Old Russian letter e. Old Slavonic alphabet. Old Slavonic alphabet - the meaning of letters. Old Slavonic letters. Connection of times and events
Az, beeches, lead, verb, ..., live (Cyrillic letter)
shortened passenger car
military response
. "e" in Cyrillic
Cyrillic letter
Army "Will be done!"
How would an ancient Slav name the sixth letter in order?
. "Yes!" military
Soldier Consent
Soldier's answer
. "yes" in the language of soldiers
. "That's right, General!"
Komsomol responded to the party
. "yes" soldier
Reply to the general
. Komsomol replied...
. "Yes sir!"
A - az, B - beeches, E - ...
. "Yes sir!" through the lips of a fighter
Soldier's response to an order
The answer of a subordinate in the army
. "... still gunpowder in the flasks"
Response to commander's order
Cyrillic
Response to an order
Old Russian letter "E"
. "to be done" in the mouth of a soldier
Soldier's response to commander's order
The same as "That's right!"
The letter "E" in the old days
Cyrillic letter in the mouth of a soldier
. "... a cliff on the Volga" (song.)
What is the response of the soldier to the order?
Commander's reply
. "That's right, Commander!"
Reply to the general's order
Response to an order in the army
. "e" of our great-grandparents
Soldier's response to an order
Soldier's response to orders
The distant past of the letter "E"
Soldier's response
Army "understood"
Order understood
The letter that "asks to eat"
Cyrillic letter (E)
. "... we still have business at home" (song)
Soldier's "Yes!"
. "... a cliff on the Volga" (song)
Soldier's answer to the foreman
Feedback on an order
Letter of ancient Rus'
Warrior's response to an order
The old letter "E"
. "all covered with greenery, absolutely all, an island of bad luck in the ocean..."
Cyrillic letter (E)
Letter of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet
old Russian letter "E"
Alternative descriptionsAz, beeches, lead, verb, ..., live (Cyrillic letter)
shortened passenger car
military response
. "e" in Cyrillic
Cyrillic letter
Army "Will be done!"
How would an ancient Slav name the sixth letter in order?
. "Yes!" military
Soldier Consent
Soldier's answer
. "yes" in the language of soldiers
. "That's right, General!"
Komsomol responded to the party
. "yes" soldier
Reply to the general
. Komsomol replied...
. "Yes sir!"
A - az, B - beeches, E - ...
. "Yes sir!" through the lips of a fighter
Soldier's response to an order
The answer of a subordinate in the army
. "... still gunpowder in the flasks"
Response to commander's order
Cyrillic
Response to an order
. "to be done" in the mouth of a soldier
Soldier's response to commander's order
The same as "That's right!"
The letter "E" in the old days
Cyrillic letter in the mouth of a soldier
. "... a cliff on the Volga" (song.)
What is the response of the soldier to the order?
Commander's reply
. "That's right, Commander!"
Reply to the general's order
Response to an order in the army
. "e" of our great-grandparents
Soldier's response to an order
Soldier's response to orders
The distant past of the letter "E"
Soldier's response
Army "understood"
Order understood
The letter that "asks to eat"
Cyrillic letter (E)
. "... we still have business at home" (song)
Soldier's "Yes!"
. "... a cliff on the Volga" (song)
Soldier's answer to the foreman
Feedback on an order
Letter of ancient Rus'
Warrior's response to an order
The old letter "E"
. "all covered with greenery, absolutely all, an island of bad luck in the ocean..."
Cyrillic letter (E)
Letter of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet
What is the old (pre-reform, pre-revolutionary) spelling?
This is the orthography of the Russian language, which was in use from the time of Peter the Great until the spelling reform of 1917-1918. Over these 200 years, of course, it has also changed, and we will talk about the spelling of the late XIX - early XX century - in the state in which the last reform found it.
How does the old spelling differ from the modern one?
In the Russian alphabet before the reform of 1917-1918 there were more letters than now. In addition to the 33 current letters, the alphabet had i (“and decimal”, reads like “and”), ѣ (yat, read like “e”, in italics it looks like ѣ ), ѳ (fita, read as “f”) and ѵ (zhitsa, read as “and”). In addition, the letter “b” (ep, hard sign) was much more widely used. Most of the differences between pre-reform spelling and current spelling have to do with the use of these letters, but there are a number of others, such as the use of different endings in some cases and numbers.
How to use ъ (ep, hard sign)?
