View source for Old Church Slavonic

{{Short description|Medieval Slavic literary language}}
{{redirect|Old Bulgarian |the extinct Turkic language|Bulgar language}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Old Church Slavonic
| image            = Old east slavic in manuscript.jpg
| altname          = Old Church Slavic
| nativename       = {{lang|cu-Glag|ⱄⰾⱁⰲⱑⱀⱐⱄⰽⱏ ⱗⰸⱏⰺⰽⱏ}}<br/>{{lang|cu-Cyrs|словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ}}
| states           = Formerly in Slavic areas under the influence of Byzantium
| region           = {{plainlist |
*[[Southeastern Europe]]
*[[Eastern Europe]]
*[[Central Europe]]}}
| era              = 9th–11th centuries; then evolved into several variants of [[Church Slavonic]] including [[Middle Bulgarian]]
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
| fam3             = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
| fam4             = [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]]
| fam5             = [[Eastern South Slavic]]
| script           = [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]
| iso1             = cu
| iso2             = chu
| iso3             = chu
| iso3comment      = (includes [[Church Slavonic language|Church&nbsp;Slavonic]])
| glotto           = chur1257
| glottoname       = Church Slavic
| lingua           = 53-AAA-a
| notice           = IPA
}}

'''Old Church Slavonic''' '''(OCS)''' or '''Old Slavonic''' ({{IPAc-en |s|l|ə|ˈ|v|ɒ|n|ɪ|k|,_|s|l|æ|ˈ|v|ɒ|n|-}} {{respell|slə|VON|ik|,_|slav|ON|-}})<ref name= "lpd">{{citation|last= Wells |first= John C.|year= 2008 |title= Longman Pronunciation Dictionary|edition= 3rd|publisher= Longman |isbn= 978-1-40588118-0}}</ref>{{efn |Also known as '''Old Church Slavic''',<ref name= "lpd" /><ref>{{Citation|last= Jones |first= Daniel |title= English Pronouncing Dictionary|year= 2003 |editor-first = Peter | editor-last = Roach |orig-year= 1917|place=Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 978-3-12-539683-8|author-link= Daniel Jones (phonetician) |editor2-first =James | editor2-last = Hartmann|editor3-first =Jane | editor3-last = Setter}}</ref> '''Old Slavic''' ({{IPAc-en |ˈ|s|l|ɑː|v|ɪ|k|,_|ˈ|s|l|æ|v|ɪ|k|-}} {{respell|SLAH|vik|,_|SLAV|ik|-}}), '''Paleo-Slavic''', '''Paleoslavic''', '''Palaeo-Slavic''', '''Palaeoslavic'''{{sfnp|Malkiel|1993|p= 10}} (not to be confused with [[Proto-Slavic]]), or sometimes as '''Old Bulgarian''', '''Old Macedonian''', or '''Old Slovenian'''.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Lunt |first= Horace G. |title= Old Church Slavonic grammar – With an epilogue: Toward a generative phonology of Old Church Slavonic |publisher= De Gruyter Mouton |year= 1974 |isbn= 978-3-11-119191-1 |location= Berlin |pages = 3, 4 |quote= Since the majority of the early manuscripts which have survived were copied in the Bulgaro-Macedonian area and since there are certain specifically Eastern Balkan Slavic features, many scholars have preferred to call the language Old Bulgarian, although Old Macedonian could also be justified.  In the nineteenth century there was a theory that this language was based on the dialect of Pannonia, and accordingly the term Old Slovenian was adopted for a time. … The older term "Middle Bulgarian", invented to distinguish younger texts from "Old Bulgarian" (=OCS), covers both the fairly numerous mss from Macedonia and the few from Bulgaria proper. There are some texts which are hard to classify because they show mixed traits: Macedonian, Bulgarian and Serbian.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gamanovich |first= Alypy |title= Grammar of the Church Slavonic Language |publisher= Holy Trinity Monastery|year= 2001 |isbn= 0-88465064-2 |location= Printshop of St Job of Pochaev |page =9|quote= The Old Church Slavonic language is based on Old Bulgarian, as spoken by the Slavs of the Macedonian district. In those days the linguistic differences between the various Slavic peoples were far less than they are today…}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Flier|first=Michael S |title= Aspects of Nominal Determination in Old Church Slavic|publisher= De Gruyter Mouton|year=1974|isbn= 978-90-279-3242-6 |page = 31 |quote= 'Old Church Slavic' is only one of many terms referring alternately to the language of a number of translations made by Cyril and Methodius in the middle of the ninth century to be used for liturgical purposes in the Great Moravian State,… (For example, Old Church Slavonic, Old Bulgarian, Old Slovenian.)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last= Adams |first= Charles Kendall |title= Universal Cyclopædia and Atlas | volume = 10|publisher= D. Appleton |year=1876 |isbn= 978-1-23010206-1 |pages = 561–2 |quote= Constantine (later called Monk Cyril) founded a literary language for all the Slavs – the so-called Church Slavonic or Old Bulgarian (or Old Slovenian), which served for many centuries as the organ of the Church and of Christian civilization for more than half of the Slavic race. … At the outset Dobrowsky recognized in it a southern dialect, which he called at first Old Servian, later Bulgaro-Servian or Macedonian. Kopitar advanced the hypothesis of a Pannonian-Carantanian origin, which Miklosich followed with slight modifications. From these two scholars comes the name Old Slovenian. Safarik defended the Old Bulgarian hypothesis, more on historical than on linguistic grounds. The name Old Slovenian is still used because in native sources the language was so-called, slovenisku (slovenica lingua), but it is now known to have been a South Slavic dialect spoken somewhere in Macedonia in the ninth century, having the most points of contact not with modern Slovenian, but with Bulgarian.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Arthur De Bray |first= Reginald George |title= Guide to the Slavonic Languages |publisher= J. M. Dent & Sons |year= 1969 |isbn= 978-0-46003913-0 |page = 16 |quote= This book starts with a brief summary of the phonetics and grammar of Old Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian).}}</ref>}} is the first [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] [[literary language]] and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] subgroup of the [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]] branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language family and remains the [[liturgical language]] of many Christian Orthodox churches.    

Historians credit the 9th-century [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] missionaries [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] with [[Standard language|standardizing]] the language and undertaking the task of translating the [[Gospel]]s and necessary [[Eastern Orthodox worship#Liturgical books|liturgical books]] into it<ref name=Catholic_Encyclopedia>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04592a.htm |title=Sts. Cyril and Methodius |author=Abraham, Ladislas |date=1908 |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |access-date=2023-08-02 }}</ref> as part of the [[Christianization of the Slavs]].{{sfnp|Waldman|Mason|2006 |p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kfv6HKXErqAC&pg=PA752 752] | ps =: "There is disagreement as to whether Cyril and his brother Methodius were Greek or Slavic, but they knew the Slavic dialect spoken in Macedonia, adjacent to Thessalonika."}}<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Čiževskij | first1 = Dmitrij | translator1-last = Porter | translator1-first = Richard Noel | translator2-last = Rice | translator2-first = Martin P. | year = 1971 | chapter = The Beginnings of Slavic Literature | title = Comparative History of Slavic Literatures | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IJBJVtUdxr4C | publisher = Vanderbilt University Press | publication-date = 2000 | page = 27 | isbn = 978-0-82651371-7 | access-date = 9 June 2019 | quote = The language of the translations was based on Old Bulgarian and was certainly close to the Old Bulgarian dialect spoken in the native region of the missionaries. At the same time, the brothers [Cyril and Methodius] probably used elements, particularly lexical, from the regions where they were working. […] The Slavic language used in the translations was at the time intelligible to all Slavs.}}</ref> It is thought to have been based primarily on the dialect of the 9th-century [[Sclaveni|Byzantine Slavs]] living in the [[Thessalonica (theme)|Province of Thessalonica]] (in present-day [[Greece]]).

Old Church Slavonic played an important role in the history of the [[Slavic languages]] and served as a basis and model for later [[Church Slavonic]] traditions. Some [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern Catholic]] churches use these Church Slavonic recensions as a [[liturgical language]] to this day.

As the oldest attested Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic provides important evidence for the features of [[Proto-Slavic]], the reconstructed common ancestor of all Slavic languages.

==Nomenclature==
The name of the language in Old Church Slavonic texts was simply ''Slavic'' ({{lang|cu|словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ}}, {{lang|cu-Latn|slověnĭskŭ językŭ}}),<ref name="nandris">{{harvp|Nandris|1959|p=2}}.</ref> derived from the word for ''Slavs'' ({{lang|cu|словѣ́нє}}, {{lang|cu-Latn|slověne}}), the self-designation of the compilers of the texts. This name is preserved in the modern native names of the [[Slovak language|Slovak]] and [[Slovene language|Slovene]] languages. The terms ''Slavic'' and ''Slavonic'' are interchangeable in English. The language is sometimes called ''Old Slavic'', which may be confused with the distinct [[Proto-Slavic language]]. Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovene and Slovak linguists have claimed Old Church Slavonic; thus OCS has also been variously called ''Old Bulgarian'', ''Old Macedonian'', ''Old Slovenian'', ''Old Croatian'', or ''Old Serbian,'' or even ''Old Slovak''.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp= [https://books.google.com/books?id=JzkWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 34–35]}} The commonly accepted terms in modern English-language [[Slavistics|Slavic studies]] are ''Old Church Slavonic'' and ''Old Church Slavic''.

The term ''Old Bulgarian''<ref>[http://www.centerslo.net/files/File/simpozij/sim20/ziffer.pdf Ziffer, Giorgio – On the Historicity of Old Church Slavonic UDK 811.163.1(091)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627094728/http://www.centerslo.net/files/File/simpozij/sim20/ziffer.pdf|date=2008-06-27}}</ref> ({{langx|bg|старобългарски}}, {{langx|de|Altbulgarisch}}) is the designation used by most Bulgarian-language writers. It was used in numerous 19th-century sources, e.g. by [[August Schleicher]], [[Martin Hattala]], [[Leopold Geitler]] and [[August Leskien]],<ref>A. Leskien, Handbuch der altbulgarischen (altkirchenslavischen) Sprache, 6. Aufl., Heidelberg 1922.</ref><ref>A. Leskien, Grammatik der altbulgarischen (altkirchenslavischen) Sprache, 2.-3. Aufl., Heidelberg 1919.</ref><ref name="usa">"American contributions to the Tenth International Congress of Slavists", Sofia, September 1988, Alexander M. Schenker, Slavica, 1988, {{ISBN |0-89357-190-3}}, pp. 46–47.</ref> who noted similarities between the first literary Slavic works and the modern Bulgarian language. 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''<ref>J P Mallory, D Q Adams. Encyclopaedia of Indo-European Culture. Pg 301 "Old Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Eastern Orthodox Church, is based on the Thessalonican dialect of Old Macedonian, one of the South Slavic languages."</ref><ref>R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson. ''The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', Introduction "Macedonian is descended from the dialects of Slavic speakers who settled in the Balkan peninsula during the 6th and 7th centuries CE. The oldest attested Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic, was based on dialects spoken around Salonica, in what is today Greek Macedonia. As it came to be defined in the 19th century, geographic Macedonia is the region bounded by Mount Olympus, the Pindus range, Mount Shar and Osogovo, the western Rhodopes, the lower course of the river Mesta (Greek Nestos), and the Aegean Sea. Many languages are spoken in the region but it is the Slavic dialects to which the glossonym Macedonian is applied."</ref><ref>R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson. ''The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', History, "Modern Macedonian literary activity began in the early 19th century among intellectuals attempt to write their Slavic vernacular instead of Church Slavonic. Two centers of Balkan Slavic literary arose, one in what is now northeastern Bulgaria, the other in what is now southwestern Macedonia. In the early 19th century, all these intellectuals called their language Bulgarian, but a struggled emerged between those who favored northeastern Bulgarian dialects and those who favored western Macedonian dialects as the basis for what would become the standard language. Northeastern Bulgarian became the basis of standard Bulgarian, and Macedonian intellectuals began to work for a separate Macedonian literary language. "</ref><ref>Tschizewskij, Dmitrij (2000) [1971]. ''Comparative History of Slavic Literatures''. Nashville, TN: [[Vanderbilt University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-826-51371-7}}. "The brothers knew the Old Bulgarian or Old Macedonian dialect spoken around Thessalonica."</ref><ref>Benjamin W. Fortson. ''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', pg. 431 "Macedonian was not distinguished from Bulgarian for most of its history. Constantine and Methodius came from Macedonian Thessaloniki; their old Bulgarian is therefore at the same time 'Old Macedonian'. No Macedonian literature dates from earlier than the nineteenth century, when a nationalist movement came to the fore and a literacy language was established, first written with Greek letters, then in Cyrillic"</ref><ref>Benjamin W. Fortson. ''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', p. 427 "The Old Church Slavonic of Bulgaria, regarded as something of a standard, is often called Old Bulgarian (or Old Macedonian)"</ref><ref>Henry R. Cooper. ''Slavic Scriptures: The Formation of the Church Slavonic Version of the Holy Bible'', p. 86 "We do not know what portions of the Bible in Church Slavonic, let alone a full one, were available in Macedonia by Clement's death. And although we might wish to make Clement and Naum patron saints of such as glagolitic-script, Macedonian-recension Church Slavonic Bible, their precise contributions to it we will have to take largely on faith."</ref> is occasionally used by Western scholars in a regional context. According to Slavist [[Henrik Birnbaum]], the term was introduced mostly by Macedonian scholars and it is anachronistic because there was no separate Macedonian language, distinguished from early Bulgarian, in the 9th century.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Henrik Birnbaum |title=The Linguistic Type of Old Church Slavonic Viewed in the Perspective of Time and Space |journal=Scando-Slavica |date=1990 |volume=36 |issue=1 |page=116 |doi=10.1080/00806769008600974}}</ref>

The obsolete<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |last1=Birnbaum|first1=Henrik|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nT--C2jhDQQC&pg=PA15 |title=On Medieval and Renaissance Slavic Writing|year=1974|publisher=Mouton De Gruyter |isbn= 9783-1-1186890-5}}</ref> term ''Old Slovenian''<ref name= "books.google.com"/><ref name= "gray">{{harvp|Lunt|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7BXJgfIo_fYC&pg=PA4 4]}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Cy7mAAAAMAAJ|title=The Universal Cyclopaedia|year=1900}}</ref><ref name= "Kamusella 2008"/> was used by early 19th-century scholars who conjectured that the language was based on the dialect of [[Pannonia]].<!-- Please use {{Unicode|}} to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly. (For example: instead of just Ѣ write {{Unicode|Ѣ}}). Please include the entire phrase in the Unicode template, so that the display is even. -->

==History==
It is generally held that the language was standardized by two Byzantine missionaries, [[Cyril and Methodius|Cyril and his brother Methodius]], for a mission to [[Great Moravia]] (the territory of today's eastern Czech Republic and western Slovakia; for details, see [[Glagolitic alphabet]]).{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=23}} The mission took place in response to a request by [[Great Moravia]]'s ruler, Duke [[Rastislav of Moravia|Rastislav]] for the development of Slavonic liturgy.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spiesz|first1= Anton|last2=Caplovic|first2=Dusan|last3=Bolchazy|first3=Ladislaus J.|title=''Illustrated Slovak History: A Struggle for Sovereignty in Central Europe''|year=2006|publisher=Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.|isbn=978-0-86516-426-0|page=22}}</ref>

As part of preparations for the mission, in 862/863, the missionaries developed the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] and translated the most important prayers and [[liturgical book]]s, including the ''[[Aprakos|Aprakos Evangeliar]]'', the [[Psalter]], and the [[Acts of the Apostles]], allegedly basing the language on the [[Slavic languages|Slavic dialect]] spoken in the hinterland of their hometown, [[Thessaloniki]],{{Efn |[[Slavs]] had invaded the region from about 550 CE.{{sfnp|Curta|2006|p=214 | ps =: "At the emperor's request, Constantine and his brother started the translation of religious texts into Old Church Slavonic, a literary language most likely based on the Macedonian dialect allegedly used in the hinterland of their home-town, Thessalonica."}}}} in present-day [[Greece]].

