How to learn to read the psalter in Old Church Slavonic. How to learn Church Slavonic

Pushkin exclaimed passionately: “My children will read the Bible in the original with me.” “In Slavic?” – asked Khomyakov. “In Slavic,” Pushkin confirmed, “I will teach them myself.”
Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky).
Pushkin in his attitude to religion and the Orthodox Church

The Russian rural school is now obliged to impart knowledge to its pupils... this is a pedagogical treasure that no rural school in the world possesses. This study, constituting in itself an excellent mental gymnastics, gives life and meaning to the study of the Russian language.
S.A. Rachinsky. Rural school

To ensure that children continue to master Slavic literacy, we periodically write texts in this language. We don’t sit down at the table and write down dictations with an A, but we do this. For every twelfth holiday, or great one, or name day, we prepare troparia, kontakia, and magnifications, written in Church Slavonic on beautiful cardboard. One child gets one prayer, the other gets another. Older children copy the text from the prayer book themselves; younger children find it easier to circle what their mother wrote. Very little children color the initial letter and the ornamental frame. Thus, all children participate in preparation for the holiday, for younger children this is the first acquaintance, for older children it is training, for those who already know how to read it is consolidation. And we take these leaves to the church for the all-night vigil to sing along with the choir. At home on holidays, we also sing troparia, kontakion and magnification - before meals and during family prayers. And it is very convenient for everyone to look not at the prayer book, where the troparion still needs to be found and it is written in small print, but at the text prepared by the children. Thus, children regularly engage in activities without even knowing it. Such activities in themselves teach the child to write correctly in this ancient language. Once I suggested that my nine-year-old son write a kontakion for some holiday, but I could not find the Church Slavonic text. I gave him this kontakion in Russian, offering to write it off. And he copied it, but in Church Slavonic, according to his own understanding, placing ers at the end of masculine nouns, stress and even aspiration, writing down almost all the necessary words under titles. As he explained, it is much more beautiful. True, his yati and izhitsy were written in the wrong places; of course, there were mistakes. But in general, a child who had not attended a single lesson in the Church Slavonic language, who studied it in the primitive form as described in this article, simply following his memory, wrote down the unfamiliar text almost correctly.

To study a language at a more serious level, of course, you will still have to turn to grammar. If you are not satisfied with the method of natural immersion in the language and unobtrusive acquisition of knowledge given here, you can conduct something similar to lessons in the Church Slavonic language. Having introduced the Slavic alphabet to a child (in this case, who already knows how to read Russian), we will highlight those letters that are not similar to modern Russian ones - there are not many of them. Let's ask the child to write them down and indicate how they are read. Then we will look at superscript and lowercase characters, including simple and alphabetic titles. We will separately analyze the recording of numbers in Church Slavonic. If a child already knows how to read Slavic, such lessons will not be difficult for either him or his parents. If you have a goal to truly study the Church Slavonic language, then in the future you can either purchase textbooks on this subject and master them at home, or go to courses, then to a specialized university... From textbooks, we can recommend N.P.’s manual. Sablina “Slavic initial letter”, for older children and parents - self-teacher of the Church Slavonic language Yu.B. Kamchatnova, unique in that it was not written for philologists and in accessible language. But all this will be learning a language that has already become native.

The “teaching method” described here can not only be implemented in the family - it is designed specifically for the family. After all, the culture of the parental family first of all becomes our native culture, and it is the language of our parents that becomes our native language. School study can give us knowledge, perhaps brilliant - but for a child this knowledge will not become a part of life if it is not part of the life of the family. Home “immersion in the language”, of course, will not make the child a specialist - but it will make Church Slavonic his native language, whether he will be a specialist in this field of linguistics in the future or will not study the language as a subject at all. And most importantly: such home education, even in its simplest form, opens up new opportunities for communication between parents and children, allows them to find new common topics, without requiring much effort and time from adults.

Such home studies educate the parents even more than their students; Parents study together with their children and receive unlimited opportunities for free pedagogical creativity, which also brings all family members closer together. Maybe this is not possible in every family, but everyone can try. Try to make your home a place of education.

