Despite the fact that Old Church Slavism is studied in high school, a rare graduate will remember the meaning of this term. What can we say about older people whose school bench was left far behind.
What is Old Slavism?
The signs of these words are so widespread that we no longer notice them. Old Slavs are words borrowed from the old Slavic language, which is considered the first literary among the ancient Slavs.
Also in textbooks or on the Internet you can find such a term as Church Slavism. It often means the same as under Old Slavism, with the only difference being that the words are borrowed from the Church Slavonic language. It is considered a later version of Old Slavonic.
Nevertheless, words with signs of Old Slavism are used everywhere in everyday speech. This may seem unbelievable, but any of us speaks in borrowed terms at least three times a day. And they utter such words so often that they no longer notice the old Slavs.
Signs of such words
So how to determine when such terms flicker in speech? There are quite clear distinguishing features of Old Slavism in the Russian language. The characteristic features of these borrowed words can be found both in the similarity of sound and in spelling.
Upon a more detailed study of this topic, it turns out that there is a completely working way of recognizing words such as Old Slavs, the signs of which are as follows:
- Phonetic. Similarity in sound, statement of stresses.
- Word-building. A way to write similar words.
- Lexical. The meaning of words, their coloring in speech and in literary works.
The beginning of the introduction of Old Church Slavism
Starting from the 9th century in Russia in the language environment there is diglossia. This term is often confused with bilingualism, although they are very different:
- In bilingualism, one of the languages used is gradually superseded by the other, as a result of which only a few words remain in use.
- With diglossia, two languages complement each other, forming a kind of symbiosis, which further develops into something middle from the original options. Dysglossia is a stable linguistic state and can last for a long time, as it was in Russia.
In the heyday of Christianity in Russia, diglossia was widespread everywhere, with Russian being considered everyday, and Church Slavonic as a high literary language with sacred meaning.
What's next?
Only at the beginning of the 17th century did diglossia begin to turn into bilingualism. As a result, the Old Slavonic language began to slowly fade away and weaken its position, leaving a mark only in literary works.
The translation of the sacred books and "high" literature into the "everyday" Old Russian language was carried out. Gradually, Old Church Slavism faded into the shadow of the Russian language, leaving behind a lot of reminder terms.
How often do we meet borrowed words?
Often. Even more often than you can imagine.
Old Slavonic words went into modern language in two different states:
- Completely. These are words such as Lanites, eyes, anti-aircraft guns and others, not very familiar to us.
- Partially. Here the situation is more interesting, because it is not always possible to guess whether the word was borrowed. Partially passed words include: superstition, correspondence, gracious, prudence and others.
So how often do we use Old Church Slavs in our speech?
At least once a week. Did you know that the word "Sunday" is also borrowed? It, like the word "Lord", completely passed into our speech from the Church Slavonic dialect.
It should also be remembered that not always words that have Old Slavonic attributes evoke associations with the literary language. Many of them do not have any stylistic coloring at all, which makes their use invisible. Could you think that "health care" refers to Church Slavonic vocabulary, as well as "drifting"?
The use of borrowed terms cannot be considered homogeneous, because some of them were in the Russian language initially, only over time they took in a piece of another language. Such words include, for example, "precious", "Belgrade" and others.
Even Old Slavicism is often used when writing works of art, especially poets sin this. Such words not only can immerse the reader in a special atmosphere, but also give a complex unique rhyme, as well as enhance the overall impression of the written.
For example, the "Lanites" used in the poem will clearly bring into it ancient chivalrous romance, which has won the hearts of women for many years.
Phonetic signs of Old Slavism
So how do you phonetically define Old Slavism? The signs of these words can be found if we analyze the Old Slavic (otherwise - South Slavic) ways of forming words.
Interestingly, with an almost identical spelling, there is often a complete discrepancy of terms in meaning.
Phonetic signs of Church Slavism:
- They have a combination of syllables ra / la or oro / olo, which arose from the Proto-Slavic vocabulary. Such words include: rose in price, scolding, congratulating - saying hello, back, hair, headless, cloud-shell, cool and others.
- They have combinations of the syllables re / le, which correspond to the Russian (or East Slavic) ere / barely / spruce. These include: a shroud-film, a draw, forward / henceforth, milk-milky, transmission-betray and others.
- The alternation of the syllables RA / LA and RO / LO at the very beginning of the word: in bulk, scatter, boat-boat, short story, retail differences, separately, equal, more equal and others.
- Vowels / / / / / at the very beginning: lamb, holy fool, lonely, ugly, single.
- The combination of letters zhd, and it corresponds to the Russian zh: enjoy, protect, condemnation-condemned, ignorant-ignorant, everyday-daily and others.
- The letters u / pcs / bh / h: stray-wandering, toffee, avert and others.
Lexical signs of Old Slavism
Similar signs are considered:
- Excessive "bookishness" of words, their solemnity. Such terms are difficult to use in everyday speech.
- Belonging to the theme of religion, especially Christianity.
- The beginning of complex words with the help of god / good / sue / good / womb / evil / one and so on. These words include: theology, worship, blessing, blessed, atrocity, villainy, superstition, unity, unification and others.
Word-forming signs of Old Slavism
Like the phonetic features of words like Old Slavism, signs of their formation are also important. The following characteristic morphemes are considered the most characteristic features of the word formation of Church Slavisms:
- Well-known to all before / through / from / below, having a correspondence in the Russian language (through / through / through / through / s). Such words include: step-offender, excessive-too much, choose-chosen one, reduce-summary-reduce and so on.
- Common gorges / yusch / asch / box (correspond in Russian to uch / uch / ach / yach), which are then transformed into a distinctive feature of adjectives. This: current-flowing, knitting, lying-lying and others.
- Suffixes are -tn, -tv / tva, -tai, -state / action, -yn / yyn: stronghold, pride, harvest, life, herald, architect, oath, action, invasion and others.
- Suffix-tel: entrepreneur, driver, builder, conqueror, buyer, and so on.
So, having learned how to define Old Slavism, you can always understand when you use it. After all, one has only to notice it once, as everyday speech will flourish with the terms of antiquity, previously modestly hiding behind the shadow of ordinary words.