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Church SlavonicChurch Slavonic — a liturgical and literary language used by Carpatho-Rusyns and other adherents (mostly East Slavs) of the Byzantine Eastern rite. Church Slavonic was based on the South Slavic dialects of Macedonia familiar to the Byzantine missionaries *Constantine/Cyril and Methodius, who in the ninth century brought Christianity to the Slavs of *Greater Moravia. The earliest form of the written language, designated Old Church Slavonic, is found only in a few inscriptions and manuscripts derived from the southeastern Balkans (*Bulgarian Khanate) and dating from the tenth and early eleventh centuries. These used either the *Glagolitic or *Cyrillic alphabets. Church Slavonic initially lacked a codified standard and several varieties developed over the large extent of territory where it was used. These varieties are frequently referred to as recensions or variants: the Bulgarian variant, Serbian variant, Russian variant, Ukrainian variant of Church Slavonic, and so forth. The variants were distinguished by the incorporation of vocabulary and grammatical forms from the vernacular speech of the author/copyist of a given manuscript. In the seventeenth century a Church Slavonic standard was established in a grammar (1619) by Meletii Smotryts’kyi; this standard was to influence the form of the language not only among the East Slavs (for whom the grammar was produced) but also among the South Slavs. The first religious and secular literary works attested among the Carpatho-Rusyns were written in Church Slavonic using the traditional Cyrillic script, or kyrylytsia (see Literature; Literature, Early manuscripts). The Subcarpathian variant of Church Slavonic was also used in the first primers and grammars intended for Carpatho-Rusyns (see Language question). By the eighteenth century the Subcarpathian variant of Church Slavonic was called Slaveno-Rusyn; this language was generally based on the standard set by Smotryts’kyi, with the addition of some grammatical and lexical forms from spoken Carpatho-Rusyn. With the onset of the national awakening in the mid-nineteenth century Church Slavonic was gradually replaced by either Rusyn vernacular or Russian in the writings of Rusyn authors. The change was only gradual, however. Church Slavonic elements continued to appear in Rusyn texts, giving rise to the term *iazychiie to describe the resultant mixed and uncodified literary language. Church Slavonic is still actively used as a liturgical language in Rusyn churches, in religious publications, and in some cases in sermons. Because it is so closely related to the Eastern rite, which in turn is considered a primary badge of Rusyn self-identification, Church Slavonic and its traditional alphabet (kyrylytsa) have retained important symbolic value for the Rusyn national movement. In the post-1989 national revival, use of Church Slavonic as a liturgical language in Greek Catholic and Orthodox parishes is considered by both secular and religious leaders as essential in maintaining a Rusyn identity. Bibliography: Riccardo Picchio, “Church Slavonic,” in A. M. Schenker and E. Stankiewicz, eds., The Slavic Literary Languages (New Haven, Conn., 1980), pp. 1-33; Alexander M. Schenker, The Dawn of Slavic (London and New Haven, Conn., 1995); Peter Zenuch, “The Church Slavonic Language in the East Slovak Cultural Environment,” in Matus Kucera, ed., Slovaks in the Central Danubian Region in the 6th to 11th Century (Bratislava, 2000), pp. 217-225. Paul Robert Magocsi Entry courtesy of Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture. |
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