Based on a number of archaicisms preserved until the early 20th century (the articulation of [[yat]] as {{IPAslink|æ}} in [[Boboshticë]], [[Drenovë]], around Thessaloniki, [[Razlog dialect|Razlog]], the [[Rhodopes]] and [[Thracian dialect|Thrace]] and of [[yery]] as {{IPAslink|ɨ}} around Castoria and the Rhodopes, the presence of decomposed nasalisms around Castoria and Thessaloniki, etc.), the dialect is posited to have been part of a macrodialect extending from the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] to the [[Black Sea]], and covering southern Albania, northern Greece and the southernmost parts of Bulgaria.{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=527}}

Because of the very short time between [[Rastislav of Moravia|Rastislav]]'s request and the actual mission, it has been widely suggested that both the Glagolitic alphabet and the translations had been "in the works" for some time, probably for a planned mission to [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]].{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=23 [Skepticism about this has centred around the speed with which everything was done, apparently no more than a year having passed between the request and the mission, a short time for the creation of an excellent alphabet plus the translation into a Slavonic language, using this new alphabet, of at least the Gospels. The only response has been that Constantine's philological interest might have led him to 'play' with an alphabet before this.]}}<ref>{{cite book|title = The Early Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century |last = Fine | first = J. |  year = 1991 | publisher = [[University of Michigan Press]] |pages=113–114|isbn = 0-472-08149-7|quote=Since Constantine and Methodius were able to have both language and translations ready so promptly, they must have been at work upon this project for some time prior to Rastislav's request. If so, presumably their efforts had been originally aimed at a future mission for Bulgaria. This also would explain why Old Church Slavonic had a Bulgaro-Macedonian base; this dialect was well suited as a missionary language for Bulgaria.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hupchick|first=Dennis|title=The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-6417-5|pages=42}}</ref>

The language and the Glagolitic alphabet, as taught at the Great Moravian Academy ({{langx|sk|Veľkomoravské učilište}}), were used for government and religious documents and books in [[Great Moravia]] between 863 and 885. The texts written during this phase contain characteristics of the West Slavic [[vernacular]]s in Great Moravia.

In 885, [[Pope Stephen V]] prohibited the use of Old Church Slavonic in Great Moravia in favour of [[Latin]].{{sfnp|Alexander|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA310 310]}} King [[Svatopluk I of Moravia|Svatopluk I of Great Moravia]] expelled the Byzantine missionary contingent in 886.

[[Seven Apostles of Bulgarian Orthodox Church|Exiled students]] of the two [[equal-to-apostles|apostles]] then brought the Glagolitic alphabet to the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]], being at least some of them Bulgarians themselves.<ref>Kiril Petkov, The Voices of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century: The Records of a Bygone Culture, Volume 5, BRILL, 2008, {{ISBN|9004168311}}, p. 161.</ref><ref>("This great father of ours and light of Bulgaria was by origin of the European Moesians whom the people commonly known as Bulgarians…"-Kosev, Dimitŭr; et al. (1969), Documents and Materials on the History of the Bulgarian People, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, p. 54)</ref><ref>(The Voices of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, Kiril Petkov, BRILL, 2008, ISBN 9047433750, p. 153.)</ref> [[Boris I of Bulgaria]] ({{reign | 852 | 889}}) received and officially accepted them; he established the [[Preslav Literary School]] and the [[Ohrid Literary School]].<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=29BAeKHwvuoC&pg=PA43 |title= Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe|isbn= 978-0-63122039-8|last1= Price |first1= Glanville |date= 2000-05-18|publisher= Wiley}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fWp9JA3aBvcC&pg=PA51 |title= The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity|isbn= 978-1-44433361-9 |last1= Parry|first1= Ken|date= 2010-05-10|publisher= John Wiley & Sons}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QwNlKqyNC7EC&pg=PA58 |title= Interaction and Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture|isbn= 978-1-85043944-8|last1= Rosenqvist |first1= Jan Olof|year= 2004|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref>
Both schools originally used the Glagolitic alphabet, though the [[Cyrillic script]] developed early on at the Preslav Literary School, where it superseded Glagolitic as official in [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]] in 893.{{sfnp|Curta|2006|pp= 221–22}}<ref>''Silent Communication: Graffiti from the Monastery of Ravna, Bulgaria''. Studien Dokumentationen. Mitteilungen der ANISA.  Verein für die Erforschung und Erhaltung der Altertümer, im speziellen der Felsbilder in den österreichischen Alpen (Verein ANISA: Grömbing, 1996) 17.  Jahrgang/Heft 1, 57–78.</ref><ref>"The scriptorium of the Ravna monastery: once again on the decoration of the Old Bulgarian manuscripts 9th–10th c." In: ''Medieval Christian Europe: East and West. Traditions, Values, Communications''. Eds. Gjuzelev, V. and Miltenova, A. (Sofia: Gutenberg Publishing House, 2002), 719–26 (with K. Popkonstantinov).</ref><ref>Popkonstantinov, Kazimir, "Die Inschriften des Felsklosters Murfatlar". In: ''Die slawischen Sprachen'' 10, 1986, S. 77–106.</ref>

The texts written during this era exhibit certain linguistic features of the vernaculars of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]]. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably [[Croatia]], [[Serbia]], [[Bohemia]], [[Lesser Poland]], and principalities of the [[Kievan Rus']] – while retaining characteristically [[Eastern South Slavic]] linguistic features.[[File:Archive-ugent-be-973E9242-B062-11E1-9EF1-99BDAAF23FF7 DS-375 (cropped).jpg|thumb|284x284px|Example of the Cyrillic alphabet: excerpt from the manuscript Vidin Miscellany, written in Middle Bulgarian, 1360<ref>{{Cite web |title= Bdinski Zbornik [manuscript] |url= https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:973E9242-B062-11E1-9EF1-99BDAAF23FF7#?c=&m=&s=&cv=30&xywh=-810,-1,7145,4335 |access-date= 2020-08-26|website= Lib | publisher = U Gent}}</ref>|alt= ]]Later texts written in each of those territories began to take on characteristics of the local Slavic vernaculars, and by the mid-11th century Old Church Slavonic had diversified into a number of regional varieties (known as ''recensions''). These local varieties are collectively known as the [[Church Slavonic language]].<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D-FRM9isW8AC&pg=PA185 |title= Speech, Memory, and Meaning |isbn= 978-311021910-4 |last1= Gasparov |first1= Boris |year= 2010|publisher= Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>

Apart from use in the Slavic countries, Old Church Slavonic served as a liturgical language in the [[Romanian Orthodox Church]], and also as a literary and official language of the princedoms of [[Wallachia]] and [[Moldavia]] (see [[Old Church Slavonic in Romania]]), before gradually being replaced by [[Romanian language|Romanian]] during the 16th to 17th centuries.

Church Slavonic maintained a prestigious status, particularly in [[Russia]], for many centuries{{spaced ndash}}among Slavs in the East it had a status analogous to that of Latin in [[Western Europe]], but had the advantage of being substantially less divergent from the [[vernacular]] tongues of average parishioners.

Some Orthodox churches, such as the [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church]], [[Russian Orthodox Church]], [[Serbian Orthodox Church]], [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]] and [[Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric]], as well as several Eastern Catholic Churches, still use [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] in their services and chants.<ref>Тодорова-Гергова, Светлана. [https://bnr.bg/hristobotev/post/101445975/za-bogoslujenieto-na-savremenen-balgarski-ezik Отец Траян Горанов: За богослужението на съвременен български език], Българско национално радио ″Христо Ботев″, 1 април 2021 г.</ref>

==Scripts==
[[File:Biblioteca_Apostolica_Vaticana_p169_Serbian_Alphabet_Serbian_Language_Serbian_Literatue_Saint_Cyril_and_Metodius_Illyrian_2_pages.png|thumb|Serbian Cyrillic alphabet variant by [[Vatican Library|Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana]], attributed to [[Cyril and Methodius|Saint Cyril and Methodius]], 16th century<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Duret |first1=Claude |date=1613 |title=Thrésor de l'histoire des langues de cest univers |url=https://archive.org/details/fre_b1886963/page/n767/mode/2up |accessdate=2024-02-02}}</ref>]]
Initially Old Church Slavonic was written with the [[Glagolitic alphabet]], but later Glagolitic was replaced by [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]],<ref>{{harvp|Lunt|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7BXJgfIo_fYC&pg=PA15 15–6]}}.</ref> which was developed in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] by a decree of [[Boris I of Bulgaria]] in the 9th century. Of the [[#Canon|Old Church Slavonic canon]], about two-thirds is written in Glagolitic.

The local [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Serbian Cyrillic]] alphabet was preserved in [[Serbia]], [[Bosnia]] and parts of [[Croatia]], while a variant of the angular [[Glagolitic alphabet]] was preserved in [[Croatia]]. See [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] for a detailed description of the script and information about the sounds it originally expressed.

==Phonology==
For Old Church Slavonic, the following segments are reconstructible.<ref name="Huntley 1993 126–7">{{harvp|Huntley|1993|pp=126–7}}.</ref> A few sounds are given in Slavic transliterated form rather than in IPA, as the exact realisation is uncertain and often differs depending on the area that a text originated from.[[File:Triod' cvetnaja.jpg|thumb|A page from the ''[[Pentecostarion|Flowery Triodion]]'' (''Triod' cvetnaja''), a Polish book printed in [[Kraków]] in about 1491, one of the oldest printed Byzantine-Slavonic books, [[National Library of Poland]]|297x297px]]
===Consonants===
For English equivalents and narrow transcriptions of sounds, see [[Help:IPA/Old_Church_Slavonic]].
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
! colspan="2" |
! [[labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[dental consonant|Dental]]
! [[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[nasal stop|Nasal]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}
|{{IPAlink|n}}
|{{IPAlink|ɲ}}{{ref|1c|c}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[plosive consonant|Plosive]]
!{{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| {{IPAlink|p}}
| {{IPAlink|t}}
| {{IPAlink|tʲ}}{{ref|1a|a}}
| {{IPAlink|k}}
|-
!{{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPAlink|b}}
| {{IPAlink|d}}
| {{IPAlink|dʲ}}{{ref|1a|a}}
| {{IPAlink|ɡ}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[affricate consonant|Affricate]]
!{{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|
| {{IPAlink|t͡s}}{{ref|1d|d}}
| {{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}}
|
|-
!{{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
|{{IPA link|d͡z}}{{ref|1b|b}}{{ref|1d|d}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[fricative consonant|Fricative]]
!{{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|
| {{IPAlink|s}}, {{IPAlink|sʲ}}{{ref|1e|e}}
| {{IPAlink|ʃ}}
| {{IPAlink|x}}
|-
!{{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
|{{IPAlink|z}}
|{{IPAlink|ʒ}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
| {{IPAlink|l}}
| {{IPAlink|ʎ}}{{ref|1c|c}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[trill consonant|Trill]]
|
| {{IPAlink|r}}
| {{IPA|rʲ}}{{ref|1c|c}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPAlink|v}}
|
| {{IPAlink|j}}
|
|}

