CHURCH SLAVIC LANGUAGE

AND ITS MEANING

IN MODERN ORTHODOX PEDAGOGY

Theoretical part

Main part

Practical part

Conclusion

Bibliography

Theoretical part

It is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days,

And the man is desperately sad...

He is rushing towards the light from the shadows of the night

And, having found the light, he grumbles and rebels.

We are scorched by unbelief and dried up,

Today he endures the unbearable...

And he realizes his death,

And he thirsts for faith - but does not ask for it...

He will not say forever with prayer and tears,

No matter how he grieves in front of a closed door:

“Let me in! - I believe, my God!

Come to the aid of my unbelief! "

Childhood is amazing country. Her impressions stay with us for life. They are difficult to eradicate. They are imprinted in our consciousness, filling the soul with living images: not fully understandable, not fully conscious, but tangible and alive. Have we ever thought that the images that surround our children every day become part of their inner life? The child firmly merges with the world of his childhood; it is during this period that the entire mechanism of his subtle mental reactions is formed, in which the personality will manifest and build itself.

What images surrounded our children in last years of the past millennium? Children constantly saw the growing passion for profit, cultivated as a virtue, calls for outright fornication, which poured and poured from the screens and pages of printed publications. They witnessed irresponsible and often criminal lies and public mockery at the same time.

Among the internal characteristics of public space, especially noteworthy is the increased aggressiveness of the environment, increased alertness, distrust and cruelty in people’s relationships with each other. Partnership relationships prevailed over family relationships and relationships of psychological sympathy. These are the images that accompany the childhood of our children. (1).

But the child is open and receptive, all his internal mental and intellectual structures are still in a state of consistent development and formation. It represents a complex of extraordinary possibilities. These capabilities, both physical, mental, and intellectual, must still “switch on” and begin to function. The images that surround children are not just imprinted in their minds and hearts, placing their accents, they influence the very process of seeing and feeling, set the speed of responses, warm up or, conversely, dampen emotional tension. (1).

This has a particularly detrimental effect on children who are naturally delicate, talented, and sensitive. (1).

What kind of school do our times and our children need? What kind of pedagogy can cope with all this: with the growing despondency, despair, predation provoked by the rampant instincts, the catastrophic drop in the level of knowledge and culture, with the deceit of the public information space itself, which is becoming less and less suitable for the lives of children? …Today’s life circumstances, which have such a depressing effect on many, seem to themselves to give birth to the image of today’s pedagogy: it must become the GOOD NEWS. Not a call to move away from evil and not a chaotic search for hitherto unknown good; Today's school is needed by a child, first of all, as a herald of the Truth, which has revealed itself to the world and continues to be with us in the world: “I am with you, and no one is against you.” (1).

Children are our joy, our happiness, and at the same time our pain. Every day this pain manifests itself more acutely, problems associated with childhood become deeper and more serious.

A child always remains a child, no matter what evil he encounters; Great treasures are hidden in his heart, which make him close to God. But how easy it is to darken his childhood life and direct it along the wrong path!

Children very quickly get used to good things, and they begin to be drawn to the forbidden fruit. The influence of the environment on a child certainly penetrates into our school, cannot help but penetrate, and the temptation for children can be very strong. (2).

Faith in the future, in life, is the main dominant factor in creating a child’s inner mental space. For the visible world is only a part of life, and no visible image can contain the fullness and richness of the higher, invisible world. (1). “...A school can lead children to God not by how and what it says about God, but by where it spiritually directs the movement of the child’s soul, thereby igniting and inspiring children’s hearts.” (3).

...Imaginative theology must become theoretical part content of Orthodox education. (1).

Figurative theology is the living life of the Church, reflected, first of all, in liturgical poetry, which all, down to the smallest troparion, is built according to the laws of figurative artistic and poetic speech. Figurative theology is an icon, a fresco, and the very image of an Orthodox church, which are imprinted in a person’s consciousness and accompany him throughout his life.

Liturgical texts, as well as ancient examples of icon painting and temple paintings, cannot be considered only historical monuments of Christian culture; they are also acts of figurative theology, that is, testimonies of faith. (1).

School theology as a system of Christian knowledge and concepts appeared in our country late, and its distribution was very narrow. Faith in Ancient Rus' was not words, not reasoning, but an experience, personal involvement; faith was life itself. (1).

In all circumstances of one's life, to seek the ways of God - to seek God - is the main task of an Orthodox teacher at all times.

One of the significant components ... that determines the content of Orthodox education turns out to be closely related to both theology and the personal experience of the child. (1). This is the experience of prayer.

“I love to pray in the temple of God!” writes St. John of Kronstadt. ...What a wealth of the human spirit! Just think heartily about God, just wish for heartfelt unity with God, and He is with you now...

Our prayers are wonderful! We are accustomed to them, but if we imagine that we are hearing them for the first time, we will put ourselves in the place of foreigners." (4).

By the will of fate, many of us ended up in the place of foreigners. We recognize the text of the prayers and are amazed at their wisdom and imagery. They enter our lives as evidence of the former power of the human spirit...

In essence, Christian education differs from secular education by this “magnitude of prayer.” The Christian actually lives in two spaces. He really has a double “citizenship”: being a citizen of his earthly homeland, he also has a Fatherland in heaven. And prayer - the time of prayer - is the time of being in that highest true fatherland. Therefore, we cannot imagine the very content of Christian education without prayer.

But prayer is both words, and heartfelt action, and general verbal service, a common deed. And if the inner life of the individual should be intimate, that is, the teacher should not strive to “organize” the action of the heart, then the words of prayer, undoubtedly, can at some stage be that precious material that can and should be explained in the lesson.

The Church Slavonic language, in which services are performed in our Church, differs from Russian in many grammatical forms, and this difference will stimulate the study of the text and comprehension of the meaning. Slavic, as a proto-language, is less flexible in endings and more polysemantic in roots than Russian. The same word can be used to describe both the phenomenon as a process and the one who appeared.

“Your Nativity, O Christ our God, rise up into the world’s light of reason...” (Troparion of the Nativity of Christ). "Christmas" is the appearance, the coming of Christ; “You, pure one, show off, O Mother of God, about the rising of Your Nativity” (Irmos 9 songs of the Easter canon.). "Christmas" is one of the Names of the Savior.

These larger forms of language, “modules,” teach children to connect phenomena, their causes, consequences, and participants into one “root bush.” In the process of further development of language, this initial unity, as we know, differentiated: concepts acquired their own personal grammatical forms; now only by roots can one find a common origin.

The Slavic language preserves this primordial community, returning us to the ancient unity of meanings. This is an excellent prevention against literalistic, rational reading, which so interferes with the correct understanding of the Bible.

In addition, analysis of the text of the prayer itself is important; they are the high poetry of the Church. This is not the epic heroics of earth and time, not the romanticized song of a loving heart - but the word Spirit, in parables, metaphors, images speaking about the eternal. This word is difficult, it comes to meet us without play, without jokes - in the royal purple of the witness of Revelation. Such a word teaches with its intonation, and before the child comprehends the meaning, his heart is filled with images in which the principles and secrets of the world below and above are woven together.

Of course, the spiritual comprehension of prayers, as a constant revelation about the higher powers, about the ways of the Divine Economy, and about our innermost experiences, will occur throughout our lives, but how good it is if the first meeting with the word of repentance, with praise, with petition takes place in childhood! The school can really begin the process of immersion in the word and thereby contribute to the birth of personal prayer in the child...

Prayer is a gift. We cannot count on gifts; this also contains a certain uncleanness of conscience. But it is important for the teacher to reveal the necessity and naturalness of prayer for our spirit, if such a phrase is even possible. Naturalness, not exclusivity. (1).

Accustoming oneself to prayer is taming the feelings to subside before the word. Over time, a feeling of God’s closeness arises and the child begins to understand and remember that he always walks “before the Face of God”...

...Introduction to prayer is a new substantive part of our education, the part is not contemplative, but active. Prayer alone can shape a child’s personality, educate his feelings, strengthen his will and develop his mind. The sacred closeness of prayer is those narrow gates beyond which there is space for true spiritual joy. (1).

The tombs, mummies and bones are silent, -

Only the Word is given life:

From ancient darkness in the world graveyard,

Only the Letters sound.

And we have no other property!

Know how to take care

At least to the best of my ability, in days of anger and suffering,

Our immortal gift is speech.

