17 familiar words that are actually not originally Russian, but Church Slavonic

In the 9th century, Cyril and Methodius created the Slavic writing system, and with it the written language - Old Slavonic. It was never used for everyday communication. This is an artificial book language, based on the dialect of the South Slavs who lived in the area of the city of Solun. To simplify very roughly, the basis of the Old Slavonic language is Old Bulgarian, and not at all Old Russian, as many think.

At that time, the differences between the languages of the Eastern, Western and South Slavs were not as great as they are now. With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, Old Church Slavonic began to spread among the Slavs and changed under the influence of local languages - the “new Old Church Slavonic” (the language of manuscripts after the 10th century) is commonly called Church Slavonic. There are various variants of the Church Slavonic language - depending on the languages that influenced it (Old Russian, Serbian, Croatian and others).

In Russia, the book Church Slavonic and oral Old Russian coexisted. The former was assigned the role of a language of high style, which is preserved to this day: we all met in the verses of the classics "grad", "eye", "finger" and similar vocabulary. However, Church Slavonic words are not necessarily pompous, poetic or religious. In everyday speech, we often use Church Slavicisms, although we may not even guess about it. Here are some examples.

Hello citizen, country

One of the features of Church Slavism is the incomplete combination of "-ra-", which corresponds to the full-voiced Russian "-oro-": "hello," "health," but "healthy," "health."

The same dissenting Church Slavisms include "citizen" (Russian "city dweller"), "country" (Russian "side"). Over time, the Church Slavonic and Russian versions diverged in meaning, securing different meanings.

Sweet, power

Another incomplete combination, characteristic of Church Slavs, is "-la-". In Russian it corresponds to "-olo-".

Historically, sweet and malt are cognates. Old Russian "licorice" has not survived to this day.

"Vlast" is also a borrowing from Church Slavonic. But the Russian "volost", although it is found today, has a narrower meaning - "administrative-territorial unit".

Harm, wednesday, time

Again Church Slavonic disagreement - "-re-". In dialects, the original Russian analogue of the word "harm" - "vered" has been preserved. There is also full accord in the adjective “fastidious”.

Let us also recall the word "environment", to which in Russian we find the full-voiced single-root "middle". But "faith" has not survived to this day, in contrast to Church Slavism "time".

The prefixes "pre-", "pre-", "over-" are also of Church Slavonic origin. They have full consonants in Russian: "over-", "before-", "through-".

Equal, work

The combination "ra-" at the beginning of the word instead of "ro-" is also characteristic of Church Slavs. Compare “equal” with the native Russian “equal”. And the Old Russian "robot" has survived only in dialects.

Clothes, hope, thirst

Church Slavs are characterized by the combination "-zh-" in place of the Russian "-zh-". In addition to the “clothes” that came from the Old Church Slavonic, there is also the colloquial Russian “clothes”. The same situation is with the words "hope" and "reliability". And there is also "reliable" without "-zh-".

The word "thirst" once had a Russian analogue of "thirst", which is unlikely to be found now.

We see the same alternation of "-zh-" and "-zh-" in the already mentioned pair "citizen - city dweller".

Help, cave

Another feature of borrowings from Church Slavonic is "u" instead of "h". The native Russian version is “to help”. We remember Pushkin: "God help you, my friends." However, Church Slavism "help" supplanted this word.

And the word "cave" has an Old Russian analogue "pechora", which is preserved in dialects and in the name of the river.

By the way, the participle suffixes "-asch-" and "-yasch-" also came from Church Slavonic. Now there are pairs in which words with the primordial Russian suffixes "-ach-" and "-ach-" are adjectives, and with Church Slavonic "-asch-" and "-yach-" are participles: "lying - lying", " wandering - wandering "," seeing - seeing "and the like.

Single

We see an interesting alternation: "one", "one", but "one", "lonely". Words with an initial "e" are Church Slavonic, and those with an initial "o" are native Russian.

By the way, the surname of the poet Sergei Yesenin is formed from the common Slavic word "esen" - an outdated version of "autumn".

South

And here Old Slavism gives out the initial "u". Our usual "south" corresponded to the primordially Russian "yog", from which, by the way, the word "supper" was formed.