Posted by Marco on April 17, 2004 at 09:10:43:
In Reply to: Russian language history posted by Veles on April 11, 2004 at 18:59:03:
Your question is indeed an interesting one and has never been posted here so far :-)
The language used in Russian liturgy today is called "Church Slavonic" (ru: церковнославя́нский язы́к), and is a younger form of the "Old Church Slavonic". As you know, the Old Church Slavonic was based on the Macedonian dialect used by intellectuals of the Thessaloniki region of the Byzantine Empire, so it's some kind of an old Bulgarian dialect and has many South Slavic forms in it. This is the reasons why it appears similar to your mother's language Bulgarian.
Before the 18th century, the Church Slavonic language was in wide use as a general literary language in Russia. However, it was never spoken except by a small educated elite. During the 18th century it was gradually replaced by the Russian language and retained its use only in church.
The Russian language itself developed from early native Slavic settlement influenced by Finno-Ugric surroundings. An early overlay and infusion of Old Church Slavonic was very decisive in local language formation (around 1000). Later political developments brought Mongolian then European influences (especially Peter the Great). Finally, Mikhail Lomonosov provided some of the early standardization of Russian language and the orthography was simplified in the 20th century around the time of the Russian Revolution.
: Hello. I guess you get this question a lot, but I still have to ask it. I am Russian myself (well, at least a native Russian speaker). My mother is Bulgarian, so I speak their language too. So the question is this: When Old Church Slavonic was introduced as the liturgical language in Russia, since it was from Bulgaria/Macedonia, how different was it from Russian of that time? Moreover, what language is used in Russian liturgy now? I have noticed that they use the aorist form that is normal for Bulgarian, but they still use cases, normal for Russian. I know that the questions are redundant, but I tried to make myself as clear as I could. Thank you very much in advance.