Main part

From time immemorial, Russian children learned to read from the Psalter and Book of Hours. Recognizing words and phrases, they established the relationship between the sound and letter image of the word, and intuitively realized sound-letter relationships. In the minds of the children, the words heard in the Temple were clearly contrasted with the words used in everyday life (fence - vegetable garden; lips - lips, mouth; proclaims - voices, etc.). At school, the Law of God was carefully taught, in the lessons of native literacy and the Church Slavonic language, intuitive ideas about the system of formation were systematized and generalized, “labels were stuck” to familiar word forms (“vocative case”)...

As a result of the seventy-year reign of the atheistic regime, the Church Slavonic language was expelled from the public education system. And quite recently, only two or three grandmothers could repeat the “Our Father” in the Temple. Here and there, desecrated temples were barely preserved. The clergy and shepherds were killed in order to “scatter the flock.” And somewhere there are little Russian lambs wandering around. But we have a sacred horn, a church language. He will lead our children to the Temple of God. And...may Holy Rus' rise again!

The purpose of teaching the Church Slavonic language is churching, introduction to the Temple. Consequently, it is necessary to memorize not declensions and conjugations, as is often done today, but prayers, commandments, troparia for holidays, etc. Grammar should be consulted in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the text. (5).

Our modernity and especially everyday life are 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 heritage includes the ancient book Church Slavonic language.

Its life-giving primary source is the Old Church Slavonic language, the language of the holy first teachers Slavic Kirill and Methodius, called equal to the apostles for their feat of creating and disseminating Slavic literacy and worship, 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). Old Church Slavonic language, which arose in the 9th century. justifies its name, for it, like its first alphabet - the Glagolitic alphabet, was created by the holy Solunsky 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 Slavs 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 and flourished “like a Ђ purity" 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 our (Russian, Ukrainian) literary languages ​​in all eras of their existence. The ecclesiastical language, like Latin in Western Romance countries, has always been a support, a guarantee of purity and a source of enrichment for our standardized languages. 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 have said “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 trainerunemise  rableexistence, they did not say “to drag out a wretched existence,” as it would seem to be expected, but turned to the Church Slavonic tradition and ... began, in some cases, “to drag out a miserable existence.” Even Mikhailo Lomonosov, in his “Preface on the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language” in 1757, wrote that (6) “the diligent and careful use of the native Slavic language, which is native to us, together with Russian, will ward off wild and strange words of absurdity that come to us from foreign languages, borrowing 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 incline towards decline. All this will be stopped in the manner shown, And Russian language in full strength, beauty and wealth, it will not be subject to change and decline, as long as the Russian Church continues to be adorned with the praise of God in the Slavic language." (7).

Thus, the favorable future of the Russian literary language (and therefore other languages ​​of the Slavic group) M.V. Lomonosov saw reliance on the “Slavic language,” which was confirmed at the beginning of the 19th century. with the brilliant poetic style of A.S. 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” (6): “A language that has acquired such a blessed destiny at his very birth, was blessed a second time in his infancy with a mysterious baptism in the life-giving streams of the Church Slavonic language. They partially transformed his flesh and spiritually transformed his soul, his " internal shape"And now it is no longer just a gift of God to us, but, as it were, 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, St. 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.” (8). 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 and stylistic rigor, but also a guardian, as Lomonosov believed, of the purity and correctness of the development of the Russian 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 not divorced from modernity, that should be recognized and perceived in our time. It is known that in France, lovers and guardians of the purity of French speech also treat Latin, 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” (lelatinvivant) not to the detriment, but to the benefit of their native French. (6).

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

And its study differs significantly from the study of ... Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages. Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages ​​are studied in order to know the history of the language, find out what its ancient appearance was, and imagine what the language of the pre-literate era looked like. Our task is different: to teach how to read and understand the texts that are part of the Orthodox service. In addition, we need knowledge of the Church Slavonic language in the same way as an Italian or Frenchman needs knowledge of Latin. After all, the modern literary languages ​​of the Eastern Slavs were formed under the strong influence of church books, and knowledge of Church Slavonic gives us the opportunity to feel, see and comprehend many phenomena of our native language in a different way. (6).

Now the Church Slavonic language is the language of worship among the Orthodox Slavs, i.e. among Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs. It is the common property of the entire Orthodox Slavic community, and for many centuries it was the basis of religious and cultural ties between different Slavic peoples. Previously, in the Middle Ages, the Church Slavonic language was not only liturgical, everything that was associated with religious values ​​was written in it; since the entire medieval culture was of a religious nature, Church Slavonic was the language of the entire culture as a whole. The Slavs read the Bible in it, the works of Greek and Latin theologians and teachers of monastic life, Byzantine historical and scientific works were translated into Church Slavonic, teachings, lives of saints, and chronicles were written in it. These works passed from one Slavic region to another, were copied, changed, adapted to new conditions, they were the basis for the development of the spiritual life of the Slavs and their mutual communication. (6).

The Slavic alphabet is created by St. Kirill, this original Slavic alphabet was Glagolitic. At St. Kirill had a remarkable understanding of the language; the alphabet he invented was perfect for recording the Slavic dialect that he knew: the letters corresponded to those units of sounding speech that needed to be distinguished so that different words would not be confused (since the letters meant phonemes). When the Church Slavonic language begins to be used in Bulgaria, the Glagolitic alphabet is replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet - the Church Slavonic alphabet that we now use. However, the main work - identifying significant sound units - was done by St. Kirill: the design of letters in the Cyrillic alphabet was different, but the system of graphic signs repeated the Glagolitic alphabet. The replacement occurred because in Bulgaria they had previously recorded Slavic speech using the Greek alphabet (which was poorly suited for this: it does not have letters to indicate sounds sch, g, z, c, h etc.). The Slavic Cyrillic alphabet arose when the set of letters taken from the Greeks was supplemented in accordance with the Glagolitic alphabet.

Cyril and Methodius thus made many translations from Greek into Church Slavonic. As a result of these translations, the main vocabulary fund (lexis) of the Church Slavonic language was formed. (6).

The language thus formed was, of course, not very similar to the speech that could be heard in the home conversation of the ancient Slavs or even in the council of their leaders. Therefore, from the very beginning, Church Slavonic was a bookish language, clearly opposed to the everyday spoken language. Against this basic contrast, other linguistic differences seemed less important. This applies primarily to the differences between individual Slavic dialects. In the IX-X centuries. Slavic was still a single language, and its different dialects, from which the Slavic languages ​​known to us later developed (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech, Polish, etc.), differed from each other no more than the dialects of various modern villages. (6).

And they learned... the Church Slavonic language in Ancient Rus' differently from the way we learn it today. Grammar textbooks and dictionaries appeared only in the 17th century. Before this, we learned this way: first we learned to read in order, i.e. recognize letters and correctly pronounce their combinations, then memorize the texts of the Book of Hours (a collection of basic prayers) and the Psalter. And you had to understand these texts based on your knowledge of your native language. The degree of understanding therefore could be different; Church Slavonic texts were well understood by those who read a lot. Whatever the situation with understanding, such a teaching procedure had a very clear effect on the perception of the Church Slavonic language: the native and Church Slavonic were understood not as different languages, but as different variants of the same language. This understanding was also reflected in its use. Firstly, the scope of application of the options was delimited, i.e. bookish and non-bookish: they did not conduct everyday conversations in Church Slavonic, and did not pray in their native dialect. Secondly, when a person wrote book texts, he used his knowledge of his native language, often only reworking words and phrases common to him into a bookish manner. (6).

Most of the world's alphabets (as noted earlier), including Greek, Latin, and then European ones, originated from the writing of the ancient Phoenicians... Many letters name earthly objects, and there are also such letter names: fish, hand, water, boom, load, support. They reflect the work of a person punished for sin...

The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet in the pre-Christian period, when they were still “ellini pogani,” that is, pagans. They expanded the alphabet by adding new letters based on the sounds of their language. Words alpha, beta, gamma and others ceased to denote objects, as was the case in the Phoenician alphabet, and became only “literal words.”

Saints Cyril and Methodius created the alphabet on the “new day of the world,” when fallen humanity was redeemed by the feat of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The blessed brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius created letters to enlighten the “new people from the pagans” - the Slavs...

To glorify the greatness of God is the task of the new letter. The name of the letter (name of the letter) tunes us to a high spiritual tone, to the knowledge of the will of God. This is why elementary poetic prayers have been and continue to be compiled in the past. One of the newest:

Az Letters I Know Verb:

Good is the Life of the Earth.

