New books: Old Church Slavonic

[890003149593]

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Old Church Slavonic
BORIS GASPAROV
Columbia University

The Old Church Slavonic was a written language created especially for the
purpose of serving the needs of the Slavic Orthodox church. Although based on
material of a South Slavic vernacular, it showed features most of which were
fundamental for all Slavic languages, since at the time of OCS inception (late
nineth century) Slavic dialects were still colse to each other. The life span of
OCS in its original form, known under that name, comprises approximately two
centuries from the time of its formation. Very few texts have reached us from
that time; the data base of the OCS proper includes four more or less complete
versions of the Gospel, fragments of a Psalterium, and some pieces of pious
reading. Eventually, OCS was adopted by different Slavic Orthodox nations (Old
Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs) as their sacral and cultural language. In the
process, it has branched into different versions, each reflecting some features
of the local vernacular. These later modifications of OCS, known as Church
Slavic languages, have survived until present in the liturgical service, and
layed foundation for literary languages of Slavic Orthodox nations.
Because of the pecularities of the OCS status and history, the author finds it
necessary to partly modify the format of its presentation. The language
essentially does not have a synchronic phonetics: all pronunciations assigned to
it are grounded in later practices within different Church Slavic traditions. On
the other hand, phonological shape of the OCS vividly reflects prehistorc
processes that had evolved in the Common Slavic (CS). In particular, OCS
paradigms feature numerous vocal and phonetic changes that had led to them.
Because of that, the author incorporates informrtion on prehistoric phonetic
development of the CS into an outline of its phonology. All points in grammar in
need of a historical explanation will be then referred to this section.

Table of Contents:

Introduction. OCS: A created language
1. Writing
2. The sound shape of OCS and its historical background
3. An outline of OCS grammar: Forms and their functions
4. Texts: An annotated reading

Selected bibliography, Vocabulary, Index.

ISBN 3 89586 889 2.
Languages of the World/Materials 338.
Ca. 230pp. USD 65 / EUR 68 / # 42.




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