Russian and Church Slavonic

[yers.livejournal.com]

aIn its development, Russian has been heavily influenced by another language - but the influence is difficult to notice. That language is Old Bulgarian, also called Church Slavonic.

In the Middle Ages, Church Slavonic played exactly the same part in Russia as Latin did in Western Europe: it was the language of the church as well as that of scholarly thought. Which is why, just as English tends to express abstract concepts with Latinisms, Slavonisms totally prevail over native Russian words in any serious text. In fact, most of the long words Russian is notorious for - like достопримечательность and времяпрепровождение - aren't, strictly speaking, Russian: they are either direct borrowings or neo-Slavonisms coined by scholars.

Now although Russian and Old Bulgarian are both Slavic languages, one is from the Eastern and the other from the Southern group. Here are some examples of how you can spot a word of Church Slavonic origin:

• Inside word roots, CS has -ra-, -la-, -re- where Russian has -oro-, -olo-, -ere-, respectively,
  eg.: короткий "short" is a native Russian word, while краткий "brief" is a CS borrowing;
  native голова "head(=body part)" - borrowed глава "head(=leader), chapter";
  native перед "before" - borrowed прежде "earlier".


• In all Slavic languages, when -t- or -d- occurs as the final consonant of a root, it mutates into (usually) a sibilant before some suffixes and endings. In Russian, -t-, -d- become -ch-, -zh-, while in Church Slavonic, -shch-, -zhd-. For example, the Russian verb щебетать (to tweet) is conjugated in the present tense as я щебечу, ты щебечешь, etc., while a verb of the same pattern but of CS origin, роптать (to protest), goes я ропщу, ты ропщешь... Whenever a word has -жд- at the end of its root (освобождение "liberation", охлаждать "to cool down", прежде - a word I've mentioned *earlier*), it's the Old Bulgarian phonetic engine at work.

There's more to that... but it's getting boring, and I, an entirely self-styled linguist, am getting myself on shaky grounds. What's important is this, whenever something about the Russian language seems to you utterly inexplicable and illogical (and it will, it еще как will!), it might be useful to remember that Russian is really two similar old languages blended in a modern one. And if you're prepared to sacrifice a lot to your passion for languages, learn Church Slavonic. It has a few extra past tenses, and is properly written in a panic-instilling alphabet called Glagolitic, but paradoxically, after centuries it still remains the most lucid of all Slavic languages, and it's as majestic as Latin.

Comments

[corriel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this! Any site u'd recommend about CS?

[langwidere.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating. I'm taking a class that's all about discovering the Latin and Greek origins of English and I'm finding it extremely helpful in my understanding of my native language. So learning Church Slavonic would probably be an immense help with my Russian. But where exactly can one just pick up a book on it and start?

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

Interesting.. глава is similar to Czech's "hlava" = head. Is the г in "glava" aspirated or hard g as in go?

Does Czech derive from Church Slavonic as well? Since -la- appears in hlava...

[yers.livejournal.com]

So learning Church Slavonic would probably be an immense help with my Russian.

It's really the other way round. CS is significantly harder than Russian, and learning it would require you to concentrate your entire effort on it. And that's where a good knowledge of Russian will be of help.

Honestly, I only have the most basic knowledge of Church Slavonic. I'd like to learn it myself. Guess it's more realistic for me right now than to learn Aramaic. :) I'll look around for some links.

[yers.livejournal.com]

No, Czech doesn't derive from Church Slavonic, it's a West Slavic language. It's just that this phonetic pattern coincided in the Western and Southern branches. Except for Polish, where "head" is głowa, and "short" is krótki.

The 'g' in глава is hard. Russian has, formally, no voiced "h". But there's the word ага which is pronounced with an aspirated г. Once a Czech heard me say "ага" and then didn't believe that I was Russian and not Ukrainian, because "Rusové nemají há" :-)

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

I totally forgot about głowa! D'oh. One of my LJ friends taught me that word... didn't remember it. I just remember my grandmother taught me hlava in Czech.

OK, that's what I thought.

"Rusové nemají há"
Řek(a?)l jsi "Russian does not have 'h'?" Uhh... Já nejistý(ím?) kéž(?) já rezumím protože(?) nemluvím česky. ^_^;;;; Prosím správný!!! Hovno, I suck. XD

[bugtilaheh.livejournal.com]

rozumím. promiň!

Re:

[langwidere.livejournal.com]

Aramaic, eh? Now that's interesting. You don't hear that too often these days. ;)

I'll let you know if I find anything on Church Slavonic as well. =)

[yers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I said. No "h" in Russian.