The spiritual name-word of letters, common in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet, is the work of the First Teachers.

The style of the Cyrillic letters is similar to the Greek statutory letter:

The letters of the Glagolitic alphabet are peculiar:

Orthodox education Church Slavonic language

According to scientists, they are composed of the main Christian symbols: a cross as a sign of salvation, a circle as the infinity of the Divine, a triangle as pointing to the Holy Trinity.

The name of the Lord Jesus in Glagolitic is written like this:

Compare the sacred abbreviation of the name of the Lord on Greco-Slavic icons:

Now there is a lot of evidence that the first alphabet was the Glagolitic alphabet, and it was St. Cyril who created it. He showed a wealth of erudition and the gift of personal creativity, compiling an original alphabet...

After the death of the brothers, the persecution of the Slavic liturgy intensified. The Latin-German clergy made bonfires of the first precious Christian books and expelled disciples. But the sacred work of the First Teachers was not lost: new thriving book centers arose in Bulgaria. There, along with the sacred Glagolitic alphabet, a second alphabet was “settled”, the letters of which are similar to the Greek charter. It was named in honor of St. Cyril in Cyrillic... The missing letters were taken from the Glagolitic alphabet with a change in outline...

At first, the Cyrillic alphabet, created as a copy of the Glagolitic alphabet, was more used in business writing. Later it remained the only alphabet. Now that scientists have learned to read palimpsests (parchments where a new one is written from the old scraped text), Glagolitic alphabet is found under the Cyrillic alphabet. There are no reverse cases. This is another piece of evidence that the Glagolitic alphabet is older.

Thus, the alphabet created by the holy First Teachers, preserving the uniqueness of its structure in the number of letters, their sequence and compatibility, through an external rapprochement with the alphabet of the Greek mother Church, was organically included in the system of world writing...

For a whole millennium, since the end of the 10th century, since the baptism of Rus', the church letter in its Cyrillic version has sanctified the life of the Eastern Slavs.

Previously, all Slavic peoples and their languages ​​were close, as we read from St. Nestor the Chronicler in the “Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 6406 from the Creation of the world (998 from the Nativity of Christ) ...

The church letter was adopted as a native one.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, the Baptist of Rus', understood well that faith must be strengthened by enlightenment...

Pagan mothers cried for their children as if they were dead, since their children really became completely different, being transformed into Christianity.

Under the son of Saint Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise, ancient Russian book learning flourished, and “people learned and enjoyed the teachings of the Divine”...

The Church Slavonic language acquired East Slavic features in Rus'; a Russian version arose. The history of the Church Slavonic language and the folk language are inextricably linked. The language of church books has been and continues to be supreme style Russian, and not some separate language. It permeates and sanctifies our entire culture...

Over the centuries, letters have not remained unchanged. The strict charter was replaced by a semi-statutory, with oblique characters. Then cursive writing arose with a variety of handwritings and connectedness of letters. Parchment gave way to paper, and the handwritten book gave way to the printed book. But the high culture of bookmaking remained unchanged.

Spelling also gradually improved. The spelling of the modern Church Slavonic language developed at the end of the 17th century after a large book revolution. Since then it has hardly changed. The rules of Church Slavonic spelling are harmonious and harmonious, fostering aesthetic taste and grammatical sense.

Graphics and spelling are not ecclesiastical, but civil, which separated in 1708 under Peter I, and were cut off from the life-giving root. Particular troubles befell secular writing after the reforms of 1918, when it was further separated from church writing. In the 19th century, a person was not considered literate unless he was taught both Russian and Church Slavonic. But our contemporary was left with “one leg,” and even that one was unhealthy.

Civil writing has also lost its outer beauty: if in the church alphabet we see, like the sky, an openwork superscript of titles, accents, aspirations, giving space to the eye and helping with reading, then the secular line is like a stunted tundra, above which the frail tree of the letter rarely rises b or capital letters.

But even the humiliated, and dishonest, and shorn “citizen” retains the greatness and power of the Spirit implanted in her by the First Teachers, and is translated into the words of our best word-makers. (5).

Blessed is he who is filled with silence,

And listening to her with reverent ears,

In the ordinary world another world will be comprehended -

The breath of the creative Spirit.

In any bug and any leaf,

In the twinkling stars and on the dull earth,

Wherever you look - everywhere and everywhere

The Animating Power lurks.

Heavenly King, All-Blessed Soul!

Every creation lives by You!

Let's go, don't let your enemies boast,

To the face of Russia, Water of Renewal.

Skete Vetrovo, Hieromonk Roman

Practical part

Lesson 1.

Lesson direction: cultural and historical

Lesson topic: "The Birth of the Alphabet"

Lesson analysis with methodological presentation:

I. Lesson objectives:

1. Educational:

Introducing children to the history and culture of our people;

Getting to know the history of our language;

Introduce the creators of the Church Slavonic alphabet - St. First teachers Cyril and Methodius, with their feat of creating the alphabet for the Slavs;

Enrichment of vocabulary.

2. Developmental:

Development of children's fantasy and imagination;

Development of free creativity;

Education of aesthetic taste;

Increasing children's creative activity.

3. Educational:

Fostering respect and love for the native language as the language of the Liturgy among all Slavic Orthodox peoples;

Respect for your people as the recipient of the Holy Truths of Christ;

A holistic perception of the world based on the cultural values ​​of our people.

II. Lesson objectives.

To convey to students the meaning of the concepts:

Church Slavonic is the language of the Liturgy;

Church Slavonic language - mutual language all Orthodox Slavs.

Development of attention and creative activity;

Update your linguistic sense; intuition and a deep verbal sense of truth.

III. Lesson levels.

Event-based (story, conversation, questions, tasks [writing, drawing], games);

Heart-emotional (admiration for the beauty of ancient Slavic writing; joy from getting to know the material studied);

Active (awakening activity, communication, free creativity);

Value-based (to foster respect and love for one’s people and their history; to awaken careful attitude to the book);

Communication (personal, student to student [in the form of assignments]);

Attention (to the book, to the subject, to comrades).

IV. Visual aids and teaching materials:

Church Slavonic alphabet;

Initial letters;

Initial letters;

Lithograph of icons of St. Cyril and Methodius; St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga

Copybooks for the Church Slavonic language;

Task cards;

Handouts for games;

Writing objects: stylus, feather, pen;

Samples of ancient symbolic writing;

Samples of the ancients Slavic books; books of other peoples.

V. Integration of academic subjects and areas of knowledge.

1. Stories:

The emergence of Kievan Rus;

Baptism of Rus';

Creation of the Slavic alphabet.

2. Literatures:

The beauty of Russian poetry;

The beauty of the Church Slavonic language;

The goals of creating the Church Slavonic language;

The meaning of the Church Slavonic language for the Slavic peoples.

3. Archeology:

Introduction to the first writings;

The time of creation of the Church Slavonic writing of St. Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius;

The first examples of Church Slavonic writing among the Eastern Slavs.

4. Philology:

Awakening of linguistic flair, intuition, deep verbal sense of truth.

5. Culture and art:

Acquaintance with the cultural and historical values ​​of our people;

Beauty and uniqueness, originality of Church Slavonic initial letters.

During the classes:

Prayer;

Greetings.

II. I show objects: stylus, pen, pen.

Teacher: Guys, what are these objects and who used them and how?

Children: A pen, a feather - children recognize it immediately, but about the “stylus” they find it difficult to answer.

U: Complements the children’s answers and draws attention to the fact that both a pen and a feather are used when writing, which means that the third object is also somehow connected with this.

Stylo in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, they were used to quickly “record” texts on clay or plaster and waxed tablets. They wrote with the sharp end, and in case of a mistake, they used the other blunt end.

III. To record texts in different countries used different materials: in Ancient Egypt, papyrus was invented, which was made from reed; in Asia Minor they learned to tan animal skin and write on it - this is parchment (named after the city of Pergamum). Such books were very expensive because they required a lot of labor and time. To create one book, it took from 10 to 30 animal skins - a whole herd!

The teacher offers to see what the writing of Ancient Egypt was like. (Hieroglyphs: hieroglyphs - letters, hieroglyphs - syllables, hieroglyphs - words and hieroglyphs - definitions).

Game: those present are divided into 2 groups, they are given cards with the task - to decipher simple sentences, looking at the meaning of the words in the previous drawings.

Let us now return again to our ancestors - the Slavs.