This is the easiest rule. In pre-reform spelling, a solid sign (aka er) is written at the end of any word ending in a consonant: table, telephone, St. Petersburg. This also applies to words with hissing consonants at the end: ball, already married unbearable. The exception is words ending in "and short": th considered a vowel. In those words where we now write at the end soft sign, in pre-reform orthography, it is also needed: deer, mouse, sitting.
How to use i ("and decimal")?
It's also very simple. It should be written in place of the current And, if immediately after it comes another vowel (including - according to pre-revolutionary rules - th): line, other, arrived, blue. The only word where the spelling і does not follow this rule, peace meaning "earth, universe". Thus, in pre-reform spelling, there was an opposition of words peace(no war) and peace(the Universe), which disappeared along with the abolition of "and the decimal".
How to use ѳ (phyta)?
The letter "fita" was used in a limited list of words of Greek origin (and this list was reduced over time) in place of the current f- in those places where the letter "theta" (θ) was in Greek: Athens, aka-hist, Timothy, Thomas, rhyme etc. Here is a list of words with phyta:
Proper names: Agathia, Anthim, Athanasius, Athena, Bartholomew, Goliath, Euthymius, Martha, Matthew, Methodius, Nathanael, Parthenon, Pythagoras, Ruth, Savaoth, Timothy, Esther, Judid, Thaddeus, Thekla, Themis, Themistocles, Theodore (Theodore, Theedya) , Theodosius (Theodosius), Theodosius, Theodot (Theedot), Theophanes (but Fofan), Theophilus, Thera-pont, Thomas, Tominichna.
Geographic names: Athens, Athos, Bethania, Vythesda, Bethynia, Bethlehem, Bethsaida, Gethsemane, Golgotha, Carthage, Corinth, Marathon, Parthia, Parthenon, Ethiopia, Tabor, Theodosia, Thermophiles, Thessaly, Thessaloniki, Thebes, Thrace.
Peoples (and city dwellers): Corinthians, Parthians, Scythians, Ethiopians, Thebans.
Common nouns: anathema, akathist, apotheosis, apothegma, arithmetic, dithiramb, ethimons, catholic(But catholic), pulpit, kathisma, kithara, leviathan, logarithm, marathon, mythology, mythology, monothelitism, orthography, orthoepia, pathos(passion , But Paphos - island), rhyme, ethereal, fimiam, hita.
When to write ѵ (izhitsu)?
Almost never. Izhitsa was preserved only in the word world(myrrh - church oil) and in some other church terms: ѵpodiakon, ѵposta etc. This letter is also of Greek origin, corresponds to the Greek letter "upsilon".
What do you need to know about endings?
Adjectives in the masculine and neuter gender in the nominative case singular graduation -th, -th, in the genitive case end in -ago, -yago.
“And the beaver sits, its eyes goggle at everyone. Doesn't understand anything. Uncle Fyodor gave him milk boiled"("Uncle Fyodor, dog and cat").
“Here it [the balloon] flew over the last floor great at home, and someone leaned out of the window and waved after him, and he was even taller and a little sideways, taller than antennas and pigeons, and became quite small ... ”(“Deniska’s Tales”).
Feminine and neuter plural adjectives end in -ya, -iya(but not th,-s, like now). feminine third person pronoun she in the genitive case has the form her, as opposed to the accusative her(this hour is everywhere her).
"So what? Sharik says. - It is not necessary to buy a big cow. You buy a small one. Eat takiya special cows for cats. Goats are called "(" Uncle Fedor, dog and cat ").
“And I am sending you money - one hundred rubles. If you have left superfluous, send it back ”(“ Uncle Fyodor, dog and cat ”).
“At that time, my mother had a vacation, and we were visiting her relatives, in one large collective farm "(Deniska's Tales").
What do you need to know about attachments?
In prefixes ending in a consonant h (from-, in-, times-), it is saved before the next With: tell, rise, fade. In consoles without- And through-/through- final h always saved: useless, useless.
The most difficult thing: how to write yat?
The rules for using the letter “yat” are, alas, not so easy to describe. It was yat that created a large number of problems for pre-revolutionary gymnasium students, who had to memorize long lists of words with this letter (much like today's schoolchildren learn "dictionary words"). The mnemonic poem "White Poor Pale Devil" is widely known, although it was not the only one of its kind. The thing is that spellings with yat basically obeyed the etymological principle: in an earlier period of the history of the Russian language, the letter “yat” corresponded to a separate sound (middle between [i] and [e]), which later in most dialects merged in pronunciation with the sound [e]. The difference in writing persisted for several more centuries, until, during the reform of 1917-1918, the yat was universally replaced by the letter “e” (with some exceptions, which are discussed below).
