Eastern Bulgarian (Moesian) recension
The Eastern Bulgarian recension is the oldest recension of the Old Church Slavonic language,[9] which flourished with the rise of the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Simeon I. The main literary centre of this recension was the Preslav Literary School, one of the two main literary schools of the First Bulgarian Empire along with the Ohrid Literary School. The existence of two major literary centres in the Empire led to the development of two recensions in the period from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. Thus:
The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were used concurrently
In some documents the original supershort vowels ú and ü merged with one letter taking the place of the other
In Western Bulgarian recensions ú was sometimes substituted with î
In Eastern Bulgarian recensions the original ascending reflex (ðü, ëü) of syllabic /r/ and /l/ was sometimes metathesized to üð, üë; or a combination of the ordering was used
The central vowel û merged with úè
Sometimes the use of letter <½> (/dz/) was merged with that of <Ç> (/z/)
verb forms íÿðåöÿéǫ, íàðèöàéåøè were substituted or alternated with íàðè÷ǫ, íàðè÷åøè
Use of some words with Bulgar origin, such as êóìèðú, ÷ðüòîãú, áëúâàíú, etc.
[edit] Western Bulgarian (Macedonian) recension
The Western Bulgarian[10][11](Macedonian)[12][13][14][15] recension is one of the oldest recensions of Old Church Slavonic and thrived in the period between the 10th and 14th centuries. The main literary centre of this recension was the Ohrid Literary School, one of the two main literary centres of the First Bulgarian Empire whose most prominent member, and most likely founder, was Saint Clement of Ohrid. This recension is represented by the Codex Zographensis and Marianus, among others. As this recension grew and thrived, several other literary centers emerged, among which most notable is the Lesnovo Literary School of the Lesnovo Monastery. The main features of this recension are the following:
Continuous usage of the Glagolithic alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet;
A feature called "mixing (confusion) of the nasals" so that /ɔ̃/ became [ɛ̃] after /rʲ lʲ nʲ/, and in a cluster of a labial consonant and /lʲ/. /ɛ̃/ became [ɔ̃] after sibilant consonants and /j/.
Wide use of the soft consonant clusters /ʃt/ and /ʒd/; in the later stages, these developed into the modern Macedonian phonemes /c/ /ɟ/
Strict distinction in the articulation of the yers and their vocalisation in strong position (ú → /o/ and ü → /e/) or deletion in weak position;
Confusion of /ɛ̃/ with yat and yat with /e/;
Denasalization in the latter stages: /ɛ̃/ → /e/ and /ɔ̃/ → /a/, îó, ú;
Wider usage and retainment of the phoneme /dz/ (which in all Slavic languages but Macedonian has daffricated to /z/);
[edit] Moravian recension
While in the Prague fragments the only Moravian influence is replacing /ʃt/ with /ts/ and /ʒd/ with /z/, the recension evidenced by the Kiev Folia is characterised by the following features:
Confusion between the letters Big yus (Ѫ) and Uk (ѹ) occurs once in the Kiev Folia, when the expected form âúñѹäú is spelled âúñѫäú
/ts/ from Proto-Slavic *tj, use of /dz/ from *dj, /ʃtʃ/ *skj
use of the words müša, cirky, papežü, prěfacija, klepati, piskati etc.
preservation of the consonant cluster /dl/ (e.g. modlitvami)
use of the ending –úmü instead of –omü in the masculine singular instrumental, use of the pronoun čüso
[edit] Later recensions (Church Slavonic)
Later use of the language in a number of medieval Slavic states resulted in the adjustment of Old Church Slavonic to the local vernacular, though a number of Southern Slavic, Moravian or Bulgarian features were also preserved. Some of the significant later recensions of Old Church Slavonic (referred to as Church Slavonic) in the present time are: Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Russian.
[edit] Croatian recension
The Croatian recension of Old Church Slavonic is one of the earliest known today. It only used the Glagolitic alphabet of angular Croatian type. It is characterized by the following developments:
de-nasalisation of PSl. *ę > e, PSl. *ǫ > u, e.g. Cr. ruka : OCS rǫka ("hand"), Cr. jezik : OCS językú ("tongue, language")
PSl. *y > i, e.g. Cr. biti : OCS byti ("to be")
PSl. weak-positioned yers *ú and *ü in merged, probably representing some schwa-like sound, and only one of the letters was used (usually 'ú'). Evident in earliest documents like Baška tablet.
PSl. strong-positioned yers *ú and *ü were vocalized into a in most Štokavian and Čakavian speeches, e.g. Cr. pas : OCS püsú ("dog")
PSl. hard and soft syllabic liquids *r and r′ retained syllabicity and were written as simply r, as opposed to OCS sequences of mostly rü and rú, e.g. krstú and trgú as opposed to OCS krüstú and trúgú ("cross", "market")
PSl. #vüC and #vúC > #uC, e.g Cr. udova : OCS. vúdova ("widow")
[edit] Russian recension
The Russian recension was developed after the 10th century on the basis of the earlier Bulgarian recensions, from which it differed slightly. Its main features are:
substitution of the nasal sound /õ/ with
merging of letters ě and ja[16]
[edit] Serbian recension
The Serbian recension was at first written in the Glagolitic alphabet, but later switched to the Cyrillic alphabet. It appeared in the mid-12th century. Characteristics are as follows:
nasal vowels were denasalised and in one case closed: *ę > e, *ǫ > u, e.g. OCS rǫka -> Sr. ruka ("hand"), OCS językú -> Sr. jezik ("tongue, language")
extensive use of diacritical signs by the Resava recension
use of letters i, y, ě for the sound /i/ by the Bosnian variant, and i, y for the sound /i/ by other variants of the Serbian recension.
Due to Turkey taking possession of Bulgaria while a semi-autonomous vassal status of Serbia was preserved, in late 15th century Serbian recension was influenced by an influx of educated refugee-scribes trained in the East-Bulgarian recension, which re-introduced a more classical form.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Church_Slavonic
EVEN IF we assume that OCS wasnt Bulgarian (WHICH IS UNTRUE)the oldest recension was the Moesian (Northeast Bulgarian) one (9 century) compraed to Serbian (12 century).