IV. The ancient Slavs - our ancestors - used birch bark (birch bark) as a material for writing.

The teacher illustrates what has been said .

But they did not have their own specific alphabet; their writing was in the form of drawings and notches on wood. When the Slavs were baptized, they began to write down their speech in Roman and Greek letters, but neither the Greek nor the Latin alphabet was suitable for conveying many of the sounds of Slavic speech.

And just at this time, the brothers Constantine and Methodius were born in Greece. They received a very good education and from childhood became acquainted with the language and customs of the Slavs.

Many times, already as an adult, Konstantin (Kirill) preached Christianity in different countries. So he, together with Methodius, goes to Moravia (the territory of modern Czech Republic).

And the brothers go there to translate the Gospel, the Apostle and other liturgical books into Slavic.

The Slavs had their own language, their own oral speech, but there was no single written language in Rus'.

Cyril and Methodius were the creators of such a language.

Our Russians, Ukrainian languages grew out of Slavic.

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.

Victor Afanasyev.

No, he has not fallen behind the times.

Here, what is not a word is a crystal.

What is the word - the letters in it

Burning with divine fire!

Compare the words "mouth" and "mouth"

Stand at the “gate” and at the “gate”...

No, it is not the language that has fallen behind the times,

And the century - with the fall of man!

Evgeny Sanin (14).

V. Let's look at the letters Old Church Slavonic alphabet and find those we know. (15, 17).

Children call.

Exercise: the children are given cards with Church Slavonic text ( short prayers, verses from psalms known from worship, etc.) and are asked to find unfamiliar letters and write them in a column on a separate sheet. (11, 12, 13, 16).

By writing the letters in a column, the children try to understand how it sounds. The teacher helps by writing out the letters and their transcriptions on the board, grouping them by sound. Reading rules.

The cards are designed in such a way that the transcription is written on the back. The letter is first written in pencil and then outlined with felt-tip pens or markers.

Children take turns showing the cards to the class and asking how the letters are read.

Exercise. " Write the new letters from memory."

All cards and sheets of paper are removed from the tables, and I hand out new sheets of paper to the children, on which they write down new letters from memory in a column. Then they are numbered and the one who has the fewest names names his letters, and the teacher writes them down, then other students add until all the letters other than Russian are named (it is possible that the teacher will have to remind the students of some letters).

Exercise: " We read Church Slavonic words."

I show the class the words on the cards, the children read in chorus. (Each word has 1-2 letters different from Russian) (18).

VI. Creative work: we make a poster “Reading Church Slavonic letters.”

On small sheets of paper, each of the children draws the letter of the Church Slavonic alphabet assigned to him. Then all the letters are pasted onto a large sheet and their transcription is signed. The result is a real visual aid that will help us in further studies. (If there are not many children, then such a poster can be created over the course of several lessons).

VII. So, guys, today we got acquainted with the Church Slavonic alphabet, which was created by Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. They translated all the main liturgical books into Slavic: the Psalter, the Gospel, etc....

D ∕ z: look for a Slavic text at home (on icons, in a prayer book) and write down a few words in a notebook.

End of lesson.

Lesson stages.

I. I use the organizational moment to get into contact with students, create an atmosphere of trust and sympathy.

II. A moment of surprise. We update students’ attention and knowledge and bring them to the topic of the lesson.

III. A teacher's story leading students to the topic of the lesson. The game is used for liberation, rapprochement, requires attention, intelligence and effort.

IV. Disclosure of the lesson topic. During the story, we monitor the attention of the students, give just enough material so as not to lose the children’s interest.

V. We use tasks and games to reinforce the theme of the lesson - emotional and intellectual.

VI. Creative work. We use it to realize the creative, emotional, and intellectual activity of children.

VII. Completion of the lesson, conclusions, motivation for the next lesson. Feelings and emotions are calmed down, children should be spiritually peaceful and calm.

Lesson 2.

Lesson topic: "The Birth of the Alphabet"

During the classes:

I. Organizational moment.

II. The teacher offers the children three objects (stylus, feather, pen).

Who used them, how and for what?

Discussion of this issue .

U: - Let's remember what ancient writing was like.

Children's answers.

Exercise 1(work in pairs): the children are invited to look at the writing of Ancient Egypt (hieroglyphics) and decipher the text written on the cards.

III. U: - Do you know who was the founder of our Slavic alphabet?

Conversation about St. Cyril and Methodius, their lives and the feat of creating Church Slavonic writing.

In the old days, children studied -

They were taught by the church clerk, -

They came at dawn

And the letters repeated like this:

A and B - like Az and Buki,

V as Vedi, G - Verb.

And a teacher for science

On Saturdays I flogged them.

That's how wonderful it is at first

Our diploma was there!

This is the pen they wrote with -

From a goose wing!

IV. Introduction to the Church Slavonic alphabet.

Task 2: find an unfamiliar letter:

Cards with Church Slavonic text and short prayers are distributed.

Task 3: "cards with unfamiliar letters."

Game: "read my card." (9,10)

V. A conversation about the creation of a handwritten book, accompanied by illustrations.

On a virgin leaf, under a narrow window,

He slowly writes out letters with a pen

And between the bright black rows

Inserts a red line...

VI. Creative work: creating an initial letter - a symbol, drawing words starting with an initial letter.

VII. We look at the resulting work.

Let's summarize the lesson.

Lesson conclusions.

Wishes.

Motivation for the next lesson.

We know what is now on the scales

And what is happening now?

The hour of courage has struck on our watch,

And courage will not leave us.

It's not scary to lie dead under bullets.

It's not bitter to be homeless, -

And we will save you, Russian speech,

Great Russian word.

We will carry you free and clean,

We will give it to our grandchildren and save them from captivity

Anna Akhmatova, Tashkent

Conclusion

Prayer is our first “sword of the Spirit”; without it we cannot gain joy. Therefore, we will try to root any moral burden in prayer... Our essential guide here should be the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of love for man, and not the letter of the catechism...

But... in addition to upbringing by a positive example through tall images, inspiring children and supporting their boldness, the teacher will also have to perform guard duty: he will have to tell and show the child the nets with which the enemy of the human race wants to ensnare him...

The teacher will have to talk about a new attitude to the word, which is accepted in our information space, in mass culture... In a nutshell, it could be formulated like this: “When you talk, don’t talk!”...

In this regard, the Orthodox teacher has very clear tasks - the development of protective measures, an antidote that will allow children to preserve the very ability to perceive an event in its true form...

Spiritual education - according to the words of St. John Chrysostom - the process of heart formation...

The true measure of the formation of the heart, and therefore the criterion of Christian education, can be considered the feeling of heart purity. It is this that can become a guide for children in external life, and in the labyrinths of their personal experiences.

It is not directly related to theological knowledge, it is the intuitive understanding of the Christ-obedient heart. Not law-abiding, but God-abiding...

So, today’s spiritual pedagogy strives to become the Gospel and gives birth to a new pedagogical practice...

The pedagogy of Evangelism offers the teacher a new ethics that protects inner world child, the freedom of his personal growth...

This is the high mountain plateau on which the Orthodox teacher carries out his service. Let not the sleep of spiritual well-being overwhelm us! (1).

“I love to pray in the temple of God! In the prayer of repentance and tenderness, the thorns and bonds of passions fall from my soul, and it becomes so easy for me: all the charm, all the charm of the passions disappear, I seem to die for the world, and the world for me with all the blessings : I come to life in God and for God and am completely imbued with Him and become One Spirit with Him: I become like a child comforted on the lap of a mother: my heart is then full of heavenly, sweet peace, enlightened by the light of Heaven: you see everything brightly, you look at everything correctly , I feel friendship and love for everything. Oh, how blessed is the soul with God!

What a wealth of the human spirit! Just think heartily about God, just wish for heartfelt union with God, and He will be with you now.

Do not pay attention to the darkness, fire and oppression of the enemy while praying, and firmly rely with your heart on the very words of the prayer, with confidence that the treasures of the Holy Spirit are hidden in them: Truth, Light, Life-giving Fire, forgiveness of sins, peace and joy of the heart, belly and bliss."

Righteous John of Kronstadt.

First, az and beeches,

and then there is science.

An old proverb.

conclusions

This development aims to reveal to children in an accessible form the beauty and richness of the Church Slavonic language - the culture of use of which, unfortunately, was largely lost in the 20th century. But the spiritual revival of Orthodoxy of our people, which continues in our days, would be incomplete without turning to the treasury of liturgical traditions, which for many centuries have revealed to believers in visible and accessible forms the “truth of salvation” (Ps. 68:14) (15).

