Instruction
Since then, when they stopped teaching children the Slavic alphabet, less than 100 years have passed. Meanwhile, it was she who was the storehouse of knowledge that formed the correct idea of the world around the child. Each initial letter is at the same time the way through which knowledge was transmitted. For example, the initial letter Az (Az) has the following images: source, beginning, fundamental principle, reason, worthy, renewal.
Features of the Slavic alphabet
The alphabet changed with the introduction of Christianity in Rus'. In order to be able to study the Bible, Greek alphabets were introduced into the Russian alphabet. They were required for a more correct reading of the sacred books. Cyril and Methodius, having changed and shortened the alphabet by 6 initial letters, predetermined the loss of the deep meaning of the Russian language, which was mastered not by writing letters (letter combination), but by combining images. This can be traced on the example of many native Russian words, for example, conscience (joint news, knowledge), education (calling of the image, its creation, v (ya) nie). So in the 10th century, Russian writing, in many respects corresponding to modern. But there was also an older, Slavic one.
The appearance of writing in Rus'
The question of the origin of writing in Rus' has not yet been finally resolved. The traditional point of view is as follows: it entered life with the advent of the Cyrillic alphabet. But the disputes of scientists around this theory have been going on for a long time, and the studies of Doctor of Philological Sciences Chudinov, Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalya Guseva, Academicians Vinogradov, Govorov, Sidorov and many other researchers convincingly prove that the first inscriptions in Proto-Slavic were made on stones and clay tablets.
In the 70s of the last century, the Sofia alphabet (Greek) was discovered, which included three Slavic initial letters. Consequently, writing in Rus' appeared long before the activities of Cyril and Methodius. The most ancient was nodular, or ligature, nauzy. Subsequently, runes appeared. The Old Russian Magi were written in the Holy Russian runic script. These texts are inscribed on tablets of oak, cedar and ash.
Later monuments of culture, for example, Haratya, are already written in Glagolitic, which is very close to the Old Slavonic alphabet. It was used as a trade letter, and lines and cuts were used to convey brief messages for household needs. In the history of the Greeks and Scandinavians, documentary evidence has been preserved that already in the 2-4th century the Slavs were an educated people and had their own written language. Moreover, every child was taught it.
The most ancient monuments of Slavic writing were found in 1962 in the village of Terteria (Romania). They are written in Slavic runic and date back to the 5th century BC. Prior to this discovery, the earliest artifact confirming the existence of written language among the ancient peoples of the East were Sumerian tablets. But they turned out to be 1000 younger than the Old Slavic ones.
The origin of writing in Rus', the time of its occurrence, its character is one of the most debatable problems of Russian history. For a long time, the traditional point of view was dominant, according to which writing was brought to Rus' from Bulgaria in connection with the official adoption of Christianity in 988. But already in the middle of the last century, scientists became aware of certain facts, mainly of a literary nature, indicating the presence of Christianity and writing in Rus' long before the official baptism.
In the legends of the Chernorizian Khrabr “About writings” (end of IX - beginning of X centuries) it is reported that “before it was conditional I did not have books, but with features and cuts I read tahu and reptiles.” The emergence of this primitive pictographic writing (“features and cuts”) is attributed by researchers to the first half of the 1st millennium. Its scope was limited. These were, apparently, the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, generic and personal signs of property, signs for divination, calendar signs that served to date the dates for the start of various chores, pagan holidays, etc. Such a letter was unsuitable for recording complex texts, the need for which arose with the birth of the first Slavic states. The Slavs began to use Greek letters to record their native speech, but "without dispensation", that is, without adapting the Greek alphabet to the peculiarities of the phonetics of the Slavic languages.
All this is mentioned in the same “Tale of the Letters” by the Brave. According to Brave, the Slavs began to use Latin and Greek to write their speech after they adopted Christianity, but before the introduction of the alphabet developed by Cyril. At the same time, according to Brave, the original Latin and Greek writing was used “without dispensation,” that is, without replenishing it with new letters necessary for the special sounds of Slavic speech. Brave attributes the revision of the Greek script in relation to the phonetics of the Slavic speech to Cyril. However, in reality the situation was more complicated. By the time Cyril created the alphabet, that is, by the middle of the 9th century, Greek letters had been used to record Slavic speech for a long time; this is confirmed by the Brave, pointing out that "I have been raging like this for many years." But over such a long period of time, Greek writing had to gradually adapt to the transmission of the Slavic language and, in particular, be replenished with new letters. This was necessary for the accurate recording of Slavic names in churches, in military lists, for recording Slavic geographical names, etc. The Greeks are teachers of the Slavs, in the 9th century. already adhered to the well-known system when transmitting Slavic sounds in Greek letters. So, the sound "b" was transmitted by the Byzantine letter "vita", the sound "sh" - "sigma", "h" - a combination of "theta" with "zeta", "c" - a combination of "theta" with "sigma" , "y" - a combination of "omicron" with "upsilon". That's what the Greeks did. The Slavs, of course, moved even further along the path of adapting the Greek letter to their speech. For this, ligatures were formed from Greek letters, Greek letters were supplemented with letters from other alphabets, in particular, from the Hebrew alphabet, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars.