White, pale, poor demon
Hungry ran away into the forest.
Leshim through the forest he ran,
I dined with horseradish
And for that bitter dinner
I made a vow to put on trouble.
Look, brother, what a cage and a cage,
Sieve, grid, grid,
Vzha and iron to remove -
That's how it should be written.
Our eyelids and eyelashes
Protect the eyes of the pupils,
Eyelids squint for a whole century
At night, every person ...
The wind broke the branches,
The German tied brooms,
Hung right at the exchange,
I sold it for two hryvnias in Vienna.
Dnieper and Dniester, as everyone knows,
Two rivers in close proximity,
Divides the area of their Bug,
Cuts from north to south.
Who is angry and savage there?
Strongly complain so dare?
We must peacefully resolve the dispute
And to convince each other...
Bird's nests of sin to dawn,
It's a sin to waste bread in vain,
Laugh at the crippled sin,
To scoff at the crippled ...
What should the current lover of pre-reform spelling do, who wants to comprehend all the intricacies of spelling yat? Is it necessary to follow in the footsteps of the gymnasts Russian Empire and memorize poems about the poor demon? Fortunately, things are not so hopeless. There are a number of patterns that together cover a significant part of the cases of writing yat - accordingly, their observance will help to avoid the most common mistakes. Let's consider these patterns in more detail: first, we describe the cases where the yat cannot be, and then the spelling where the yat should be.
Firstly, yat is not written in place of that e, which alternates with zero sound (that is, with a missing vowel): lion(Not * lion), cf. lion; ash(Not * clear), cf. clear etc.
Secondly, yat is not written in place e, which now alternates with yo, as well as in place of the yo: spring(Not * spring), cf. spring; honey, cf. honey; exceptions: star(cf. stars), nest(cf. nests) and some others.
Third, yat is not written in full-vowel combinations -here-, -barely- and in incomplete vowel combinations -re- And -le- between consonants: tree, bereg, shroud, time, tree, attract(exception: captivity). Also, as a rule, yat is not written in conjunction -er- before a consonant: top, first, keep and so on.
Fourth, yat is not written in the roots of words of clearly foreign (non-Slavic) origin, including proper names: newspaper, telephone, anecdote, address, method etc.
As for spellings, where the yat should be, let's name two basic rules.
First, most general rule: if the word is now written e in front of a hard consonant and it does not alternate with zero sound or with yo, with a very high probability in place of this e in pre-reform orthography, you need to write yat. Examples: body, nut, rare, foam, place, forest, copper, business, go, food and many others. It is important to take into account the limitations mentioned above related to full agreement, dissent, borrowed words, etc.
Second rule: yat is written in place of the present e in most grammatical morphemes:
- V case endings indirect cases of nouns and pronouns: on the table, to my sister, in my hand, to me, to you, to myself, with what, with whom, everything, everyone, everyone(indirect cases - everything except the nominative and accusative, in these two cases yat is not written: drowned in the sea- prepositional let's go to the sea- accusative);
- in superlative and comparative suffixes of adjectives and adverbs -e (-y) And -ѣish-: faster, stronger, faster, stronger;
- in the basic suffix of verbs in -ѣt and nouns derived from them: have, sit, look, had, sat, watched, name, redness etc. (in nouns in -enie, formed from other verbs, you need to write e: doubt- cf. doubt; reading - cf. read);
- at the end of most prepositions and adverbs: together, except, near, after, lightly, everywhere, where, outside;
- in attachment no-, which has the value of uncertainty: someone, something, some, some, somewhat, sometime(once upon a time). In this case, the negative prefix and the particle are written with "e": nowhere, not for anything, not with anyone, once(no time).
Finally, there are two cases where the yat at the end must be written in place of the current one And: he And alone- “they” and “alone” in relation to feminine nouns, and in the case of alone- and in indirect cases: one, one, one.
“Well then. Let him be a poodle. Pet dogs are also needed, though he and useless" ("Uncle Fyodor, dog and cat").
“Look what your Sharik suits us. Now I'll have to buy a new table. It's good that I cleared all the dishes from the table. We would be left without plates! Съ alone forks ("Uncle Fedor, dog and cat").
