Old Church Slavonic

From Slavic.info

It can hardly be doubted that, in very ancient times, the whole Slavic race spoke one language; and if early it has been broken up into several dialects, such was the natural result of the wide extension of the different races; but where the old Slavic was originally spoken, and which of the still living dialects has been immediately developed out of it, is a question which has caused many animated discussions.

Formerly the general view was, that the ecclesiastical Slavonic must be considered as the root of all the living dialects; this, however, has been contradicted, and the Church Slavonic proved to be an older branch of the original Slavic. The circumstance that the language of the Slavic Bible was, in Russia until the reign of Peter the Great, exclusively the language of books, confirmed the natives for a long time in the belief that the Old Russian and the Church Slavic were one and the same language, and that the modern Russian was immediately derived from the latter.

Be this as it may, the Old Slavic has long since become the common property of all the Slavic nations; and after having ceased for centuries to be a language of ordinary life, it has obviously lost that kind of pliancy and facility which only a living language, employed to express all the daily wants, can acquire. But, on the other hand, it has gained in solemnity and dignity. Imposing by its very sound, it seems to have become almost unfit for any trivial use, and only to be devoted to serious subjects. The domains of the Old Slavic, which seemed at first very great, were soon, by the jealousy of the Roman Catholic Church, limited to Russia and Serbia; and in other parts the Slavonic worship was, after some struggle, supplanted by the Latin.

According to inquiries instituted into the Old Slavic literature, the history of the Old Slavic Church language may be divided into three periods.

The first, from the ninth to the thirteenth century; the second, from the latter to the sixteenth century; and the third, from the sixteenth century to the present time,—the last period comprising the modern Slavonic of the Church books in Russia and Poland.

The most ancient documents of the Old Slavonic language are not older than the eleventh century. Besides such, are several inscriptions on stones, crosses, and ornaments of equal antiquity.

The number of monuments of the Old Slavic increases considerably in the second period; amongst which Nestor's Annals, in the Old Slavic language, form the basis of Slavic history, and are not without importance for the whole history of the middle ages.

The third period begins with the sixteenth ceutury. In the course of lime, and after passing through the hands of many ignorant copyists, the books relating to the Old Slavic Church language had in some parts become almost unintelligible; the necessity of a revision was therefore strongly felt, and instituted in 1512, at the request of the Czar Basilius Ivanovitch.

In modern times considerable attention has been devoted to the examination of the old Slavic language, and its relations to its affined dialects.