Despite the fact that Old Church Slavonicisms are studied in high school, a rare graduate will remember the meaning of this term. What can we say about older people whose school bench is far behind.
What are Old Church Slavonicisms?
Signs of these words are so common that we no longer notice them. Old Slavonicisms 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 Slavonicism. By it they often mean the same as by Old Slavonicism, with the only difference that the words are borrowed from the Church Slavonic language. It is considered a later version of Old Church Slavonic.
Nevertheless, words with signs of Old Church Slavonicism are used everywhere in everyday speech. It may seem incredible, but any of us speaks in borrowed terms at least three times a day. And they say such words so often that theydo not notice Old Slavonicisms at all.
Signs of such words
So how do you know when these terms come up in a speech? There are quite clear distinguishing features of Old Slavonicisms in the Russian language. The characteristic features of these borrowed words can be found both in the similarity of sound and spelling.
With a more detailed study of this topic, it turns out that there is a completely working way to identify words such as Old Church Slavonicisms, the signs of which are as follows:
- Phonetic. Similarity in sound, accents.
- Derivational. A way of composing similar words.
- Lexical. The meaning of words, their coloring in speech and in literary works.
The beginning of the introduction of Old Church Slavonicisms
Starting from the 9th century in Russia, diglossia has been observed in the language environment. This term is often confused with bilingualism, although they are quite different:
- In bilingualism, one of the languages used is gradually replaced by another, resulting in only a few words left in everyday life.
- With diglossia, two languages complement each other, forming a kind of symbiosis, which then develops into something in between from the original versions. Dysglossia is a stable language condition and can last for a long time, as it was in Russia.
During the heyday of Christianity in Russia, diglossia was widespread everywhere, and the Russian languagewas considered everyday, and Church Slavonic was considered a high literary language with a 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 Church Slavonic language began to slowly fade away and weaken its position, leaving a trace only in literary works.
The sacred books and "high" literature were translated into the "everyday" Old Russian language. Gradually, Old Church Slavism faded into the shadow of the Russian language, leaving behind many reminder terms.
How often do we encounter borrowed words?
Very often. Even more often than you might imagine.
Old Church Slavonic words passed into the modern language in two different states:
- Totally. These are words such as cheeks, eyes, pupils and others, not too familiar to us.
- Partly. 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, blissful, prudence and others.
So how often do we use Old Church Slavonicisms in our speech?
At least once a week. Did you know that the word "Sunday" is also a loanword? It, like the word "Lord", has completely passed into our speech from the Church Slavonic dialect.
It should also be remembered that words that haveOld Slavonic features evoke associations with the literary language. Many of them do not have any stylistic coloring at all, which makes their use imperceptible. Would you think that "he alth care" is related to Church Slavonic vocabulary, just like "drifting"?
The use of borrowed terms cannot be considered homogeneous, because some of them were originally in the Russian language, only over time they took on a piece of a different language. Such words include, for example, "precious", "Belgrade" and others.
Even Old Slavonicisms are often used when writing works of art, especially poets sin with this. Such words are not only able to immerse the reader in a special atmosphere, but also give a complex unique rhyme, and also enhance the overall impression of what is written.
For example, the "cheeks" used in the poem will clearly bring into it the ancient chivalric romance that has been winning the hearts of women for many years.
Phonetic features of Old Church Slavonicisms
So how phonetically define Old Church Slavonicisms? Signs of these words can be found if you analyze the Old Slavonic (otherwise - South Slavic) ways of forming words.
Interestingly, with almost identical spelling, there is often a complete divergence of terms in meaning.
Phonetic features of Church Slavonicisms:
- Have a combination of the syllables ra/la or oro/olo, which arose fromProto-Slavic vocabulary. These words include: risen in price, scold, congratulate - get well, back, hair, headless, cloudy-shell, cool and others.
- Have combinations of syllables re/le, which correspond to Russian (or East Slavic) ere/ele/elo. These include: veil-film, lot, forward / henceforth, milky-milky, transfer-betray and others.
- Alternation of syllables ra/la and ro/lo at the very beginning of the word: in bulk, crumble, boat-boat, story, difference-retail, apart, equal-even and others.
- Vowels a/e/u/o/i/u at the very beginning: little lamb, holy fool, lonely, ugly, the only one.
- The combination of the letters zhd, and it corresponds to Russian zh: enjoy, protect, condemnation-condemned, ignorant-ignorant, everyday-daily and others.
- Letters u/pcs/shh/h: stray-roaming, toffee, turn away and others.
Lexical signs of Old Church Slavonicisms
Such signs are considered:
- Excessive "bookishness" of words, their solemnity. Such terms are difficult to use in everyday speech.
- Belonging to the topic of religion, especially Christianity.
- The beginning of complex words with the help of god / good / vanity / good / womb / evil / one and so on. These words include: theology, worship, blessing, blessed, villainy-villainy, superstition, unity, unification and others.
Derivational features of Old Slavonicisms
As well as the phonetic features of words such as Old Church Slavonicisms, signstheir education is also important. The following morphemes are considered the most characteristic features of the word formation of Church Slavonicisms:
- Well-known to everyone pre/through/from/bottom, having a correspondence in Russian (re/through/through/in/s). Such words include: cross-criminal, excessive-too much, choose-chosen, bring down-pimp-reduce, and so on.
- Common usch/yusch/ashch/yashch (corresponding in Russian to uch/yuch/ach/yach), which were then transformed into a distinctive feature of adjectives. These are: current-fluid, astringent, lying-lying and others.
- Suffixes -zn, -tv/tva, -tai, -stvo/action, -yn/ynya: 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 Church Slavonicisms, you can always understand when you use them. After all, one has only to notice this once, as everyday speech will flourish with the terms of antiquity, until then modestly hiding behind the shadow of ordinary words.