* {{note|1a|a}} These phonemes were written and articulated differently in different recensions: as {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|Ⱌ}}⟩}} ({{IPAslink|t͡s}}) and {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|Ⰷ}}⟩}} ({{IPAslink|d͡z}}) in the Moravian recension, {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|Ⱌ}}⟩}} ({{IPAslink|t͡s}}) and {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|Ⰸ}}⟩}} ({{IPAslink|z}}) in the Bohemian recension, {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|Ⱋ}}⟩}}/{{font|size=110%|⟨щ⟩}} (also spelled {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|ⰞⰕ}}⟩}}/{{font|size=110%|⟨шт⟩}}, {{IPA|[ʃt⁽ʲ⁾]}}) and {{font|size=110%|⟨{{Script|Glag|ⰆⰄ}}⟩}}/{{font|size=110%|⟨жд⟩}} ({{IPA|[ʒd⁽ʲ⁾]}}) in the Bulgarian recension(s). In Serbia, {{font|size=110%|⟨Ꙉ⟩}} was used to denote both sounds. The abundance of [[Middle Ages]] toponyms featuring {{IPA|[ʃt]}} and {{IPA|[ʒd]}} in [[North Macedonia]], [[Kosovo]] and the [[Torlak]]-speaking parts of Serbia indicates that at the time, the clusters were articulated as {{IPA|[ʃt]}} & {{IPA|[ʒd]}} as well, even though current reflexes are different.{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=65|ps=: ''Че някога на всички македонски говори са били присъщи звукосъчетанията шт, жд на мястото на днешните ќ, ѓ се вижда от топонимията на съответните области: Брьждaни (при Кичево), Драгощь и Хращани (в Битолско), Вел‘гощи, Радобужда, Радов'лища и Пещани (в Охридско), Граждено (в Ресенско), Рожденъ (в Тиквеш) — всички данни са от XVI в. (Селищев 1933 а: 22, 38, 63, 64 и др.; 1933 б: 37)… Днешното селищно име в Прилепско Кривогащани е познато под тая форма в грамота от XIV в.: въ Кривогаштанехъ (Новаковић 1912: 666). В околия Крива Паланка (Северна Македония) също се срещат местни имена с шт, жд: Бащево, Радибуш — от Радибоужда (Радибоуждоу Горноу) в грамота от 1358 г, (Новаковић 1912: 435); в Кочанско: Драгобраща; в Скопско: Пещерица, Побуже — Побѫжда във Виргинската грамота на Константин Асен от ХШ в. (Иванов 1931: 582), Смрьдештець в грамота от 1300г. (Селищев 1933 6: 38) и др.; срв. още селищното име Радовиш от по-старо *Радовишти, в грамота от 1361 г. (Селищев 1933 б: 38). В Призренско също са засвидетелствувани географски имена с шт, жд, срв. примерите в една грамота от XIV в. (Селищев 1933 б: 40): Небрѣгошта, Доброушта, Сѣлограждани, Гражденикь, Послища, Любижда и т. н. На запад ареалът на старобългарските говори ще е обхващал поречията на Южна Морава и Тимок, както може да се съди от цяла поредица географски (главно селищни) имена с шт, жд от праславянско *tj, *kt, *dj, запазени до най-ново време. Срв. напр.: Добровиш (от по-старо Добровищь) — село в Пиротско; Добруща (от XIV в.) — село близо до Гиляни; Огоща — село в околия Гиляни; Тибужде, Драгобужда (-жде), Рождаци (-це) (срв. срблг. рождакъ в Слепченския апостол, срхърв. рођак „сродник“, „роднина“) — села в околия Враня; Житоражда — две села в околия Прокупле и околия Владичин хан; Люберажда — село в Пиротско; Ображда — село в околия Лебани; Ргоште — село в Тимошка околия (от основа Ргот-, от коята са Рготина, село в Зайчарска околия и Рготска река), Драгаиште — приток на Тимок и пр. Някои от тези реликтни топоними са вече посърбени (напр в официалните сръбски справочници се пише Житорађе, Љуберађа), но повечето са запазили първоначалното си звучене.'' [The fact that all Macedonian dialects once featured the consonant clusters '''''шт/št''''' (['''{{IPA|ʃt}}''']) and '''''жд/žd''''' ['''{{IPA|ʒd}}'''] instead of today's '''''ќ''''' ('''{{IPAslink|c}}''') and '''''ѓ'''''  ('''{{IPAslink|ʄ}}''') can be seen from the toponyms in the respective regions: [[Brždani]] (near [[Kičevo]]), [[Dragoš, North Macedonia|Dragošt]] and [[Raštani, Bitola|Hraštani]] (near [[Bitola]]), [[Velgošti|Vel'gošti]], [[Radožda]] (from "''Radobužda''"), [[Radolišta]] (from "''ou Radov'lišteh''") and [[Peštani]] (near [[Ohrid]] ), Graždeno near [[Resen, North Macedonia|Resen]] ([sic] now in Greece and known as [[Vrontero]]), {{interlanguage link|Rožden|sh}} (in [[Tikveš]]) — all data are from the 16th century (Selishchev 1933a: 22, 38, 63, 64, etc.; 1933b: 37)... The current name of one of the settlements around [[Prilep]], [[Krivogaštani]], has been known in this form from a charter from the 14th century: "in Krivogaštanekh" (Novakoviћ 1912: 666). In the vicinity of [[Kriva Palanka]], there are also local names with št, žd: {{interlanguage link|Baštevo|sh}}, [[Radibuš]] — from ''"Radiboužda"'' (''Radibouzhdou Gornou'') in a charter from 1358, (Novakoviћ 1912: 435); in the [[Kochani]] region: [[Dragobrašte]]; near [[Negotino]]: {{interlanguage link|Pešternica|sh}}, near  [[Skopje]]: [[Pobožje]] — known as "''Побѫжда''" (Pobăžda) in the Virgin Charter by Tsar [[Konstantin Tih|Constantine Asen]] from the 13th century (Ivanov 1931: 582), Smrdeštec in a charter from 1300. (Selishchev 1933 6: 38) etc.; cf. also the settlement name [[Radoviš]], stemming from the older "''Радовишти''" (*Radovišti), in a charter from 1361 (Selishchev 1933 b: 38). Geographical names with št, žd are also attested around [[Prizren]] in [[Kosovo]], e.g., in a charter from the 14th century (Selishchev 1933 b: 40): {{interlanguage link|Nebregoštesh|sh}}, [[Dobrushta]], [[Sallagrazhdë]], {{interlanguage link|Graždanik|sh}}, [[Poslishtë]], [[Lubizhdë]], etc. In the West, the range of Old Bulgarian dialects would have extended to the river valleys of South Morava and [[Timok]], as can be judged from a whole series of geographic names (mainly settlements) incorporating ['''{{IPA|ʃt}}'''] and ['''{{IPA|ʒd}}'''] from Proto-Slavic *tj, *kt, *dj, preserved until now or very recently. For example: [[Dobroviš]] (from the older "''Добровищь''" (Dobrovišt)) — a village near [[Pirot]]; [[Dobrushta]] (from the 14th century) and {{interlanguage link|Ogošte|sh}} — a village near [[Gjilan]]; [[Tibužde]], [[Dragobužde]], [[Roždace]] (cf. Middle Bulgarian "рождакь" in the Slepcha Apostle and compare with Serbo-Croat "''rođak''" ('relative')) — villages in the vicinity of [[Vranje]], South Serbia; [[Žitorađa|Žitoražda]] and [[Žitorađe|Žitoražde]] — two villages near [[Prokuplje]] and [[Vladičin Han]]; [[Ljuberađa]] — a village near [[Pirot]]; [[Obražda]] — a village in the [[Lebane]] district; [[Rgošte]] — a village in the [[Knjaževac]] municipality (from the base Rgot-, which gives [[Rgotina]], a village in the [[Zaječar]] municipality and the Rgotska river). Some of these relic toponyms have already been eroded (for example, the official Serbian directories now read ''Žitorađa''/''Žitorađe'' and ''Ljuberađa'' instead of Žitoražda/Žitoražde and Ljuberažda), but most names have kept their original articulation]}}
* {{note|1b|b}} {{IPA|/dz/}} appears mostly in early texts, becoming {{IPA|/z/}} later on.
* {{note|1c|c}}The distinction between {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, and {{IPA|/r/}}, on one hand, and palatal {{IPA|/ʎ/}}, {{IPA|/ɲ/}}, and {{IPA|/rʲ/}}, on the other, is not always indicated in writing. When it is, it is shown by a [[palatalization mark|palatalization diacritic]] over the letter: ⟨ л҄ ⟩ ⟨ н҄ ⟩ ⟨ р҄ ⟩. Also, palatalization could be indicated by using iotified vowel letters (⟨ ꙗ, ѥ, ю, ѩ, ѭ ⟩) after consonants: {{lang|cu|⟨ вол҄а ⟩{{=}}⟨ волꙗ ⟩}} 'will (n.), freedom'.
[[File:"Miroslavljevo_jevanđelje"_prepisana_kopija%2C_eksponat_iz_zbirke_Pedagoškog_muzeja_u_Beogradu.jpg|thumb|266x266px|A page from the [[Miroslav Gospel|Gospel of Miroslav]], [[Serbia]]n [[Kingdom_of_Serbia_(medieval)|medieval]] manuscript, a 12th-century Byzantine-Slavonic book, [[National Library of Serbia]]]]
* {{ref|1d|d}} {{IPA|/ts/}} and {{IPA|/dz/}} are thought to have been originally pronounced as palatalized consonants: {{IPA|[tsʲ]}}, {{IPA|[dzʲ]}}, as evident from following vowels (ъ>ь, o>e) and from occasional use of ⟨ ꙗ ⟩ after ⟨ ꙃ ⟩ in inscriptions.
* {{ref|1e|e}} The sound {{IPA|[sʲ]}}, which came from the second and progressive palatalizations of Proto-Slavic {{IPA|/x/}}, was usually not distinguished in writing from {{IPA|[s]}}, but its existence is inferred from spellings such as {{lang|cu|⟨ вьсꙗкъ ⟩}} (also spelled {{lang|cu|⟨ вьсакъ ⟩}} and {{lang|cu|⟨ вьсѣкъ ⟩}}) 'any(one), every(one)'.

===Vowels===
For English equivalents and narrow transcriptions of sounds, see [[wiktionary:AP:pron:cu|Old Church Slavonic Pronunciation on Wiktionary]].
{|
| style="vertical-align: top" |
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Oral&nbsp;vowels
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" |[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Unrounded vowel|Unrounded]]
! [[Rounded vowel|Rounded]]
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Close vowel|Close]]
![[Tenseness|Tense]]
| '''i''' {{IPAslink|i}},<br>{{IPA|/ji/}}{{ref|2a|a}}, <br>{{IPA|/jɪ/}}{{ref|2b|b}}, <br>'''ь/ĭ''' {{IPAslink|i}}{{ref|2c|c}}
| '''y''' {{IPAslink|ɯ}}{{ref|2d|d}}
| '''u''' {{IPAslink|u}}
|-
![[Laxness (phonetics)|Lax]]
| '''ь/ĭ''' {{IPAslink|ɪ}}{{ref|2e|e}}
| '''ъ/ŭ''' {{IPAslink|ʊ}}{{ref|2e|e}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Open vowel|Open]]
![[Laxness (phonetics)|Lax]]
| '''e''' {{IPAslink|ɛ}}, <br>{{IPA|/jɛ/}}{{ref|2a|a}}
|
| '''o''' {{IPAslink|ɔ}}
|-
![[Tenseness|Tense]]
| '''ě''' {{IPAslink|æ}}{{ref|2f|f}}, <br>{{IPA|/jæ/}}{{ref|2a|a}}
| '''a''' {{IPAslink|ɑ}}{{ref|2g|g}}, <br>/(j)ɑ{{ref|2a|a}}~(j)æ/{{ref|2g|g}}
|
|}
| style="vertical-align: top" |
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Nasal&nbsp;vowels
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
| '''ę''' {{IPAslink|ɛ̃}}{{ref|2h|h}}
| '''ǫ''' {{IPAslink|ɔ̃}}{{ref|2h|h}}<br>{{IPAslink|(j)ɔ̃}}{{ref|2a|a}}
|}
|}

* Accent is not indicated in writing and must be inferred from later languages and from [[Proto-Slavic accent|reconstructions of Proto-Slavic]].
* {{note|2a|a}} All front vowels were [[Iotation|iotated]] word-initially and succeeding other vowels. The same sometimes applied for *a and *ǫ. In the Bulgarian region, an epenthetic *v was inserted before *ǫ in the place of iotation.
* {{note|2b|b}} The distinction between /i/, /ji/, and /jɪ/ is rarely indicated in writing and must be inferred from reconstructions of Proto-Slavic. In Glagolitic, the three are written as ⟨{{lang|cu|ⰻ}}⟩, ⟨{{lang|cu|ⰹ}}⟩, and ⟨{{lang|cu|ⰺ}}⟩ respectively. In Cyrillic, /jɪ/ may sometimes be written as ⟨{{lang|cu|ꙇ}}⟩, and /ji/ as ⟨{{lang|cu|ї}}⟩, although this is rarely the case.
* {{note|2c|c}} Yers preceding *j became tense, this was inconsistently reflected in writing in the case of *ь (ex: чаꙗньѥ or чаꙗние, both pronounced [t͡ʃɑjɑn̪ije]), but never with *ъ (which was always written as a yery). 
* {{note|2d|d}} [[Yery]] was the descendant of Proto-Balto-Slavic long *ū and was a [[high back unrounded vowel]]. Tense *ъ merged with *y, which gave rise to yery's spelling as ⟨{{lang|cu|ъи}}⟩ (later ⟨{{lang|cu|ꙑ}}⟩, modern ⟨{{lang|cu|ы}}⟩).
* {{note|2e|e}} The [[yer]] vowels [[yer|ь]] and [[yer|ъ]] (ĭ and ŭ) are often called "ultrashort" and were lower, more centralised and shorter than their tense counterparts *i and *y. Both yers had a strong and a weak variant, with a yer always being strong if the next vowel is another yer. Weak yers disappeared in most positions in the word, already sporadically in the earliest texts but more frequently later on. Strong yers, on the other hand, merged with other vowels, particularly ĭ with e and ŭ with o, but differently in different areas. 
* {{note|2f|f}} The pronunciation of [[yat]] ([[yat|ѣ/ě]]) differed by area. In Bulgaria it was a relatively open vowel, commonly reconstructed as {{IPA|/æ/}}, but further north its pronunciation was more closed and it eventually became a diphthong {{IPA|/je/}} (e.g. in modern standard [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], and [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], or modern standard Serbian spoken in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], as well as in [[Czech language|Czech]] — the source of the grapheme [[yat|ě]]) or even {{IPA|/i/}} in many areas (e.g. in [[Chakavian]] Croatian, [[Shtokavian]] [[Ikavian]] Croatian, and Bosnian dialects or [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]) or {{IPA|/e/}} (modern standard [[Serbian language|Serbian]] spoken in Serbia).
* {{note|2g|g}} *a was the descendant of Proto-Slavic long *o and was a [[low back unrounded vowel]]. Its iotated variant was often confused with *ě (in Glagolitic they are even the same letter: Ⱑ), so *a was probably fronted to *ě when it followed palatal consonants (this is still the case in Rhodopean dialects).
* {{note|2h|h}} The exact articulation of the nasal vowels is unclear because different areas tend to merge them with different vowels. ę /ɛ̃/ is occasionally seen to merge with e or ě in South Slavic, but becomes ja early on in East Slavic. ǫ /ɔ̃/ generally merges with u or o, but in Bulgaria, ǫ was apparently unrounded and eventually merged with ъ.

===Phonotactics===
Several notable constraints on the distribution of the phonemes can be identified, mostly resulting from the tendencies occurring within the [[Common Slavic]] period, such as ''intrasyllabic synharmony'' and the ''law of open syllables''. For consonant and vowel clusters and sequences of a consonant and a vowel, the following constraints can be ascertained:<ref>{{harvp|Huntley|1993|pp=127–8}}.</ref>
* Two adjacent consonants tend not to share identical features of [[manner of articulation]]
* No syllable ends in a consonant
* Every obstruent agrees in voicing with the following obstruent
* Velars do not occur before front vowels
* Phonetically palatalized consonants do not occur before certain back vowels
* The back vowels /y/ and /ъ/ as well as front vowels other than /i/ do not occur word-initially: the two back vowels take prothetic /v/ and the front vowels prothetic /j/. Initial /a/ may take either prothetic consonant or none at all.
* Vowel sequences are attested in only one lexeme (''paǫčina'' 'spider's web') and in the suffixes /aa/ and /ěa/ of the imperfect
* At morpheme boundaries, the following vowel sequences occur: /ai/, /au/, /ao/, /oi/, /ou/, /oo/, /ěi/, /ěo/

===Morphophonemic alternations===
As a result of the [[Slavic first palatalization|first]] and the [[Slavic second palatalization|second]] Slavic palatalizations, velars alternate with dentals and palatals. In addition, as a result of a process usually termed ''iotation'' (or ''iodization''), velars and dentals alternate with palatals in various inflected forms and in word formation.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ '''Alternations in velar consonants'''
|-
! colspan="1" | original
| /k/
| /g/
| /x/
| /sk/
| /zg/
| /sx/
|-
! colspan="1" | first palatalization and iotation
| /č/
| /ž/
| /š/
| /št/
| /žd/
| /š/
|-
! colspan="1" | second palatalization
| /c/
| /dz/
| /s/
| /sc/, /st/
| /zd/
| /sc/
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Alternations in other consonants'''
|-
! colspan="1" | original
| /b/
| /p/
| /sp/
| /d/
| /zd/
| /t/
| /st/
| /z/
| /s/
| /l/
| /sl/
| /m/
| /n/
| /sn/
| /zn/
| /r/
| /tr/
| /dr/
|-
! colspan="1" | iotation
| /bl'/
| /pl'/
|
| /žd/
| /žd/
| /št/
| /št/
| /ž/
| /š/
| /l'/
| /šl'/
| /ml'/
| /n'/
| /šn'/
| /žn'/
| /r'/
| /štr'/
| /ždr'/
|}

In some forms the alternations of /c/ with /č/ and of /dz/ with /ž/ occur, in which the corresponding velar is missing. The dental alternants of velars occur regularly before /ě/ and /i/ in the declension and in the imperative, and somewhat less regularly in various forms after /i/, /ę/, /ь/ and /r<sup>ь</sup>/.<ref>Syllabic sonorant, written with jer in superscript, as opposed to the regular sequence of /r/ followed by a /ь/.</ref> The palatal alternants of velars occur before front vowels in all other environments, where dental alternants do not occur, as well as in various places in inflection and word formation described below.<ref name="Huntley">{{harvp|Huntley|1993|p=133}}.</ref>

As a result of earlier alternations between short and long vowels in roots in [[Indo-European ablaut|Proto-Indo-European]], [[Proto-Balto-Slavic#Balto-Slavic apophony|Proto-Balto-Slavic]] and Proto-Slavic times, and of the fronting of vowels after palatalized consonants, the following vowel alternations are attested in OCS: /ь/ : /i/;&nbsp; /ъ/ : /y/ : /u/;&nbsp;/e/ : /ě/ : /i/;&nbsp;/o/ : /a/;&nbsp;/o/ : /e/;&nbsp;/ě/ : /a/;&nbsp;/ъ/ : /ь/;&nbsp;/y/ : /i/;&nbsp;/ě/ : /i/;&nbsp;/y/ : /ę/.<ref name="Huntley" />

Vowel:∅ alternations sometimes occurred as a result of sporadic loss of [[Havlík's law|weak yer]], which later occurred in almost all Slavic dialects. The phonetic value of the corresponding vocalized strong [[yers|jer]] is dialect-specific.

==Grammar==
{{main|Old Church Slavonic grammar}}
As an ancient Indo-European language, OCS has a highly inflective morphology. Inflected forms are divided in two groups, nominals and verbs. Nominals are further divided into nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Numerals inflect either as nouns or pronouns, with 1–4 showing gender agreement as well.