Explanatory note

In memory of Nina Pavlovna Sablina

“N.P. SABLINA belonged to that small flock that stands in the Name of the Word. Candidate of Philological Sciences, associate professor, teacher with forty-five years of experience, all her life she cared about the restoration of Russian linguistic culture, the highest and nourishing part of which is the living Church Slavonic language.” (Irina Rubtsova)

Our conscience will torment us for a long time:
They didn’t know, they didn’t save...
The Lord takes the best to heaven
From the sinful suffering earth.
And death suddenly, like a mine,
The breath of life was interrupted.
Equal to the Apostles Nina
She probably called her sister.
And now she flies above us,
Her soul is pure as snow...
Look: it sparkles like a flame,
The edge of the verbal saber. (Tatiana Egorova)

“Linguistics is of exceptional importance for the development of the mind,” said Professor Archpriest V.V. Zenkovsky. In the popular imagination, literacy has always been viewed as the key to the Divine Scripture; the great teacher S.A. paid special attention to the study of the Church Slavonic language in his rural school. Rachinsky.

Among the reasons that allegedly prevent modern people from attending Divine services, the “incomprehensibility” of the liturgical language is often cited. We also have to explain to the children why the Church still prays in this ancient language, and why it needs to be studied.

The Church Slavonic language was never spoken; it was created by the holy brothers of Thessaloniki specifically for communication with God, as a language elevated above worldly vanity, the language of Divine services and communication with God. To refuse it would mean to greatly impoverish ourselves, to trivialize our communication with God.

It is impossible to appreciate the beauty and poetry of the Church Slavonic language if you don’t understand it at all, but for this you have to work hard. Convincing children of the need to study the Church Slavonic language, we present a well-known argument - no one has any objections to the need to know English for professional growth. In the same way, spiritual growth requires knowledge of the sacred language, the language in which the saints prayed, in order for us to join in their spiritual experience.

In class, on the advice of N.P. Sablina, we give examples of how, say, the familiar exclamation “Let’s get out there!” would sound. in modern language - “Attention!” This usually makes children smile and convinces them that there is no need to rush into translating the service into a modern language.

Speaking about the need to teach the Church Slavonic language, Ph.D. Zhuravlev V.K. believes that our children’s mastery of the Church Slavonic language is their churching, their introduction to the Temple. He notes that “from time immemorial, Russian children learned to read from the Psalter and the Book of Hours,” but then “as a result of the seventy-year reign of the atheistic regime, the Church Slavonic language was expelled from the public education system... Clergymen and shepherds were killed in order to “scatter the flock. And somewhere there are lambs roaming - Russian guys. But we have the sacred horn, the Church Slavonic language. He will lead the Russian children to the Temple of God. And may Holy Rus' rise again!”

Svirepova O.V., teacher of Church Slavonic language courses at the Serpukhov deanery,

Zakharova L.A., director of the Vertograd Sunday school

Educational and thematic plan

Part 1. Church Slavonic Namebook. 4th grade (10-11 years old)

Part 2. Basics of Church Slavonic literacy. 5th grade (11-12 years old)

Lesson 1. Openwork superscript
Lesson 2. Words under titles
Lesson 3. Letter Numbers
Lesson 4. Alternating consonants.
Lesson 5. Vocative case
Lesson 6. Disagreement.
Lesson 7. Verb “To be”
Lesson 8. Reading rules. Psalm 1.
Lesson 9. Personal pronouns 1st and 2nd person
Lesson 10. Personal pronouns 3rd person
Lesson 11. Psalm 90. Reading
Lesson 12. Psalm 33. Reading
Lesson 13. Psalm 50. Reading
Lesson 14. Glagolitic and Cyrillic
Lesson 15. Test

We always studied the Church Slavonic language.
In the times of Cyril and Methodius, it became the first educational subject of the Slavs, when the holy brothers of Thessalonica arrived in Moravia and recruited the first students. Let us note, by the way, that after Cyril and Methodius there was no dictionary or grammar left (or even information about the possible existence of such), but only texts and students. The initial need to study the Church Slavonic language indicates that it was not everyday, colloquial, everyday language even then. Why?

First about the Greek. By the 9th century, the Greek language had long since passed its unwritten (so to speak, folkloric) phase. The advent of writing among the Greeks made possible a qualitative leap in the accumulation of information - now not only what could be remembered was saved and used, but also what could be written down. This also affected the language - its vocabulary and grammatical means - and stimulated the development of Greek thought. Great writers (Homer, Hesiod, Euripides), great philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), great scientists (Pythagoras, Archimedes, Euclid) and many others not mentioned in parentheses expanded and enriched the Greek language - after all, everything they are about they wrote and spoke, it was necessary to name it somehow and describe it somehow.

