An invaluable tool for anyone seeking to learn the traditional liturgical language of the Slavic Orthodox churches. A historical introduction to the development of Church Slavonic is followed by detailed sections covering etymology, parts of speech, and syntax. This comprehensive work concludes with an article on the structure of liturgical chants.

The Church Slavonic (Slavic) language was devised in the ninth century. Based on Old Bulgarian, it was created by the Greek missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius. As the first written Slavic language it has become the mother of all modern Slavic languages and continues in daily use in the services of the Slavic Orthodox Churches. (Russian, Bulgarian, Polish etc.) This is a comprehensive grammar of the Church Slavonic language, covering etymology, parts of speech, and syntax. This English edition was translated from the Russian and includes an explanation of grammatical points that would be taken for granted by a native Russian speaker. Long used as a seminary textbook both in North America and Russia, Archbishop Alypy's work is an absolutely unique publication in English and is essential for anyone desiring to study Church Slavonic, from beginning learner to advanced scholar. Texts for practice are largely drawn from the Gospels. This is both a unique and authoritative work.