Nominals can be declined in three [[grammatical gender]]s (masculine, feminine, neuter), three numbers (singular, plural, [[dual grammatical number|dual]]) and seven [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[nominative case|nominative]], [[vocative case|vocative]], [[accusative case|accusative]], [[instrumental case|instrumental]], [[dative case|dative]], [[genitive case|genitive]], and [[locative case|locative]]. There are five basic inflectional classes for nouns: ''o/jo''-stems, ''a/ja''-stems, ''i''-stems, ''u''-stems, and consonant stems. Forms throughout the inflectional paradigm usually exhibit morphophonemic alternations.

Fronting of vowels after palatals and ''j'' yielded dual inflectional class ''o'' : ''jo'' and ''a'' : ''ja'', whereas palatalizations affected stem as a synchronic process (N sg. ''vlьkъ'', V sg. ''vlьče''; L sg. ''vlьcě''). Productive classes are ''o/jo-'', ''a/ja-'', and ''i''-stems. Sample paradigms are given in the table below:

{| class="wikitable"
|+Sample declensional classes for nouns
! colspan="2" |
! colspan="7" | Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="6" | Plural
|-
!Gloss
!Stem type
!Nom
!Voc
!Acc
!Gen
!Loc
!Dat
!Instr
!Nom/Voc/Acc
!Gen/Loc
!Dat/Instr
!Nom/Voc
!Acc
!Gen
!Loc
!Dat
!Instr
|-
|"city"
|o ''m.''
|gradъ
|grade
|gradъ
|grada
|gradě
|gradu
|gradomь
|grada
|gradu
|gradoma
|gradi
|grady
|gradъ
|graděxъ
|gradomъ
|grady
|-
|"knife"
|jo ''m.''
|nožь
|nožu
|nožь
|noža
|noži
|nožu
|nožemь
|noža
|nožu
|nožema
|noži
|nožę
|nožь
|nožixъ
|nožemъ
|noži
|-
|"wolf"
|o ''m''
|vlьkъ
|vlьče
|vlьkъ
|vlьka
|vlьcě
|vlьku
|vlьkomь
|vlьka
|vlьku
|vlьkoma
|vlьci
|vlьky
|vlьkъ
|vlьcěxъ
|vlьkomъ
|vlьky
|-
|"wine"
|o ''n.''
|vino
|vino
|vino
|vina
|vině
|vinu
|vinomь
|vině
|vinu
|vinoma
|vina
|vina
|vinъ
|viněxъ
|vinomъ
|viny
|-
|"field"
|jo ''n.''
|poʎe
|poʎe
|poʎe
|poʎa
|poʎi
|poʎu
|poʎemь
|poʎi
|poʎu
|poʎema
|poʎa
|poʎa
|poʎь
|poʎixъ
|poʎemъ
|poʎi
|-
|"woman"
|a ''f.''
|žena
|ženo
|ženǫ
|ženy
|ženě
|ženě
|ženojǫ
|ženě
|ženu
|ženama
|ženy
|ženy
|ženъ
|ženaxъ
|ženamъ
|ženami
|-
|"soul"
|ja ''f.''
|duša
|duše
|dušǫ
|dušę
|duši
|duši
|dušejǫ
|duši
|dušu
|dušama
|dušę
|dušę
|dušь
|dušaxъ
|dušamъ
|dušami
|-
|"hand"
|a ''f.''
|rǫka
|rǫko
|rǫkǫ
|rǫky
|rǫcě
|rǫcě
|rǫkojǫ
|rǫcě
|rǫku
|rǫkama
|rǫky
|rǫky
|rǫkъ
|rǫkaxъ
|rǫkamъ
|rǫkami
|-
|"bone"
|i ''f.''
|kostь
|kosti
|kostь
|kosti
|kosti
|kosti
|kostьjǫ
|kosti
|kostьju
|kostьma
|kosti
|kosti
|kostьjь
|kostьxъ
|kostьmъ
|kostьmi
|-
|"home"
|u ''m.''
|domъ
|domu
|domъ/-a
|domu
|domu
|domovi
|domъmь
|domy
|domovu
|domъma
|domove
|domy
|domovъ
|domъxъ
|domъmъ
|domъmi
|}

Adjectives are inflected as ''o/jo''-stems (masculine and neuter) and ''a/ja''-stems (feminine), in three genders. They could have short (indefinite) or long (definite) variants, the latter being formed by suffixing to the indefinite form the anaphoric third-person pronoun ''jь''.

[[Synthetic language|Synthetic]] verbal conjugation is expressed in present, aorist and imperfect tenses while perfect, pluperfect, future and conditional tenses/moods are made by combining auxiliary verbs with participles or synthetic tense forms. Sample conjugation for the verb ''vesti'' "to lead" (underlyingly ''ved-ti'') is given in the table below.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Sample conjugation of the verb ''vesti'' "to lead"
|-
!person/number
!Present
!Asigmatic (simple, root) aorist
!Sigmatic (s-) aorist
!New (ox) aorist
!Imperfect
!Imperative
|-
|1 sg.
|vedǫ
|vedъ
|věsъ
|vedoxъ
|veděaxъ
|
|-
|2 sg.
|vedeši
|vede
|vede
|vede
|veděaše
|vedi
|-
|3 sg.
|vedetъ
|vede
|vede
|vede
|veděaše
|vedi
|-
|1 dual
|vedevě
|vedově
|věsově
|vedoxově
|veděaxově
|veděvě
|-
|2 dual
|vedeta
|vedeta
|věsta
|vedosta
|veděašeta
|veděta
|-
|3 dual
|vedete
|vedete
|věste
|vedoste
|veděašete
|
|-
|1 plural
|vedemъ
|vedomъ
|věsomъ
|vedoxomъ
|veděaxomъ
|veděmъ
|-
|2 plural
|vedete
|vedete
|věste
|vedoste
|veděašete
|veděte
|-
|3 plural
|vedǫtъ
|vedǫ
|věsę
|vedošę
|veděaxǫ
|
|}

==Basis==
{{Eastern Orthodox sidebar}}
Written evidence of Old Church Slavonic survives in a relatively small body of [[manuscripts]], most of them written in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] during the late 10th and the early 11th centuries. The language has an [[Eastern South Slavic]] basis in the Bulgarian-Macedonian dialectal area, with an admixture of Western Slavic (Moravian) features inherited during the mission of [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] to [[Great Moravia]] (863–885).{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64}}

The only well-preserved manuscript of the Moravian recension, the [[Kiev Missal]], or the Kiev Folia, is characterised by the replacement of some South Slavic phonetic and lexical features with Western Slavic ones. Manuscripts written in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] have, on the other hand, few Western Slavic features.

Though South Slavic in phonology and morphology, Old Church Slavonic was influenced by Byzantine Greek in syntax and style, and is characterized by complex subordinate sentence structures and participial constructions.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64}}

A large body of complex, polymorphemic words was coined, first by Saint Cyril himself and then by his students at the academies in [[Great Moravia]] and the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], to denote complex abstract and religious terms, e.g., {{script|Cyrs|ꙁълодѣꙗньѥ }} (''zъlodějanьje'') from {{script|Cyrs|ꙁъло}} ('evil') + {{script|Cyrs|дѣти }} ('do') + {{script|Cyrs|ньѥ}} (noun suffix), i.e., 'evil deed'. A significant part of them wеrе calqued directly from Greek.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64}}

Old Church Slavonic is valuable to historical linguists since it preserves archaic features believed to have once been common to all Slavic languages such as:
* Most significantly, the [[yer]] ([[extra-short]]) vowels: {{IPA|/ɪ̆/}} and {{IPA|/ʊ̆/}}
* [[Nasal vowel]]s: {{IPA|/ɛ̃/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ̃/}}
* [[Near-open vowel|Near-open]] articulation of the yat vowel ({{IPA|/æ/}})
* [[Palatal consonant]]s {{IPA|/ɲ/}} and {{IPA|/ʎ/}} from Proto-Slavic *ň and *ľ
* Proto-Slavic declension system based on stem endings, including those that later disappeared in attested languages (such as ''u''-stems)
* [[Dual (grammatical number)|Dual]] as a distinct grammatical number from singular and plural
* [[Aorist]], [[imperfect]], Proto-Slavic paradigms for participles

Old Church Slavonic is also likely to have preserved an extremely archaic type of accentuation (probably close to the [[Chakavian dialect]] of modern Serbo-Croatian), but unfortunately, no accent marks appear in the written manuscripts.

The [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] and Eastern South Slavic nature of the language is evident from the following variations:

* Phonetic:
** ''ra, la'' by means of [[liquid metathesis]] of Proto-Slavic *or, *ol clusters
** ''sě'' from Proto-Slavic *xě < *xai
** ''cv, (d)zv'' from Proto-Slavic *kvě, *gvě < *kvai, *gvai
* Morphological:
** Morphosyntactic use of the dative possessive case in personal pronouns and nouns: {{script|Cyrs|братъ ми}} (''bratŭ mi'', "my brother"), {{script|Cyrs|рѫка ти}} (''rǫka ti'', "your hand"), {{script|Cyrs|отъпоущенье грѣхомъ}} (''otŭpuštenĭje grěxomŭ'', "remission of sins"), {{script|Cyrs|храмъ молитвѣ}} (''xramŭ molitvě'', 'house of prayer'), etc.
** [[Periphrasis|periphrastic]] future tense using the verb {{script|Cyrs|хотѣти}} (''xotěti'', "to want"), for example, {{script|Cyrs|хоштѫ писати}} (''xoštǫ pisati'', "I will write")
** Use of the comparative form {{script|Cyrs|мьнии}} (''mĭniji'', "smaller") to denote "younger"
** Morphosyntactic use of suffixed demonstrative pronouns {{script|Cyrs|тъ, та, то}} (''tъ, ta, to''). In Bulgarian and Macedonian, these developed into suffixed definite articles and also took the place of the third person singular and plural pronouns {{script|Cyrs|онъ, она, оно, они}} (''onъ, ona, ono, oni'') > {{script|Cyrs|той/тоj, тя/таа, то/тоа, те/тие}} ('he, she, it, they')

Old Church Slavonic also shares the following phonetic features <em>only</em> with [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]:
* Near-open articulation *æ / *jæ of the ''[[Yat]]'' vowel (ě); still preserved in the Bulgarian dialects of the [[Rhodope mountains]], the [[Razlog dialect]], the [[Shumen dialect]] and partially preserved as *ja (ʲa) across Yakavian Eastern Bulgarian
* {{IPA|/ʃt/}} and {{IPA|/ʒd/}} as reflexes of Proto-Slavic *ťʲ (< *tj and *gt, *kt) and *ďʲ (< *dj).

{| class="wikitable"
|+Reflexes of Proto-Slavic *dj and *tj/*gti/*kti in Old Church Slavonic (OCS) and modern Slavic languages<ref>{{citation|last1=Townsend|first1=Charles E.|last2=Janda|first2=Laura A.|year=1996|title=COMMON and COMPARATIVE SLAVIC: Phonology and Inflection, with special attention to Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian|publisher=Slavica Publishers, Inc.|location=Columbus, Ohio|language=en|isbn=0-89357-264-0|pages=89–90}}</ref>
|- class="static-row-header"
! style="width:80pt;"|[[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]]
! style="width:140pt;"|Old Church Slavonic
!  style="width:100pt;"|[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
!  style="width:100pt;"|[[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Serbo-Croatian]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Slovenian language|Slovenian]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Slovak language|Slovak]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Czech language|Czech]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Polish language|Polish]]
! style="width:100pt;"|[[Russian language|Russian]]{{ref|1a|1}}
|- class="static-row-header"
|rowspan="2" style="height:40pt;"| {{IPA|*dʲ}}<br>''me'''dj'''a'' ('boundary') || {{align|center|жд &nbsp; (['''{{IPA|ʒd}}'''])}} ||  {{align|center|жд &nbsp; (['''{{IPA|ʒd}}'''])}}||{{align|center|ѓ &nbsp; ('''{{IPAslink|ʄ}}''')}} ||{{align|center|ђ &nbsp; ('''{{IPAslink|d͡ʑ}}''')}}||{{align|center|j &nbsp;  ('''{{IPAslink|j}}''')}} ||{{align|center|dz &nbsp;  ('''{{IPAslink|d͡z}}''')}}||{{align|center|z&nbsp;  ('''{{IPAslink|z}}''')}}||{{align|center|dz&nbsp;  ('''{{IPAslink|d͡z}}''')}}|| {{align|center|ж &nbsp; ('''{{IPAslink|ʐ}}''')}}
|- class="static-row-header"
|{{align|center|''ме{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''жд'''}}а'' }}|| {{align|center|''ме{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''жд'''}}а'' }}||{{align|center|''ме{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ѓ'''}}а''}}  ||{{align|center|''ме{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ђ'''}}а''}} ||{{align|center|''me{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''j'''}}a''}} ||{{align|center|''me{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''dz'''}}a''}} ||{{align|center|''me{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''z'''}}a''}} ||{{align|center|''mie{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''dz'''}}a''}} || {{align|center|''ме{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ж'''}}а'' }}
|- class="static-row-header"
|rowspan="2" style="height:40pt;"| {{IPA|*tʲ}}<br>''svě'''tj'''a''<br>('candle')  ||  {{align|center|щ &nbsp; (['''{{IPA|ʃt}}'''])}} || {{align|center|щ &nbsp; (['''{{IPA|ʃt}}'''])}} || {{align|center|ќ &nbsp; ('''{{IPAslink|c}}''')}}|| {{align|center|ћ  &nbsp;('''{{IPAslink|t͡ɕ}}''')}}||{{align|center|č &nbsp; ('''{{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}}''')}}|| {{align|center|c &nbsp;('''{{IPAslink|t͡s}}''')}} || {{align|center|c &nbsp;('''{{IPAslink|t͡s}}''')}} ||{{align|center|c &nbsp;('''{{IPAslink|t͡s}}''')}} || {{align|center|ч &nbsp;('''{{IPAslink|t͡ɕ}}''')}} 
|- class="static-row-header"
|{{align|center|''свѣ{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''щ'''}}а'' }}|| {{align|center|''све{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''щ'''}}'' }}||{{align|center|''све{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ќ'''}}а''}}  ||{{align|center|''све{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ћ'''}}а''}} ||{{align|center|''sve{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''č'''}}a''}} ||{{align|center|''svie{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''c'''}}a''}} ||{{align|center|''sví{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''c'''}}e''}} ||{{align|center|''świe{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''c'''}}a''}} || {{align|center|''све{{font color|MediumVioletRed|'''ч'''}}а'' }}
|- 
|}
{{smalldiv|{{note|1a|1}} With the exception of some Ukrainian and Belarusian reflexes of *dj as '''дж''' {{IPAslink|d͡ʐ}}, both Belarusian and Ukrainian mirror the development in Russian and feature '''ж''' ({{IPAslink|ʐ}}) and '''ч''' ({{IPAslink|t͡ʂ}}).<ref>{{citation|last=Harasowska|first=Marta|title=Morphophonemic Variability, Productivity, and Change: The Case of Rusyn|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=2011|isbn=978-3110804522|pages=76}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Hinskens|first1=Frans|last2=Kerswill|first2=Paul|last3=Auer|first3=Peter|title=Dialect Change. Convergence and Divergence in European Languages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2005|isbn=9781139445351|pages=261}}</ref>}}

==Local influences (recensions)==

Over time, the language adopted more and more features from local Slavic vernaculars, producing different variants referred to as <em>Recensions</em> or ''Redactions''. Modern convention differentiates between the earliest, classical form of the language, referred to as Old Church Slavonic, and later, vernacular-coloured forms, collectively designated as [[Church Slavonic]].{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64: Strictly speaking, "Old Church Slavonic" refers only to the language of the early period, and to later writings which
deliberately imitated it.}} More specifically, Old Church Slavonic is exemplified by extant manuscripts written between the 9th and 11th century in Great Moravia and the First Bulgarian Empire.