So, the "proto-Cyrillic" letter was gradually formed. If alphabetic writing did not exist among the Slavs long before they adopted Christianity, then the unexpected flourishing of Bulgarian literature at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries, and the widespread literacy in the everyday life of the Eastern Slavs of the 10th - 11th centuries, and the high skill, which was achieved in Rus' already in the 11th century. the art of writing and book design (an example is the Ostromir gospel, copied for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir in 1055-1057).
There are indications of the use of writing in Rus' and the beginning of the 10th century. in the treaties of the Russian princes Oleg and Igor with Byzantium. So, in Oleg's agreement with the Greeks (911), there is an indication that Russians have written wills. Igor's treaty with the Greeks (944) speaks of gold and silver seals, and messenger letters, which were presented to Russian ambassadors and guests traveling to Byzantium. The inclusion in agreements with Byzantium of special clauses on wills, messengers, guest letters and seals proves not only that all this already existed in Rus' at the beginning of the 10th century, but also that by the 10th century. it has become commonplace.
So, by the time Russia adopted Christianity, and with it writing, writing already existed in Rus' in some rudimentary form, and this created the preconditions for the perception of the introduced written culture.
The creation of the Slavic alphabet is associated with the names of the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius. But the oldest monuments of Slavic writing know two alphabets - Cyrillic and Glagolitic. In science, there have been disputes for a long time about which of these alphabets appeared earlier, the creators of which of them were the famous "Thessalonica brothers" (from Thessalonica, the modern city of Thessaloniki).
At present, it can be considered established that Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet (Glagolitic) in the second half of the 9th century, in which the first translations of church books for the Slavic population of Moravia and Pannonia were written. At the turn of the 9th-10th centuries, on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, as a result of the synthesis of the Greek script, which had long been widespread here, and those elements of the Glagolitic alphabet that successfully conveyed the features of the Slavic languages, an alphabet arose, later called Cyrillic. In the future, this easier and more convenient alphabet replaced the Glagolitic alphabet and became the only one among the southern and eastern Slavs.
The adoption of Christianity contributed to the widespread and rapid development of writing and written culture. It was essential that Christianity was adopted in its Eastern, Orthodox version, which, unlike Catholicism, allowed worship in national languages. This created favorable conditions for the development of writing in the native language.
The development of writing in the native language led to the fact that the Russian Church from the very beginning did not become a monopoly in the field of literacy and education. The spread of literacy among the democratic strata of the urban population is evidenced by birch bark letters discovered during archaeological excavations in Novgorod and other cities. These are letters, memos, study exercises, etc. The letter, therefore, was used not only to create books, state and legal acts, but also in everyday life. Often there are inscriptions on handicraft products. Ordinary citizens left numerous records on the walls of churches in Kyiv, Novgorod, Smolensk, Vladimir and other cities.
A new stage in the ancient Russian book culture is associated with the name of Yaroslav the Wise. The story about his educational activities and about his establishment of a translation center at the church of St. Sophia is dated in the "Tale of Bygone Years" to 1037, when the metropolis was founded in Kyiv:
(“And Yaroslav loved church statutes, he loved priests very much, especially monks, and loved books, reading them often at night and during the day. And he gathered many scribes, and translated from Greek into Slavic. And they wrote many books, learning from them believing people enjoy the teaching of the divine.")
All rewritten and translated books were kept, by order of Yaroslav, in the church of St. Sophia of Kyiv, created by him on the model of the famous St. Sophia of Constantinople. This book depository is considered the first library of Ancient Rus'.
During the time of Yaroslav the Wise, not only translation work was carried out, but Old Russian chronicle writing already existed, brilliant oratorical works were compiled. Not earlier than 1037 and not later than 1050, the famous “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion was written.
In 1056-1057, the oldest surviving accurately dated Cyrillic manuscript on parchment was created - the Ostromir Gospel with an afterword by the book scribe Deacon Gregory. Gregory, together with his assistants, rewrote and decorated the book in 8 months for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir (Joseph in baptism), whence the name of the Gospel comes from. The manuscript is luxuriously framed, written in a large calligraphic charter in two columns, and is a remarkable example of medieval book writing.
Of the other oldest East Slavic handwritten books, the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073 should be mentioned - a large-format folio with luxurious decoration, containing more than 380 articles of various content by 25 authors (including the essay "On Images", that is, about rhetorical figures and paths, a Byzantine grammar George Khirovoska), a small Izbornik of 1076, the Archangel Gospel of 1092, service menaias written in Novgorod: for September - 1095-1096, for October - 1096 and for November - 1097.
