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	[V]
G g	verb	[G]
D d	good	[d]
E e є	There is	[e]
F	you live	[and]
Ѕ ѕ	green	[h]
Z z	Earth	[h]
And and	Izhe	[And]
І і	And	[And]
K k	how	[To]
L l	People	[l]
Mm	you think	[m]
N n	our	[n]
Oh o o	He	[O]
P p	rest	[n]
R r	rtsy	[p]
With with	word	[With]
T t	firmly	[T]
U u y	uk	[y]
F f	fert	[f]
X x	dick	[X]
T t	from	[from]
Ts ts	tsy	[ts]
H h	worm	[h]
Sh sh	sha	[w]
sch sch	now	[sch]
ъ	er	Indicates the hardness of the previous consonant. Sometimes replaced by 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 I	I	[I]
W w Q q	omega	[O]
Z z	small us	[I]
X x	xi	[ks]
P p	psi	[ps]
F f	fitA	[f]
Vv	Izhitsa	v is pronounced [v] if preceded by the letter a or e. In other cases, v is pronounced like [and], at the same time, there is an icon above it v3 Ђ m [Pavel, є3vaggelіe, mwmsey, v3сНвъ]

The following letters and combinations of letters are written differently, but pronounced the same:

e є e
and і m v3 Ђ
o o w q
t from
x x
p ps

The Church Slavonic alphabet was created on the basis of Greek. This explains the presence of a number of letters (f w x p v) that are redundant for the transmission of Slavic speech. Greek influence also explains the rule according to which the combination gg is read as [ng], and the combination gk - as [nc], for example: є3vaggelіe, смгкл1т.

The letter e was used to convey a special vowel sound, represented in many Slavic dialects. Some dialects of the Russian language have distinct sounds e and e. In Western Ukraine, when reading ordinary Church Slavonic texts, e under stress is pronounced as [and].

Superscripts and punctuation marks

In the Church Slavonic language, special icons are used, which are placed above the line level and are called superscript. This accent marks, special aspiration sign And word abbreviations. A strict system of using superscripts appears quite late. The oldest manuscript with accent marks is the Miracle New Testament (mid-14th century), a new translation from Greek into Slavic, made, according to legend, by St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. The system of superscript characters was finally formed by the beginning of the 18th century.

Accent marks

In Church Slavonic there are three types of stress:

a - acute accent, or nxjz
A - heavy stress, or varjz
† - light stress, or kam0ra

The difference in accent marks is not related to pronunciation features. Thus, the words rab and r†b, zemS and zemls are read the same. Church Slavonic accent marks are borrowed from Greek. Acute stress is placed over the vowel at the beginning and middle of the word, for example Гдъ, соторi1ти. Heavy is placed if the word ends with a stressed vowel, for example cruci2 є3го2. However, if after such a word there are words: bo, same, li, mz, mi, tz, ti, cz, si, us, you, which do not have their own stress, then the acute stress is retained on the previous vowel, for example: the earth is invisible and unstructured[Gen. 1. 2].

Light stress serves to distinguish between singular forms and plural (dual) forms. For example:

tsar (I. unit) - tsar (R. pl.)
tsarS (R. unit) - tsar‰ (I. or V. dv.)

Aspirate sign

If a word begins with a vowel, then an aspiration sign is placed above this vowel, which in Slavic is called zvateltso: ґ. This icon is not pronounced at all. In Slavic texts it appeared in connection with the orientation towards Greek orthography. In ancient Greek, aspiration marks influenced pronunciation.

The aspirate mark can be combined with the accent mark. The combination of these signs has special names. The combination of acute stress and aspiration is called u4so, and the combination of aspiration with heavy stress a5 is called gostrophe

Title signs

A number of words in Church Slavonic are written not in full, but in abbreviation. Abbreviations are highlighted using a special sign 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, btsda - 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 talking about the God in whom Christians believe) from pagan gods (in this case, b0gъ, b0zi is written without the title sign). In the same way, when talking about the angels of God, the word GgGl is written under the title sign, and if it is talking about the fallen angel, Satan, then the word Gggel is written completely without the title sign and is read [aggel].