In the 3rd century BC. Seventy-two translators (“interpreters”) translated the Holy Scripture (Old Testament) into Greek, and the Greek language was enriched with new meanings borrowed from Hebrew. Later, the texts of the New Testament and an extensive corpus of liturgical and doctrinal literature were written in Greek. The Greek language became the language of deep and refined Orthodox theology, and through this it itself acquired even greater depth and sophistication. This was the Greek language in the 9th century.

What was the Slavic language like at that time? But that same unwritten “folklore” phase, limited to the circle of objects and means retained in the collective memory of contemporaries. And into this language it is necessary to translate the most complex and sublime theology that has ever existed, and, moreover, from the richest language at that time. It's like pouring a barrel into a thimble without spilling anything.

Cyril and Methodius coped with the task brilliantly, however, the thimble ceased to be a thimble. Not only did the alphabet appear, and by the way, an alphabet that could equally easily serve both the Greek and Slavic languages. From the Greek language, new words, word-formation models and grammatical rules were introduced into Slavic, and with such deep philological intuition (as researchers who do not allow Divine Providence in linguistics would say) that the Cyril-Methodian foundations still serve us today.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

The first is word-formation. In Greek there are the words orthos and doxa, in Slavic there are their corresponding words: rights and glory. At the same time, in Greek there is a word orthodoxy, but in Slavic there is no word orthodoxy, and there is no such word-formation model itself. Kirill (at that time still called Konstantin) introduces both the words and the model. We now form many words according to this model, and who remembers that it is Greek?

The second example is grammatical. Oral speech does not tolerate complex grammatical relations, any “due to the fact that”, “despite the fact that”, “for all that”, “nevertheless” and other complications of thought. The two most popular conjunctions in oral speech are “and” and “a”. Here is an example from The Tale of Bygone Years, roughly illustrating this structure of oral speech: “Askold and Dir came. And everyone else jumped out of the boats. And Oleg said to Askold and Dir: You are not princes or of a princely family. And they carried Igor out. But here is the son of Rurik. And he killed Askold and Dir." To reflect complex semantic and syntactic relations from Greek, constructions with double cases and the pronoun “article” are introduced.

It is not surprising that the resulting language, on the one hand, was native to the Slavs, and on the other, required study. The mechanism of transmission of the Church Slavonic language laid down by the first teachers - through texts and school - is still relevant today.

With the Baptism of Rus', Prince Vladimir, in parallel with the construction of churches, opened schools teaching literacy (“book learning”). What kind of literacy was there then, if not Church Slavonic? And not to say that the learning process was easy. The chronicler Nestor writes about the mothers of the first schoolchildren: “I weep for them... like I weep for the dead” (the verb in the “long” form is used twice, i.e. the crying was really significant).

The method of teaching the Church Slavonic language has remained unchanged for centuries and differs from the way the Church Slavonic language is taught now.

The letters and rules of reading were explained to the student (and this was a youth, that is, a person no younger than seven years old), after which he received texts - not some artificial educational texts, but the most “true” Book of Hours and Psalms (what can read layman). Moreover, the texts are familiar to the ear (after seven years of regular attendance at worship!). No grammar - no declensions, conjugations, aorists, imperfects or plusquaperfects. This system of initial teaching of Church Slavonic literacy was maintained until the beginning of the 20th century.

In the 17th century, another system for studying the Church Slavonic language appeared, but in order to understand what this system is and compare it with the one just outlined, you need to make a small lyrical digression about analytism and synthetism.

Analysis (dividing a whole into parts) and synthesis (assembling a whole from parts) are two of the most important operations of our consciousness. Evil materialists claim that a person cannot do anything other than tear something off somewhere (analysis) and attach it to something (synthesis): he bought potatoes (he tore money from himself - analysis, and attached it to potato for yourself - synthesis), peeled it (separated it from the peel - analysis), put it in water (combined it with a pan of water - synthesis), boiled it (added heat - synthesis) and ate it (combined it with itself - synthesis). Analyticism is the tendency to separate and examine pieces. Synthetism is, on the contrary, the desire for the whole. Now back to the topic.