These seven manuscripts exhaust the circle of ancient Russian books of the 11th century, which have the date of writing put down in them by the scribes themselves. The remaining manuscripts of the 11th century either do not have an exact date, or are preserved in later lists, as, for example, the book of 16 Old Testament prophets with interpretations, rewritten in Cyrillic in 1047 from the Glagolitic original by a Novgorod priest named Ghoul Likhoy, has come down to our time in the lists of the 15th century . (In Ancient Rus', the custom of giving two names, Christian and "secular", was widespread not only in the world, compare above the name of Joseph-Ostromir, but also among the clergy and monasticism.)
Already in the oldest written monuments, the features of the Old Russian version of the Church Slavonic language are reflected, which distinguish it from the Old Slavonic. By the middle of the 11th century, the adaptation of the Old Church Slavonic language to Old Russian dialect soil was close to completion.
The appearance of writing, translations of the texts of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical texts, as well as some others, gave impetus to the formation of literature in the Church Slavonic language, which actively developed in the pre-Mongolian period. It is thanks to these factors that we now have information about the early stage of ancient Russian history, recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years.
In the history of the emergence of writing on the Old Russian soil, and with it the perception of a whole corpus of texts created in the literary language, had a huge impact on the development of the language, and the entire Old Russian, and then Russian culture as a whole.
The emergence of writing in Rus' Prepared by Kochergina Milena GOU Secondary School No. 2038
At the beginning of the 21st century, it is unthinkable to imagine modern life without books, newspapers, indexes, the flow of information, and the past without an ordered history, religion without sacred texts... The appearance of writing has become one of the most important, fundamental discoveries on the long path of human evolution. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long time of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted for millennia. IN
The main sources in the study of the history of the Russian language are its ancient written monuments. The question of the time of the emergence of writing in Rus' has not yet been finally resolved. It is traditionally believed that writing in Rus' arose with the adoption of Christianity, that is, in the 10th century. An undeciphered pre-Christian Russian Alekanov inscription found by A. Gorodtsov near Ryazan. After baptism, handwritten books appeared in Rus', written in the Old Slavonic language, brought here from Byzantium and Bulgaria. Then Old Russian books began to be created, written according to Old Slavonic models, and later Russian people began to use the alphabet taken from the southern Slavs in business correspondence.
Slavic writing had two alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The name Glagolitic comes from the Slavic word verbal - to speak. Bashchanskaya (Boshkanskaya) plate is one of the oldest known monuments of the Glagolitic script, XI century. "Kiev Glagolitic Sheets", sheet 3 The second alphabet was named Cyrillic after one of the two brothers - Slavic enlighteners who lived in the 9th century on the territory of present-day Bulgaria, the compilers of the first Slavic alphabet.
Cyril (his secular name is Konstantin) and Methodius were monks. To write church books, they (mainly Cyril) created an alphabetic system of thirty-eight letters based on the signs of the Greek alphabet. The letters were supposed to reflect the finest nuances of Slavic sounds. This system became known as the Glagolitic. It is assumed that work on the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet was completed in 863. Alphabet of the late Glagolitic alphabet (XX century). Initial Letters and Letters After their death, the brothers were canonized as saints, and on the icon, as can be seen here, they are always depicted together. Cyril and Methodius
In Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, there is a monument to Cyril and Methodius, it is installed in front of the building of the National Library, which bears their name. In Moscow, there is also a monument to the great Slavic enlighteners, erected in 1992. The sculptural composition (the work of the sculptor Klykov V.M.) is located in the center of Moscow on Slavyanskaya Square (at the beginning of Ilyinsky Square, which leads to the Polytechnic Museum and the monument to the heroes of Plevna). The Day of Slavic Literature and Culture is celebrated in Russia on May 24.
At the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries, the followers of the Slavic enlighteners created a new Slavic alphabet based on the Greek; to convey the phonetic features of the Slavic language, it was supplemented with letters borrowed from the Glagolitic. The letters of the new alphabet required less effort when writing, had clearer outlines. This alphabet, which was widely spread among the Eastern and Southern Slavs, later received the name of the Cyrillic alphabet in honor of Cyril (Konstantin) - the creator of the first Slavic alphabet. In Ancient Rus', both alphabets were known, but the Cyrillic alphabet was mainly used, and the monuments of the Old Russian language were written in Cyrillic. In the life of St. Clement of Ohrid, it is directly written about the creation of Slavic writing by him after Cyril and Methodius. Laurentian Chronicle
Cyrillic letters denoted not only speech sounds, but also numbers. Only under Peter I, Arabic numerals were introduced to denote numbers.