For ancient Russian people, the letter was a small but capacious reflection of the world of God. The study of Slavic writing restores the historical continuity of generations, preserves and develops national culture, instills in children love for the Motherland, and teaches the principles of high spiritual morality.

And handwriting with a pen today, in the age of ballpoint pens and computers, is pedagogically necessary. It is of great interest to both children and adults - both our hands and our hearts need it...

Children's handwritten prayers inspire with their beauty, subtlety of ornament and youthful pure faith, which is discernible in every letter written with true reverence. Since ancient times, there has been a custom of rewriting prayers. This was not only the work of monks: mothers copied prayers for sons setting off on a journey or called to a military feat, brides for grooms, wives for husbands, sisters for brothers. Prayers copied in one's own hand and decorated with ornaments were given as a gift as a prayer memory. The entrance prayer was hung on the door, the prayers for the meal could be seen at the dining table...

A handwritten prayer can be an additional part of your daily prayer routine. But perhaps the most great importance she acquires in pedagogy. Written on separate sheets of paper, a handwritten prayer can be not only material for analysis, but also a model for writing. It is only important that this is taught to children not as an exercise in calligraphy, but as an appeal to the ancient tradition of piety - the school of spiritual experience of our fathers. (16).

Bibliography

1. L.V. Surov "Open Lesson".

2. Magazine "Danilovsky Blagovestnik".

3. V.V. Zenkovsky "Problems of education in the light of Christian anthropology."

4. St. John of Kronstadt "My life in Christ."

5. N.P. Sablina "Slavic initial letter".

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

7. M.V. Lomonosov. Complete works: Works on philology.

8. V.I. Ivanov "Our language".

9. N.P. Sablina. Words under titles.

10. Studying the Church Slavonic language (brochure).

11. Psalter (in Church Slavonic).

12. Canon (in Church Slavonic).

13. Gospel (in Church Slavonic).

14. Basics of Orthodoxy for the little ones. Our house. Lesson notes for an Orthodox-oriented kindergarten.

15. "Secret message." Children's board game.

16. "Handwritten prayer." A practical guide for learning the Church Slavonic language.

17. "Initial cap letters."

18. L.V. Severe. The language of our Church. "The Birth of the Alphabet".

The Church Slavonic language came to Rus' at the beginning of the 10th century. The outstanding Russian philologist Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky, studying the texts of treaties between the Russian princes Oleg, Igor and Svyatoslav with the Greeks (907–971), preserved in copies of the 14th–15th centuries, stated that they were written with some characteristic features. Russian scribes “were more willing to retain Church Slavonic forms than to transform them into Russian ones,” they constantly preferred “book church forms of the language to oral folk forms.”

Igor's treaty with the Greeks in 945 mentions the cathedral church of St. Prophet Elijah in Kyiv. The papal bull establishing a bishopric in Prague, written between 965 and 972, “demands from the Czech Church that it follow Bulgaria and Russia and not adhere to the Slavic language in worship.” Therefore, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga and the Russian Christians of her time already had divine services and corresponding books in Church Slavonic, i.e., together with others Slavic peoples were heirs to the works of the Thessaloniki brothers - St. Methodius and Cyril.

After the baptism of Rus' by St. Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir in 988, the influx of Church Slavonic texts increased significantly, and at the same time the processes of their creative adaptation to local linguistic conditions began. A. I. Sobolevsky wrote about this in his lectures on Slavic-Russian paleography: “The Church Slavonic monuments that have reached us, written by Russians in the 11th and early 12th centuries, are divided into two groups: in one we see the Church Slavonic language, not without Russianisms, but preserving a significant part of Church Slavonic features; this includes, among other things, the Ostromir Gospel of 1057 and Svyatoslav’s Collection of 1073; some of the monuments of this group have so little Russian that even experts confuse them with Church Slavonic proper; in the other, we have before us the already Russified Church Slavonic language, with a rather bright Russian tint; this includes the Archangel Gospel of 1092 and the Menaion of 1096 and 1097. Of the Church Slavonic texts of Russian origin that have reached us in subsequent times, until the end of the 14th century, only very few retain vivid Church Slavonic features; the vast majority have a relatively monotonous Church Slavonic language of Russian translation, a Church Slavonic language modified by the Russians according to the peculiarities of their language.”

These processes of mutual influence and interpenetration of the Church Slavonic and Russian literary and colloquial languages ​​did not stop even after Peter’s reforms, which radically changed the course of public life. A researcher of ancient Russian cursive writing, I. S. Belyaev, wrote: “Until the end of the 18th century, our civil cursive writing, serving as an expression of the living folk language, was influenced by ... the language, Church Slavonic grammar.”

Through the language of church services, the language of Holy Scripture and prayers, sermons, teachings and lives of saints, choir chants, teaching literacy in the Psalter - so year after year, century after century, the Russian language was imbued with the life-giving, grace-filled currents of Orthodox spirituality.

Against such a cultural and historical background, the appearance of the brilliant figure of M. V. Lomonosov looks inevitable and natural, about whom Professor A. L. Bem wrote this: “The son of a Pomeranian peasant and the daughter of a deacon, Lomonosov, as if by his very origin, combines both elements language, and in his education he was associated with that school of Kiev scholarship, which played such a noticeable role in the history of the development of the Russian literary language. In his theoretical statements, Lomonosov reveals a clear understanding of the significance of the Church Slavonic language in the general course of development of the Russian literary language and emphasizes the positive role of the church in preserving this Byzantine-Bulgarian cultural heritage. He especially put forward the importance of the language of worship as a living creative element of the Church Slavonic language, and on it he substantiated the need and fruitfulness of preserving Church Slavonic elements in the literary language. In his own poetic practice, the language of the Bible, Psalms and liturgical books occupies a prominent place.”

And here it is very appropriate to give the floor to Lomonosov himself and once again quote his coined provisions on the three “kinds of sayings”, or three “calms” of the Russian language (“high, mediocre and low”).

“The first is compiled from Slavic-Russian sayings, that is, used in both dialects, and from Slavic ones, intelligible to Russians and not very dilapidated. In this style, the Russian language prevails over many current European ones, using the Slavonic language from church books.

The middle calm should consist of sayings that are more common in the Russian language, where you can take some Slavic sayings that are used in the high calm, but with great care so that the syllable does not seem inflated. In the same way, you can use low words in it, but be careful not to descend into meanness... In this calm, write all theatrical works in which an ordinary human word is required for a living presentation of the action... Poetic friendly letters, satires, eclogues and elegies must adhere to this calm. In prose it is proper to offer them descriptions of memorable deeds and noble teachings.

Low calm accepts speeches of the third kind, that is, which are not in the Slavic dialect, mixing them with the middle ones, and completely moving away from Slavonic generally not used matters due to the decency of matters, which are the essence of comedies, entertaining epigrams, songs, friendly letters in prose, descriptions of ordinary affairs.”

In conclusion, Lomonosov summed up the following: “Having judged such benefits from church Slavonic books in the Russian language, I impartially declare and friendly advise to all lovers of the Russian word, confident in my own skill, so that they read all church books with diligence, which will result in the general and personal benefit :

1). Due to the importance of the consecrated place of the Church of God and for antiquity, he feels in himself a certain special reverence for the Slavic language, which the author of the magnificent thoughts especially exalts.

2). Everyone will be able to distinguish high words from vile ones and use them in decent places according to the merits of the proposed matter, observing the equality of the syllable.

3). Such diligent and careful use will ward off wild and strange words of absurdity that come to us from foreign languages... All this will be suppressed in an indicative way, and the Russian language in full strength, beauty and richness will not be subject to change and decline, as long as the Russian Church continues to glorify God in Slavonic the tongue will be decorated.

This brief reminder is enough to stir up jealousy in those who strive to glorify their fatherland in natural language, knowing that with its fall, without writers skilled in it, the glory of the entire people will be greatly eclipsed.”

It was this “movement of jealousy” that marked the work of many, many Russian poets and writers. Derzhavin and Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Lermontov, A.K. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Gogol, Leskov and Shmelev - this short list contains the brightest names.

Professor Bem noted on this occasion in his work: “Russian literature paid a lot of attention to the manifestations of church life and reflected the diverse influence of the Church Slavonic element on the Russian language... Through literature, the influence of the Church Slavonic element, in turn, penetrated into the language, strengthening in it so important for the general structure of the Russian language layer."