===Great Moravia===
[[File:Zavedeni slovanske liturgie na velke morave.jpg|thumb|''The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia'' (1912), by [[Alphonse Mucha]], ''[[The Slav Epic]]'']]
The language was standardized for the first time by the mission of the two apostles to [[Great Moravia]] from 863. The manuscripts of the Moravian recension are therefore the earliest dated of the OCS recensions.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Lunt|2001|p=9}} "The seven glagolitic folia known as the Kiev Folia (KF) are generally considered as most archaic from both the paleographic and the linguistic points of view..."</ref> The recension takes its name from the Slavic state of Great Moravia which existed in Central Europe during the 9th century on the territory of today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, northern Austria and southeastern Poland.

====Moravian recension====
[[File:Kiev Folios, fol. 7r.jpg|thumb|Folio 7 of the 10th-century Glagolitic [[Kiev Missal]], written in the Moravian recension]]
This recension is exemplified by the [[Kiev Missal]]. Its linguistic characteristics include:
* Confusion between the letters ''Big yus'' '''⟨Ѫѫ⟩''' and ''Uk'' '''⟨Ѹѹ⟩''' – this occurs once in the Kiev Folia, when the expected form въсоудъ ''vъsudъ'' is spelled въсѫдъ ''vъsǫdъ''
* {{IPA|/ts/}} from Proto-Slavic *tj, use of {{IPA|/dz/}} from *dj, {{IPA|/ʃtʃ/}} *skj
* Use of the words ''mьša'', ''cirky'', ''papežь'', ''prěfacija'', ''klepati'', ''piskati'' etc.
* Preservation of the consonant cluster {{IPA|/dl/}} (e.g. ''modlitvami'')
* Use of the ending&nbsp;–ъmь instead of&nbsp;–omь in the masculine singular [[instrumental case|instrumental]], use of the pronoun čьso

===First Bulgarian Empire===
[[File:Car_Simeon_Bulharsky_-_Alfons_Mucha.jpg|thumb|"[[Simeon I of Bulgaria]], the Morning Star of Slavonic Literature" (1923), by [[Alphonse Mucha]], ''[[The Slav Epic]]'']]
Although the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius took place in Great Moravia, it was in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] that early Slavic written culture and liturgical literature really flourished.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=43}} The Old Church Slavonic language was adopted as state and liturgical language in 893, and was taught and refined further in two bespoke academies created in [[Preslav]] (Bulgarian capital between 893 and 972), and [[Ohrid]] (Bulgarian capital between 991/997 and 1015).<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=X9PGRaZt-zcC&pg=PA436 |title=Toward an Understanding of Europe|isbn= 978-1-59942983-0 |last1=Ertl|first1=Alan W |year= 2008|publisher=Universal-Publishers }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=P-1m1FLtrvsC&pg=PA50 |title= Contested Ethnic Identity |isbn= 978-303430196-1 |last1=Kostov|first1=Chris |year= 2010|publisher= Peter Lang }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ltRWy32dG7oC&pg=PA533 |title=The Poetics of Slavdom: Part III: Njego |isbn= 978-0-82048135-7|last1=Zlatar|first1= Zdenko|year= 2007|publisher=Peter Lang }}</ref>

The language did not represent one regional dialect but a generalized form of early [[South Slavic languages#Eastern South Slavic languages|eastern South Slavic]], which cannot be localized.<ref name= "Old Church Slavonic, Horace Lunt">{{harvp|Lunt|2001}}.</ref> The existence of two major literary centres in the Empire led in the period from the 9th to the 11th centuries to the emergence of two [[recension]]s (otherwise called "[[redaction]]s"), termed "Eastern" and "Western" respectively.{{sfnp|Vlasto|1970|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA174 174]}}<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_kn5c5dJmNUC&pg=PA431 |title=Indo-European Language and Culture|isbn= 978-1-40518896-8 |last1=Fortson|first1=Benjamin W |date= 2009-08-31|publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref>

Some researchers do not differentiate between manuscripts of the two recensions, preferring to group them together in a "Macedo-Bulgarian"<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5pCBRsfJMv8C&pg=PA188 |title= Ancient Indo-European Dialects |last1= Birnbaum |first1= Henrik|last2= Puhvel|first2= Jaan |year= 1966}}</ref> or simply "Bulgarian" recension.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=43}}<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/is_ran/is_ran_4.html |title= Razmyshlenija o makedonskom "sreze"… | first = I. | last = Kaliganov |website= kroraina}}</ref><ref name="usa" /> The development of Old Church Slavonic literacy had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the [[South Slavs]] into neighboring cultures, which promoted the formation of a distinct Bulgarian identity.{{sfnp|Crampton|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylz4fe7757cC&pg=PA15 15]}}

Common features of both recensions:
[[File:Codex Suprasliensis.jpg|thumb|The Bulgarian [[Codex Suprasliensis]] is one of the earliest extant Cyrillic manuscripts, dating back to the mid-900s.]]
* Consistent use of the soft consonant clusters {{script|Cyrs|⟨щ⟩}} (*ʃt) & {{script|Cyrs|⟨жд⟩}} (*ʒd) for Pra-Slavic *tj/*gt/*kt and *dj. Articulation as *{{IPAlink|c}} & *{{IPAlink|ɟ}} in a number of Macedonian dialects is a later development due to Serbian influence in the [[Late Middle Ages]], aided by Late Middle Bulgarian's mutation of palatal *{{IPAlink|t}} & *{{IPAlink|d}} > palatal k & g<ref>{{cite book|last=Selishchev|first=Afanasii |script-title=ru:Очерки по македонской диалектологии|trans-title=Essays on Macedonian dialectology|location=Kazan|pages=127–146}}</ref>{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=155}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Georgiev|first=Vladimir |script-title=bg:Възникването на палаталните съгласни кʼ и гʼ от шт и жд в югозападните български говори, Проблеми на българския език|trans-title=Emergence of Palatal /k'/ and /g'/ from [sht] and [zhd] in the Southwestern Bulgarian Dialects. Issues Relating to the Bulgarian Language<!--|location=Sofia 
-->|year=1985|pages=43}}</ref>
* Consistent use of the [[yat]] vowel (ě)
* Inconsistent use of the epenthetic l, with attested forms both with and without it: <em>korabĺь</em> & <em>korabъ</em>, <em>zemĺě</em> & <em>zemьja</em>, the latter possibly indicating a shift from <ĺ> to <j>.{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=132}}{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=55}} Modern [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]/[[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] lack epenthetic l
* Replacement of the affricate {{script|Cyrs|⟨ꙃ⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|d͡z}}) with the fricative {{script|Cyrs|⟨ꙁ⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|z}}), realized consistently in Cyrillic and partially in Glagolitic manuscripts{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=133}}
* Use of the past participle in perfect and past perfect tense without an auxiliary to denote the narator's attitude to what is happening{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=153}}

Moreover, consistent scribal errors indicate the following trends in the development of the recension(s) between the 9th and the 11th centuries:

* Loss of the [[yer]]s ({{script|Cyrs|ъ}} & {{script|Cyrs|ь}}) in weak position and their vocalization in strong position, with diverging results in Preslav and Ohrid{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=126–127}}{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=541–543}}{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=55}}
* Depalatalization of {{script|Cyrs|⟨ж⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|ʒ}}), {{script|Cyrs|⟨ш⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|ʃ}}), {{script|Cyrs|⟨ч⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}}), {{script|Cyrs|⟨ꙃ⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|d͡z}}), {{script|Cyrs|⟨ц⟩}} (*{{IPAlink|t͡s}}), and the {{script|Cyrs|⟨щ⟩ & ⟨жд⟩}} clusters.{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=541–543}} They are only hard in modern Bulgarian/Macedonian/[[Torlak dialect|Torlak]]
* Loss of intervocalic {{IPAslink|j}}, followed by vowel assimilation and contraction: <em>sěěhъ</em> (denoting <em>sějahъ</em>) > <em>sěahъ</em> > <em>sěhъ</em> ('I sowed'), <em>dobrajego</em> > <em>dobraego</em> > <em>dobraago</em> > <em>dobrago</em> ('good', masc. gen. sing.){{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=132}}{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=545–547}}
* Incipient denasalization of the [[small yus]], {{script|Cyrs|ѧ}} (ę), replaced with {{script|Cyrs|є}} (e){{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=544}}
* Loss of the present tense third person sing. ending {{script|Cyrs|-тъ}} (<em>tъ</em>), e.g., {{script|Cyrs|бѫдетъ}} (<em>bǫdetъ</em>) > {{script|Cyrs|бѫде}} (<em>bǫde</em>) (lacking in modern Bulgarian/Macedonian/Torlak){{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=547}}
* Incipient replacement of the sigmatic and asigmatic aorist with the new aorist, e.g., <em>vedoxъ</em> instead of ''vedъ'' or ''věsъ'' (modern Bulgarian/Macedonian and, in part, Torlak use similar forms){{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=548}}
* Incipent analytisms, including examples of weakening of the noun declension, use of a postpositive [[definite article]], infinitive decomposition > use of <em>da</em> constructions, future tense with {{script|Cyrs|хотѣти}} (> {{script|Cyrs|ще/ќе/че}} in Bulgarian/Macedonian/Torlak) can all be observed in 10-11th century manuscripts{{sfnp|Duridanov|1991|pp=551–557}}

There are also certain differences between the Preslav and Ohrid recensions. According to Huntley, the primary ones are the diverging development of the strong yers (Western: {{script|Cyrs|ъ}} > {{script|Cyrs|o}} (*{{IPAlink|ɔ}}) and {{script|Cyrs|ь}} > {{script|Cyrs|є}} (*{{IPAlink|ɛ}}), Eastern {{script|Cyrs|ъ}} and {{script|Cyrs|ь}} > *{{IPAlink|ə}}), and the palatalization of dentals and labials before front vowels in East but not West.{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|pp=129, 131}} These continue to be among the primary differences between Eastern Bulgarian and Western Bulgarian/Macedonian to this day. Moreover, two different styles (or redactions) can be distinguished at Preslav; Preslav Double-Yer ({{script|Cyrs|ъ}} ≠ {{script|Cyrs|ь}}) and Preslav Single-Yer ({{script|Cyrs|ъ}} = {{script|Cyrs|ь}}, usually > {{script|Cyrs|ь}}). 
The Preslav and Ohrid recensions are described in greater detail below:

====Preslav recension====

The manuscripts of the Preslav recension<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=aMwy-0D_6NEC&pg=PA409 |title=The Early Versions of the New Testament|isbn= 978-0-19826170-4 |last1= Metzger |first1= Bruce Manning |year= 1977|publisher=Clarendon Press }}</ref>{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006 |p= 64}}<ref name="Kamusella 2008">{{harvp|Kamusella|2008}}{{Page needed |date=April 2022}}.</ref> or "Eastern" variant{{sfnp|Birnbaum|1991|p= 535}} are among the oldest of the Old Church Slavonic language, only predated by the Moravian recension. This recension was centred around the [[Preslav Literary School]]. Since the earliest datable [[Cyrillic Script|Cyrillic]] inscriptions were found in the area of [[Preslav]], it is this school which is credited with the development of the Cyrillic alphabet which gradually replaced the Glagolitic one.{{sfnp|Curta|2006|p=221–222}}<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J-H9BTVHKRMC&pg=PR3-IA34 |title=The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire |isbn=978-0-19161488-0 |last1= Hussey |first1= J. M. |date= 2010-03-25|publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref> A number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the Preslav Literary School, including [[Naum of Preslav]] (until 893), [[Constantine of Preslav]], [[John Exarch]], [[Chernorizets Hrabar]], etc.. The main linguistic features of this recension are the following:

* The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were used concurrently
* In some documents, the original supershort vowels {{script|Cyrs|ъ}} and {{script|Cyrs|ь}} merged with one letter taking the place of the other
* The original ascending reflex (''rь'', ''lь'') of syllabic {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} was sometimes metathesized to (''ьr'', ''ьl''), or a combination of the two
* The central vowel ы (''ꙑ'') merged with ъи (''ъj'')
* Merger of {{script|Cyrs|{{angle bracket|ꙃ}}}} (*{{IPAlink|d͡z}}) and {{script|Cyrs|{{angle bracket|ꙁ}}}} (*{{IPAlink|z}})
* The verb forms {{script|Cyrs|нарицаѭ, нарицаѥши}} (''naricajǫ'', ''naricaješi'') were substituted or alternated with {{script|Cyrs|наричꙗѭ, наричꙗеши}} (''naričjajǫ'', ''naričjaješi'')

====Ohrid recension====
The manuscripts of the Ohrid recension or "Western" variant{{sfnp|Stolz|Titunik|Doležel|1984|p=111 | ps =: "Specific phonological and lexical differences led Jagić (and many others after him, notably Vaillant) to distinguish carefully between the Western (or Macedonian) OCS of the glagolitic manuscripts and the Eastern (or Bulgarian) OCS of the Suprasliensis…"}} are among the oldest of the Old Church Slavonic language, only predated by the Moravian recension. The recension is sometimes named Macedonian because its literary centre, [[Ohrid Literary School|Ohrid]], lies in the historical [[Macedonia (region)|region of Macedonia]]. At that period, [[Ohrid]] administratively formed part of the province of [[Kutmichevitsa]] in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] until the [[Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria|Byzantine conquest]].{{sfnp|Vlasto|1970|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169 169]}} The main literary centre of this dialect was the [[Ohrid Literary School]], whose most prominent member and most likely founder, was [[Clement of Ohrid|Saint Clement of Ohrid]] who was commissioned by [[Boris I of Bulgaria]] to teach and instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language. This recension is represented by the [[Codex Zographensis]] and [[Codex Marianus|Marianus]], among others. The main linguistic features of this recension include:

* Continuous usage of the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] instead of [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]
* Strict distinction in the articulation of the yers and their vocalisation in strong position (ъ > *{{IPAlink|ɔ}} and ь > *{{IPAlink|ɛ}}) or deletion in weak position<ref name="Huntley 1993 126–7"/>
* Wider usage and retention of the phoneme *{{IPAlink|d͡z}} (which in most other Slavic languages has dеaffricated to *{{IPAlink|z}})

==Later recensions==
{{Main|Church Slavonic}}
Old Church Slavonic may have reached [[Slovenia]] as early as [[Cyril and Methodius]]'s [[Cyril and Methodius#Journey to Rome|Panonian mission]] in 868 and is exemplified by the late 10th century [[Freising manuscripts|Freising fragments]], written in the [[Latin script]].{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|p=31}} Later, in the 10th century, [[Glagolitic]] liturgy was carried from Bohemia to [[Croatia]], where it established a rich literary tradition.{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|p=31}} Old Church Slavonic in the [[Cyrillic script]] was in turn transmitted from Bulgaria to [[Serbia]] in the 10th century and to [[Kievan Rus']] in connection with its adoption of Orthodox Christianity in 988.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=84–85}}{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=218}}

The later use of Old Church Slavonic in these medieval Slavic polities resulted in a gradual adjustment of the language to the local vernacular, while still retaining a number of [[Eastern South Slavic languages|Eastern South Slavic]], [[Moravia]]n or [[Bulgaria]]n features. In all cases, [[yus]]es denasalised so that only Old Church Slavonic, modern [[Polish language|Polish]] and some isolated [[Bulgarian dialects]] retained the old Slavonic nasal vowels.

