Old Church Slavic is considered the starting point for the historical comparative study of the Slavic language family. On the one hand, it is one of the most important sources for the reconstruction of Proto-Slavic, on the other hand it is the forerunner of regional writing traditions (Middle Bulgarian, Croatian-Glagolitic, Russian Church Slavic, et al.) which makes it an important component of the various modern Slavic written languages. This is definitely also true for Russian, in which the Church Slavic writing tradition has left deep marks in the modern standard language.
This course is offered as a 10 ects course as a regular part of the Master’s degree programme in Slavic Languages and Cultures and as an 8 ects course as part of an individual subsidiary subject to third-year students of the Bachelor’s programmes of Slavic or Russian Studies (Please note that several conditions are posed for the individual subsidiary subjects to be taken and that a proposal has to be submitted to the board of examiners in advance! Visit www.letterenbijvakken for more information.
The course offers a high-pace introduction to the grammar and cultural history of Old Church Slavic. In broad outlines, the subjects covered in the course are successively:
the culturual-historical context
periodisation and source material
phoneme system and orthography
internal phonological developments
The present and Leskien’s classification of the verb
aorist and imperfect and other verb forms
nominal forms
pronominal forms and “mixed” declination
participles
Timetable
See timetable Slavic languages and cultures.
Method of Instruction
Tutorial
Course objectives
The ultimate objective of this course is to be able to read Old Church Slavic texts with the assistance of a dictionary. Much attention is paid to this during the sessions. We start with Luke 11: 1-13 ( the Our Father) according to the Codex Marianus (pp. 158-160 of the “Textproben”)Each week, students thoroughly prepare a number of verses which will be discussed in class.
Required reading
As textbook for the course we use: Jos Schaeken & Henrik Birnbaum, Die altkirchenslavische Schriftkultur: Geschichte – Laute und Schriftzeichen – Sprachdenkmäler (mit Textproben, Glossar und Flexionsmustern) (= Altkirchenslavische Studien II, Slavistische Beiträge 382). München: Sagner, 1999.
Examination
This course is offered as a 10 ects course as a regular part of the Master’s degree programme in Slavic Languages and Cultures and as an 8 ects course as part of an individual subsidiary subject for third-year students of the Bachelor’s programmes of Slavic or Russian Studies (Please note that several conditions are posed for the individual subsidiary subjects to be taken and that a proposal has to be submitted to the board of examiners in advance! Visit www.letterenbijvakken for more information.
Assessment consists of two parts:
An oral examination in which knowledge of Old Church Slavic is tested using the texts read during the course of lectures. Central to the examination is not so much translation as is the ability to identify forms (aorist, imperative, u-stems, class V verbs, etc.) Questions on orthography, historical phonology and cultural-historical context will also be posed. This part amounts to 6 ects (approximately one day a week of preparation and classes during the semester plus one or two weeks of preparation for the examination)
2 or 4 ects of additonal required reading, in which Old Church Slavic texts are translated and linguistically annotated along the lines indicates above. The choice of texts is determined in consultation with the lecturer. The final mark is a weighed average (based on the number of credits mentioned) of both parts. Students have to pass both parts.
Information
See http://www.schaeken.nl/lu/onderwijs/oks/
Blackboard/webpage
This course is integrated into Blackboard
Overview
http://www.schaeken.nl/lu/onderwijs/oks/