Besides, in a difficult struggle with the rules for using yat, knowledge of other Slavic languages \u200b\u200bcan help. So, very often in place of yat in the corresponding Polish word, ia will be written (wiatr - wind, miasto - place), and in Ukrainian - i (dіlo - business, place - place).
As we said above, following these rules will save you from mistakes in most cases. However, given that there are many nuances, exceptions, exceptions to exceptions in the rules for using yat, it never hurts to check the spelling in the directory if you doubt it. The authoritative pre-revolutionary reference book is “Russian Spelling” by Yakov Grot, a convenient modern online dictionary - www.dorev.ru.
Isn't there something faster?
Eat. Here is the Slavenica website, where you can automatically translate most words into the old spelling.
YatTo correctly write texts in the old spelling, you need to know not only what
write from letters denoting the same sound - and or i, f or ѳ, e or ѣ - and be able to place eps at the ends of words; but also to know a bunch of other things. For example, to distinguish the words “her” and “her”, “they” and “he”; end of th ( expensive, one, whom) and -ago/-iago ( separate, samago, bluego); know when to end with an e ( voiced and deaf), and when I ( lowercase and uppercase).
The correct use of the letter yat was available only to those who knew all such words by heart. Of course, there were all sorts of rules. For example: if you put the desired word in the plural with an emphasis on e and get e, then you don’t need to write it (oar - oars, broom - brooms).
Knowing all the words by heart, perhaps, is impossible. Generally speaking, even a dictionary at hand will not save: the words there go in the initial form, and the letter e or ѣ can appear in the word only in some tricky forms: the end - at the end. Even if the spelling is in the root, and the single-root word was found in the dictionary, you should not forget that there are roots in which the spelling is not stable: dress, but clothes. In addition, the word can be written through e or ѣ, depending on the meaning: there and ѣis, blue and blue.
To write a word correctly, you often need to understand its morphology.
I tried to make a kind of "checklist", which will allow you to quickly check
a significant part of the spellings in e and ѣ, without referring to the dictionary.
Noun declension
The easiest thing to remember is that in the endings of indirect cases of nouns, the last letter is always written ѣ: table - about table.
If we approach the issue formally, then ѣ is written:
- In the endings of the prepositional case of nouns of the first declension: stump - about the stump, custom - about the custom, field - about the field.
- In the endings of the dative and prepositional cases of nouns of the second declension: fish - fish - about fish.
ѣ is not written:
witness-tel-b, zhn-ets-b, barrel-enok, fire-ek-b, letter-ets-o, uncle-enk-a, time-echk-o, hut-enk-aYou need to be careful with this rule: not every suffix that occurs in a noun is noun suffix:
Your HolinessOn the other hand, this rule applies not only to nouns, because adjectives can also have these suffixes:
delight-tel-ny, Mash-enk-in
Adjectives
Adjective suffixes in which e is written: -ev- (cherry), -enny, -enniy (vital, morning), -evat- (reddish), -en-sky (presnensky).
Adjectives in augmentatives, diminutives and caressing forms end in -echonek, -eshenek, -ohonek, -oshenek, -evaty, -enkiy; in these parts ѣ is not written: small - malekhonek, wet - wet.
Adjectives in the comparative degree end in ѣе, ѣй, and in the superlative degree - in the most, most, most, most, most:
white - whiter - whitestIf at the end of the comparative degree one sound e is heard, then e is written:
big biggerWords like more, me are excluded, used instead of full forms more, less.
Adjectives in -ov, -ev, -yn, -in (and the same with the letter o instead of ъ) end in the prepositional case of the singular masculine and neuter in ѣ when they are used in the meaning of proper names: Ivanov - about Ivanov, Tsaritsyno - in Tsaritsyn.
Pronouns
Ѣ is written in the endings of personal pronouns I, You, myself in the dative and prepositional cases:
me, you, myselfAlso ѣ is written in pronouns:
about me, about you, about myself
- everything (and when declining: everyone, everything, everyone ...);
- all, all - only in the instrumental case: all (in the feminine form, “all”, even in the instrumental case, it is written e: all);
- tѣ (and when declining: tѣh, tѣm ...);
- oni (plural of she);
- that, that - in the instrumental case: tѣm;
- who, what, nobody, nothing - only in the instrumental case: who, what, nobody, nothing (as opposed to the genitive and dative cases: what, what, nothing, nothing);
- someone, something, some, some, a few.