However, Russian spiritual and public life has never been known for its lack of conflict. The deep confrontation between good and evil constantly manifested itself in her, including affecting the problem we are considering.

By the middle of the nineteenth century in Russian society various kinds of “superfluous people”, nihilists, liberals and subverters of foundations like Pisarev, clearly showed themselves, a gradual and purposeful de-churching began Everyday life people. Concern about this was expressed by many representatives of the church, writers, scientists and cultural figures, who have not lost their spiritual vision and ability to analyze events.

I. I. Sreznevsky, already mentioned above, wrote in 1848 “... The elements of the Old Church Slavonic and Russian languages ​​are still closely connected with each other. One can say even more: the complete cleansing of the Russian language from Old Slavonic elements, if possible, is inseparable from a revolution (let us note this characteristic word for ourselves - P.B.), which should shake all the foundations of the literature and dialect of an educated society... Having rejected the Old Slavonic element “, we must reject all tradition, all the elements of our language, all literature and, before the words of Old Church Slavonic education are successfully replaced by pure Russian ones, we must lose half of the words we use in literature and conversation.”

This revolution, foreseen by Sreznevsky, took place in 1917 and completely destroyed the centuries-old way of life of old Russia, including its impact on the popular language.

Professor P. N. Sakulin, one of the active supporters of the Russian spelling reform in 1917, calls the alphabet, which was compiled by St. Kirill, “alien alphabet”. Speaking about this reform, he specifically emphasizes the following circumstance: “The coup that took place (let’s note this word again, we are talking about the February Revolution - P.B.) created a favorable environment for it.” And here he is forced to justify himself: “At first, it (the reform. - P. B.) may seem to many to be something “illiterate” and therefore unacceptable,” “the new spelling gives the impression of some kind of concession to the writing of illiterate people.” All this sounds like an attempt to justify ourselves before the authoritative prophecy of I. I. Sreznevsky. It is important to note that the reform in many cases purposefully removed “Old Church Slavic” elements from the language.”

After October 1917 the situation worsened even more. In A. L. Bem we read: “The fight against the church in Soviet Russia and the inculcation of atheism resulted in the impoverishment of the Russian language, undermining one of the essential elements in it associated with the heritage of the centuries-old Greek-Bulgarian culture. This impoverishment of the language is in direct connection with the weakening of the church, which throughout the centuries-long history of Russia has been the bearer and guardian of the ecclesiastical stream of the Russian literary language.”

In this regard, it is not without interest to cite the opinion of the authors of the magazine “ Orthodox Christian”, published in Riga during the Nazi occupation: “In the countries liberated from Bolshevism, the question of the Soviet language has become acute - is it a further development of the Russian language or its decline? Under the influence of Soviet newspapers and books, rally speeches, whole masses of new words and expressions penetrated into the popular language... This is not linguistic creativity at all, but borrowings that are completely inconsistent with the spirit of the Russian language, neither in word formation, nor in stress, nor in meaning... The Revival of Russia also implies a revival of the Russian language. And for this it is necessary to return to the Old Russian language, the language of Pushkin and his successors in literature. But not in order to dwell on it, but in order to eliminate all linguistic layers as a result of the beginning of the decomposition of the Russian soul, which ended with Bolshevism, in order to revive the feeling of the Russian language among the people and in order to awaken real folk creativity.”

We should not forget that the Soviet era was characterized by the widespread dominance of the notorious “class approach” in literature, culture and science. For example, “before 1951, it was believed that literacy in Ancient Rus' was the privilege of princes, boyars, and clergy, while ordinary artisans and, in general, the majority of residents did not know how to write or read. The birch bark letters of the Novgorodians (found in 1951 - P.B.) proved that ordinary people also mastered the art of writing.” And further: “This means that there was not an unwritten period in Rus' at that time, but a time of mass literacy.”

After the Great Patriotic War, the situation began to gradually change. As academic discipline The Old Church Slavonic language was included in the programs of teachers' and pedagogical institutes. At the same time, it was argued that “the course of the Old Church Slavonic language, like all other linguistic courses, should be built on Marxist theoretical foundations, developed in the brilliant works of J.V. Stalin on linguistics.”

One way or another, the nihilistic approach towards the Old Church Slavonic language was overcome. Here are a few typical quotes from a 1952 textbook on the Old Church Slavonic language: “Having become the church literary language for the majority of the Slavs, the Old Church Slavonic language contributed to the spread of Christianity and culture among them... The Old Church Slavonic language played a significant role in the historical development of the Russian literary language... The Church Slavonic language (i.e. Old Church Slavonic language crossed with Russian) until the 17th century. was used as an important variety of literary language among Russian educated people. The language of legal and other secular business documents was usually based on living Russian speech, but in fiction and journalism back in the 16th–17th centuries. Church Slavonic elements are significant. Since the 18th century Russian literary language in general, in all genres it began to be built on the basis of living speech, however, Old Slavonic elements continued to be used in poetry and journalism with certain stylistic purposes. And the modern Russian literary language contains a significant number of vocabulary, phraseological and other elements of the Old Church Slavonic language, which, of course, have undergone one or another change in the historical development of the Russian language... The Old Church Slavonic language enriched the Old Russian language, introduced it to international culture and deepened cultural connections Ancient Rus' with other Slavic peoples."

It is easy to see that these provisions textually coincide with similar conclusions of pre-revolutionary philologists.

A new stage in the churching of the Russian language began in 1988, after the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'. Opening of temples and monasteries, Sunday schools and religious educational institutions, sermons of priests and their speeches in the media, an abundance of spiritual literature and religious publications - all these factors have had a significant impact on the modern Russian language.

As more and more people of different levels of education join the church, this process will become even more intense and will affect all linguistic strata and styles.

Church Slavonic is a medieval literary 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.

Church Slavonic is a medieval literary 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.

Along with spelling norms, the first grammars also came from the southern Slavs. The first grammar of the Church Slavonic language, in modern meaning of this word is the grammar of Lawrence 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 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.

L. G. Panin Church Slavonic language and Russian literature

Recently, the question of resuming classical education has been raised quite often. In “New World” (1992, No. 9), Stanislav Dzhimbinov wrote that the basis of humanities education in pre-revolutionary Russia was the study of classical philology. Indeed, it is so. It would be foolish to deny the importance of classical languages ​​in the training of pre-revolutionary philologists, historians, and educated people in general. It is certainly desirable to restore these disciplines in their entirety in modern schools - secondary and higher. But at the same time, we should not forget about the role of the Church Slavonic language and Church Slavonic literature in such preparation. IN educational institutions it could be studied specifically (that is, as a special subject), but it might not be in the program, and yet the role of the Church Slavonic language in preparing an educated, cultured person remained very significant.

There were many channels through which this language came. This is the language of the Gospel, this is the language of Divine services, this is the language of prayer, this is also the language of ancient writing. Gymnasium students read not only “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, but also “The Tale of Law and Grace” by the first Russian Metropolitan Hilarion, the life of Theodosius of Pechersk, the lives of the Slavic First Teachers and many other texts.

The study of folk art was not limited to epics and fairy tales, but also necessarily included spiritual poems composed in Russian, but using many Church Slavonic words and expressions. Finally, the Church Slavonic language came along with the Russian literary language, from which it was artificially separated only in Soviet times. The study of Russian literature presupposed an appeal to all its components, and the Church Slavonic language in Rus' since the time of St. Vladimir (and perhaps earlier) has been one of the main components of the cultural and linguistic situation.

The rejection of the Church Slavonic language from Russian led to the impoverishment of the latter. MM. Prishvin once warned about the negative consequences of this. The Church Slavonic language served as the upper cultural layer in the language - the layer that served tall forms language. This has been the case throughout the history of the Russian language.

After this layer is removed, its place is gradually taken by colloquial vocabulary, bureaucracy, and professionalism. Previously, the Russian language in its development relied on the Church Slavonic language and the folk dialect. Both sources were extremely important. Thanks to the influence of the Church Slavonic language, the common Slavic basis of the Russian language was preserved and historical continuity Russian culture. Thanks to the influence of folk dialectal speech, the Russian literary language retained its national basis. Both of these effects were counterbalanced. In particular, in the 19th century it would have been impossible for colloquial words or expressions like those that can be heard now to penetrate into the spoken language of educated people: tailoring, photographing, hanging, around seven o'clock. Colloquial and professional vocabulary could enter the colloquial speech of an educated person only after having already mastered the language of Russian literature. And the language of Russian literature was oriented towards other, higher standards.

