Differentiation of homoforms of singular and non-singular declinable parts of speech in Church Slavic language: towards the formulation of a general rule

Abstract

A distinctive feature of the spelling of the contemporary Russian Church Slavonic is the so-called antistih (anti-verse) principle, that is a total, in as much as possible, elimination of grammatical homonymy, with a well-known arsenal of graphic and orthographic tools used: duplicates є, ѡ, ы and ѧ, diacritical marks apostrof (ἀπόστροφος) and kamora (circumflexus). Having considered various recommendations found in educational and scientific literature, and comparing them with the data of texts, the author came to the following conclusions. First, the system of orthographic principles of the Church Slavonic language has a hierarchical organization. Second, the principle of antistih (i.e. differentiating) occupies a dominant position in this hierarchy. Third, antistih has its own internal hierarchy. Fourth, the leading role in this internal hierarchy belongs to the opposition (distinction) of numeric homoforms. Fifth, the use of specific tools is subject to strict laws. The author offers a formulation of spelling rules for dissimilarizing singular and non-singular homophormes, taking into account the system-wide relations of spelling principles, the internal hierarchy of antistich, and the hierarchy of graphic and orthographic tools. The presence of such rules, i.e. an explicitly articulated algorithm, may not only contribute to the standardization of the language but also is valuable in terms of solving concrete practical tasks: methodical (presentation of material: from the teacher to the student), mnemonic (learning of material: from the student to the system of language), normalization per se (orientation in arsenal of linguistic tools: from the originator of the text to the linguistic norm).