The literary language is ... The history of the Russian literary language

Literary language is one on which there is a written language of a certain people, and sometimes several. That is, in this language there is a schooling, writing and everyday communication, formal business documents, scientific works, fiction, journalism, as well as all other manifestations of art that are expressed in verbal, mostly written, but sometimes oral . Therefore, the oral-colloquial and written-book forms of the literary language are different. Their interaction, correlation and emergence are subject to certain regularities of history.

Different definitions of the concept

Literary language is a phenomenon that in its own way is understood by different scientists. Some believe that it is a nationwide one, just crafted by the masters of the word, that is, writers. Supporters of this approach mean primarily the concept of a literary language, referring to the new time, and at the same time among peoples with richly presented fiction. According to others, the literary language is a book, written, which resists live speech, that is, a spoken language. The basis of this interpretation are those languages in which writing is an old one. Still others believe that this is a language that is universally valid for a particular people, unlike jargon and dialect, which do not have such general validity. Literary language is always a result of people's creative activity together. This is a brief description of this concept.

Relationship with different dialects

Particular attention should be paid to the interaction and correlation of dialects and literary language. The historical foundations of certain dialects are more stable, the more difficult it is for a literary language to unite linguistically all the members of a nation. So far dialects successfully compete with general literary language in a variety of countries, for example, in Indonesia, Italy.

The concept also interacts with language styles that exist within the boundaries of any language. They are a variety of it, which have developed historically and in which there is a set of characteristics. Some of them can be repeated in other different styles, but a unique function and a certain combination of features distinguishes one style from the others. Today, a large number of speakers use colloquial and colloquial forms.

Differences in the development of literary language among different peoples

In the Middle Ages, as well as in the Modern Times, the history of the literary language developed differently among different peoples in different ways. Let us compare, for example, the role played by the Latin language in the culture of the Germanic and Romance peoples of the early Middle Ages, the functions that played the French language in England before the beginning of the 14th century, the interaction of Latin, Czech, Polish languages in the 16th century, etc.

The development of Slavic languages

In the era when the nation is being formed and developing, the unity of literary norms develops. Most often this happens first in writing, but sometimes the process can take place simultaneously in written and oral. In the Russian state of the period 16-17 centuries, work was under way to canonize and streamline the norms of the business state language along with the formation of uniform requirements of the colloquial Moscow. The same process occurs in other Slavic states, in which the literary language is actively developing. For Serbian and Bulgarian, it is less characteristic, since in Serbia and Bulgaria there were no conditions favorable for the development of business clerical and state language on a national basis. Russian along with Polish and to some extent Czech is an example of the national Slavonic literary language, which has kept in touch with the written ancient.

The national language , which has become a break with the old tradition , is Serbian-Croatian, and also partly Ukrainian. In addition, there are Slavic languages that did not develop continuously. At a certain stage, this development was interrupted, so the emergence of national language features in certain countries led to a break with the ancient, old-written tradition or later - it's the Macedonian, Belarusian languages. Let us consider in more detail the history of the literary language in our country.

History of the Russian literary language

The oldest of the literary monuments, which have survived, date back to the 11th century. The process of transformation and the formation of the Russian language in the 18-19 centuries occurred on the basis of opposing it to the French language - the language of the nobility. In the works of the classics of Russian literature , his possibilities were actively studied, new linguistic forms were introduced. The writers emphasized his wealth and pointed to the advantages in relation to foreign languages. Disputes often arose on this issue. There are, for example, disputes between Slavophils and Westerners. Later, during the Soviet years, it was emphasized that our language is the language of the builders of communism, and during the reign of Stalin even a whole campaign was conducted to combat cosmopolitanism in Russian literature. And at the present time the history of the Russian literary language in our country continues to be formed, as its transformation is continuously taking place.

Folklore

Folklore in the form of sayings, proverbs, epics, fairy tales goes back to distant history. Samples of oral folk art were passed from generation to generation, from mouth to mouth, and their content was thus polished, that only the most stable combinations remained, and language forms were updated as the language developed.

And after the writing appeared, oral creativity continued to exist. To the peasant folklore in modern times was added the urban and working, as well as thieves (that is, prison camps) and army. Oral folk art today is most widely represented in anecdotes. It also affects written literary language.

How did the literary language develop in Ancient Rus?

The dissemination and introduction of writing in Russia, which led to the formation of a literary language, is usually associated with the names of Cyril and Methodius.

In Novgorod and other cities of the 11th and 15th centuries, birch bark letters were in the process. The bulk of the surviving are private letters, which were of a business nature, as well as documents such as court records, merchants, receipts, wills. There are also folklore (manuals on the household, riddles, school jokes, conspiracies), literary and ecclesiastical texts, as well as records that were educational in nature (children's scrawls and drawings, school exercises, warehouses, alphabets).

Introduced in 863 by the brothers Methodius and Cyril, the Church Slavonic script was based on a language such as Old Slavonic, which in turn derived from the South Slavic dialects, or rather from the Old Bulgarian language, its Macedonian dialect. The literary activity of these brothers was primarily in translating the books of the Old and New Testaments. Their pupils were transferred from Greek to the Church Slavonic set of religious books. Some scholars believe that Cyril and Methodius introduced Glagoliticus, not Cyrillic, and the latter was already developed by their students.

Church Slavonic

The language of the book, and not conversational, was Church Slavonic. It spread among the numerous Slavic peoples, where it acted as a language of church culture. Church Slavonic literature spread in Moravia among the Western Slavs, in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia - in the southern, in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Wallachia, and in Russia with the adoption of Christianity. Church Slavonic language was very different from the spoken language, the texts were subjected to a change in the correspondence, they were gradually irradiated. The words approached the Russians, began to reflect the characteristics characteristic of local dialects.

The first grammar books were compiled in 1596 by Lavrenty Zinani and in 1619 by Meletiy Smotrytsky. At the end of the 17th century, the process of the formation of such a language as the Church Slavonic was largely completed.

18th century - literary language reform

M.V. Lomonosov in the 18th century made the most important reforms of the literary language of our country, as well as the system of versification. He wrote in 1739 a letter in which he formulated the basic principles of versification. Lomonosov, polemicizing with Trediakovsky, wrote that it is necessary to use the capabilities of our language, rather than borrow from other schemes. According to Mikhail Vasilyevich, verses can be written in a variety of stops: disyllabic (trochee, iamb), trisyllabic (amphibrachia, anapeste, dactyl), but he believed that the division into spondei and pyrrhic is wrong.

In addition, Lomonosov also compiled a scientific grammar of the Russian language. He described in his book his possibilities and wealth. Grammar was reissued 14 times and later became the basis of another work - grammar Barsov (was written in 1771), who was a disciple of Mikhail Vasilyevich.

The modern literary language in our country

Its creator is Alexander Pushkin, whose creations are the pinnacle of literature in our country. This thesis is still relevant, although over the past two hundred years the language has undergone great changes, and today there are obvious stylistic differences between modern language and the language of Pushkin. Despite the fact that the norms of the modern literary language have changed today, we still consider it an example of the work of Alexander Sergeevich.

The poet himself, meanwhile, pointed to the main role in the formation of the literary language of N.M. Karamzin, since this glorious writer and historian, according to Alexander Sergeevich, freed Russian language from another's yoke and returned him freedom.