Pay attention to the first and second line in this list: “all” is “all”, and “all” is “all” (more on e - below).
In the pronoun "whose" in all forms, e is written.
Verbs, participles
Before the end of the indefinite mood, ѣ is written: to see, to hang. Exceptions: rub, shove, measure, stretch.
Verbs with this ѣ retain it in all forms derived from the stem of the indefinite mood, including other parts of speech:
see, saw, seen, seen, visionIf such a ѣ from the indefinite form is preserved in the 1st person of the present or future tense, then it is also preserved in the remaining persons of the singular and plural, as well as in imperative mood:
warm - warm,If the preceding consonant d or t in the past participle is replaced by zh or h, then the suffix н is attached with the vowel e:
warm, warm, warm
offend - offended, twirl - twirledIn the forms of the verb to be written e: I am; you are; he, she, it is; we are; you are (they, he are).
In the verb ѣst (in the sense of eating food) it is written ѣ: I ѣm; you eat; he, she, it is; we eat; you eat; they, they eat. The word ѣda is also written with ѣ.
It can be seen here that in the verb ending -te of the second person plural, e is written: you read, share, dress. The same is in the imperative mood: read, share, dress.
Participles of the middle gender have the ending -her: reading-her, dividing-her, dressing-her-sya; reading it, sharing it, dressing it. In the passive form, the ending -th appears: read-th, read-th.
numerals
Ѣ is written in feminine numerals: two, both, one. At the same time, the letter ѣ is preserved when words are changed by cases: both, one. Also: twelve, two hundred.
Ѣ and ё
In general, if when changing a word, where e was heard, ё is heard, ѣ is not written - Lebedev mentioned this rule in his paragraph. There are many exceptions to this rule:
nests, stars, bear, saddle, bent, sweep, vdzhka, veshka, found, blossomed, yawn, put on, imprinted.I note, at the same time, that the old rules regarding the letter e were stricter than modern ones, and sounded like this: "Where you hear e, you should write e." In the case of the words “all” and “all”, there was not even any discrepancy: in the word where e is heard, the letter ѣ was written.
True, in the book of 1901 that fell into my hand, the letter e was nevertheless printed in proper names: Goethe, Koerner.
Other vowel changes
In addition to checking for the occurrence of ё in other forms of the word, there are other checks.
It is written e if, when changing the word:
- the sound drops out / appears: father - father, merchant - merchant, take - I take;
- the sound is reduced to b: sick - sick, animal - animal;
- the sound is reduced to th: loan - loan, taiga - taiga;
- the sound turns into and: shine - shine, die - die.
It is written ѣ if, when the word changes, the sound turns into a: climb - climb, sit - sit down;
The alternation of e and ѣ is observed in the following cases: dress - clothes, put on - hope, adverb - saying.
Consonants followed by e
After the consonants g, k, x, w, h, w, u in the roots words are written e: tin, wool. The exception is the word fuck.
conclusions
If you systematize all the rules about the letter ѣ, then they cease to seem quite unbearably complex. Some of these rules, for example, about prepositional endings of nouns or degrees of comparison of adjectives, are extremely simple, and are remembered from the first time.
The alphabet of the Old Slavonic language is a collection of written characters in a certain order, expressing specific sounds. This system developed quite independently in the territory inhabited by peoples.
Brief historical background
At the end of 862, Prince Rostislav turned to Michael (the Byzantine emperor) with a request to send preachers to his principality (Great Moravia) in order to spread Christianity in the Slavic language. The fact is that it was read at that time in Latin, which was unfamiliar and incomprehensible to the people. Michael sent two Greeks - Constantine (he will receive the name Cyril later in 869 when he became a monk) and Methodius (his elder brother). This choice was not accidental. The brothers were from Thessalonica (Thessaloniki in Greek), from the family of a military leader. Both received a good education. Konstantin was trained at the court of Emperor Michael the Third, was fluent in various languages, including Arabic, Jewish, Greek, Slavonic. In addition, he taught philosophy, for which he was called - Konstantin the Philosopher. Methodius was first in military service, and then for several years ruled one of the regions in which the Slavs lived. Subsequently, the older brother went to the monastery. This was not their first trip - in 860, the brothers made a trip with a diplomatic and missionary purpose to the Khazars.
How was the system of written signs created?