In the first decades of the 20th century, many borrowings began to penetrate into the Russian language, which the Russian language, having lost the Church Slavonic language as a support, could no longer cope with. What is in the Russian language large group indeclinable words, contradicts the morphological nature of our language and changes its morphological structure. The reference point is colloquial speech, in which (starting from the 20s) the dialect-colloquial element is strengthened. And this speech itself begins to produce a mass of inflexible words. These are various kinds of abbreviations: MFA, SABT, CEC, NEP, HES, RAPP, VAK, ZHEK, MTS, SELPO, RONO, GOELRO, RAIFO, etc.

What happened to the Russian language was what should have happened under these conditions (that is, given the loss of the highest cultural form - the Church Slavonic language): it was turned upside down. Folk dialectal speech, which was the national basis of the Russian language and one of the sources of its development (but not a system that determined the normative side of the language), began to determine the norms and development of the literary language. But that would not be so bad, for this speech itself has high, poetic forms(the language of folklore: epics, spiritual poems, etc.), which can enrich the literary language. The trouble is that colloquial professional and semi-professional vocabulary has begun to penetrate into the Russian language with impunity, that is, vocabulary that was created with an “effort” on literacy. The language of newspaper editorials consisted half of such words; reading them felt like chewing sandpaper. All this happened due to the weakening of the upper, cultural layer of the language, traditionally associated with the Church Slavonic language.

In the 18th-19th centuries, the Russian language coped with the invasion of first Germanisms, then Gallicisms, and borrowings from other European languages. I managed because there was a more powerful source of enrichment of the Russian literary language - the Church Slavonic language. The best confirmation of this is the language of A.S. Pushkin, who clearly realized the special functions of the Church Slavonic language.

The special role of the Church Slavonic language in the history of the Russian language was due to the fact that first Old Church Slavonic (that is, Church Slavonic of the Cyril and Methodius period), and then the Church Slavonic language itself was a supranational language. It arose as a language of preaching addressed to all Slavs. Its centers changed. Only during the first century and a half of Christianity, the centers of book and linguistic culture changed twice among the Slavs: first Moravia and Pannonia, then Eastern Bulgaria and, finally, Kyiv and Novgorod. However, its pan-Slavic nature and pan-Slavic appeal were preserved everywhere.

Church Slavonic was not the language of international brotherhood. The international apparently presupposes the absence of borders. Culture and language that have no borders have a sad fate. Old Russian culture, largely thanks to the Church Slavonic language (and what stood behind this language - Christianity) was clearly integrated into the Slavic, more broadly - the Orthodox, even more broadly - the Christian and, finally, into world culture and civilization. The Church Slavonic language was both a cultural and linguistic niche that did not allow Russian culture and the Russian language to fade away, and a conductor of external ideas and influences.

The protective functions of the Church Slavonic language could weaken or strengthen. They weakened during periods of quiet language development. These functions remained unclaimed at that time. They intensified in some unusual situations.

An example is the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. The fall of the Balkans, the strengthening of the role of the Russian state and the Russian Church in the international arena, repelling enemy invasions, and overcoming internal strife lead to the strengthening of the role of the Church Slavonic language. Many archaisms appear in the Russian literary language, book culture focuses on Cyril and Methodius and ancient Kiev traditions. A special stylistic device appears, which is called “weaving words.”

Or an example closer to us is the Russian language in Siberia in the 18th-18th centuries. Acquaintance with the language of some Siberian chronicles reveals that their language is highly archaic, it contains many words and phrases that at that time would have been more logical to be found in hagiographies and homilies. But everything is explained quite simply. The Russian language in Siberia at that time found itself without local national roots; it was represented by a variety of Russian European dialects and was influenced by non-Russian speech. In such conditions, the literary and spoken language must certainly have local support. And so it turns out that the function of national roots for the Russian language in Siberia at that time was performed by the Church Slavonic language, for the chronicle is a monument, the most important purpose of which is to preserve the continuity of national consciousness, culture, and language. For a Moscow or Northern Russian chronicle of the 17th century, the abundance of Church Slavonicisms would have looked like an unjustified archaization of the language, but for the Siberian chronicle this was the only possible way to maintain tradition under these conditions.

Saints Cyril and Methodius, creating the language, determined for many centuries to come what it should be and how it would relate to the literary languages ​​of the Slavs. This language was created as a treasury, in which its “conciliarity” was manifested. It has always been close to living Slavic languages, already in early eras of its existence, being realized in the form of national versions: ancient Bulgarian, ancient Russian, ancient Serbian. Naturally, he was close to the Russian literary language, so close that he was included in it integral part. Applied to Old Russian period we can name monuments of ecclesiastical and secular content, but it is impossible to say where the Old Russian literary language ends and Church Slavonic begins. There was no such border. We can talk about what (that is, what content) was more often described by the Church Slavonic language, and what by the Old Russian folk literary language, but there were no uniform rules given once and for all. Moreover, even the very distinction between monuments into secular and ecclesiastical was conditional. The chronicle is a secular monument, but it contained not only yearly records, but also teachings and lives. Thus, already at the content level, the interaction of monuments of written culture took place.

The interaction between Church Slavonic and Old Russian folk literary languages ​​was constant. Church Slavonic influence brought the literary language to a higher level; this language gained the ability to convey complex theological and philosophical concepts. Thanks to the influence of the folk literary language, the Church Slavonic language acquired a new source (already Slavic, not Greek) of its development and remained within the boundaries of the ancient Russian cultural and linguistic situation.

IN scientific literature Usually they pay attention primarily to the influence of the Church Slavonic language on literary Russian. This is probably because this connection is more obvious. Meanwhile, there was constant feedback. From the very beginning, the Old Church Slavonic language in Kievan Rus appeared in the form of an Old Russian translation of the Church Slavonic language. And in subsequent centuries, the names of the most significant church literary figures are associated precisely with such processing of the language of texts, after which they became closer to Russian literary speech.

Here it is enough to refer to the translation activities of St. Maximus the Greek. In particular, he worked all his life on translating the Psalter into Church Slavonic. I made one translation, then revised it several times. Textual scholars identify five major stages of his translation activity. They stood in front of him the most difficult tasks: to convey all the beauty and poetry of the psalms, to translate them as accurately as possible, to make this translation more understandable and easily digestible, and at the same time not to break with the tradition of early translations of the Psalter. One can only regret that the modern Church Slavonic text of the psalms does not fully reproduce this work.

There is another major figure in the history of Russian spiritual culture - A.S. Pushkin. He is rightly called the founder of the modern Russian literary language. But at the same time, as a rule, what remains out of sight is the significant role it played in the development of the Church Slavonic language. But only this is the role of an indirect converter. Having as his goal the development and streamlining of the Russian literary language, Pushkin was the first to find a formula for the relationship between the Russian literary and Church Slavonic languages ​​in new conditions. This ratio remained until the 20s of the 20th century.

Before Pushkin, the theory of three “calms” by M.V. dominated. Lomonosov. According to this theory, which, by the way, played a big role in the history of the Russian literary language, high concepts and objects of speech were to be described in a high “calm”, in which Church Slavonic vocabulary predominated. Ordinary concepts were to be conveyed in an average "calm" manner. And the low “calm” was used in comedies, epigrams, friendly letters, etc. Thus, all means of language were, as it were, separated, isolated from each other. Such a theory was very necessary at one time, because before Lomonosov there was a mixture of all these means. But at the same time, Lomonosov’s theory, in my opinion, created a threat to the sharp separation of Church Slavonic and Russian literary languages. And therefore, what Pushkin did later turned out to be important not only for the Russian literary language, but also for Church Slavonic.

And he created a “spacer” between these languages ​​- a kind of cultural layer of Russian vocabulary. This layer was formed, in particular, due to Church Slavonic words, which received a new meaning. This turned out to be a life-giving injection for the Russian language and at the same time deepened the roots of the Church Slavonic language in Russian. In fact, church literary figures did the same thing earlier, introducing new (Russian literary) vocabulary into the Church Slavonic language.