Five major recensions with such vernacular "accommodations" can be identified: the <em>Czech-Moravian</em> or <em>Bohemian</em> recension, which originated in the original mission in Great Moravia but became moribund as early as the late 1000s; <em>(Middle) Bulgarian</em>, which continued the literary tradition of the [[Preslav Literary School|Preslav]] and [[Ohrid Literary School]]s; <em>Croatian</em>, associated with the continued use of the Glagolitic alphabet; <em>Serbian</em>, known for at least four separate recensions; and <em>Russian</em>, which came to dominance in the 1800s.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64–65: Nonetheless, over time accommodations took place between Old Church Slavonic and certain of the Slavic vernaculars. There were five major such versions (‘‘recensions’’) of Old Church Slavonic, and these constitute Church Slavonic. The five were: the Czech-Moravian recension, deriving from the remains of the ninth-century Cyril-Methodius mission in Moravia; the Bulgarian recension, revived several times, for instance in the Euthymian revision of the fifteenth century, which was actively pursued in Ukraine; the Croatian recension, associated with the continued use of the Glagolitic alphabet; the Serbian recension, which developed in the eighteenth century into the hybrid Slavic-Serbian written medium; and, most importantly, the Russian recension}}

Certain authors also talk about separate <em>Bosnian</em> and <em>Ruthenian</em> recensions, whereas the use of the Bulgarian Euthymian recension in [[Wallachia]] and [[Moldova]] from the late 1300s until the early 1700s is sometimes referred to as <em>"Daco-Slavonic"</em> or <em>"Dacian"</em> recension.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=218, 277}} All of these later versions of Old Church Slavonic are collectively referred to as [[Church Slavonic]].{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64-65}} 

=== Bohemian (Czech-Moravian) recension ===
[[File:Pražské Zlomky 1.jpg|thumb|Prague Glagolitic Fragments]]
The Bohemian (Czech) recension is derived from the Moravian recension and was used in the Czech lands until 1097. It was written in [[Glagolitic]], which is posited to have been carried over to Bohemia even before the death of Methodius.{{sfnp|Huntley|1993|p=30}} It is preserved in religious texts (e.g. Prague Fragments), legends and glosses and shows substantial influence of the [[West Slavic languages|Western Slavic vernacular]] in Bohemia at the time. Its main features are:<ref>{{cite web | first1 =Alena A. | last1 = Fidlerová |author2= Robert Dittmann |author3=František Martínek |author4= Kateřina Voleková |title=Dějiny češtiny |url= https://ucjtk.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2015/11/D%C4%9Bjiny-%C4%8De%C5%A1tiny.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ucjtk.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2015/11/D%C4%9Bjiny-%C4%8De%C5%A1tiny.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=16 May 2020 |language=cs}}</ref>
* PSl. *tj, *kt(i), *dj, *gt(i) → ''c'' /ts/, ''z'': ''pomocь'', ''utvrьzenie''
* PSl. *stj, *skj → ''šč'': ''*očistjenьje'' → ''očiščenie''
* ending ''-ъmь'' in instr. sg. (instead of ''-omь''): ''obrazъmь''
* verbs with prefix ''vy-'' (instead of ''iz-'')
* promoting of etymological ''-dl-, -tl-'' (''světidlъna'', ''vъsedli'', inconsistently)
* suppressing of epenthetic ''l'' (''prěstavenie'', inconsistently)
* ''-š-'' in original stem ''vьx-'' (''všěx'') after 3rd palatalization
* development of yers and nasals coincident with development in Czech lands
* fully syllabic ''r'' and ''l'' 
* ending ''-my'' in first-person pl. verbs
* missing terminal ''-tь'' in third-person present tense indicative
* creating future tense using prefix ''po-''
* using words ''prosba'' (request), ''zagrada'' (garden), ''požadati'' (to ask for), ''potrěbovati'' (to need), conjunctions ''aby'', ''nebo'', etc.

=== Bosnian recension ===
[[File:Humacka ploca 2v.jpg|thumb|210px|Humac tablet (between the 10th and end 12th century)]]
The Bosnian recension used both the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] and the [[Cyrillic alphabet]]. A home-grown version of the Cyrillic alphabet, commonly known as [[Bosančica]], or Bosnian Cyrillic, coined as neologism in 19th century, emerged very early on (probably the 1000s).{{sfnp|Marti|2012|p= [https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783110288179/9783110288179.269/9783110288179.269.pdf 275] | ps =: "[T]he first printed book in Cyrillic (or, to be more precise, in ''Bosančica'')…"}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Cleminson |first=Ralph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udYWAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA2 |title=Cyrillic books printed before 1701 in British and Irish collections: a union catalogue |publisher=[[British Library]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-71234709-9}}</ref>{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=219–220: In the 14th century, the Cyrillic alphabet underwent reform under Bulgarian and Greek influence, but in inaccessible Bosnia, isolated from the outer world by mountain ranges, the Cyrillic developed into a special form known as Bosančica, or the 'Bosnian script'}} Primary features:

* Use of the letters ''i, y, ě'' for *{{IPAlink|i}} in [[Bosnian Cyrillic#Gallery|Bosnian manuscripts]] (reflecting Bosnian [[Shtokavian#Yat reflexes|Ikavism]])
* Use of the letter [[djerv]] (Ꙉꙉ) for the Serbo-Croatian reflexes of Pra-Slavic *tj and *dj (*{{IPAlink|t͡ɕ}} & *{{IPAlink|d͡ʑ}})
* Djerv was also used denote palatal *l and *n: {{script|Cyrs|⟨ꙉл⟩}} = *{{IPAlink|ʎ}}, {{script|Cyrs|⟨ꙉн⟩}} = *{{IPAlink|ɲ}}
* Use of the letter [[Щ]]щ for Pra-Slavic *stj, *skj (reflecting pronunciation as *ʃt or *ʃt͡ʃ) and only rarely for *tj

The recension has been subsumed under the Serbian recension, especially by Serbian linguistics, and (along with Bosančica) is the subject of a dispute between Serbs, Croatians and Bosniaks.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=976}}

=== Middle Bulgarian ===

The common term "Middle Bulgarian" is usually contrasted to "Old Bulgarian" (an alternative name for Old Church Slavonic) and is loosely used for manuscripts whose language demonstrates a broad spectrum of regional and temporal dialect features after the 11th century.<ref>Gerald L. Mayer, 1988, ''The definite article in contemporary standard Bulgarian'', Freie Universität Berlin. Osteuropa-Institut, Otto Harrassowitz, p. 108.</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Bounatriou|first=Elias|title=Church Slavonic, Recensions of|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online|year=2020|doi=10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032050 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032050|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=13–14}} An alternative term, <em>Bulgarian recension of Church Slavonic</em>, is used by some authors.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=277}} 

Unlike the Old Bulgarian period, centres other than the capital of [[Tarnovo]] are only loosely defined, and designating individual recensions is difficult. Until St. [[Euthymius of Tarnovo|Euthymius]]' reform, orthographies were not standardised, varying not only based on place and time―reflecting a language in phonetic and grammatical flux―but also by manuscript type and education and experience of the copyist. Lay works and manuscripts of less polished copyists, e.g., The Popular Vita of St. John of Rila of the late 1100s, the early 1200s [[Dobreyshovo Gospels]] or the early 1300s Troy Story exhibit far more and advanced analytical features than established canonical texts.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Third International Congress of Bulgarian Studies|title=Markers of the Definiteness of the Noun Phrase in the History of the Bulgarian Language|last=Lindstedt|first=Jouko|language=Bulgarian|place=Sofia|year=2014|isbn=978-954-07-3853-6|url=https://clbas.bg73.net/bg/v/bulgarian-studies-3-vol-10-pp-59-68|pages=63–65}}</ref>{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=17-21, 160-161, 179-180, 196-205, 273-275}}

Middle Bulgarian is generally defined as a transition from the [[synthetic language|synthetic]] Old Bulgarian to the highly [[analytic language|analytic]] New Bulgarian and Macedonian, where incipient 10th-century analytisms gradually spread from the north-east to all Bulgarian, Macedonian and Torlakian dialects. Primary features:

Phonological:
* Merger of the [[yus]]es, *ǫ=*ę ([[Ѫ]]ѫ=[[Ѧ]]ѧ), into a single [[mid back unrounded vowel]] (most likely ʌ̃), where ѫ was used after plain and ѧ after [[palatal consonants]] (1000s–1100s), followed by [[denasalization]] and transition of ѫ > *{{IPAlink|ɤ}} or *{{IPAlink|a}} and ѧ > *{{IPAlink|ɛ}} in most dialects (1200s-1300s){{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=110–114}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Totomanova|first=Ana-Maria|script-title=bg:Из българската историческа фонетика |trans-title=On Bulgarian Historical Phonetics|location=Sofia|publisher=University Printing House St. Clement of Ohrid|year=2014|edition=III|isbn=978-954-07-3788-1|pages=28–29}}</ref>
* Str. *ě > *ja (ʲa) in Eastern Bulgarian, starting from the 1100s; {{script|Cyrs|вꙗнєцъ}} (''vjanec'') instead of {{script|Cyrs|вѣнєцъ}} (''v(j)ænec''), from earlier {{script|Cyrs|вѣньцъ}} (''v(j)ænьc'') ('wreath'), after vocalization of the strong front yer{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=15}}
* *ě > *e starting from northwestern Macedonia and spreading east and south, 1200s{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=20}}
* *cě > *ca & *dzě > *dza in eastern North Macedonia and western Bulgaria (yakavian at the time), {{script|Cyrs|цаловати}} (''calovati'') instead of {{script|Cyrs|цѣловати}} (''c(j)ælovati'') ('kiss'), indicating hardening of palatal *c & *dz before *ě, 1200s{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=19}}
* Merger of the yuses and yers (*ǫ=*ę=*ъ=*ь), usually, but not always, into a [[schwa]]-like sound (1200–1300s) in some dialects (central Bulgaria, the [[Rhodopes]]).{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=18, 23}} Merger preserved in the most archaic [[Rup dialects]], e.g., [[Smolyan dialect|Smolyan]] (> {{IPAlink|ɒ}}), [[Paulician dialect|Paulician]] (incl. [[Banat Bulgarian dialect|Banat Bulgarian]]), [[Zlatograd dialect|Zlatograd]], [[Hvoyna dialect|Hvoyna]] (all > {{IPAlink|ɤ}})
[[File:RilskaGramota.JPG|thumb|210px|The 14th-century Rila Charter of Tsar [[Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria|Ivan Shishman]] is representative of Middle Bulgarian's development towards analytism.]]
Morphological:
* Degradation of the [[noun declension]] and incorrect use of most cases or their replacement of preposition + [[dative]] or [[accusative]] by the late 1300s{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=24}}
* Further development and [[grammaticalization]] of the short [[demonstrative pronouns]] into postpositive [[definite articles]], e.g., {{script|Cyrs|сладость{{small|'''тѫ'''}}}} ('the sweetness'){{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=196–205}}
* Emergence of analytic [[comparative]] of adjectives, {{script|Cyrs|{{small|'''по'''}}богатъ}} ('rich'''er''''), {{script|Cyrs|{{small|'''по'''}}добръ}} ('bett'''er'''') by the 1300s{{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=180}}
* Emergence of a single plural form for adjectives by the 1300s
* Disappearance of the [[supine]], replaced by the [[infinitive]], which in turn was replaced by ''da'' + present tense constructions by the late 1300s
* Disappearance of the present active, present passive and past active participle and the widening of the use of the l-participle (''reklъ'') and the past passive participle (''rečenъ'') ('said')
* Replacement of aorist plural forms <em>-oxomъ</em>, <em>-oste</em>, <em>-ošę</em> with <em>-oxmy</em>/<em>oxme</em>, <em>-oxte</em>, <em>-oxǫ</em> as early as the 1100s, e.g., {{script|Cyrs|{{small|реко'''хѫ'''}}}} (''rekoxǫ'') instead of {{script|Cyrs|{{small|реко'''шѧ'''}}}} (''rekošę'') ('they said'){{sfnp|Mirchev|1978|pp=216, 218}}

Pre-Euthymian Tarnovo recension:
* Regular vocalisation {{script|Cyrs|[[yer|ь]]}} > {{script|Cyrs|є}} (*{{IPAlink|ɛ}}) in both suffixes and roots, e.g., {{script|Cyrs|твор{{small|'''є'''}}цъ}} (''tvorecъ'') ('creator'), {{script|Cyrs|л{{small|'''є'''}}въ}} (''levъ'') ('lion') and notation with a back yer ({{script|Cyrs|[[yer|ъ]]}}) if the root yer is weak―{{script|Cyrs|т{{small|'''ъ'''}}менъ}} (''tъmenъ'') ('dark, m. s.')<ref name="TarnLit9">{{cite journal|journal=Tarnovo Literary School|volume=9|issue=1|year=2009|last=Velcheva|first=Boryana|title=Григоровичевият паримейник и Търновската школа|trans-title=The Grigorovich Prophetologion and the Tarnovo Literary School|doi=10.54664/DSOP8013|publisher=ST. CYRIL AND ST. METHODIUS UNIVERSITY OF VELIKO TARNOVO - UNIVERSITY PRESS|pages=182, 184|url=https://journals.uni-vt.bg/tls/eng/vol9/iss1/art15|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="St.Petka">{{cite book|last=Mineva|first=Evelina|title=Пет химнографски творби за св. Петка Търновска|trans-title=Five Hymnographic Works About St. Petka of Tarnovo|publisher=Iztok-Zapad|language=Bulgarian|year=2005|place=Sofia|isbn=954-321-157-4|page=64-65|url=https://www.academia.edu/3613978}}</ref><ref name="TarnLit4">{{cite journal|journal=Tarnovo Literary School|volume=4|issue=1|year=1985|last=Ivanova|first=Klementina|title=Български ръкописи и литературни творби от XIII и XIV век в сбирката на Цетинския манастир|trans-title=Bulgarian Manuscripts and Literary Works from the 1200s and 1300s in the Cetinje Monastery's Collection|publisher=ST. CYRIL AND ST. METHODIUS UNIVERSITY OF VELIKO TARNOVO - UNIVERSITY PRESS|page=50|url=https://journals.uni-vt.bg/tls/eng/vol4/iss1/art7}}</ref><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024">{{cite journal|journal=Palaeobulgarica|volume=XLVIII|year=2024|last=Slavova|first=Tatyana|title=За антиграфа на Песнивеца на цар Иван Александър|trans-title=On the Antigraph of the Pesnivec of Tzar Ivan Alexander|publisher=Cyrillo-Methodian Research Centre|issn=0204-4021|language=Bulgarian|doi=10.59076/2603-2899.2024.2.02|url=https://palaeobulgarica.eu/en/898/issue-xlviii-2024-2|pages=19, 21–23|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* Vocalisation {{script|Cyrs|[[yer|ъ]]}} > {{script|Cyrs|o}} (*{{IPAlink|ɔ}}) in the suffixes ''-ъk-'', ''-ъv-'' and definite articles: {{script|Cyrs|свит{{small|'''о'''}}къ}} (''svitokъ'') ('scroll'), {{script|Cyrs|люб{{small|'''о'''}}въ}} (''ʎubovъ'') ('love'), {{script|Cyrs|род{{small|'''о'''}}тъ}} (''rodotъ'') ('the kin')<ref name="TarnLit9"/><ref name="St.Petka"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/>
* *y is written correctly in its etymological places<ref name="St.Petka"/>
* *ž, *š, *žd and *št are followed by hard vowels (*ǫ, *u), signifying early [[Palatalization (sound change)|depalatalisation]]<ref name="TarnLit9"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/>
* *č, the old palatals *ɼ, *ʎ, *ɲ and the newly palatalised [[labial consonant|labials]] are followed by soft/iotated vowels (*ę, *ju) as an indication they are still palatalised<ref name="TarnLit9"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/><ref name="TarnLit4"/>
* *a is not iotated word-initially in a number of words, e.g., {{script|Cyrs|{{small|'''а'''}}гнѧ}} (''agnę'') ('lamb'), {{script|Cyrs|{{small|'''a'''}}блъко}} (''ablъko'') ('apple'), {{script|Cyrs|{{small|'''a'''}}года}} (''agoda'') ('strawberry')<ref name="TarnLit9"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/>
* Use of triple [[definite article]] based on the short [[demonstrative pronouns]] {{script|Cyrs|сь}}, {{script|Cyrs|тъ}} & {{script|Cyrs|нъ}}, e.g., {{script|Cyrs|свитък{{small|'''ос'''}}ъ}} (''svitъkosъ'') ('the scroll right next to me')―typical for all Middle Bulgarian dialects<ref name="TarnLit9"/>
* Growing avoidance of iotated vowels: *ja > *ě, *jǫ > *ǫ, *ję > *ę, *je > *e (eventually codified in the Euthymian recension)<ref name="St.Petka"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/>
* Swapping the two [[yus]]es according to somewhat artificial rules (also codified in the Euthymian recension)<ref name="TarnLit4"/><ref name="Palaeobulgarica2024"/><ref name="St.Petka"/>
Most norms reflect the developments in the [[Moesian dialects|Moesian dialectal]] basis of the [[Veliko Tarnovo|Tarnovo]] region at the time.