In order to preach in it was necessary to translate the Holy Scriptures. But the system of written signs did not exist at that time. Konstantin set about creating the alphabet. Methodius actively helped him. As a result, in 863, the Old Slavonic alphabet (the meaning of the letters from it will be given below) was created. The system of written characters existed in two forms: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. To this day, scientists disagree on which of these options was created by Cyril. With the participation of Methodius, some Greek liturgical books were translated. So the Slavs had the opportunity to write and read in their own language. In addition, the people received not only a system of written signs. The Old Slavonic alphabet became the basis for the literary vocabulary. Some words can still be found in the Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian dialect.
First characters - first word
The first letters of the Old Slavonic alphabet - "az" and "beeches" - formed, in fact, the name. They corresponded to "A" and "B" and began the sign system. What did the Old Slavonic alphabet look like? Graffiti pictures were first scrawled directly on the walls. The first signs appeared around the 9th century, on the walls in the churches of Pereslavl. And in the 11th century, the Old Slavonic alphabet, the translation of some characters and their interpretation appeared in Kyiv, an event that occurred in 1574 contributed to a new round in the development of writing. Then the first printed "Old Slavic alphabet" appeared. Its creator was Ivan Fedorov.
Connection of times and events
Looking back, it is not without interest to note that the Old Slavonic alphabet was not just an ordered set of written characters. This system of signs opened to the people a new path of man on earth leading to perfection and to a new faith. Researchers, looking at the chronology of events, the difference between which is only 125 years, suggest a direct connection between the establishment of Christianity and the creation of written symbols. In one century, practically the people were able to eradicate the old archaic culture and adopt a new faith. Most historians have no doubt that the emergence of a new writing system is directly related to the subsequent adoption and spread of Christianity. The Old Slavonic alphabet, as already mentioned above, was created in 863, and in 988 Vladimir officially announced the introduction of a new faith and the destruction of a primitive cult.
The secret of the sign system
Many scientists, studying the history of the creation of writing, come to the conclusion that the letters of the Old Slavonic alphabet were a kind of cryptography. It had not only deep religious, but also philosophical meaning. At the same time, Old Slavonic letters make up a complex logical and mathematical system. Comparing the finds, the researchers come to the conclusion that the first collection of written symbols was created as a kind of holistic invention, and not as a structure that was formed in parts by adding new forms. The signs of which the Old Slavonic alphabet consisted are interesting. Most of them are symbols-numbers. The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek uncial writing system. There were 43 letters in the Old Slavonic alphabet. 24 characters were borrowed from the Greek uncial, 19 were new. The fact is that there were no some sounds that the Slavs had at that time. Accordingly, there was no literal inscription either. Therefore, some of the new characters, 19, were borrowed from other writing systems, and some were specially created by Konstantin.
"higher" and "lower" part
If you look at this entire written system, you can quite clearly distinguish two of its parts, which are fundamentally different from each other. Conventionally, the first part is called "higher", and the second, respectively, "lower". The 1st group includes letters A-F("az" - "fert"). They are a list of character-words. Their meaning was clear to any Slav. The "lower" part began with "sha" and ended with "izhitsa". These symbols did not have a numerical value and carried a negative connotation in themselves. To understand cryptography, it is not enough just to skim it. One should read the symbols - after all, Konstantin put a semantic core into each of them. What did the signs that made up the Old Slavonic alphabet symbolize?
The meaning of the letters
"Az", "beeches", "lead" - these three characters stood at the very beginning of the system of written signs. The first letter was "az". It was used in "I". But the root meaning of this symbol is such words as "beginning", "beginning", "originally". In some letters you can find "az", which denoted the number "one": "I'll go to Vladimir". Or this symbol was interpreted as "starting with the basics" (at first). Thus, the Slavs denoted the philosophical meaning of their existence with this letter, indicating that there is no end without a beginning, there is no light without darkness, there is no evil without good. At the same time, the main emphasis was placed on the duality of the structure of the world. But the Old Slavonic alphabet itself, in fact, is compiled according to the same principle and is divided into 2 parts, as already mentioned above, "higher" (positive) and "lower" (negative). "Az" corresponded to the number "1", which, in turn, symbolized the beginning of everything beautiful. Studying the numerology of the people, researchers say that all numbers were already divided by people into even and odd. Moreover, the former were associated with something negative, while the latter symbolized something good, bright, positive.