There are several options for the title sign:

7 - simple title.
alphabetic titles (i.e., a way of abbreviating a word when one of the missing letters is placed above the line):
- d good-title - btsda
- g verb-title - є3ђліе
- b he-title - prрb0къ
- > rtsy-titlo - i3m>k
- c word-title - кртъ

Punctuation marks

In Church Slavonic, the rules for placing punctuation marks are less strict than in Russian, i.e. in the same case there may be different marks, or there may be no punctuation mark at all. You should pay attention to the most significant differences between Church Slavonic punctuation marks and modern Russian ones:

A semicolon in Church Slavonic indicates interrogative intonation, i.e. performs the same functions as the question mark in modern Russian: of little faith, almost2 ўdoubtedz є3сi2; - You of little faith, why did you doubt?[Matt. 14.31].
In liturgical books, instead of frequently repeated prayers and exclamations, only the first words are given. So, instead of exclamation Glory to nts7Y and3 sn7u and3 s™0mu d¦u, and3 nhne and3 pr1snw and3 forever and ever, ґmi1n the words Slava and 3 nhne are given: . In this case, a colon is placed instead of an ellipsis. If the liturgical book says Џ§е ours: , then the prayer is read in its entirety in this place Our Father[Matt. 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 point. It is no different in size from a regular period, but after it the sentence continues with a small letter.
There are no strict rules for placing commas in the Church Slavonic language. But commas, as in modern Russian, help to understand the division of a sentence and highlight its main parts.

Numerical letter values

Arabic and Latin numerals are not used in Church Slavonic texts. To write numbers, letters of the Church Slavonic alphabet are used, which have numerical values. In this case, a title sign is placed above the letter.

If a 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 like this: in the first place are letters denoting units, and in the second place is the letter i, which has the digital value “ten”, for example No. i - 11, b7i - 12, Gi - 13, etc.; numbers from 21 onwards are written like this: first the letter denoting ten is written, then the letter denoting one, 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 a 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 ¤в7 - 2000, ¤f7 - 9000, ¤… - 60,000, ¤ф\ - 500,000.

Calculation can be carried out 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 Nativity of Christ or in Slavic ¤ац§в

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 on 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: n 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 stated 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 a reader, deacon, priest, or sung by a choir (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 of the 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 also 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 “Glagolic alphabet” with “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 [dz])	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 )
17	Q,q	It's solemn	[O]	(t = 800 )
18	P, p	rest	[n]	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	[p]	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. how is 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 a 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 the name-word, 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.” Do 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 more than one century scientists have been paying attention to this language, studying the Old Church Slavonic alphabet and the history of its development, but there is not so 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 still 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. Yagich 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 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 or familiar with 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.

Also interesting are the materials dedicated to the Thessaloniki brothers and the history of the alphabet. 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 it not only contains many archaisms, but also 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.

Section for students of Church Slavonic language

Church Slavonic is the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church.

It arose in the 9th century as the language of the Gospel for the Slavic peoples: during the translation of the Holy Scriptures by Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles.

The alphabet of the Church Slavonic language consists of Slavic and Greek letters; many words used in it are also of Greek origin.

In comparison with modern Russian, Church Slavonic contains and conveys the subtlest shades of spiritual concepts and experiences.

How to learn to understand the liturgical language of the church:

1) Purchase an explanatory prayer book with parallel translation, a dictionary and a textbook.
2) You can start readingprayer book(morning and evening rules, rules for Communion) - in Russian transcription with parallel translation.

3) Use our resource on the Internet.

You can learn to read in CSL in a few hours. To do this, you need to study 2 tables:words with titleand rules for reading severallettersand their combinations.
Most of the words are consonant with the modern language, but you should pay attention to the fact that a number of words familiar to us have a different or even opposite ( paronyms ) meaning. It is also important to take into account that liturgical texts are based on Holy Scripture, without knowledge of which translation will not provide understanding.
4) Participate in divine services, checking the text and commentaries.