==== Euthymian recension ====
In the early 1370s, [[Patriarch of Bulgaria|Bulgarian Patriarch]] [[Euthymius of Tarnovo]] implemented a reform to standardize Bulgarian orthography.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp=276}} Instead of bringining the language closer to that of commoners, the "Euthymian", or Tarnovo, recension, rather sought to re-establish older Old Church Slavonic models, further archaizing it.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=85}} The fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule in 1396 precipitated an exodus of Bulgarian men-of-letters, e.g., [[Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev|Cyprian]], [[Gregory Tsamblak]], [[Constantine of Kostenets]], etc. to [[Wallachia]], [[Moldova]] and the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Grand Duchies of Lithuania]] and [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Moscow]], where they enforced the Euthymian recension as liturgical and chancery language, and to the [[Serbian Despotate]], where it influenced the [[Resava School]].{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp=158–159, 204, 276, 277: Bulgarian Church Slavonic was adopted as the official language of the Danubian Principalities and gradually developed into a specific Dacian recension that remained in use until the beginning of the 18th century}}{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=82, 85}}

=== Croatian recension ===
[[File:Reimski evanđelistargl10l1a.jpg|thumb|250px|A folio of the 13th-century [[Reims Gospel]], an example of Angular Glagolitic]]
The Croatian recension of Old Church Slavonic used only the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] of angular type. It shows the development of the following characteristics:

* Denasalisation of [[Proto-Slavic|PSl.]] *ę > e, PSl. *ǫ > u, e.g., OCS ''rǫka'' ("hand") > Cr. ''ruka'', OCS ''językъ'' > Cr. ''jezik'' ("tongue, language")
* PSl. *y > i, e.g., OCS ''byti'' > Cr. ''biti'' ("to be")
* PSl. [[Havlík's law|weak-positioned]] [[yers]] *ъ and *ь merged, probably representing some schwa-like sound, and only one of the letters was used (usually 'ъ'). Evident in earliest documents like [[Baška tablet]].
* PSl. [[Havlík's law|strong-positioned]] [[yers]] *ъ and *ь were vocalized into *a in most Štokavian and Čakavian dialects, e.g., OCS ''pьsъ'' > Cr. ''pas'' ("dog")
* PSl. hard and soft syllabic liquids *r and *r′ retained syllabicity and were written as simply r, as opposed to OCS sequences of mostly rь and rъ, e.g., ''krstъ'' and ''trgъ'' as opposed to OCS ''krьstъ'' and ''trъgъ'' ("cross", "market")
* PSl. #vьC and #vъC > #uC, e.g., OCS. ''vъdova'' ("widow") > Cr. ''udova''

=== Russian recension ===

The Russian recension emerged in the 1000s based on the earlier Eastern Bulgarian recension, from which it differed slightly. The earliest manuscript to contain Russian elements is the [[Ostromir Gospel]] of 1056–1057, which exemplifies the beginning of a Russianized Church Slavonic that gradually spread to liturgical and chancery documents.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=81}} The Russianization process was cut short in the late 1300s, when a series of Bulgarian prelates, starting with [[Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev|Cyprian]], consciously "re-Bulgarized" church texts to achieve maximum conformity with the Euthymian recension.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=82: The South Slavic component was deliberately emphasized during the " Second South Slavic Influence" of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Bulgarian prelates consciously "re-Bulgarized" (Issatschenko, 1980; 1980–1983) the church texts to achieve maximum conformity with the established church norms}}{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp=158–159: These immigrants enforced the South Slavic (Bulgarian) recension (version) of Church Slavonic as the standard in which religious books were to be written and administration conducted in Muscovy. This trend had commenced at the end of the 14th century when a succession of South Slavic monks had been nominated to the position of the metropolitan of all Rus (sometimes, anachronistically translated as ‘all Russias’) with his seat at Moscow}} The Russianization process resumed in the late 1400s but was sluggish due to the clergy's hostility towards vernacular use, which they regarded as "contamination of the holy language", and towards using [[Early Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillics]] to write any idiom other than Church Slavonic―which was similarly deemed "sacrilegious".{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp=159: Ruthenian translations of such writings often made their way from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Muscovy, and inspired further development of literacy in the local vernacular, which was slow due to the official opposition of the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox clergy, whose authority as the custodians of Orthodox Christianity legitimized statehood in Muscovy, frowned at vernacular literacy, considering it ‘contamination’ of the ‘holy language’ of Church Slavonic, identified with the Cyrillic script. Thus, any use of Cyrillic characters for writing in an idiom, which
did not sound like Church Slavonic, appeared to be sacrilegious.}} Nevertheless, Russian Church Slavonic eventually stabilised and even started projecting influence outwards, until it became entrenched as the de facto standard for all Orthodox Slavs, incl. Serbs and Bulgarians, by the early 1800s.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=82: In time, however, the Russian recension of Church Slavonic gained increasing acceptance in Russia, and came to influence Serbian and Bulgarian Church Slavonic, and the formation and revival of these literary languages}} Characteristics:
[[File:Gospels russia.jpg|thumb|230px|The [[Mstislav Gospel]] is a 12th-century Cyrillic manuscript written in Russian Church Slavonic]]
* PSl. *ę > *ja/ʲa, PSl. *ǫ > u, e.g., OCS ''rǫka'' ("hand") > Rus. ''ruka''; OCS ''językъ'' > Rus. ''jazyk'' ("tongue, language")<ref>{{harvp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=44}}</ref>
* Vocalisation of the [[yer]]s in strong position (ъ > *{{IPAlink|ɔ}} and ь > *{{IPAlink|ɛ}}) and their deletion in weak position
* *ě > *e, e.g., OCS ''věra'' ("faith") > Rus. ''vera''
* Preservation of a number of South Slavic and Bulgarian phonological and morphological features, which also carried to the [[Russian language]], e.g.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=50}}
:- Use of {{script|Cyrs|⟨щ⟩}} (pronounced *ʃt͡ʃ) instead of East Slavic {{script|Cyrs|⟨ч⟩}} (*t͡ʃ) for Pra-Slavic *tj/*gt/*kt: cf. Russian {{script|Cyrs|просвещение}} (''prosve'''šč'''enie'') vs. Ukrainian {{script|Cyrs|освiчення}} (''osvi'''č'''ennja'') ('illumination')
:- Use of {{script|Cyrs|⟨жд⟩}} (*ʒd) instead of East Slavic {{script|Cyrs|⟨ж⟩}} (*ʒ) for Pra-Slavic *dj: cf. Russian {{script|Cyrs|одежда}} (''ode'''žd'''a'') vs. Ukrainian {{script|Cyrs|одежа}} (''ode'''ž'''a'') ('clothing')
:- Non-pleophonic ''-ra/-la'' instead of East Slavic pleophonic ''-oro/-olo'' forms: cf. Russian {{script|Cyrs|награда}} (''nag'''ra'''da'') vs. Ukrainian {{script|Cyrs|нагoрoда}} (''nah'''oro'''da'') ('reward')
:- Prefixes so-/voz-/iz- instead of s-/vz- (z-)/vy-: cf. Russian {{script|Cyrs|возбудить}} ('''''voz'''buditь'') vs. Ukrainian {{script|Cyrs|збудити}} ('''''z'''budyty'') ('arouse'), etc.

=== Ruthenian recension ===
The Ruthenian recension generally shows the same characteristics as and is usually subsumed under the Russian recension. The Euthymian recension that was pursued throughout the 1400s was gradually replaced in the 1500s by Ruthenian, an administrative language based on the Belarusian dialect of [[Vilnius|Vilno]].{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64, 85: During this period the written models included the "Euthymian" recension of Church Slavonic, an esoteric, Bulgarian-inspired attempt to re-establish older South Slavic models, which was then replaced by Ruthenian, a written and administrative language}}

=== Serbian recension ===
[[File:Miroslav's_Gospel_001.jpg|thumb|250px|A folio of the (1180)<ref name=mow>{{cite web|title= Miroslav Gospel – Manuscript from 1180 |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/miroslav-gospel-manuscript-1180 |publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World Programme |access-date=2025-11-01}}</ref> [[Miroslav Gospel]], a notable example of [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Serbian Cyrillic]] ([[Serbia|Serbia's]][[UNESCO|UNESCO's]] Memory of the World Register)<ref>{{Cite web |title=UNESCO - Serbia - Miroslav Gospel |url=https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/serbia_miroslav_gospel.pdf}}</ref>]]
The Serbian recension initially employed both the [[Glagolitic script|Glagolitic alphabet]] and the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic alphabet]], but Cyrillic eventually prevailed and was the only script used from the 1200s onwards (apart from limited use of [[Latin script]] in coastal areas).{{sfnp|Lunt|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7BXJgfIo_fYC&pg=PA4 4]}}{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|pp=218: Between the 10th and 12th centuries, Cyrillic replaced Glagolitic for writing in Church Slavonic, but Serbian priests employed Glagolitic for limited liturgical needs until the 15th century.}}

A home-grown side version of the Cyrillic alphabet, commonly known as [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Serbian Cyrillic]], emerged very early on (probably the 10th century).

The penetration of Serbian vernacular phonemes into liturgical texts led to the stabilization of a Serbian pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic and the development of graphic and orthographic solutions. Over time, this evolution produced the Zeta-Hum, Raška, and Resava orthographic schools, named after their respective locations.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=О српској редакцији старословенског језика |journal=Годишњак |last=Ракновић |first=Зоран |volume=5 |pages=93–103 |url=https://docs.godisnjakpbf.com/drive/s/zljKNPIVu4EH7IR5f2P9ANbo5NF3hR |year=2006 |location=Фоча |publisher=Православни богословски факултет Универзитета у Источном Сарајеву}}</ref>

The one of oldest preserved manuscript written in the Serbian recension is the [[Miroslav Gospel]], dated to 1180, commissioned by brother of the [[List of Serbian monarchs|Great Prince of Serbia]] [[Stefan Nemanja]]. Today is a [[Serbia]] [[UNESCO]]'s [[Memory of the World Register|Memory of the World international register]].

Primary features:

* Nasal vowels were denasalised and in one case closed: *ę > e, *ǫ > u, e.g. OCS rǫka > Sr. ruka ("hand"), OCS językъ > Sr. jezik ("tongue, language")
* Notable extensive use ofdiacritical signs by the [[Resava School]]
* Use of letters ''i, y'' for the sound {{IPA|/i/}} in other manuscripts of the Serbian recension
* Use of the [[Serbian_Cyrillic_alphabet#Early_history|Old Serbian Letter]] [[djerv]] (Ꙉꙉ) for the Serbian reflexes of [[Proto-Slavic language|Pre-Slavic]] *tj and *dj (*{{IPAlink|t͡ɕ}}, *{{IPAlink|d͡ʑ}}, *{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}}, and *{{IPAlink|tɕ}})

==== Resava variant ====
Due to the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria in 1396, Serbia saw an influx of educated scribes and clergy, who re-introduced a more classical form that resembled more closely the Bulgarian recension. The Resava recension developed around the [[Resava School|Resava Literary School]], founded by the order of Serbian Despot [[Stefan Lazarević]] in the early 1400s and led by Bulgarian scholar [[Constantine of Kostenets]].<ref>{{cite web|publisher=НАРОДНА БИБЛИОТЕКА РЕСАВСКА ШКОЛА|title=The Resava School, Spirituality Through the Ages|language=Serbian|access-date= 2025-06-14|url=https://resavskaskola.rs|pages=1: Прослављена Ресавска школа (Ресавска књижевна и правописна школа), била је највећа, најбоље организована скрипторија српског средњег века и једна од истакнутијих у Европи. Основао ју је деспот Стефан Лазаревић под окриљем зидина његове задужбине, манастира Ресаве (Манасије), а њено руковођење поверио Константину Филозофу, ученом бугарском емигранту, познатном управо по житијама деспота Стефана [The celebrated Resava School (Resava Literary and Orthographic School) was the largest, best-organized scriptorium of the Serbian Middle Ages and one of the most prominent in Europe. It was founded by Despot Stefan Lazarević under the auspices of his endowment, the Resava (Manasija) Monastery, and its management was entrusted to Constantine the Philosopher, a Bulgarian man-of-letters, known precisely for the biography of Despot Stefan]}}</ref> The recension was closely modelled on the Euthymian one, with etymological use of *ě ([[yat]]), *y ([[yery]]), etc., use of Bulgarian ⟨щ⟩ (*ʃt) and ⟨жд⟩ (*ʒd) for Pra-Slavic *tj/*gt/*kt and *dj, but replacing [[yus]]es with Serbian reflexes *ę > e & *ǫ > u.<ref>{{cite web|website=Cyrillomethodiana|publisher=Sofia University|title=Codex Duscani|language=Church Slavonic|access-date= 2025-06-14|url=https://histdict.uni-sofia.bg/textcorpus/show/doc_3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Cyrillomethodiana|publisher=Sofia University|title=Oratio Isaiae propheti de annis posteris regibusque et Antichristo, qui erit|language=Church Slavonic|access-date= 2025-06-14|url=https://histdict.uni-sofia.bg/textcorpus/show/doc_19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Cyrillomethodiana|publisher=Sofia University|title=Fragment of unnamed historical-apocalyptical work|language=Church Slavonic|access-date= 2025-06-14|url=https://histdict.uni-sofia.bg/textcorpus/show/doc_31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Cyrillomethodiana|publisher=Sofia University|title=Fragment of unnamed historical-apocalyptical work, 1400s|language=Church Slavonic|access-date= 2025-06-14|url=https://histdict.uni-sofia.bg/textcorpus/show/doc_22}}</ref> In the late 1400s and early 1500s, the Resava orthography spread to Bulgaria and North Macedonia and exerted substantial influence on Wallachia. It was eventually superseded by Russian Church Slavonic in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

==Role in modern Slavic languages==
Old Church Slavonic was initially widely intelligible across the Slavic world.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=64}} However, with the gradual differentiation of individual languages, Orthodox Slavs and, to some extent, Croatians ended up in a situation of [[diglossia]], where they used one Slavic language for religious and another one for everyday affairs.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=65}} The resolution of this situation, and the choice made for the exact balance between Old Church Slavonic and vernacular elements and forms is key to understanding the relationship between (Old) Church Slavonic and modern Slavic literary languages, as well as the distance between individual languages.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=63–65}}