The Cyrillic alphabet gradually changed: the number of letters decreased, their style was simplified. Yusy (large and small), xi, psi, fita, izhitsa, zelo, yat were eliminated from the alphabet. Yus big Yus small xi psi fita Izhitsa zelo yat But the letters e, y, ya were introduced into the alphabet. The Russian alphabet was gradually created (from the initial letters of the Old Slavic alphabet - az, beeches) or the alphabet (the names of two Greek letters - alpha, vita). At present, there are 33 letters in our alphabet (of which 10 are used to designate vowels, 21 - consonants and 2 characters - ъ and ь).
In Cyrillic writing, capital letters were used only at the beginning of a paragraph. A large capital letter was intricately painted, so the first line of a paragraph was called red (that is, a beautiful line). Old Russian handwritten books are works of art, they are so beautifully and skillfully decorated: bright multi-colored initial letters (capital letters at the beginning of a paragraph), brown columns of text on pinkish-yellow parchment ... Emeralds and rubies were ground into the finest powder, and paints were prepared from them , which still do not wash off and do not fade. The initial letter was not only decorated, its very outline conveyed a certain meaning. In the initial letters you can see the bend of the wing, the tread of the beast, the plexus of roots, the meanders of the river, the contours of two twins - the sun and the heart. Each letter is individual, unique...
So the Slavs, who received both the alphabet and Christian books in their native language, and the literary language, dramatically increased the chance to quickly join the cultural world treasury and, if not destroy, then significantly reduce the cultural gap between the Byzantine Empire and the "barbarians".
http://ruslit.ioso.ru/kir_meph.htm http://virlib.eunnet.net/depository/? nch=0 http://nauka.relis.ru / http:// pkr.orthgymn.ru/textbook/p08.html http:// www.svetozar.ru/index/id/38368/index.html http:/ /www.predanie.ru/music/Rannee_russkoe_mnogogolosie / List of used sources on the Internet.
Thank you for your attention!
Municipal budgetary educational institution
"Solginskaya secondary school No. 86"
ORTHODOX LOCAL HISTORY EPIPHONE READINGS
Research topic:
"The emergence of writing in Rus'"
Rogutkina A., student
Grade 6 MBOU
"Solginskaya secondary school No. 86"
Supervisor:
Kulagina A. N.
teacher of Russian language and literature
2016
I. Introduction
As a result of communication with a wide range of my peers, I found out that some of them think that the topic of the emergence of Slavic writing in the modern world is irrelevant; that it has been studied so much that there are no “white spots” left in it; some do not understand the significance of the appearance of writing for the Slavs.
I want to show how important, fateful was the creation of their own alphabet for the Slavic peoples; to tell how the Slavonic writing developed.
The Russian writer and historiographer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin said: “The history of the mind represents two main eras: the invention of letters and typography; all others were their consequence. Reading and writing open up a new world for a person, especially in our time, with the current progress of the mind.
At the beginning of the 21st century, it is unthinkable to imagine modern life without books, newspapers, signs, the flow of information, and the past without an orderly history, religion without sacred texts... The appearance of writing has become one of the most important discoveries in the history of mankind. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long time of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted for millennia.How did the invention of the letter come about? What do people know about this?
The road to writing was long and difficult. It all started, some scientists think, with bears. It was a very long time ago. In those distant times, people lived in caves, because there were no houses yet. But bears lived in some caves.
Once people drove the bears out of some cave, looked around and saw some mysterious signs on the walls of their new dwellings. These were the scratches that the bears made when they sharpened their claws against the wall. Then people realized that on a flat surface you can scratch some kind of image. This is how the road to writing arose.
This is a picture letter. But the picture can be misread. If the writer gave the signs one meaning, and the reader another, then nothing good could come of it.
The pictorial writing was replaced by "sacred signs" - hieroglyphs. And then the Phoenicians, who lived two thousand years ago, invented letters - icons only for consonants. On the basis of the Phoenician letter, the Greek alphabet appeared in Greece, which gave rise to both Latin and Slavic letters. Our Russian alphabet appeared in Rus' along with liturgical the books of the New Testament.
aimOur work is to study the history of the emergence of writing in Rus'.
Tasks research:
1. Find out why there was a need for the emergence of writing?
2. Who are they - the creators of Slavic writing - Constantine and Methodius?
3. Cyrillic and Glagolitic - two Slavic alphabets. What do they have in common and what is the difference?
4. Study the composition of the Cyrillic alphabet.
5. Track what reforms were carried out in the Russian alphabet?
The object of research is the Russian alphabet.
The subject of the research is the history of its origin and development.
II. Main part
1. Versions of the emergence of writing in Rus'
The main sources in the study of the history of the Russian language are its ancient written monuments. The question of the time of the emergence of writing in Rus' has not yet been finally resolved. It is traditionally believed that writing in Rus' arose with the adoption of Christianity, that is, in the 10th century.
