (preparatory) stage - specially prepared dialogues read by native speakers of the language being studied. The dialogues are small, a few sentences. It is necessary to listen to them many times in order to eventually clearly distinguish all the sounds of speech. Each dialogue is repeated many times, so that such a block lasts 10 minutes. After the audition, which is attended, as a rule, for several days, for an hour (half an hour) a day, they proceed to listening with tracking of the text, equipped with a literary translation. Next is reading the text itself, imitating the speakers’ pronunciation loudly and clearly. Here we simultaneously examine the text itself, get acquainted with the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign language practically.

Why exactly this approach?

To suppress the initial reaction of rejection of a foreign language by your “I”, which is most closely connected with your native language. To develop close to ideal pronunciation. To master basic grammar. To remember basic vocabulary in context. To teach elementary reading, the next stage will be the transition to “marathon” reading of unadapted literature. To develop initial skills in understanding foreign speech by ear. To get into the rhythm and harmony of a foreign language. To create a bridgehead from which you will conduct a further attack on the “enemy”.

How to use this method in studying the Church Slavonic language?

For us, this language is not completely unfamiliar or distant, we encounter it all the time, and this is a big plus. The existing tradition of pronunciation and reading makes the path of “entering” the language extremely easy. After all, in Church Slavonic there is no reduction known to many other languages, when “one hears Manchester, but writes Liverpool.” This means that the first stage will be easy and relaxed for us. There is probably no longer a clergyman who does not have some studio recording of the psalter or gospel in Church Slavonic. Even if it is not technically possible to cut up small passages, then at least you can listen to short psalms, then repeat them several times. It is, of course, not difficult to carefully study the meaning of these texts - everyone has a Bible.

The only problem that can arise is spiritual and moral. These texts are sacred and prayerful for us, and repeating them purely technically, not prayerfully, is problematic.

Next stage. After we have learned to read selected passages in Church Slavonic well enough, we begin free reading. Many grammatical forms of Church Slavonic are close to us due to their great similarity with the Russian language. Many words are also close. All this also makes it easier to solve the problem.

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 a minimum, understand it perfectly.

Instructions for the church reader on how to read in church,

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 (in abbreviation)

Read reverently, with the fear of God

1. A God-fearing reader must always remember that he is proclaiming praises and prayers for himself and for all those praying in the temple, where God Himself, His Most Pure Mother, Angels and saints are always invisibly present. The Lord, the Knower of the Heart, 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 may be tempted by this. Therefore, he does not allow negligence, he is afraid of angering God. For the Scripture says: “Cursed is every man who does the work of the Lord with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). By reading prayers aloud in the holy church for all believers, we are doing God’s work, so read reverently and gracefully, clearly and slowly.

Prepare carefully for reading

3. For the reading that you must perform, you must carefully prepare: familiarize yourself with it in advance and carefully read the text, paying attention to the pronunciation of words, stress, and content in order to read correctly, consciously and meaningfully. If you don’t read well, don’t be lazy to practice reading more often, read it several times and ask someone else who knows to check you.

Read intelligently

4. Read so that, first of all, you yourself understand what you are reading, and so that the prayers and psalms read penetrate into 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, pray with one mouth and one heart and glorify the Lord - this is why we gather in holy temple.

6. When reading in Church, always remember that through your lips the prayer of all those present is pronounced and ascended to the Throne of God, and that every word you utter should penetrate the ear and soul of every person praying in the church.

Read slowly, clearly and clearly

7. Therefore, do not rush when reading holy prayers, and do not degrade prayers by hasty reading, do not anger God. Hasty and indistinct reading is not perceived by the ears, thoughts and hearts of those listening. Such reading and singing, in the words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, is “pleasing to the lazy, sadness of heart and sighing to the good, but temptation and harm to all who come (to the temple”).

8. A God-fearing reader will not read quickly and carelessly to please the few, so as not to deprive all those praying of the opportunity to pray reverently and attentively. For he understands well that due to the reader’s negligence, many are embarrassed and tempted and may even leave the temple. Persons who are prone to 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 cool towards the 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 rapid reading, which turns into negligence, 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 limits at what speed to read, it is necessary to read with understanding of what is being read, and not mechanically, and not only to pay attention to the external side of reading, but also to the content, while praying in your soul.

We must learn to read so freely, without tension, that when reading there is no difficulty in pronouncing words, abbreviations (titles), stress, in choosing the height and strength of the voice, raising and lowering the voice, etc. - in short, so that attention is distracted as little as possible on the reading technique itself, but focused more on the meaning of what was being read and the reader’s heartfelt perception of it.

A reverent reader acquires such an instinct when he himself, in church and at home, tries to pray carefully with his mind and heart. Then he learns from experience that when reading quickly, it is impossible for those praying to have time to grasp the content of the prayer and pray with both mind and heart.

When reading, you should avoid the other extreme: you should not stretch out the reading unnecessarily.

Read with meaningful stops

Read it correctly, in the church way

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(there is no letter e in the Slavic language); father, but not father, century, but not Vic, his, but not evo or yoga, wretched, but not pathetic. However, here, as in other cases, there are no rules without exceptions. Yes, words Aggel, Loggin, Pagcratius pronounce: Angel, Longinus, Pancratius.

