Languages / Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic grammar for readers
Short notes for reading the Gospels in Old Church Slavonic. Every example comes from a text in this course.
Start reading Old Church Slavonic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.
Old letters, and the short vowels
These texts are shown in early Cyrillic letters, with some letters that later vanished. The Codex Marianus itself was written in Glagolitic, an older Slavic alphabet. Two that matter are ѫ and ѧ, which were nasal vowels, like the vowels in French on and vin. The endings ъ and ь were very short vowels, and they appear at the end of many words.
If you know Russian or another Slavic language, try saying a word aloud: it will often turn out to be one you know.
хлѣбъ нашъ
our bread
Russian still says хлеб наш. Note the old letter ѣ and the short ъ at the end of each word.
Holy words in short form
Scribes wrote common words in short form, above all holy ones, with a small mark above them. These forms are tricky at first, but they come up constantly: б҃а for “God”, г҃ь for “Lord”, and г҃ла for “said”, which isn't holy at all.
иже си на н҃бсхъ
who art in heaven
н҃бсхъ is shortened from a longer word for “heavens”.
No word for “the”
There is no “the” or “a” in Old Church Slavonic, just as in Russian today. When you translate, you add them wherever English needs them.
оуготовите пѫть г҃нь
prepare the way of the Lord
пѫть is simply “way”. Notice the nasal ѫ. Compare Russian путь.
Endings show who does what
Nouns change their endings to show their job, in seven cases. One of them, the vocative, is used for calling to someone, and modern Russian has mostly lost it. Slavic learners will recognise most of the rest.
| ѡ҅тьче | vocative | O father! |
| хлѣбъ | accusative | bread (it's given) |
| иоана | genitive | of John (with отъ: by John) |
| водꙑ | genitive | of water |
| имъ | dative | to them |
ѡ҅тьче нашъ
Our Father
ѡ҅тьче is the form for addressing him directly.
Telling a story in the past
Modern Russian has one simple past. Old Church Slavonic has more. The aorist tells you what happened next, and the imperfect describes what was going on at the time. Gospel stories rely mostly on the aorist.
| кръсти | aorist | he baptised |
| отъвѣшташѧ | aorist | they answered |
| принѣсѧ | aorist | they brought (it) |
| кръштаахѫ | imperfect | they were being baptised (with сѧ) |
отъвѣшташѧ же емоу ни
They answered him: No.
An aorist, moving the story on.
сѧ: the small word for “self”
The little word сѧ makes a verb reflexive, or close to passive: “sanctify” becomes “be sanctified”. It stands as a separate word, and it can sit away from the verb. In Russian it survives as the ending -ся. Don't confuse it with the -сѧ or -шѧ at the end of past forms such as ѩсѧ, “they caught”: that is just the ending for “they”.
ꙇ кръсти сѧ
and was baptised
кръсти alone means “baptised”. With сѧ, it is what happens to him.
да с҃вт сѧ имѧ твое
hallowed be thy name
“May it be sanctified”.
The verb “to be”
You'll keep meeting the verb “to be”, which has three common forms here: естъ, “is”, бѣ, “was” (describing a situation), and бꙑстъ, “came to be, happened” (moving the story along).
ꙇ бѣ мати и҃сва тоу
and the mother of Jesus was there.
бѣ: she was there at the time.
вѣдѫште ѣко г҃ь естъ
knowing that it was the Lord.
естъ, “is”, in what they knew.
Saying “not”, twice over
не usually goes right before the verb. As in modern Slavic languages, negatives pile up: “nothing” comes with its own не on the verb, literally “did not catch nothing”. That isn't bad grammar. It is how the language works.
не ѩсѧ ничесоже
they caught nothing
не and ничесоже together make one negative.
Practise on real texts
These notes make most sense once you have seen the forms in context. Urling brings each one up as you meet it in a text.
Start reading Old Church Slavonic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.
Notes written by Claude and checked against August Leskien, Handbuch der altbulgarischen Sprache (4th edition, 1905). Not yet reviewed by a Slavonic teacher.