There are several versions of the appearance of writing in Rus'.
One of the versions is that before baptism in Rus' was used so-called"Velesovitsa". The name is given conditionally, already in the 20th century, named after the god Veles, the patron of wisdom and knowledge.
The second version says that in ancient pagan times in Rus' there was almost 100% literacy.
Numerous excavations (birch bark letters dated to the pre-Christian period) confirm the fact that almost every city dweller
Possessed the skills of the simplest arithmetic calculation;
He knew how to write a household message on birch bark;
By means of the then "mail" send it to the address.
Not only in the cities, but also in the villages, many children were taught by the "witches" (community hierarchs) the simplest literacy necessary in everyday life.
According to the third and most common version, the writing of the Eastern Slavs did not exist, and the first Russian alphabet was the Cyrillic alphabet, created by the Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius. According to the annals, they simply added some new characters to the already existing Greek alphabet, resulting in an alphabet called named after one of the brothers.
2. Cyril and Methodius
In the ninth century the state association of the Western Slavs was known - the Moravian Principality, located on the territory of present-day Slovakia. The German feudal lords sought to subjugate Moravia politically, economically, and culturally. German missionaries were sent to Moravia to preach Christianity in Latin. In an effort to maintain independence, the Moravian prince Rostislav sent an embassy to the Byzantine emperor Michael III with a request to send teachers to Moravia (preachers of Christianity according to the Byzantine rite) who would teach the inhabitants of Moravia Christianity in their native language, because in the Moravian churches, worship was performed in Latin. And how many Slavs knew Latin? Almost all those standing in the church did not understand what was read and sung, and could not read a single line from the Gospel themselves.
Patriarch Photius sent two missionaries to Moravia, the brothers Methodius and Constantine.
They became the enlighteners of the Slavs and the creators of the Slavic alphabet, which later became the basis of the modern Russian alphabet. The brothers were born in the Macedonian city of Thessaloniki, which then belonged to the Byzantine Empire. Their father Leo was a Greek and served in the Byzantine army, almost nothing is known about their mother Mary, although some authors believe that she was a Bulgarian. The eldest son Methodius (in total, Leo and Mary, according to the Life of Cyril and Methodius, had seven children, the names of five are unknown) was born in 820, the younger Constantine, in monasticism Cyril, was born in 826.
Initially, the life paths of the brothers diverged.
Methodius entered the military service, continuing the family tradition, and made a successful military career. He was tall, handsome in face and strong in body, his character was strong-willed and hot. As a young man, he distinguished himself in military operations, and the emperor granted him control of the Strymon region, inhabited by Slavs.
For everyone, the sudden resignation of Methodius and his acceptance of monastic vows came as a complete surprise. “The good of our soul is not in worldly honors,” he said.
Konstantin, from the very beginning, followed a learned path. From childhood, he was distinguished by poor health, and children's amusements did not interest him. But the boy loved to think, read, and early showed the ability to all kinds of sciences. He received an excellent education in Constantinople.
From the beginning of the 850s, Constantine began missionary work in neighboring countries, where he preached Christianity. Trips to Bulgaria, Syria and other countries gave Konstantin a lot in terms of studying the languages and cultures of these peoples. So he mastered the Hebrew script, which he later used to create the Slavic alphabet.
The character and life of the brothers are similar. They both lived mostly spiritual lives, not attaching any importance to wealth, fame, or career. They did not have a family, a permanent home, and even both died in a foreign land. The younger brother created the Slavic alphabet, laid the foundations of Slavic writing. The elder practically developed what was created by the younger. The younger was a talented scientist, philosopher, subtle philologist, the older one was a capable organizer and practical figure.
Konstantin was a very educated person for his time. Even before his trip to Moravia, he compiled the Slavonic alphabet and began translating the Gospel into Slavonic. In Moravia, Constantine and Methodius continued to translate church books from Greek into Slavonic, taught the Slavs how to read, write, and lead worship in Slavonic. The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years, and then went with their students to Rome to the Pope. There they hoped to find support in the fight against the German clergy, who did not want to give up their positions in Moravia and prevented the spread of Slavic writing.
In Rome, Constantine took the monastic vows, taking the name Cyril. There, in 869, Cyril was poisoned. Before his death, he wrote to Methodius: "You and I are like two oxen; one fell from a heavy burden, the other must continue on his way." Methodius and his disciples returned to Moravia.
By that time, the situation in Moravia had changed dramatically. After the death of Rostislav, his captive Svyatopolk became the prince of Moravia, who submitted to German political influence. The activity of Methodius and his disciples proceeded in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy interfered in every possible way with the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church.