It was first Russian [[polymath]] and grammarian [[Mikhail Lomonosov]] that defined in 1755 "three styles" to the balance of Church Slavonic and Russian elements in the Russian literary language: a high style—with substantial Old Church Slavonic influence—for formal occasions and heroic poems; a low style—with substantial influence of the vernacular—for comedy, prose and ordinary affairs; and a middle style, balancing between the two, for informal verse epistles, satire, etc.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=280}}{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=83}}

The middle, "Slaveno-Russian", style eventually prevailed.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=280}} Thus, while standard [[Russian language|Russian]] was codified on the basis of the [[Central Russian dialects|Central Russian dialect]] and the [[Moscow]] chancery language, it retains an entire stylistic layer of Church Slavonisms with typically Eastern South Slavic phonetic features.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=477–478}} Where native and Church Slavonic terms exist side by side, the Church Slavonic one is in the higher stylistic register and is usually more abstract, e.g., the neutral {{script|Cyrs|город}} (''g'''oro'''d'') vs. the poetic {{script|Cyrs|град}} (''g'''rа'''d'') ('town').{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=478}}

[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] faced a similar dilemma a century later, with three camps championing Church Slavonic, Slaveno-Bulgarian, and New Bulgarian as a basis for the codification of modern Bulgarian.{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=280}} Here the proponents of the analytic vernacular eventually won. However, the language re-imported a vast number of Church Slavonic forms, regarded as a legacy of Old Bulgarian, either directly from Russian Church Slavonic or through the mediation of Russian.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=480}}

By contrast, [[Serbian language|Serbian]] made a clean break with (Old) Church Slavonic in the first half of the 1800s, as part of [[Vuk Karadžić#Linguistic reforms|Vuk Karadžić's linguistic reform]], opting instead to build the modern Serbian language from the ground up, based on the [[Eastern Herzegovinian dialect]]. [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] as well as [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] took a similar path in the mid and late 1800s and the late 1940s, respectively, the former two because of the association of Old Church Slavonic with stifling Russian imperial control and the latter in an attempt to distance the newly-codified language as further away from Bulgarian as possible.{{sfnp|Sussex|Cubberley|2006|p=86}}{{sfnp|Kamusella|2008|p=229}}

==Canon==
The core corpus of Old Church Slavonic manuscripts is usually referred to as ''canon''. Manuscripts must satisfy certain linguistic, chronological and cultural criteria to be incorporated into the canon: they must not significantly depart from the language and tradition of Saints Cyril and Methodius, usually known as the ''Cyrillo-Methodian tradition''.

For example, the [[Freising Fragments]], dating from the 10th century, show some linguistic and cultural traits of Old Church Slavonic, but they are usually not included in the canon, as some of the phonological features of the writings appear to belong to certain Pannonian Slavic dialect of the period. Similarly, the [[Ostromir Gospels]] exhibits dialectal features that classify it as [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]], rather than South Slavic so it is not included in the canon either. On the other hand, the [[Kiev Missal]] is included in the canon even though it manifests some West Slavic features and contains Western liturgy because of the Bulgarian linguistic layer and connection to the Moravian mission.

Manuscripts are usually classified in two groups, depending on the alphabet used, Cyrillic or Glagolitic. With the exception of the Kiev Missal and Glagolita Clozianus, which exhibit West Slavic and Croatian features respectively, all Glagolitic texts are assumed to be of the Macedonian recension:
[[File:ZographensisColour.jpg|right|200px|thumb|About two-thirds of the Old Church Slavonic canon is written in the Glagolitic alphabet.]]
* [[Kiev Missal]] (Ki, KM), 7 folios, late 10th century
* [[Codex Zographensis]], (Zo), 288 folios, 10th or 11th century
* [[Codex Marianus]] (Mar), 173 folios, early 11th century
* [[Codex Assemanius]] (Ass), 158 folios, early 11th century
* [[Psalterium Sinaiticum]] (Pas, Ps. sin.), 177 folios, 11th century
* [[Euchologium Sinaiticum]] (Eu, Euch), 109 folios, 11th century
* [[Glagolita Clozianus]] (Clo, Cloz), 14 folios, 11th century
* Ohrid Folios (Ohr), 2 folios, 11th century
* Rila Folios (Ri, Ril), 2 folios and 5 fragments, 11th century

All Cyrillic manuscripts are of the Preslav recension ([[Preslav Literary School]]) and date from the 11th century except for the Zographos, which is of the Ohrid recension ([[Ohrid Literary School]]):

* [[Sava's book]] (Sa, Sav), 126 folios
* [[Codex Suprasliensis]], (Supr), 284 folios
* [[Enina Apostle]] (En, Enin), 39 folios
* Hilandar Folios (Hds, Hil), 2 folios
* Undol'skij's Fragments (Und), 2 folios
* Macedonian Folio (Mac), 1 folio
* Zographos Fragments (Zogr. Fr.), 2 folios
* Sluck Psalter (Ps. Sl., Sl), 5 folios

==Sample text==
Here is the [[Lord's Prayer]] in Old Church Slavonic:
{|
! Cyrillic
!IPA
! Transliteration
! Translation
|-
|
{{slavonic|cu|{{Poetically break lines|
отьчє нашь·
ижє ѥси на нєбєсѣхъ:
да свѧтитъ сѧ имѧ твоѥ·
да придєтъ цѣсар҄ьствиѥ твоѥ·
да бѫдєтъ волꙗ твоꙗ
ꙗко на нєбєси и на ꙁємл҄и:
хлѣбъ нашь насѫщьнꙑи
даждь намъ дьньсь·
и отъпоусти намъ длъгꙑ нашѧ
ꙗко и мꙑ отъпоущаѥмъ
длъжьникомъ нашимъ·
и нє въвєди насъ въ искоушєниѥ·
нъ иꙁбави нꙑ отъ нєприꙗꙁни჻}}}}
|
{{lang|cu-fonipa|{{Poetically break lines|
otɪtʃe naʃɪ
jɪʒe jesi na nebesæxɯ
da svẽtitɯ sẽ jɪmẽ tvoje
da pridetɯ tsæsaɼɪstvije tvoje
da bɔ̃detɯ voʎa tvoja
jako na nebesi i na zemʎi.
xlæbɯ naʃɪ nasɔ̃ʃtɪnɨjɪ
daʒdɪ namɯ dɪnɪsɪ
i otɯpusti namɯ dlɯgɨ naʃẽ
jako i mɨ otɯpuʃtajemɯ
dlɯʒɪnikomɯ naʃimɯ.
i ne vɯvedi nasɯ vɯ jɪskuʃenije
nɯ izbavi nɨ otɯ neprijazni.}}}}
|
{{Transliteration|cu|{{Poetically break lines|
otĭče našĭ
Iže jesi na nebesěxŭ.
Da svętitŭ sę imę tvoje
da pridetŭ cěsar'ĭstvije tvoje
da bǫdetŭ voʎa tvoja
jako na nebesi i na zeml'i.
hlěbŭ našĭ nasǫštĭnyi
daždĭ namŭ dĭnĭsĭ
i otŭpusti namŭ dlŭgy našę
jako i my otŭpuštajemŭ
dlŭžĭnikomŭ našimŭ
i ne vŭvedi nasŭ vŭ iskušenije
nŭ izbavi ny otŭ neprijazni.
}}}}
|
{{Poetically break lines|
Our father
Who art in the heavens.
May hallowed be thy name
may come thy kingdom
may become thy will
as in heaven, also on Earth.
Our [[supersubstantial]] bread
give us this day
and release us of our debts
as we also release
our debtors,
and do not lead us to temptation
but free us from the evil one.
}}
|}

==Authors==
The history of Old Church Slavonic writing includes a northern tradition begun by the mission to [[Great Moravia]], including a short mission in the [[Pannonian Slavs#Principality|Lower Pannonia]], and a Bulgarian tradition begun by some of the missionaries who relocated to [[Bulgaria]] after the expulsion from Great Moravia.

The first texts written in Old Church Slavonic are translations of the Gospels and [[Byzantine Rite|Byzantine]] liturgical texts<ref name=Catholic_Encyclopedia/> begun by the Byzantine missionaries [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]], mostly during their mission to [[Great Moravia]].

The most important authors in Old Church Slavonic after the death of Methodius and the dissolution of the Great Moravian academy were [[Clement of Ohrid]] (active also in Great Moravia), [[Constantine of Preslav]], [[Chernorizetz Hrabar]] and [[John Exarch]], all of whom worked in [[First Bulgarian Empire|medieval Bulgaria]] at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. The full text of the [[Second Book of Enoch]] is only preserved in Old Church Slavonic, although the original most certainly had been in [[Greek language|Greek]] or even [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] or [[Aramaic]].

===Software===
'''PISMO''': a cross-platform (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) open source software package is now available for digitizing Slavic texts.

https://richmondmathewson.owlstown.net/pages/8572-pismo

[[File:Transcribe.jpg|thumb|Digitization of Library card using the PISMO software package, and the result exported in RTF format.]]

===Modern Slavic nomenclature===
[[Hereditary (film)|Here]] are some of the names used by speakers of modern Slavic languages:
* {{langx|be|стараславянская мова}} (''staraslavjanskaja mova''), 'Old Slavic language'
* {{langx|bg|старобългарски}} (''starobǎlgarski''), 'Old Bulgarian' and старославянски,<ref>Иванова-Мирчева 1969: Д. Иванова-Мнрчева. Старобългарски, старославянски и средно-българска редакция на старославянски. Константин Кирил Философ. В Юбилеен сборник по случай 1100 годишнината от смъртта му, стр. 45–62.</ref> (''staroslavjanski''), 'Old Slavic'
* {{langx|cs|staroslověnština}}, 'Old Slavic'
* {{langx|mk|старословенски}} (''staroslovenski''), 'Old Slavic'
* {{langx|pl|staro-cerkiewno-słowiański}}, 'Old Church Slavic'
* {{langx|ru|старославянский язык}} (''staroslavjanskij jazyk''), 'Old Slavic language'
* {{langx|sh|staroslavenski}} ([[Bosnian language|Bosnian]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Bosansko-slovenski rječnik / Bosansko-slovenski slovar |last1=Halilović |first1=Senahid |publisher=Slavistički komitet / Filozofski fakultet u Sarajevu / Kulturno-izobraževalni zavod Averroes |year=2014 |isbn=978-9958-648-11-3 |location=Sarajevo / Ljubljana |pages=608 |last2=Halilović |first2=Amra}}</ref> [[Croatian language|Croatian]]<ref>{{Cite book |title=Hrvatski enciklopedijski rječnik |year=2002 |publisher=Novi Liber |location=Zagreb |page=1234 |editor-last1=Jojić |editor-first1=Ljiljana |editor-last2=Matasović |editor-first2=Ranko |editor-link2=Ranko Matasović |isbn=953-6045-21-4}}</ref>), {{langx|sh|label=none|старословенски}}/{{langx|sh|label=none|staroslovenski}} ([[Serbian language|Serbian]]<ref>{{Cite book |title=Речник савременог српскохрватског књижевног језика с језичким савјетником |last=Московљевић |first=Милош С. |publisher=Apolon |year=1990 |isbn=86-7581-001-6 |edition=2nd |location=Београд |pages=766}}</ref>), 'Old Slavic'
* {{langx|sk|staroslovienčina}}, 'Old Slavic'
* {{langx|sl|stara cerkvena slovanščina}}, 'Old Church Slavic'
* {{langx|uk|староцерковнослов'янська мова}} (''starocerkovnoslov"jans'ka mova''), 'Old Church Slavic language'

==See also==
* [[Outline of Slavic history and culture]]
* [[List of Slavic studies journals]]
* [[History of the Bulgarian language]]
* [[Church Slavonic language]]
* [[Old East Slavic]]
* [[List of Glagolitic manuscripts]]
* [[Proto-Slavic language]]
* [[Slavonic-Serbian]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin|2}}
*{{Cite book
  |last=Alexander
  |first=June Granatir
  |year=2005
  |chapter=Slovakia
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* {{Cite book|last=Malkiel|first=Yakov|year=1993|title=Etymology|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwTrULYy4CwC|isbn=9780521311663}} 
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{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=cu}}
{{wikibooks|Old Church Slavonic}}
{{Commons category|Church Slavonic language}}
{{WikisourceWiki}}
* [https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/ocsol Old Church Slavonic Online] by Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at the [https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/lrc Linguistics Research Center] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
* [https://www.academia.edu/79437770/Ein_praktisches_Lehrbuch_des_Kirchenslavischen_Band_I_Altkirchenslavisch Ein praktisches Lehrbuch des Kirchenslavischen. Band I: Altkirchenslavisch] by Nicolina Trunte, free online 418-page textbook of Old Church Slavonic (scroll down)
* [https://www.aatseel.org/aatseel_resources/fonts/medieval_slavic_font.htm Medieval Slavic Fonts] on [[AATSEEL]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140222042759/http://andregarzia.on-rev.com/richmond/LANGTOOLS.html Old Slavic data entry application]
* [http://www.helsinki.fi/slaavilaiset/ccmh/ Corpus Cyrillo-Methodianum Helsingiense: An Electronic Corpus of Old Church Slavonic Texts]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100626015553/http://www.library.illinois.edu/spx/webct/SubjectResources/SubSourGen/lingocs2.htm Research Guide to Old Church Slavonic]
* Bible in Old Church Slavonic language – Russian redaction [https://wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%96%CC%81%D0%B1%D0%BB%D1%97%D0%B0 (Wikisource)], [https://azbyka.ru/biblia/misc/tsya.pdf (PDF)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716043542/https://azbyka.ru/biblia/misc/tsya.pdf |date=2019-07-16 }}, [https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9-%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4/id918906169 (iPhone)], [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.alexsem.bibcs4 (Android)] 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719123753/http://www.manu.edu.mk/cal/CAL/004_Seg_Staroslovenski.pdf Old Church Slavonic and the Macedonian recension of the Church Slavonic language, Elka Ulchar] {{in lang|mk}}
* [[Vittore Pisani]], [https://www.scribd.com/doc/107841186/Vittore-Pisani-mater-Europa11111  Old Bulgarian Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305185131/https://www.scribd.com/doc/107841186/Vittore-Pisani-mater-Europa11111 |date=2016-03-05 }}, Sofia, Bukvitza, 2012. English, Bulgarian, Italian.
* Philipp Ammon: [http://sjani.ge/sjani-17/ფილიპპ%20ამონი.pdf ''Tractatus slavonicus''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719225708/http://sjani.ge/sjani-17/%E1%83%A4%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9E%20%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98.pdf |date=2020-07-19 }} in: ''Sjani (Thoughts) Georgian Scientific Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature'', N 17, 2016, pp.&nbsp;248–56
*{{youTube|BFK3DJ7Kn6s|Agafia (Ага́фия). Hermit Surviving in Russian Wilderness for 70 years}}
* [https://spw.uni-goettingen.de/projects/aig/lng-chu.html glottothèque – Ancient Indo-European Grammars online], an online collection of introductory videos to Ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen
* [https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn41/tn41-1.pdf Church Slavonic Typography in Unicode] (Unicode Technical Note no. 41), 2015-11-04, accessed 2023-01-04.

{{Slavic languages}}{{Middle Ages}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slavic, Old Church}}
[[Category:Languages attested from the 9th century]]
[[Category:Church Slavonic language| ]]
[[Category:History of Eastern Orthodoxy]]
[[Category:Great Moravia]] 
[[Category:History of Macedonia (region)]]
[[Category:Christian liturgical languages]]
[[Category:Medieval Bulgarian literature]]
[[Category:Medieval languages]]
[[Category:Medieval Macedonia]]
[[Category:Medieval history of Serbia]]
[[Category:Eastern South Slavic]]
[[Category:Old Church Slavonic language| ]]