Speaking Church Slavonic
Speaking Church Slavonic

Summary/Abstract: The article begins from the idea of Church Slavonic as merely a semi-intelligible liturgical language. It then notes similarities and differences between the linguistics of Greek and of the Slavonic languages, in particularly the liturgical situation of Greek as compared to Church Slavonic, given that the label Greek encompasses everything from Homeric Greek down to the last modern Greek dialect in Greece, Cyprus or elsewhere. If ecclesiastical Greek were described as a semi-intelligible liturgical language, an obvious question would arise: exactly who finds it “semi-intelligible”? Relating the same question to individual speakers of Church Slavonic, the survey moves via some psalm verses to two other main issues: the role of speakers of a liturgical language based on translations; and writing systems and their influence on our speech and our perception of a language. In conclusion, some different terms for the problematic notion of native speaker are examined.

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