Aims

At the end of this course, the student is supposed to know the essential structure of the Old Slavonic language (Cyrillic alphabet, morphology, syntax, lexicon), so that he is able to read on his own texts of an average level of difficulty. He will also have learned the history of Old Church Slavonic, within the framework of both Slavic and Indo-European linguistics.

Main themes

The aim of the course is the historical and synchronic study of Old Church Slavonic. An introduction to Slavic linguistics in general and more especially to southern Slavic will be followed by the study of phonology and writing, morphology and word formation; reading and commentary of texts will be the occasion of syntactical explanations.

Content and teaching methods

The course consists in the following parts: introduction to Old Church Slavonic (its history and its place among the Slavic and Indo-European languages); study of phonetics and alphabet; morphology and word formation; reading and grammatical (including syntactical) analysis of Old Church Slavonic texts.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisite : none.
Evaluation: continuous throughout the year and oral exam at the end of the year (grammatical theory; reading, translation and commentary of an Old Church Slavonic text).
Texts and books : VAILLANT, André, Grammaire du Vieux slave (Collection de manuels publiée par l'Institut d'Etudes Slaves), 2e éd., Paris, Institut d'Etudes Slaves, 1964. AITZETMÜLLER, Rudof, Altbulgarische Grammatik als Einführung in die slavische Sprachwissenschaft (Old Bulgarian (Monumenta Linguae Slavicae dialecti veteris. Fontes et Dissertationes, 12), Freiburg i. Br., Weiher, 1991. LUNT, Horace G., Old Church Slavonic Grammar, Berlin / New York, 2001.

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