Methodius was put in prison, where he died in 885, and after that his opponents managed to achieve the prohibition of Slavic writing in Moravia. Many students were executed, some moved to Bulgaria and Croatia. In Bulgaria, Tsar Boris in 864 converted to Christianity. Bulgaria becomes the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. Slavic schools are created here, Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books are copied, new Slavonic translations from Greek are made, original works in Old Church Slavonic appear.
3. Glagolitic and Cyrillic
Old Slavonic alphabets, which are used to write monuments that have survived to this day, are called Glagolitic and Cyrillic.
The first inscriptions in Cyrillic and Glagolitic that have come down to us date back to approximately the same time - the turn of the 9th-10th centuries. But the Cyrillic alphabet was distributed mainly among the Eastern and Southern Slavs, and the Glagolitic - among the southern and western. On the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, many modern Slavic (and not only Slavic) alphabets were created, while the Glagolitic alphabet turned out to be an absolutely dead alphabet, from which none of the modern writing systems “grew” the basis of Greek cursive writing of the 9th century. with the addition of some letters from other Eastern alphabets. This is a very peculiar, intricate, loop-shaped letter, which for a long time in a slightly modified form was used by the Croats (until the 17th century). The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes. Cyrillic is the Slavic alphabet that underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabets.
The wide distribution of Slavic writing, its "Golden Age", dates back to the reign of Simeon (893-927), the son of Boris, in Bulgaria. Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century. becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.
The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition, as it included elements of living East Slavic speech.
The characters of the Greek statutory alphabet served as a model for writing Cyrillic letters. The first books in Cyrillic were also written in the charter. A charter is such a letter when the letters are written directly at the same distance from each other, without an inclination - they are, as it were, "lined". The letters are strictly geometric, vertical lines are usually thicker than horizontal ones, there is no gap between words. Old Russian manuscripts of the 9th - 14th centuries were written in the charter.
From the middle of the 14th century, the semi-charter became widespread, which was less beautiful than the charter, but allowed you to write faster. There was a slope in the letters, their geometry is not so noticeable; the ratio of thick and thin lines is no longer maintained; The text has already been divided into words.
In the 15th century, semi-ustav gave way to cursive writing. Manuscripts written in the "quick custom" are distinguished by the coherent writing of neighboring letters, the sweeping of the letter.
In cursive writing, each letter had many spellings. With the development of speed, signs of individual handwriting appear.
The oldest book in Rus', written in Cyrillic, is the Ostromir Gospel of 1057. This Gospel is kept in St. Petersburg, in the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In Cyrillic writing, capital letters were used only at the beginning of a paragraph. A large capital letter was intricately painted, so the first line of a paragraph was called red (that is, a beautiful line). Old Russian handwritten books are works of art, they are so beautifully and skillfully decorated: bright multi-colored initial letters (capital letters at the beginning of a paragraph), brown columns of text on pinkish-yellow parchment ... Emeralds and rubies were ground into the finest powder, and paints were prepared from them , which still do not wash off and do not fade. The initial letter was not only decorated, its very outline conveyed a certain meaning. In the initial letters you can see the bend of the wing, the tread of the beast, the plexus of roots, the meanders of the river, the contours of two twins - the sun and the heart.The Old Russian scribe did not just decorate the initial letter with an ornament, he, first of all, tried to beautifully convey the thought. He did not consider the initial letter just a designation of a sound; the mark itself meant a lot to him. For the ancient Russian man, the whole world and even the sky above his head was a book, an unfolded scroll, which not everyone can read.Each letter is individual, unique...
Old Russian handwritten books are distinguished by a high culture of artistic design, original calligraphy. Multi-colored initials (or initials), headpieces, illustrations, brown columns of text evoke the idea of a handwritten book as a work of art.
4. Writing reforms
Cyrillic existed almost unchanged until the time of Peter the Great, when changes were made to the styles of some letters, and 11 letters were excluded from the alphabet. The new alphabet has become poorer in content, but simpler and more adapted to printing various civil business papers. That's how he got the name "civilian".
The Cyrillic alphabet, as it is used in the Russian language, has undergone gradual improvement.
The development of the Russian nation at the beginning of the 18th century, the emerging need for printing civilian books necessitated the need to simplify the outlines of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1708, a Russian civil font was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in the production of sketches of letters. In 1710, a sample of a new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of the Peter's reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such obsolete and unnecessary letters as "psi", "xi", "omega", "Izhitsa", "earth", "illumined", "yus small". However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter E ("E" reverse) was introduced in order to distinguish it from the iotized letter E, as well as the letter I instead of the small iotized yus.
For the first time, uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters are established in the civil font.
The letter Y (and short) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. The letter Y was first used by N. M. Karamzin in 1797 to denote the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants, for example: palate, dark.