1. Academic course of the Church Slavonic language.

2. Church Slavonic language for high school students.

3. Church Slavonic language for grades 6-8.Textbook of Church Slavonic language(in development)

4. Basic course of the Church Slavonic language (primary school).Textbook of Church Slavonic language(in development)

5. A series of television programs about the Church Slavonic language.

Textbook of Church Slavonic language

Church Slavonic is a language that has survived to this day as the language of worship. Goes back to the Old Church Slavonic language created by Cyril and Methodius on the basis of South Slavic dialects. The oldest Slavic literary language spread first among the Western Slavs (Moravia), then among the southern Slavs (Bulgaria) and eventually became the common literary language of the Orthodox Slavs. This language also became widespread in Wallachia and some areas of Croatia and the Czech Republic. Thus, from the very beginning, Church Slavonic was the language of the church and culture, and not of any particular people.
Church Slavonic was the literary (book) language of the peoples inhabiting a vast territory. Since it was, first of all, the language of church culture, the same texts were read and copied throughout this territory. Monuments of the Church Slavonic language were influenced by local dialects (this was most strongly reflected in spelling), but the structure of the language did not change. It is customary to talk about editions (regional variants) of the Church Slavonic language - Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc.
Church Slavonic has never been a spoken language. As a book language, it was opposed to living national languages. As a literary language, it was a standardized language, and the norm was determined not only by the place where the text was rewritten, but also by the nature and purpose of the text itself. Elements of living spoken language (Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian) could penetrate Church Slavonic texts in varying quantities. The norm of each specific text was determined by the relationship between the elements of book and living spoken language. The more important the text was in the eyes of the medieval Christian scribe, the more archaic and strict the language norm. Elements of spoken language almost did not penetrate into liturgical texts. The scribes followed tradition and were guided by the most ancient texts. In parallel with the texts, there was also business writing and private correspondence. The language of business and private documents combines elements of a living national language (Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.) and individual Church Slavonic forms.
The active interaction of book cultures and the migration of manuscripts led to the fact that the same text was rewritten and read in different editions. By the 14th century I realized that the texts contain errors. The existence of different editions did not make it possible to resolve the question of which text is older, and therefore better. At the same time, the traditions of other peoples seemed more perfect. If the South Slavic scribes were guided by Russian manuscripts, then the Russian scribes, on the contrary, believed that the South Slavic tradition was more authoritative, since it was the South Slavs who preserved the features of the ancient language. They valued Bulgarian and Serbian manuscripts and imitated their spelling.
The first grammar of the Church Slavonic language, in the modern sense of the word, is the grammar of Laurentius Zizanius (1596). In 1619, the Church Slavonic grammar of Meletius Smotritsky appeared, which determined the later language norm. In their work, scribes sought to correct the language and text of the books they copied. At the same time, the idea of what correct text is has changed over time. Therefore, in different eras, books were corrected either from manuscripts that the editors considered ancient, or from books brought from other Slavic regions, or from Greek originals. As a result of the constant correction of liturgical books, the Church Slavonic language acquired its modern appearance. Basically, this process ended at the end of the 17th century, when, on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon, the liturgical books were corrected. Since Russia supplied other Slavic countries with liturgical books, the post-Nikon form of the Church Slavonic language became the common norm for all Orthodox Slavs.
In Russia, Church Slavonic was the language of the Church and culture until the 18th century. After the emergence of a new type of Russian literary language, Church Slavonic remains only the language of Orthodox worship. The corpus of Church Slavonic texts is constantly being updated: new church services, akathists and prayers are being compiled.
Being a direct descendant of the Old Church Slavonic language, Church Slavonic has retained many archaic features of its morphological and syntactic structure to this day. It is characterized by four types of noun declension, has four past tenses of verbs and special forms of the nominative case of participles. The syntax retains calque Greek phrases (dative independent, double accusative, etc.). The greatest changes were made to the orthography of the Church Slavonic language, the final form of which was formed as a result of the “book reference” of the 17th century.

Pletneva A.A., Kravetsky A.G. Church Slavonic language

This textbook on the Church Slavonic language teaches you to read and understand texts used in Orthodox worship, and introduces you to the history of Russian culture. Knowledge of the Church Slavonic language makes it possible to comprehend many phenomena of the Russian language in a different way. The book is an indispensable tool for those who want to independently study the Church Slavonic language. It will also be interesting and useful to a wide range of readers.

Our modernity, and especially everyday life, is contradictory and complex. Overcoming difficulties and contradictions, we strive for a full-blooded spiritual and secular life, for renewal and at the same time for the return of many lost and almost forgotten values, without which our past would not exist and the desired future is unlikely to come true. We again appreciate what has been tested by generations and what, despite all attempts to “destroy to the ground,” has been handed down to us as a heritage for centuries. Such values include the ancient bookish Church Slavonic language.

Its life-giving primary source is the Old Church Slavonic language, the language of the holy Slavic primary teachers Cyril and Methodius, called equal to the apostles for their feat of creating and disseminating Slavic literacy and worship, and was one of the oldest book languages in Europe. In addition to Greek and Latin, whose roots go back to ancient pre-Christian times, one can name only three European languages that are not inferior in seniority to Old Church Slavonic: these are Gothic (IV century), Anglo-Saxon (VII century) and Old High German (VIII century). The Old Slavic language, which arose in the 9th century, lives up to its name, for it, like its first alphabet - Glagolitic, was created by the holy Solun brothers for all Slavs and existed first among the Western Slavs and the western part of the Southern Slavs - Moravans , Czechs, Slovaks, partly Poles, Pannonian and Alpine Slavs, and then the Southern Slavs within the Dalmatian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Serbian and, finally, the Eastern Slavs. In their midst, more than a thousand years ago, as a result of the Baptism of Rus', it took root, blossomed “like a holy land” and gave amazing examples of spiritualized and chaste writing, to which many generations of our grandfathers and fathers turned.