In relation to a language, its division into dictionary and grammar and the subsequent division of grammar into parts of speech, declension, conjugation, etc. - an example of analyticism, while orientation to the text, where all this is simultaneously present in the form of a natural mixture of elements, is an example of synthetism. The Greeks knew philological analyticism and synthetism in reasonable proportions, but the Romano-Germanic cultural-historical type clearly preferred analyticism, sometimes of a scholastic nature. The Slavs preferred synthetism.

In the fight against Catholic proselytism in its Jesuit version, Western Russian scribes adopted some of the methods of their opponents, and in particular this affected teaching methods. Dictionaries and grammars of the Church Slavonic language began to appear - by analogy with dictionaries and grammars of the Latin language. Later, under Nikon, the analytical approach was transferred to the territory of Muscovite Rus', and then (with Peter I) established itself as the “only true” one in secondary and higher schools, including theological ones.

It turned out that the flock, the peasants, of whom there was, to put it mildly, the majority in pre-revolutionary Russia, studied the Church Slavonic language from the Book of Hours and the Psalter, synthetically, from the sexton for a pot of porridge (without any quotes - a pot of porridge was the standard “fee” of the sexton). But a seminarian, or even an academically educated pastor studied the same language from the other end, analytically, as a foreign language, through a dictionary and grammar. And everything would be fine if, in the end, one was complemented by the other - like M.V. Lomonosov, who studied according to both models, and in the correct sequence. But usually it was not supplemented, and in relation to the love of the Church Slavonic language, this had a more detrimental effect on those trained according to the analytical model. The object turned out to be dry, boring and as if alien. It is no coincidence that in the 19th century the Church Slavonic language was called “dead” not by peasants, but by professors.

But to say that the difficulty of the Church Slavonic language as an academic subject lies only in the unhealthy analyticalism of its study is to tell only half the truth. The second half of the truth is that the system of the Church Slavonic language is broader than the system of, say, the Russian literary language. The Church Slavonic language is richer. There are more letters in it. There are more verb tenses. There are more numbers. There are more cases. Why? And remember what was said above about the barrel and the thimble. The literary language (I mean the Russian literary language) is a compromise that has developed over centuries between the ascending system of the Church Slavonic language and the broad element of folk dialects. This is a middle style, constantly balancing “between” and having meaning and existence only when what it is between and what it exists exists. The aforementioned Lomonosov wrote about this in his special work “On the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language”: “the Russian language in full strength, beauty and richness will not be subject to change and decline, as long as the Russian church is adorned with the praise of God in the Slavonic language.” The results of language changes by the beginning of the 21st century are a clear example of this.

Having the Church Slavonic language behind him, the pre-revolutionary schoolchild also more easily mastered the Russian literary language (the system is simpler!). And he thought more broadly. I will not, of course, attribute everything to the merits of the Church Slavonic language, but nevertheless, at the school of S.A. Rachinsky, where rural boys studied, and the Church Slavonic language (taught with due synthetism - through reading the Psalter) was one of the main academic subjects , and the math was pretty good. One of the students of this school, later an artist, N.P. Bogdanov-Belsky, wrote an autobiographical painting “Oral Counting” - try to mentally count the example written on the blackboard.

Yes, now, knowing the literary language, which in grammatical terms is just a special case, a “stump” of Church Slavonic, it is not easy to study the Church Slavonic language. And breaking through the pure analyticism of the teacher without losing a living love for the subject is even more difficult. Don’t get me wrong: after all, we, the teachers, were taught this way ourselves, “stuffy Staroslav” in the first year of philology departments. And not all of them broke through.

However, nothing prevents you from trying to teach the Church Slavonic language differently, knowing all the costs and weaknesses of analyticism and synetism and trying to flexibly combine both methods.

Sergey Anatolyevich Naumov, candidate of philological sciences, coordinator of the Church Slavonic seminar, associate professor of the Russian language department of the St. Petersburg State Medical Academy named after. I.I.Mechnikov.

