The relationship between Old Slavonic and Modern Russian

Above; the manuscript Vidin Miscellany, written in ‘Middle Bulgarian’ circa 1360

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!

Despair not; you are in the right place; This is a blog about the Russian language, and this post will consider the relationship between Russian and Old Church Slavonic. You have just read respectively, the original and translated opening lines to Beowulf. Written sometime between the 8^th and 11^th centuries, it is considered one of or the highest literary achievement in old English.

At about this time (c 862) two Byzantine missionaries and brothers, Cyril and Methodius, later sanctified, were in Moravia to translate religious texts into “Church Slavonic”, a yet unformalised language which they had encountered in their hometown Thessalonica (modern day Greece). Cyril and Methodius developed the Glagolitic alphabet, the parent script of Cyrillic (hence the name, though it is not certain that Cyril, contrary to popular misconception, was the author of Cyrillic).

Beginning of Mark’s Gospel in the Codex Zographensis, dated to the 10th/11th century, is partly written in Glagolitic script, the oldest recorded Slavic alphabet. 

Though Cyril and and Methodius were evangelical in their purpose, Michael III (‘Michael the Drunkard’), the Byzantine Emperor who sent the brothers east, was certainly politically motivated; Rastislav, then ruler of Moravia, had expelled missionaries from the Roman Church, presenting an opportunity for the expansion of Byzantine influence.

The invention would have massive consequences; it would serve to spread Orthodoxy East, expand, as Michael III hoped, the influence of his empire, and in complex ways it would contribute to the growing divide between the East and Western branches of Christianity. But, more relevantly to this blog, it would play massively in the development of the Russian language. Though it was never a spoken (conversational) language in Russia, it was widely used as the literary language until the 18^th century in secular and religious texts. The Russian polymath Lomonosov remarked, in the late 1760s, that Slavonic was the ‘high-style’ of Russian. The complete history– how Russian, and the other Slavic languages, diverged between the 13^th and 16^th centuries- will take you down a long and (potentially) interesting rabbit hole (just start with the Wiki page!)

There is a curious difference between the English and Russian languages in this respect. While the opening lines to Beowulf are almost or entirely unintelligible to an English-speaker today, Old Slavonic is not only relatively comprehensible, with some study, to a modern Russian-speaker, but alive. Yes, it is practiced- sung, spoken, contemplated- not only in Russia, but in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland… I’ve even heard it in Australia. Truthfully, it’s probably spoken daily in more countries across the world than not. That means, of course, that if you’re so inclined, you can hear it in Riga, too.  

Comparing

Before I compare the two, let me justify my choice of text. The fact is, before Peter the Great (Article) opened Russia to Western Europe, secular art—that is, writing, painting, and music which was not part of religious expression—was very rare. A mathematics textbook (1703), the notes of a travelling merchant (1466), some epic poems (13^th/14^th century) are among the few exceptions.

This passage demonstrates the similarity between Old Slavonic and modern Russian. Keep in mind that this passage was translated over 1100 years ago:

И, посмотрев на всех их, сказал тому человеку: протяни руку твою. Он так и сделал; и стала рука его здорова, как другая (Лк.6:10). (modern translation).

И воззре́в на вся их, рече́ ему́: простри́ ру́ку твою́. Он же сотвори́ та́ко, и утверди́ся рука́ его́ здра́ва я́ко друга́я (Лк.6:10). (Old Slavonic transliterated using modern Cyrillic).

And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other (Luke.6:10). (KJV)

Though the word choice is different, one notices that even at these points of divergence, the old Slavonic contains elements recognisable, for example рече ему (‘said unto to the man’); рече means ‘speech’ more generally in modern Russian. 

Some closely related words  

Some key differences 

Grammar and pronunciation in Russian are notoriously difficult. Old Slavonic has more cases (7 v 6), uses more letters (between 43-45, v 33), has twice as many tenses (6 v 3), makes far more use of participles, to name a few differences. Like the English experience, in other words, Slavonic has a more complex orthography and grammar structure.

The pronunciation is different. In modern Russian, unstressed vowels are ‘reduced’ (e.g., молоко (milk) is pronounced mah-le-ko). In Slavonic, there is no vowel reduction; молоко is pronounced mo-lo-ko.

Slavonic also retains a ‘dual number’ expression, a form used to express the existence of two of something. For example, ‘рѣкама’, which means ‘two rivers’ (in modern Russian, две реки).

The most important difference, however, was function. Old Slavonic functioned much like Latin in medieval Europe; it was never a widely spoken language, but instead a literary system. It was, of course, heavily influenced by and in turn influenced the development of the Slavic branch of languages then and now in existence.

Where you can hear Old Slavonic

You may know or have guessed. If you’re interested in hearing Old Slavonic, it remains the liturgical language used in most Eastern Orthodox Churches. That means that, if you have the time and interest, the service you will hear sounds almost exactly the same as it did 1100 years ago, when the brothers Cyril and Methodius ventured east at their sovereign’s insistence. That, for any native speaker of a romance language, is a remarkable fact.

Увидимся скорo.

Laef, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Riga.