Without Church Slavonic, which existed in Rus', it is difficult to imagine the development of the Russian literary language in all eras of its history. The church language, like Latin in Western Romance countries, has always been a support, a guarantee of purity and a source of enrichment for the Russian standardized language. Even now, sometimes subconsciously, we carry within us particles of the sacred common Slavic language and use it. Using the proverb “Through the mouth of a child the truth speaks,” we do not think about the fact that “purely” in Russian we should say “Through the mouth of a child the truth speaks,” but we feel only a certain archaism, the bookishness of this wise saying. Our ancestors in the 18th century. or at the beginning of the 19th century, using the French idiom trainer une miserable existence, they did not say “to drag out a wretched life,” as it would seem to be expected, but turned to the Church Slavonic tradition and... began, in some cases, to eke out a miserable existence. Even Mikhailo Lomonosov, in his “Preface on the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language” in 1757, wrote that “by diligently and carefully using the native Slavic language, which is native to us, together with Russian, we will ward off wild and strange words of absurdity that come to us from foreign languages, borrowing from ourselves beauty from Greek, and then also through Latin,” and explained that “these indecencies now, through neglect of reading church books, creep into us insensitively, distort the own beauty of our language, subject it to constant change and bend it to decline. All this will be stopped in the manner shown, and the Russian language in full strength, beauty and richness will not be subject to change and decline, as long as the Russian Church is adorned with the praise of God in the Slavic language.” .

Thus, M. V. Lomonosov saw the favorable future of the Russian literary language in relying on the “Slavic language,” which was confirmed at the beginning of the 19th century. with the brilliant poetic style of Pushkin, and almost a century later, in the tragic days of the Second Russian Revolution, another servant of the Russian Muse, poet Vyacheslav Ivanov, the author of a number of works in a language close to Church Slavonic, wrote in the article “Our Language”: “The language that has acquired Such a blessed destiny at birth was blessed a second time in his infancy by a mysterious baptism in the life-giving streams of the Church Slavonic language. They partially transformed his flesh and spiritually transformed his soul, his “inner form.” And now he is no longer just a gift of God to us, but as if a gift of God, especially and doubly, - fulfilled and multiplied. Church Slavonic speech became under the fingers of the divinely inspired sculptors of the Slavic soul, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, a living cast of the “divine Hellenic speech”, the image and likeness of which the ever-memorable Enlighteners introduced into their statues.” . For many writers and poets, and simply admirers of the beauty of the Russian language, Church Slavonic was not only a source of inspiration and a model of harmonious completeness, stylistic rigor, but also a guardian, as Lomonosov believed, of the purity and correctness of the path of development of the Russian (“Russian- go") language. Has Church Slavonic lost this role in our time? I believe that I have not lost that it is precisely this functional side of the ancient language, a language that is not divorced from modernity, that should be recognized and perceived in our time. I know that in France, lovers and guardians of the purity of French speech treat Latin in the same way, studying and popularizing this medieval international European language and even trying to make it oral, colloquial in certain situations and conditions. They created a society of “living Latin” (le latin vivant) not in any way to the detriment, but to the benefit of their native French language.

The Church Slavonic language that we hear in churches and find in church books is now commonly called New Church Slavonic in science; new church texts are written in it: akathists, services to newly glorified saints. This term was introduced by the famous Czech paleoslavist Vyacheslav Frantsevich Maresh (he calls himself that in Russian), who devoted several works to the New Church Slavonic language. In a report at a conference dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' (Leningrad, January 31 - February 5, 1988), he said that “in our time there are three types of the New Church Slavonic language: 1) the Russian type, which is used as a liturgical language in the worship of the Byzantine rite (pronunciation adapts to the linguistic environment); 2) the Croatian-glagolic type, which is used in Roman rite worship among the Croats (from 1921 to 1972 also among the Czechs); 3) Czech type, used in the Roman rite among the Czechs since 1972 (formulated scientifically in 1972).” Recently, service books of the Roman rite were published in the New Church Slavonic language of the Croatian-glagolic version and the Czech version. Like all liturgical books, they were published anonymously, but it is known that the Croatian version was prepared by I. L. Tandarich, and the Czech version by V. Tkadlick. Thus, the Church Slavonic language can be heard not only in Orthodox churches, but also in Catholic churches, although in the latter it is heard extremely rarely, in exceptional cases and in exceptional places.

