www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros Church Slavonic Pronunciation/Vocabulary Resource?

I've been Googling for the past hour trying to find resources on pronouncing Church Slavonic, as well as a brief vocabulary list that would help with the most common words that appear in Ruthenian hymns.

If I knew the Cyrillic alphabet, I'd be set. But I don't. And all the hymns in the pew books are in the Latin alphabet anyway. So what I need is a vocabulary list in the Latin alphabet, and a guide for pronouncing Church Slavonic as most commonly transliterated into the Latin alphabet.

If anyone knows of an online source, please post the link.

--Eric Scheidler

It's a pleasure to reply to someone in the Forum who seems genuinely interested in learning and sharing.
[There's just too much whining and complaining here. Finally read your intelligent request and decided to try to help.

Went into Google, typed in "slavonic transliteration" and came up with http://justin.zamora.com/slavonic/

Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

ERic,

Keep in mind that there is no singular way to pronounce CS. It is based very strongly on the nationality.

The latin based alphabet is pretty easy-most consonants are pretty much the same-save for "c" which is pronounced "ts". the "c", "s" and "z" with an inverted carot on top is /ch/, /sh/ and /zh/ respectively (that is english phonemes). "j" is a yod, and is sometimes pronounced as a /y/ when between vowels, softens consonants when after them.

Vowels are basically pure, save for "y" which is either a long "e" or like the "u" in "but".

That ought to get you started.

In Christ,
Adam

That was one of the first sites I came across too, but it really depends on Cyrillic. Eventually I want to learn that too, but in the mean time I want something to help with pronouncing and understanding the already transliterated hymns.

I'll ask our pastor [Ukrainian Catholic]- perhaps he might know of a resource.

Please learn the Church-Slavonic version of the Cyrillic alphabet. It's not that difficult, and it will open many useful materials to you.

Incognitus

Have you tried the Church Slavonic E-Tutor: http://www.orthodoxepubsoc.org/etutorindex.htm You really should try to learn the alphabet as well, it's not as hard as it may seem at first.

I will indeed!

Eric,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

You might also try
http://www.justin.zamora.com/slavonic/resources.html

Hope it helps,

Deacon El

Maybe I should just ask a few specific questions about pronunciation.

How are R's pronounced? My instinct is to "roll" them. Perhaps I've heard that, or maybe I'm just making it up.

How about CH (as in "Christa")? Is it that sort of back-of-mouth gravelly sound (similar to CH in German)?

I'm also stymied by a couple of specific words and syllables:

dji
tvoj
hrja
ljud
hlas
nji
prij
tvo

There's lots more, but that'll do for now. I've taken my best guess on these, but I run the risk of imprinting errors on my brain, since I sing Marian hymns in Church Slavonic to my infant daughter every day.

dji=either duh-yee or gee
tvoj=tuhvoy
hrja the "h" is an aspirant, the "r" becomes a liquid and soft-so roll it while saying a "y"
ljud=lyood-the "l" becomes a liquid and is very soft, like a polish "l"
hlas is like "glahss" but with an aspiration at the beginning
nji=nyee
prij=pree
tvo=tuhvoh

the "uh"s above are not really said anymore (they were half vowels like the "u" in "but" or "i" in "bit"), so say them as fast as you can, so the "t" and the "v" are said in succession.

Suggestion: there are any number of records of the Divine Liturgy and other services in Church-Slavonic. To learn pronunciation, get a recording with the simplest possible music in the language-group of your choice (Ruthenian and Carpatho-Russian are the same language group) and play the recording any number of times with the Church-Slavonic text in front of you - again, please learn the alphabet. This process will be of great help in learning pronunciation.

If there's some particular texts you're concerned about - say the Paschal Canon - have someone whose Church-Slavonic diction you trust chant it, as simply as possible, into a recorder, then play it back.

By the way, this works for other languages too!

Incognitus

There is a slight roll, but as I constantly remind my wife, this is NOT Spanish.
There are both types of "ch" sound in Church Slavonic. In a transliterated prayer book from "Greek Catholic" presses most use the Grigassy system. This would use a ch for the gutteral one and a c with a hacheck over it for the ch as in chop.
As for the list, I�m afraid you�ll have to hear them done. That is as close as you can get in writing. Yes, they are odd consonant combinations for English speakers. But these sounds are pretty common in all Slavic languages.

I agree with the previous suggestion to hear these in prayer. Here is a Pachal Canon recording [mx.nthu.edu.tw] by an old time cantor recorded at Pascha in Church. Hopefully, you have one of the books to follow along. I�m sure your pastor would loan you one if not. They may still be available from the seminary press too.
You are right that you should avoid saying and practicing what you are not sure is correct. I also concur that recording and listening to yourself critically is a good idea.

Is there no one in your parish that knows Church Slavonic, or even Rusyn? Invite someone to dinner and bring out the songbook and tape recorder afterwards. And by all means, ask questions here as they come up. Enjoy!

Dear EJS:
Here is the goldmine - on-line recordings of the Papp irmologion. But it involves serious downloading.
http://www.patronagechurch.com/chant/Carpatho-Ruthenian_Plain_Chant_Recording/Recordings.htm

The music text is here:
http://www.patronagechurch.com/PDF/Prostopinije/prostopinije_index.htm

I just listen to Slavonic chant while I check on this webiste and my email.. and every chance I get.
When you have the text in front of you and you listen and follow.. you'll get pretty good fast.