TO STUDY

CHURCH SLAVIC

LANGUAGE

Introduction

How to master the Church Slavonic language? It is clear that no one is able to complete this task in one or two months. As in learning any foreign language, you need perseverance, desire, and personal work. Every (modern) person in school tried (some under pressure, some anyway) to cope with such a task, but often it turned out to be so overwhelming that many people think that mastering languages ​​is the lot of only a select few who are capable of them. But is this really the case, or is the problem something else? N. F. Zamyatkin, who has studied many foreign languages ​​on his own, asserts with full confidence that the problem is essentially the same - in the methodology. He outlined his method for mastering foreign languages ​​in the book “It is impossible to teach you a foreign language.”

What is the essence of his method?

1. 
   Create a separate language center in the central nervous system by listening to dialogues in this language for a long time;
2. 
   Load a “language matrix” into this center by repeatedly speaking loudly the above dialogues in a foreign language;
3. 
   Fill it with vocabulary and grammar (the best way is to read books with minimal use of a dictionary), use and enjoy.

Why this particular approach?

To suppress the initial reaction of rejection of a foreign language by your “I”, which is most closely connected with your native language. To develop close to ideal pronunciation. To master basic grammar. To remember basic vocabulary in context. To teach elementary reading, the next stage will be the transition to “marathon” reading of unadapted literature. To develop initial skills in understanding foreign speech by ear. To get into the rhythm and harmony of a foreign language. To create a bridgehead from which you will conduct a further attack on the “enemy”.

How to use this method in studying the Church Slavonic language?

For us, this language is not completely unfamiliar or distant, we encounter it all the time, and this is a big plus. The existing tradition of pronunciation and reading makes the path of “entering” the language extremely easy. After all, in Church Slavonic there is no reduction known to many other languages, when “one hears Manchester, but writes Liverpool.” This means that the first stage will be easy and relaxed for us. There is probably no longer a clergyman who does not have some studio recording of the psalter or gospel in Church Slavonic. Even if it is not technically possible to cut up small passages, then at least you can listen to short psalms, then repeat them several times. It is, of course, not difficult to carefully study the meaning of these texts - everyone has a Bible.

The only problem that can arise is spiritual and moral. These texts are sacred and prayerful for us, and repeating them purely technically, not prayerfully, is problematic.

Next stage. After we have learned to read selected passages in Church Slavonic well enough, we begin free reading. Many grammatical forms of Church Slavonic are close to us due to their great similarity with the Russian language. Many words are also close. All this also makes it easier to solve the problem.

The presented course of the Church Slavonic language is, in fact, an introduction to its study, a tool with the help of which, with constant diligence, it is quite possible to master the language and, at a minimum, understand it perfectly.

Instructions for the church reader on how to read in church,

compiled according to the teachings of the holy fathers and ascetics, according to the instructions of the church charter and on the basis of the centuries-old experience of Divine services of the Russian Orthodox Church (in abbreviation)

Read reverently, with the fear of God

1. A God-fearing reader must always remember that he is proclaiming praises and prayers for himself and for all those praying in the temple, where God Himself, His Most Pure Mother, Angels and saints are always invisibly present. The Lord, the Knower of the Heart, knows the feeling and attitude with which the reader performs his duties.

2. A God-fearing reader knows that those present in the temple notice his mistakes, his inattention, etc., and may be tempted by this. Therefore, he does not allow negligence, he is afraid of angering God. For the Scripture says: “Cursed is every man who does the work of the Lord with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). By reading prayers aloud in the holy church for all believers, we are doing God’s work, so read reverently and gracefully, clearly and slowly.

Prepare carefully for reading

3. For the reading that you must perform, you must carefully prepare: familiarize yourself with it in advance and carefully read the text, paying attention to the pronunciation of words, stress, and content in order to read correctly, consciously and meaningfully. If you don’t read well, don’t be lazy to practice reading more often, read it several times and ask someone else who knows to check you.

Read intelligently

4. Read so that, first of all, you yourself understand what you are reading, and so that the prayers and psalms read penetrate into your heart.

5. At the same time, do not forget the people standing in the temple, and read in such a way that the people understand you, so that they, together with you, the reader, pray with one mouth and one heart and glorify the Lord - this is why we gather in holy temple.

6. When reading in Church, always remember that through your lips the prayer of all those present is pronounced and ascended to the Throne of God, and that every word you utter should penetrate the ear and soul of every person praying in the church.