In the XVIII century. in the literary language, the sound denoted by the letter b (yat) coincided with the sound [e]. The letter Ъ, thus, practically turned out to be unnecessary, but according to tradition, it was kept in the Russian alphabet for a long time, until 1917-1918.
The spelling reform of 1917-1918. two letters that duplicated each other were excluded: "yat", "fita", "and decimal". The letter b (ep) was retained only as a separator, b (er) as a separator and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. With regard to Yo, the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not the obligatory use of this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian writing and thereby facilitated literacy.
There are 33 letters in the modern Russian alphabet, of which 10 denote vowel sounds, 21 are consonants, and 2 letters do not denote special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet shown in the table has uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.
III. Conclusion
May 24 - Day of Slavic Culture and Writing (Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius) - a holiday known as the day of memory of the first teachers of the Slavic peoples - the brothers Cyril and Methodius. The celebration of the memory of the holy brothers in the old days took place among all Slavic peoples, but then, under influenced by historical and political circumstances, was lost. At the beginning of the 19th century, along with the revival of the Slavic peoples, the memory of the Slavic first teachers was also renewed. In 1863, a decision was made in Rus' to celebrate the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The creation of their own writing, which took place in the 9th century, was for the Slavs a great achievement of that time - akin to a real revolution in the minds. It used to be thought that only three languages could exist in the world: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Cyril and Methodius, having created the Slavic alphabet and translated the books of Holy Scripture into the language of the Slavs, contributed to:
Dissemination of knowledge among the Slavic peoples;
The successful struggle of Orthodoxy with Catholicism, which in turn played a big role in strengthening the self-consciousness of the Slavs and gaining statehood in the future.
The fact of the creation of writing is of great importance for the present. After all, we still use the Cyrillic alphabet - the letters that Cyril and Methodius invented. No wonder the monk brothers were canonized, monuments were erected to them, and in Bulgaria there is even an order named after them.
List of used literature
1. Zemskaya E.A. Russian colloquial speech / Ed. Kitaygrodskoy M.V. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 276 p.
2. Ivanov V.V., Potikha Z.A. Historical commentary on Russian language classes in secondary school. - M.: Enlightenment, 1985. - 200 p.
3. Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. - M.: Enlightenment, 1976. - 50 p.
4. Ivanova T.A. Old Slavonic language. - M.: Higher School, 1977. - 482 p.
5. Likhachev D.S. Questions of history. – M.: Nauka, 1951. – 260 p.
6. Likhachev D.S. Monuments of literature of Ancient Rus'. – M.: Nauka, 1988. – 158 p.
7. Minin Yu.P. The clue to the Russian alphabet / Ed. Ivanova K.R. - M.: Culture, 1985. - 143 p.
8. Rosenthal D.E., Golub I.B., Telenkova M.A. Modern Russian language. - M.: Iris-Press, 2002. - 250 p.
9. Speransky M.N. Russian forgeries of manuscripts at the beginning of the 19th century. // Problems of source studies. M.: Slovo, 1986. V.5. P.72.
10. Yakubinsky L.P. History of the Old Russian language. - Moscow: Higher School, 1953. – 450 s.
11. http://www.detisavve.ru
CYRILLIC LETTERS AND THEIR NAMES
COMPOSITION OF THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET
Russian alphabet and letter names:
Modern Russian is based on Old Church Slavonic, which, in turn, was previously used for both writing and speech. Many scrolls and paintings have survived to this day.
Culture of Ancient Rus': writing
Many scholars claim that until the ninth century there was no written language at all. This means that in the days of Kievan Rus, writing did not exist as such.
However, this assumption is erroneous, because if you look at the history of other developed countries and states, you can see that each strong state had its own script. Since it was also included in a number of rather strong countries, writing was also necessary for Rus'.
Another group of research scientists proved that there was a written language, and this conclusion was supported by a number of historical documents and facts: Brave wrote the legends “About Writings”. Also, "in the Lives of Methodius and Constantine" it is mentioned that the Eastern Slavs had written language. Ibn Fadlan's notes are also cited as evidence.
So when did writing appear in Rus'? The answer to this question is still controversial. But the main argument for society, confirming the emergence of writing in Rus', are the agreements between Russia and Byzantium, which were written in 911 and 945.
Cyril and Methodius: a huge contribution to Slavic writing
The contribution of the Slavic enlighteners is invaluable. It was with the beginning of their work that they had their own alphabet, which was much simpler in its pronunciation and writing than the previous version of the language.
It is known that the educators and their students did not preach among the East Slavic peoples, however, researchers say that, perhaps, Methodius and Cyril set themselves such a goal. Adoption of one's views would allow not only to expand the range of one's interests, but would also simplify the introduction of a simplified language into East Slavic culture.
