Old Church Slavonic: an Elementary Grammar 1
0. INTRODUCTION 0.1 What is Old Church Slavonic? The Slavonic languages belong to the Indo-European Group of languages, to which the Germanic languages (which include English) belong, as well as the Romance languages, which include Latin, the Celtic languages, the Iranian languages, Sanskrit, Greek and Armenian. The Slavonic languages are usually divided into three groups: West Slavonic, including Polish and Czech and Upper and Lower Sorbian; East Slavonic, comprising Russian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian, and South Slavonic; the South Slavonic group consists of Slovenian, Serbo-Croat, Macedonian and Bulgarian. The first Slavonic language to be committed to writing was a South Slavonic dialect of Bulgarian or Macedonian type, and is called Old Church Slavonic because of its function. (In some works it is called Old Bulgarian, but this is best avoided as Old Church Slavonic is not identical with the Bulgarian language of that time.) For the relationship of Old Church Slavonic with Indo- European, see G. Nandrif, Old Church Slavonic Grarmar^ London, 1959. In the year 862, Prince Rostislav of Moravia, which was then an important grouping of Slavonic peoples in Central Europe, sent a request to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III for Slavonic- speaking missionaries to spread Christianity in his lands and counter the influence of German clergy. Constantine and his brother Methodius were chosen because the former had already proved himself as a scholar and missionary, while the latter was an experienced administrator. Both were natives of Salonica where there was a Slavonic-speaking population. The brothers' work in Moravia was approved by the pope, and in 869 Constantine and Methodius travelled to Rome where Constantine died, having taken monastic vows and assumed the name of Cyril.
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