Read slowly, clearly and clearly

7. Therefore, do not rush when reading holy prayers, and do not degrade prayers by hasty reading, do not anger God. Hasty and indistinct reading is not perceived by the ears, thoughts and hearts of those listening. Such reading and singing, in the words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, is “pleasing to the lazy, sadness of heart and sighing to the good, but temptation and harm to all who come (to the temple”).

8. A God-fearing reader will not read quickly and carelessly to please the few, so as not to deprive all those praying of the opportunity to pray reverently and attentively. For he understands well that due to the reader’s negligence, many are embarrassed and tempted and may even leave the temple. Persons who are prone to sectarianism or who are generally inclined to see shortcomings in Orthodoxy, having heard careless and irreverent reading and singing in our churches, may completely fall away from Orthodoxy into sectarianism or cool towards the faith. Thus, through the fault of careless readers and singers, our Orthodox worship, churches, clergy and Orthodoxy itself are dishonored, and those who pray are deprived of many meaningful prayers and religious and moral edification.

In view of this, the church reader should not allow rapid reading, which turns into negligence, and should not fulfill the requests of those who require him to violate his duty of reverent reading. For it is more fitting to obey God than men (Acts 5:29).

9. In order to know the limits at what speed to read, it is necessary to read with understanding of what is being read, and not mechanically, and not only to pay attention to the external side of reading, but also to the content, while praying in your soul.

We must learn to read so freely, without tension, that when reading there is no difficulty in pronouncing words, abbreviations (titles), stress, in choosing the height and strength of the voice, raising and lowering the voice, etc. - in short, so that attention is distracted as little as possible on the reading technique itself, but focused more on the meaning of what was being read and the reader’s heartfelt perception of it.

A reverent reader acquires such an instinct when he himself, in church and at home, tries to pray carefully with his mind and heart. Then he learns from experience that when reading quickly, it is impossible for those praying to have time to grasp the content of the prayer and pray with both mind and heart.

When reading, you should avoid the other extreme: you should not stretch out the reading unnecessarily.

Read with meaningful stops

Read it correctly, in the church way

13. When reading, the pronunciation of words should be Slavic, that is, each letter in the word should be pronounced as printed, for example: solid, but not solid(there is no letter e in the Slavic language); father, but not father, century, but not Vic, his, but not evo or yoga, wretched, but not pathetic. However, here, as in other cases, there are no rules without exceptions. Yes, words Aggel, Loggin, Pagcratius pronounce: Angel, Longinus, Pancratius.

14. When reading Slavic, you should pay attention to accents and titla (abbreviation signs) in order to pronounce words correctly.

15. We must observe the ancient pattern of church reading. When reading, you should not artificially highlight or, as it were, emphasize the meaning of what you are reading. Secular artistic expression is inappropriate in church reading. You need to read without pouring out your feelings through modulations and changes in voice; You should not give tenderness, tenderness, severity or any other feeling to your voice - the church reader is not an actor. Let the holy prayers influence the listeners with their own spiritual dignity. The desire to convey to others your feelings and experiences or to influence them with changes in your voice is a sign of conceit and pride (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov).

18. It is necessary to read in a moderate voice, not to weaken or strengthen it too much, but to balance it in such a way that all the words clearly reach the ears of each person praying. It goes without saying that the larger the temple or the more people, the more necessary it is to strengthen the voice, but in no way turn it into a shout.

19. The reader should stand straight in front of the book, without bowing, and read without shuffling his feet, without putting them to the side, not sway his body, have his hands freely lowered, not shake his head, read slowly, but not drag, pronounce the words clearly, clearly (with clear diction and correct articulation), making semantic stops in the sentence itself.

If it is read on a stand (lectern), the reader must ensure that the veil on the stand lies straight and not crookedly, and if it sank low, raise it.

G.I.Shimansky (1915–1970)

Part 1. Church Slavonic alphabet and reading rules

The modern Russian alphabet goes back to the Old Church Slavonic, hence the great similarity in the writing of letters. There are some letters in the Church Slavonic alphabet that are unknown to modern writing. This is “zelo” - /z/, “i” - /i/, “omega” - /o/, digraph “ot” - /ot/, “yat” - /e/, “yus small” - /ya/ , “xi” - /ks/, “psi” - /ps/, “fita” - /f/, “izhitsa” - /i/, /v/. Also, the “uk” inside the word and “ya” have a somewhat peculiar style. Details about the rules for reading letters are in a separate appendix. A number of letters - zelo, fert, xi, psi, fita and izhitsa are used only in foreign words; “and” (i) is written before a vowel, and in the position before consonants - in case of borrowing. After “a” and “e”, izhitsa (v) denotes the sound “v”, in other positions - “i”.