In the tenth century, books and lives of the great enlighteners came to the territory of Rus', where they began to enjoy real success. It is to this moment that researchers attribute the emergence of writing in Rus', the Slavic alphabet.
Rus' since the appearance of its language alphabet
Despite all these facts, some researchers are trying to prove that the alphabet of the Enlighteners appeared in the days of Kievan Rus, that is, even before baptism, when Rus was a pagan land. Despite the fact that most of the historical documents are written in Cyrillic, there are papers that contain information written in Glagolitic. Researchers say that, probably, the Glagolitic alphabet was also used in Ancient Rus' precisely in the period of the ninth-tenth centuries - before the adoption of Christianity by Russia.
More recently, this assumption has been proven. Scientists-researchers found a document that contained records of a certain priest Upir. In turn, Upir wrote that in 1044 the Glagolitic alphabet was used in Rus', but the Slavic people perceived it as the work of the enlightener Cyril and began to call it "Cyrillic".
It is difficult to say how much the culture of Ancient Rus' differed at that time. The emergence of writing in Rus', as is commonly believed, began precisely from the moment of the widespread distribution of the books of the Enlightenment, despite the facts that indicate that writing was an important element for pagan Rus'.
The rapid development of Slavic writing: the baptism of the pagan land
The rapid pace of development of the writing of the East Slavic peoples began after the baptism of Rus', when writing appeared in Rus'. In 988, when Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in Rus', children, who were considered the social elite, began to be taught from alphabetic books. It was at the same time that church books appeared in writing, inscriptions on cylinder locks, and there were also written expressions that blacksmiths knocked out on order, on swords. Texts appear on princely seals.
Also, it is important to note that there are legends about coins with inscriptions that were used by princes Vladimir, Svyatopolk and Yaroslav.
And in 1030, birch-bark documents became widely used.
The first written records: birch bark letters and books
The first written records were records on birch bark. Such a letter is a written record on a small fragment of birch bark.
Their uniqueness lies in the fact that today they are perfectly preserved. For researchers, such a find is of great importance: in addition to the fact that thanks to these letters one can learn the features of the Slavic language, writing on birch bark can tell about important events that took place in the period of the eleventh-fifteenth centuries. Such records have become an important element for studying the history of Ancient Rus'.
In addition to the Slavic culture, birch bark letters were also used among the cultures of other countries.
At the moment, there are many birch bark documents in the archives, the authors of which are Old Believers. In addition, with the advent of birch bark, people taught how to exfoliate birch bark. This discovery was the impetus for writing books in Slavic writing in Rus' began to develop more and more.
A find for researchers and historians
The first writings made on birch bark paper, which were found in Russia, were located in the city of Veliky Novgorod. Everyone who has studied history knows that this city was of no small importance for the development of Rus'.
A new stage in the development of writing: translation as the main achievement
The South Slavs had a huge influence on writing in Rus'.
Under Prince Vladimir in Rus', they began to translate books and documents from the South Slavic language. And under Prince Yaroslav the Wise, a literary language began to develop, thanks to which such a literary genre as church literature appeared.
Of great importance for the Old Russian language was the ability to translate texts from foreign languages. The first translations (of books) that came from the Western European side were translations from Greek. It was the Greek language that largely changed the culture of the Russian language. Many borrowed words were used more and more in literary works, even in the same church writings.
It was at this stage that the culture of Rus' began to change, the writing of which became more and more complicated.
Reforms of Peter the Great: on the way to a simple language
With the advent of Peter I, who reformed all the structures of the Russian people, significant amendments were made even to the culture of the language. The appearance of writing in Rus' in antiquity immediately complicated the already complex In 1708, Peter the Great introduced the so-called "civil script". Already in 1710, Peter the Great personally revised every letter of the Russian language, after which a new alphabet was created. The alphabet was distinguished by its simplicity and ease of use. The Russian ruler wanted to simplify the Russian language. Many letters were simply excluded from the alphabet, due to which not only colloquial speech was simplified, but also written.
Significant changes in the 18th century: the introduction of new symbols
The main change during this period was the introduction of such a letter as "and short". This letter was introduced in 1735. Already in 1797 Karamzin used a new sign to denote the sound "yo".
By the end of the 18th century, the letter "yat" had lost its meaning, because its sound coincided with the sound of "e". It was at this time that the letter "yat" was no longer used. Soon she also ceased to be part of the Russian alphabet.
The last stage of the development of the Russian language: small changes
The final reform that changed writing in Rus' was the reform of 1917, which lasted until 1918. It meant the exclusion of all letters, the sound of which was either too similar or completely repeated. It is thanks to this reform that today the hard sign (b) is separating, and the soft sign (b) has become separating when denoting a soft consonant sound.
It is important to note that this reform caused great dissatisfaction on the part of many prominent literary figures. For example, Ivan Bunin strongly criticized this change in his native language.