Before Pushkin, they used (and he himself did) much of the Church Slavonic language in its original or outdated meanings (grad, vizhd, glos, breg, etc.). Pushkin’s innovation was that Church Slavonic words appeared in new meanings: “Having put a Bug in a sled, transforming Himself into a horse...”; "Winter! The peasant, triumphant, renews the path on the firewood"; “Tatiana stands in the fashionable cell for a long time, standing enchanted”; "Pompous, but hungry The price list hangs for appearance's sake."

Pushkin restored the connection between the Church Slavonic and Russian languages. Thanks to this, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian literary language easily coped with the invasion of borrowings from European languages, dialectal and colloquial vocabulary from the folk language.

The organic unity of the Russian literary and Church Slavonic languages ​​is caused not only by the unity and commonality of the paths of their development, but also by the fundamental differences affecting their deep properties. As a result, they turn out to be necessarily complementary to each other.

They differ:

· Form of existence. Church Slavonic is a written language, it is the language of texts. The Russian literary language exists in two varieties: written and oral. The textual nature of the functioning of language leads to the establishment of the self-sufficient value of the text (prayer, psalm, life, homily, etc.). And this is connected with the variation in the Church Slavonic language and its second feature:

· The conditioning influence of usage on the paradigmatics of language. If we distinguish in a language its paradigmatics (the structure with the obligatory elements of the language included in it) and the usage (the implementation of this structure for communicative, expressive and similar purposes), then we will see the following differences between the Russian language and Church Slavonic. Thus, in the modern Russian literary language, the paradigm of grammatical forms determines usage. Normative grammar prescribes to us what, where and when to use. In Church Slavonic, on the contrary, usage determines the paradigm. To enter the paradigm, it is enough for the form to enter the usus (text). There are many variations in the Church Slavonic language, but there is practically no stylistic distinction. The options are simply distributed across different texts, contexts, situations (cf.: Spirit - spirit; Word, Word - word, word).

· These languages ​​have different stabilizers. The modern Russian literary language has such a powerful stabilizer as the norm. Previously, in it, as in Church Slavonic, tradition acted as a stabilizer. The norm is a synchronous phenomenon, reflecting current state language system. As such a phenomenon, the norm is aimed at preserving the unity of the language system. And in this sense, the norm is a perspective-oriented phenomenon. Tradition is a retrospectively oriented phenomenon. It acts as a cultural and linguistic niche. It presupposes variation to a greater extent than the norm. In essence, it is a collection of chronological and genre “references” of the language.

· The isolation of the Russian literary language by national borders, which is natural and necessary for a national language. Ultimately, this is connected with the opposition on the basis of “one’s own - someone else’s.” These concepts in the medieval era were wider than ethnic and state boundaries. The upper and at the same time the most authoritative border for the Russian was the religious-cultural-territorial border of Eastern Christianity. It is not for nothing that our ancestors believed that they belonged to the “Greek faith.” First of all, this concerned the religious and moral spheres. But since they were both a dominant and a guideline, this was reflected in other areas. All works created in the Byzantine-Slavic Orthodox world were perceived as “our own”. The same is typical for the modern Church Slavonic language. It is curious that a researcher of the modern Russian literary language will begin his study from the language of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and a researcher of the Church Slavonic language - from the language of the Gospel, the Apostle, and the Psalter. The language of these texts had a formative influence on Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages.

· Finally, one of the most important differences between the Church Slavonic language is a different principle of its development. The Russian literary language inherited the principle of development that was characteristic of business writing in the medieval era. This was especially evident in the 16th-18th centuries, when the Russian national language was taking shape. Business writing quickly reflected the changing extra-linguistic reality; its language was directly related to spoken language and developed according to the principle “the new displaces the old.”

The Church Slavonic language developed differently. The new did not supplant the old, but coexisted peacefully with it. This is the principle of “conciliarity” in the development of language. It is this principle that ensures the simultaneous functioning of texts created (translated) at different times and reflecting different synchronous sections of the language.

In general, the significance of the Church Slavonic language for Russian is that it represents the entire history of the Russian language, placed on one plane, for in Church Slavonic at the same time there are monuments that go back to the activities of the Slavic first teachers - St. Nestor, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril of Turov, St. Maxim the Greek and further to the present day.

Doctor of Philological Sciences.

All lectures in the series can be viewed .

The history of the Church Slavonic language begins in 863, when the saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius translated from Greek the books necessary in the Christian Church: the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter, as well as liturgical texts. The language of these translations is usually called Old Church Slavonic or Church Slavonic - this is the ancient period of the existence of the Church Slavonic language.
The language of the ancient period was based on the native language of Cyril and Methodius - this is a dialect, or dialect, of the Slavs of the city of Thessaloniki, where they were born ( modern city Soloniki). This is a dialect that belonged to the Macedonian group of southern Proto-Slavic dialects - a certain, as linguists say, Solunsky variety of the Macedonian dialect, that is, South Slavic dialects of the Proto-Slavic language.
The Russian language belongs to the East Slavic languages; accordingly, it comes from the East Slavic dialects of Proto-Slavic. Therefore, on the one hand, both Russian and Church Slavonic come from one common root, but, on the other hand, we see certain differences - these are the South Slavic and East Slavic branches. But the Church Slavonic language was originally created in the 9th century, at the end of the Proto-Slavic era, when there were no separate Slavic languages, there were only individual dialects.
Therefore, it turned out to be very convenient and possible that the created single literary language, Church Slavonic, was understood and accepted by all Slavs. And it is not surprising that Cyril and Methodius preached not in their hometown, but in great Moravia, where the West Slavic dialect of the Proto-Slavic language predominated.
Then the Church Slavonic language comes back to Bulgaria and Rus', where, it would seem, everyone spoke the East Slavic language, which comes from the East Slavic dialect, but the language was also understandable and accepted by Russian culture, one might say, as its own.
When, in the 10th – 11th centuries, the Church Slavonic language was influenced by living spoken Slavic languages ​​in different territories where the Slavs settled, then the Church Slavonic language changed. And after the 11th century we are talking about the Church Slavonic language of various editions or territorial varieties: Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian editions.
At this time, under the influence of living languages, vocabulary and pronunciation change. For example, in the ancient Church Slavonic, or Old Church Slavonic, language, the Slavs still pronounced special nasal vowels: [e] nasal and [o] nasal. But after the 10th century, they were definitely lost among the Eastern Slavs, so neither in the Old Russian language, nor, accordingly, in the Church Slavonic language of the Russian translation are these special nasal sounds represented.
As for the pronunciation of the letter “yat,” it was also pronounced differently among different Slavs. Among the southern Slavs, it is pronounced as “a” between soft ones, as now in modern Bulgaria it is pronounced in the words “bryag” or “mlyako”. And when the Church Slavonic language reaches Rus', this letter begins to correlate with the sound that was in use among the Eastern Slavs, that is, it first begins to be pronounced as a special closed [e] or a sound of diphthong origin, something between [and] - [e]. And then, in real-life use, this sound gradually becomes close to the sound [e] (and now we pronounce it that way) and already coincides with this pronunciation.
As we see, specific living languages ​​gradually influence Church Slavonic, and it is distributed into territorial dialects, or varieties.
Subsequently, the coexistence of Church Slavonic and Russian languages ​​took place on Russian soil. Some scientists believe that in the ancient period of the 11th–14th centuries, these languages ​​existed almost exclusively in the minds of the scribe, being divided into certain spheres: for the sacred - the Church Slavonic language and for the profane, everyday - the Russian language. Or was it simply a stylistic distribution. In any case, the Church Slavonic language actively interacted with Russian, enriched it and was enriched through the living language of the Eastern Slavs.
After the 14th–15th centuries, the living Russian language nevertheless began to develop faster, so there is a certain isolation of the Church Slavonic language, which only intensifies after the 17th–18th centuries, when, with the beginning of the Peter the Great era, such a complex phenomenon as chaotic interaction occurs different languages. And then the Church Slavonic language goes into actual church use, at the same time enriching the Russian language big amount elements, including word-formation models and vocabulary itself. Some scientists believe that up to 70 percent of modern Russian vocabulary is bookish in origin: Old or Church Slavonic. Therefore, when we talk about the relationship between Russian and Church Slavonic and believe that these are languages ​​that are now far from each other and Church Slavonic is incomprehensible to those who speak Russian, this is a kind of prejudice and, in general, an outright lie. Because, as we will see in subsequent lectures or blocks, there are a lot of elements of the Church Slavonic language in Russian, and vice versa. By comparison and correlation one can always understand how to understand this or that place, this or that phenomenon in the Church Slavonic language.