Church Slavonic was the main language used for administrative (until the 16th century) and liturgical purposes (until the 17th century) by the Romanian principalities, being still occasionally used in the
Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church may refer to:
* Eastern Orthodox Church
* Oriental Orthodox Churches
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
* State church of the Roman Empire
* True Orthodox church
See also
* Orthodox (di ...
until the early 18th century.
Characteristics
The language, while based on
Church Slavonic, was influenced by the Slavic languages used by surrounding peoples. The most important influences were from Middle and Modern
Bulgarian, with some smaller influences from
Serbian (in
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
) and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
(in
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...
). Starting with the 15th century, the language was also influenced by
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...
.
Usage
After the
Slavic migrations, Slavonic became the liturgical language of the Eastern Orthodox Church in present-day Romania, under the influence of the South Slavic feudal states. The exact timing of this change happened is not known, but it was probably in the 10th century.
[Georgescu, p.66] While the language was not understood by most Romanians, it was a language known by the bishops, the monks, some of the priests, the clerks, the merchants, the boyars and the Prince.
Church Slavonic was also used as a
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
, for example in
chronicles, story-books, law codexes (known as ''pravila''), property documents (''hrisov''), decrees of the voivodes or boyars, diplomatic correspondence and sometimes even in private letters. It also led to an integration of the written Romanian culture into the Slavic culture of the neighbours.
Replacement with Romanian
The earliest contracts (''zapis'') to be written in Romanian rather than Slavonic date from 1575 to 1590 and by 1655–1660, all the administrative documents at the Princely Courts of both Wallachia and Moldavia were written in Romanian.
The replacement of Slavonic religious texts with Romanian versions began with the first translations in
Máramaros (now Maramureș) in the late 15th century, further translations being created in Transylvania after the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...
.
[Costăchel et al., p.511] In
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
, the gospels were translated into the vernacular between 1512 and 1518, and by the middle of the 16th century, the earliest religious works were printed, while
the first complete bible in Romanian was printed in Bucharest in 1688.
Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church opposed the changes and the Metropolitan
printing presses
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
continued to print Church Slavonic books until 1731 in Moldavia and 1745 in Wallachia.
[Georgescu, p.67]
Legacy and assessments
Coresi, the printer of the first Romanian-language book, saw in 1564 no good in the usage of Church Slavonic as a liturgical language, as the priests speak to the people in a foreign language, arguing that all the other peoples have the
word of God in their language, except for the Romanians.
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir (, russian: Дмитрий Кантемир; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Romanian prince, statesman, and man of letters, regarded as one of the most significant e ...
, a Moldavian scholar who published the first novel in Romanian, saw the usage of Church Slavonic as a "barbarism", which caused a cultural regression.
However, there were some cultural accomplishments done in the Church Slavonic language, such as a number of chronicles and historiographical works in Moldavia or
Neagoe Basarab
Neagoe Basarab (; c.1459 – 15 September 1521) was the Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia between 1512 and 1521. Born into the boyar family of the Craioveşti (his reign marks the climax of the family's political influence) as the son of Pârvu Cr ...
's Teachings to his son Theodosie.
[Georgescu, p.68]
See also
*
Slavic influence on Romanian
Notes
References
*V. Costăchel,
P. P. Panaitescu
Petre P. Panaitescu (March 11, 1900 – November 14, 1967) was a Romanian literary historian. A native of Iași, he spent most of his adult life in the national capital Bucharest, where he rose to become a professor at University of Bucharest, ...
, A. Cazacu. (1957) ''Viaţa feudală în Ţara Românească şi Moldova (secolele XIV–XVI)'' ("Feudal life in the Romanian and Moldovan Land (14th–16th centuries)", București, Editura Ştiinţifică
*Vlad Georgescu. (1991) ''The Romanians: a history'', Ohio State University Press. {{ISBN, 0-8142-0511-9
History of Christianity in Romania
Languages of Romania
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
Romanian Orthodox Church
Sacred languages