In today's Russia, Church Slavonic is felt and perceived by many as a “dead” language, that is, preserved only in church books and services; in all other cases, even when reading the Holy Scriptures at home, the native Russian language is used. This was not the case in pre-revolutionary times. Numerous sources testify to this, as well as my own memories of my childhood, adolescence and youth. This time passed in the conditions of refugee life in Serbia, in Belgrade, where I studied at an “old-fashioned” Russian school, and then at a Russian men’s gymnasium. In my senior year, my law teacher and spiritual father was Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, and in total the Law of God was taught for at least ten years (complete secondary education lasted 12 years: four years in elementary school and eight in the gymnasium). The prayers, the Creed and the Gospel (New Testament) were exclusively in Church Slavonic, and only the Catechism, as I remember, the Catechism of Metropolitan Philaret, which we selectively crammed word for word, was in Russian, and then very archaic (as I remember now a passage explaining why the Savior’s death on the cross frees us from sin, damnation and death: “In order that we may more easily believe this mystery, the word of God instructs us about it, as much as we can comprehend, through the comparison of Jesus Christ with Adam. Adam is naturally the head of all mankind. , which is one with him, by natural origin from him” - etc.) . At Sunday mass, which many of us knew almost by heart, we stood in formation in the gymnasium church, sometimes, before major holidays, we defended vespers, part of the class (the lucky ones!) sang in the church choir, but we also went to the city Russian Trinity Church and to the cemetery to Iverskaya. The Church Slavonic language was constantly heard, Church Slavonic texts (the commandments of Moses and the Beatitudes, Prayers, troparia, small parables from the Gospel), as well as Latin texts or Turgenev’s prose poems, were memorized, individual high school students served in the church, read the hours, and performed the duties of psalm-readers. The Church Slavonic language was heard more often than it was perceived visually.

To understand how deeply the Church Slavonic language was perceived by Russian people or people of Russian culture in times that now seem almost patriarchal, it is enough to read the short and unusually vivid story “Dirge” by the Parisian Russian writer Gaito Gazdanov, who became an emigrant after the civil war in our country . The story describes how, during the German occupation of Paris in 1942, a Russian refugee died of consumption, how his few, largely casual acquaintances came to him, who called a Russian priest to perform a funeral service for the deceased right in the house and then take him to the cemetery: “Father, an old man with a voice hoarse from a cold, arrived a quarter of an hour later. He was wearing a worn cassock and looked sad and tired. He entered and crossed himself<...>- From what places is the dead man? - asked the priest. Volodya answered - such and such a district in the Oryol province. “A neighbor, that means,” said the priest. “I’m from the same place, and it won’t be thirty miles.” The trouble is, I didn’t know that I would have to bury my fellow countryman. What was your name? - Grigory. - The priest was silent for a while<...>“If times were different, I would have served a real memorial service for him, like they do in our monasteries.” But my voice is hoarse, it’s difficult for me alone, so maybe one of you will still help me, pull me up? will you support me? - I looked at Volodya. The expression on his face was<...>tragic and solemn. “Serve, father, as in a monastery,” he said, “and we will support everyone, we will not go astray.” - He turned to his comrades, raised both hands up in an imperative and familiar, as it seemed to me, gesture - the priest looked at him in surprise - and the funeral service began. Nowhere and never, neither before nor after that, have I heard such a choir. After some time, the entire staircase of the house where Grigory Timofeevich lived was full of people who had come to listen to the singing.<...>“Truly, all is vanity, but life is shadow and sleep, for every earth-born rushes about in vain, as the Scripture says: when we have received peace, then we will dwell in the grave, and kings and beggars will go together.”<...>“We will all disappear, we will all die, kings and princes, judges and rapists, the rich and the poor and all human nature.”<...>When the funeral service was over, I asked Volodya: “Where did you get all this from?” How miraculously did it all happen, how did you put together such a choir? “Yes, just like that,” he said. - Some once sang in opera, some in operetta, some just in a tavern. And everyone in the choir sang, of course. And we know church services from childhood - until our last breath. “Then the coffin with the body of Grigory Timofeevich was closed.”<...> .

In order to proceed to studying the Church Slavonic language using this textbook, click on the image of its cover.

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?

Create a separate language center in the central nervous system by listening to dialogues in this language for a long time;
Load a “language matrix” into this center by repeatedly speaking loudly the above dialogues in a foreign language;
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 this particular 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 and 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, not solid(there is no letter e in the Slavic language); father, not father, century, not Vic, his, not evo or yoga, wretched, 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 each 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 a letter 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 as you listen several times. 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).