Posted by Igor on July 07, 2003 at 17:38:15:
In Reply to: ancient russian language. posted by Svetlana on May 07, 2003 at 14:25:48:
: If you don't mind to answer how was the russian language appeared? I know everything about old slavonian language but i have no information about ancient russian,about the time befor Cyril and Methodius.When and how was born this language.Thank you for the information.Lana.
Lana, here is a short history:
All Slavic tongues are believed to have evolved from a single parent language, usually called Proto-Slavic, which, in turn, is thought to have split off much earlier (possibly c.2000 B.C.) from Proto-Indo-European, the original ancestor of the members of the Indo-European language family. Proto-Slavic was probably still common to all Slavs in the 1st cent. B.C., and possibly as late as the 8th A.D., but by the 9th century A.D. the individual Slavic languages had begun to emerge.
The Old-Slavonic language was introduced into the Byzantine liturgy by the Apostles of the Slavs, SS. Cyril and Methodius, during their missionary activity in Great Moravia. During the eighth century this whole province became occupied by the Slavic tribes. Thus SS. Cyril and Methodius were familiar with the Slavic dialect as spoken at that time in Macedonia.
Constantine, known mostly by his religious name Cyril, was one of the finest linguists in the whole Empire. Commanding a sufficient knowledge of the Slavic dialect of Macedonia, he created the first Slavic alphabet, called ''Glagolitic" (Sl. "hlaholati"-to speak), from which the Cyrillic alphabet was derived.