Yat - in ancient times there was a separate sound, historically long / e / and somewhat reminiscent of a diphthong / no / . Even in the time of Lomonosov, some dialects distinguished it with a separate sound. At the present time, this sound has completely merged with /e/. In Church Slavonic it continues to play a large role.

Another feature of Slavic graphics is stress. There are acute, heavy, invested stress, as well as aspiration; combinations of aspiration with acute and heavy stress. In reality, differences in stress do not matter for reading; this is the “Greek” inheritance of Church Slavonic. The invested stress plays a grammatical role: it is placed over the forms of the plural and dual numbers, if they coincide with any form of the singular number.

The title, an abbreviation icon on the letter of one or more letters, plays a big role in the alphabet. Tilo is placed above words denoting special veneration and respect. There are combined titles - when the letters “d”, “r”, “g”, “s”, “o” appear on the letter. A word with a title is read the same as without a title. At the end of the appendix there is a list of words with abbreviations under the title.

The special purpose of the title is to indicate numbers. The Church Slavonic alphabet, following the Greek tradition, expresses numbers through the letters of the alphabet. The title is placed above the letter indicating the number, if this number is single digit or ten. If a number is written with two or more letter signs, then the title is placed above the second one from the end. The list of numbers is included in the appendix.

Sometimes in a letter you can find a small loop over a consonant in the middle of a word or at the end of a preposition - this is “erok”. It means "b". Accordingly, it is not pronounced. A peculiarity of Church Slavonic is the obligatory presence of an unpronounceable “ъ” after a consonant if the word ends with it. This is the heritage of the ancient Russian and Old Slavonic traditions of reading and writing.

So, in Church Slavonic there is a rule: how it is written is how it is read. The exception is the combinations -ia, -aa in names, months, and some other words, where they are read as -iya, -aya. In the words Bog, good, Lord and their derivatives, there is a tradition of pronouncing “g” as a voiced variant of “x”.

Reading exercises: 1). Listen to the reading of the first psalm in audio format several times. 2). Follow the text several times while listening. 3). Read it yourself several times. 4). Check your reading with the speaker’s reading, correct your pronunciation.

5). Compare this text with the Russian translation:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked and does not stand in the way of sinners and does not sit in the congregation of the wicked, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on His law day and night! And he will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither; and in everything he does, he will succeed. Not so - the wicked; but they are like dust blown by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Repeat the same exercise with the second psalm:

Why do peoples rebel, and nations plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. “Let us break their bonds, and cast off their fetters from us.” He who lives in heaven will laugh; the Lord will mock him. Then He will say to them in His anger and His wrath will lead them into confusion: “I have anointed My King over Zion, My holy mountain; I will proclaim the decree: The Lord said to Me: You are My Son; today have I begotten You; ask of Me, and I will give the nations to an inheritance for you, and the ends of the earth for your possession; you will smite them with a rod of iron; you will break them in pieces like a potter's vessel." So, understand, kings; learn, judges of the earth! Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Honor the Son, lest He be angry, and lest you perish on [your] journey, for His anger will soon kindle. Blessed are all who trust in Him.

The main problem in mastering the vocabulary of the Church Slavonic language is the presence of paronyms - words that have historically changed their meaning greatly, and for this reason it has become difficult to guess the meaning of such a word. Example: to stagger - to rush about, to exalt; punishment - instruction, admonition. You need to pay special attention to such words. Such words should be remembered in context - an associative series is created. There is a dictionary that it is advisable to use when studying such words: Sedakova O.A. Church Slavic-Russian paronyms. – M.: Greco-Latin cabinet Yu.A. Shichalina, 2005.

In the Church Slavonic language there is such a phenomenon - positional softening of consonants - palatalization. Otherwise - the transition of some consonants (k, g, x) to others (h/ts, zh/z, sh/s):

This is due to the fact that in ancient times the sounds k, g and x were always hard and for this reason they changed to hissing or whistling. The transition to sibilant (zh, sh) is possible only in the vocative case (in circulation).