Slavic language identification request

Sep 01, 2012 02:29

Which languages are these?

(1) History of Different Slavic Peoples by J. Rajic (1823)
(2) Bulgarian History by Chrysanth of Dupnitsa (1844)

I'd classify both as Church Slavonic. However, the former seems to be influenced by Russian, and the latter has typical Bulgarian grammatical features similar to those of Modern Greek («за да видите вы» = «για να ( Read more... )

slavic, russian, bulgarian, serbo-croatian-montenegran, language identification

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Comments 7

archaicos August 31 2012, 23:48:22 UTC
I'd think that the contemporary Russian and the contemporary Bulgarian came out of them. Being Russian, I can easily read the former but not the latter.

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5x6 September 1 2012, 04:16:29 UTC
You confuse me. I know you are a native Russian speaker and I thought you were a linguist, how in the world could you possibly be calling the former example Church Slavonic? It bears no resemblance neither to Church Slavonic, nor even to Old Russian, it is modern Russian, albeit not contemporary but typical of, say, 1700s (maybe 1600s, but not much earlier). There is not even a single past tense form besides the reduced perfect, a hallmark of the modern Russian.

The latter may be Church Slavonic, but to me it looks like a mix between the real Old Slavonic and one or more modern Slavic languages (note total absence of yuses, for instance), but I am definitely not an expert enough to say with any confidence.

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13chapters September 1 2012, 05:46:33 UTC
I am definitely not an expert, but I do speak Bulgarian (not as a native speaker) and I can read the second one pretty easily. I am really intrigued by it! It has quite a few aspects I associate with Russian (which I've studied, but don't really speak very well), like cases, the letter ы, and words ending in ъ.

Irrespective of the language, I am also pretty delighted that this guy decided that a history of Bulgaria had to start with Noah's flood. I mean, it just makes sense if you think about it, I guess.

"Japeth had seven sons...the sixth one was Mosoh. From him descended the Cappadocians, the Misini (?), the Russians, the Illyrians, and all of the Slavic nations...Mosoh travelled from Babylon through Asia and into Europe above the shore of the Black Sea, where he built his city." It turns out Mosoh was also the forefather of the Muscovites, Lehi (?? Lithuanians maybe?), Bulgarians, Boemtsi (?), Hungarians, Serbs, Dalmatians, Croatians, Herzegovians, Montenegrins, Slovenians, and Venetians.

This book is GOLD.

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13chapters September 1 2012, 07:18:34 UTC
Ah, thanks! Hungarians and Venetians aren't Slavs either, so I didn't think that was necessary.

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