Author(s): Ilona Janyšková,Helena Karlikova / Language(s): Czech
Issue: 2/2013
In the year of the celebration of 1150 years since the arrival of Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius to Great Moravia, the cultural dimension of their work in Great Moravia is being stressed. In connection with this anniversary a lot of events take place in our country: exhibitions, seminars, conferences, concerts, public lectures, divine services, educational and interactive programs for children and adolescents, production of interesting publications, competitions and so on. All of these events have a clear goal – to make the public aware of the contribution of Cyril and Methodius’ mission to our culture and learning, not only in the context of Moravia or the Czech Republic, but also in the context of the wide Slavonic area. The most important ones will be mentioned in the paper. However, from the perspective of us, linguists, there is very little talk about the Old Church Slavonic language, which is particularly surprising in the context of this great anniversary. This impression is amplified when we look at the calendar of events of the Cyril-Methodius celebrations within the whole Czech Republic which completely fail to mention the importance of Cyril and Methodius as the creators of the oldest Slavonic literary language, and the contribution of Old Church Slavonic for the contemporary linguistic research. The importance of Old Church Slavonic as the oldest Slavonic literary language will be illustrated with numerous examples in the paper; special attention will be given to features that are important for Romanian linguistics, too. It will in particular concern the expansion, that is, the introduction of Church Slavonic words to Old or Archaic Romanian.
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