Which language is closest to Old Church Slavonic?
The Bulgarian language is closest to Old Church Slavonic. Even if we need to be accurate, the Bulgarian and Old Church-Slavic languages are the same. In the Middle Ages, the Romans call it two terms: Bulgarian and Slavic (which comes from the name of the Bulgarian tribe Sloveni).
What language do Russian Orthodox speak?
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic is the current liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church and certain Byzantine (Ruthenian) Eastern Catholic churches.
How similar is Russian and Bulgarian?
They are very similar as vocabulary – most words are easily recognisable as derived from the same source despite the phonetic changes; however, grammatically they are very far apart as Bulgarian is a rather analytic language while Russian is very synthetic.
Do Russians understand Slavonic church?
No Russian has “never” heard Church Slavonic (by some accounts up to tens of percents of core vocabulary is borrowed from CS, plus multiple idiomatic expressions which have long since been part of the language).
Are Russian and Church Slavonic the same language?
While both Russian and Church Slavonic are Slavic languages, some early Slavic sound combinations evolved differently in each branch.
What is the other name of Old Church Slavic?
The language is sometimes called Old Slavic, which may be confused with the distinct Proto-Slavic language. Different strains of nationalists have tried to ‘claim’ Old Church Slavonic; thus OCS has also been variously called Old Bulgarian, Old Croatian, Old Macedonian or Old Serbian, or even Old Slovak, Old Slovenian.
How many different dialects of Church Slavic are there?
The Church Slavonic language is actually a set of at least four different dialects (recensions or redactions; Russian: извод, izvod), with essential distinctions between them in dictionary, spelling (even in writing systems), phonetics, and other aspects.
Is there a difference between Slav-Bulgarian and old Macedonian?
For similar reasons, Russian linguist Aleksandr Vostokov used the term Slav-Bulgarian. The term is still used by some writers but nowadays normally avoided in favor of Old Church Slavonic . The term Old Macedonian is occasionally used by Western scholars in a regional context.