14. When reading Slavic, you should pay attention to accents and titla (abbreviation signs) in order to pronounce words correctly.

15. We must observe the ancient pattern of church reading. When reading, you should not artificially highlight or, as it were, emphasize the meaning of what you are reading. Secular artistic expression is inappropriate in church reading. You need to read without pouring out your feelings through modulations and changes in voice; You should not give tenderness, tenderness, severity or any other feeling to your voice - the church reader is not an actor. Let the holy prayers influence the listeners with their own spiritual dignity. The desire to convey to others your feelings and experiences or to influence them with changes in your voice is a sign of conceit and pride (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov).

18. It is necessary to read in a moderate voice, not to weaken or strengthen it too much, but to balance it in such a way that all the words clearly reach the ears of every person praying. It goes without saying that the larger the temple or the more people, the more necessary it is to strengthen the voice, but in no way turn it into a shout.

19. The reader should stand straight in front of the book, without bowing, and read without shuffling his feet, without putting them to the side, not sway his body, have his hands freely lowered, not shake his head, read slowly, but not drag, 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 crookedly, and if it sank 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 Church Slavonic, hence the great similarity in the writing of letters. There are some letters in the Church Slavonic alphabet that are unknown to modern writing. This is “zelo” - /z/, “i” - /i/, “omega” - /o/, digraph “ot” - /ot/, “yat” - /e/, “yus small” - /ya/ , “xi” - /ks/, “psi” - /ps/, “fita” - /f/, “izhitsa” - /i/, /v/. Also, the “uk” inside the word and “ya” have a somewhat peculiar style. Details about the rules for reading letters are in a separate appendix. A number of letters - zelo, fert, xi, psi, fita and izhitsa are used only in foreign words; “and” (i) is written before a vowel, and in the position before consonants - in case of borrowing. After “a” and “e”, izhitsa (v) denotes the sound “v”, in other positions - “i”.

Yat - in ancient times there was a separate sound, historically long / e / and somewhat reminiscent of a diphthong / no / . Even in the time of Lomonosov, some dialects distinguished it with a separate sound. At the present time, this sound has completely merged with /e/. In Church Slavonic it continues to play a large role.

Another feature of Slavic graphics is stress. There are acute, heavy, invested stress, as well as aspiration; combinations of aspiration with acute and heavy stress. In reality, differences in stress do not matter for reading; this is the “Greek” inheritance of Church Slavonic. The invested 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 number.

The title, an abbreviation icon on the letter of one or more letters, plays a big role in the alphabet. Tilo is placed above words denoting special veneration and respect. There are combined titles - when the letters “d”, “r”, “g”, “s”, “o” appear on the letter. A word with a title is read the same as without a title. At the end of the appendix there is a list of words with abbreviations under the title.

The special purpose of the title is to indicate numbers. The Church Slavonic alphabet, following the Greek tradition, expresses numbers through the letters of the alphabet. The title is placed above the letter indicating the number, if this number is single digit or ten. If a number is written with two or more letter signs, then the title is placed above the second one from the end. The list of numbers is included in the appendix.

Sometimes in writing you can find a small loop over 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 peculiarity of Church Slavonic is the obligatory presence of an unpronounceable “ъ” after a consonant if the word ends with it. This is the heritage of the ancient Russian and Old Slavonic traditions of reading and writing.

So, in Church Slavonic there is a rule: how it is written is how it is read. The exception is the combinations -ia, -aa in names, months, and some other words, where they are read as -iya, -aya. In the words Bog, good, Lord and their derivatives, there is a tradition of pronouncing “g” as a voiced variant of “x”.

Reading exercises: 1). Listen to the reading of the first psalm in audio format several times. 2). Follow the text several times while listening. 3). Read it yourself several times. 4). 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 walk in the counsel of the wicked and does not stand in the way of sinners and does not sit in the congregation of the wicked, 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 brings forth 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 blown by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor 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 peoples rebel, and nations plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. “Let us break their bonds, and cast off their fetters from us.” He who lives in heaven will laugh; the Lord will mock him. Then He will say to them in His anger and His wrath will lead them into confusion: “I have anointed My King over Zion, My holy mountain; I will proclaim the decree: The Lord said to Me: You are My Son; today have I begotten You; ask of Me, and I will give the nations to an inheritance for you, and the ends of the earth for your possession; you will crush them with a rod of iron, like a potter’s vessel.” So, understand, 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 on [your] journey, for His anger will soon kindle. Blessed are all who trust in Him.

The main problem in mastering the vocabulary of the Church Slavonic language is the presence of paronyms - words that have historically changed their meaning greatly, and for this reason it has become difficult to guess the meaning of such a word. Example: to stagger - to rush about, to exalt; punishment - instruction, admonition. You need to pay special attention to such words. Such words should be remembered in context - an associative series is created. There is a dictionary that it is advisable to use when studying such words: Sedakova O.A. Church Slavic-Russian paronyms. – M.: Greco-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/ts, zh/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 changed to hissing or whistling. The transition to sibilant (zh, sh) is possible only in the vocative case (in circulation).