"Buki"
This letter followed "az". "Buki" had no numerical value. However, the philosophical meaning of this symbol was no less profound. "Buki" is "to be", "will be". As a rule, it was used in revolutions in the future tense. So, for example, "bodie" is "let it be", "future" is "upcoming", "future". By this, the Slavs expressed the inevitability of upcoming events. At the same time, they could be both terrible and gloomy, and iridescent and good. It is not known exactly why Konstantin did not give a digital value to the second letter. Many researchers believe that this may be due to the dual meaning of the letter itself.
"Lead"
This character is of particular interest. "Lead" corresponds to the number 2. The symbol is translated as "own", "know", "know". Putting such a meaning in "lead", Constantine meant knowledge - as the divine highest gift. And if you add the first three characters, then the phrase "I will know" will come out. By this, Constantine wanted to show that the person who discovers the alphabet will subsequently receive knowledge. It should be said about the semantic load "lead". The number "2" is a deuce, the couple took part in various magical rituals, and in general indicated the duality of everything earthly and heavenly. "Two" among the Slavs meant the union of earth and sky. In addition, this figure symbolized the duality of the person himself - the presence of good and evil in him. In other words, "2" is a constant confrontation of the parties. It should also be noted that the "two" was considered the number of the devil - many negative properties were attributed to it. It was believed that it was she who opened a series of negative numbers that bring death to a person. In this regard, the birth of twins, for example, was considered a bad sign, bringing illness and misfortune to the whole family. bad omen it was considered to rock the cradle together, to dry oneself with one towel for two people, and in general to do something together. However, even with all the negative qualities of the "two", people recognized its magical properties. And many rituals involved twins or used the same items to exorcise evil spirits.
Symbols as a secret message to posterity
All Old Church Slavonic letters are capital. For the first time, two types of written characters - lowercase and uppercase - were introduced by Peter the Great in 1710. If you look at the Old Slavonic alphabet - the meaning of letters-words, in particular - you can understand that Constantine did not just make up a written system, but tried to convey a special meaning to his descendants. So, for example, if you add certain symbols, you can get phrases of an edifying nature:
"Lead the Verb" - lead the teaching;
"Tverdo Ok" - strengthen the law;
"Rtsy Word Firmly" - speak true words, etc.
Order and style
Researchers involved in the study of the alphabet consider the order of the first, "higher" part from two positions. First of all, each character is added with the next one into a meaningful phrase. This can be considered a non-random pattern, which was probably invented for easier and faster memorization of the alphabet. In addition, the system of written characters can be considered from the point of view of numerology. After all, the letters corresponded to the numbers, which were arranged in ascending order. So, "az" - A - 1, B - 2, then G - 3, then D - 4 and then up to ten. Tens started with "K". They were listed in the same order of units: 10, 20, then 30, etc. up to 100. Despite the fact that Old Slavonic letters were written with patterns, they were convenient and simple. All characters were excellent for cursive writing. As a rule, people did not experience difficulties in the image of letters.
Development of the system of written signs
If we compare Old Church Slavonic and modern alphabet, you can see that 16 letters are missing. Cyrillic and today corresponds to the sound composition of Russian vocabulary. This is primarily due to the not so sharp divergence in the very structure of the Slavic and Russian languages. It is also important that when compiling the Cyrillic alphabet, Konstantin carefully took into account the phonemic (sound) composition of speech. The Old Slavonic alphabet contained seven Greek written characters, which were originally unnecessary for the transmission of the sounds of the Old Slavonic language: "omega", "xi", "psi", "fita", "izhitsa". In addition, the system included two signs each to designate the sound "i" and "z": for the second - "green" and "earth", for the first - "and" and "like". This designation was somewhat redundant. The inclusion of these letters in the alphabet was supposed to provide the sounds of Greek speech in words borrowed from it. But the sounds were pronounced in the old Russian way. Therefore, the need to use these written symbols eventually disappeared. It was important to change the use and meaning of the letters "er" ("b") and "er" (b). Initially, they were used to denote a weakened (reduced) voiceless vowel: "b" - close to "o", "b" - close to "e". Over time, weak voiceless vowels began to disappear (a process called the "falling of the voiceless"), and these characters received other tasks.
Conclusion
Many thinkers saw in the digital correspondence of written symbols the principle of the triad, the spiritual balance that a person achieves in his striving for truth, light, goodness. Studying the alphabet from its very beginnings, many researchers conclude that Constantine left to his descendants an invaluable creation, calling for self-improvement, wisdom and love, teaching, bypassing the dark paths of enmity, envy, malice, evil.
