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Chaz Bono

Chaz Salvatore Bono (born Chastity Sun Bono; March 4, 1969) is an American writer, musician and actor. His parents are entertainers Sonny Bono and Cher, and he became widely known in appearances as a child on their television show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

Bono is out as a trans man. In 1995, while then presenting as a woman, and several years after being outed as lesbian by the tabloid press, Bono publicly self-identified as a lesbian in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate. Bono eventually went on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and others in two books. Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families (1998) includes his coming-out account. The memoir The End of Innocence (2003) discusses his outing, music career, and partner Joan's death from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Between 2008 and 2010, Bono sought out gender-affirming care, commonly called gender transition. A two-part Entertainment Tonight feature in June 2009 explained that his medical transition had started a year before. In May 2010, he legally changed his ID to match his gender and name. A documentary on Bono's experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and later made its television debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Early life
Bono was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Cher and Sonny Bono of the pop duo Sonny & Cher, stars of a TV variety show on which the young child often appeared. Bono was named after the film Chastity, which was produced by Sonny and in which Cher (in her first solo role in a feature film) played a bisexual woman. Through his mother, Bono is of Armenian, Irish, English, and German ancestry. He is of Italian descent through his father.

Bono was enrolled at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. Bono came out to both parents as a lesbian at age 18. In Family Outing, Bono wrote that, "as a child, I always felt there was something different about me. I'd look at other girls my age and feel perplexed by their obvious interest in the latest fashion, which boy in class was the cutest, and who looked the most like cover girl Christie Brinkley. When I was 13, I finally found a name for exactly how I was different. I realized I was gay."

Ceremony
Bono began a short music career in 1988 with the band Ceremony, which released one album, Hang Out Your Poetry, in 1993. The band featured Bono on vocals, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Other members were Steve March Tormé (backup vocals), Heidi Shink a.k.a. Chance, Pete McRae, Steve Bauman, Louis Ruiz, and Bryn Mathieu. All but one of the band's songs were written or co-written by Bono, Shink, and Mark Hudson. They used no synthesizers or digital effects on the album; Shink noted, "We turned our back on technology. [ ... ] It's reminiscent of the 60s, but more a tip of the hat than emulating it. We took the music we love and rejuvenated it, made it 90s." Critical reception of the album was lukewarm, with Roch Parisien of Allmusic describing Hang Out Your Poetry as a mildly psychedelic take on early 1990s pop, "pleasant, accessible, well-produced ear-candy that's ultimately toothless".

The songs "Could've Been Love" and "Ready for Love" were released as singles from the album. Sonny and Cher also recorded backing vocals for the track "Livin' It Up" on the album.

LGBT activism
In April 1995, Bono came out as a lesbian in an interview with The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian magazine. The 1998 book Family Outing detailed how Bono's coming out "catapulted me into a political role that has transformed my life, providing me with affirmation as a lesbian, as a woman, and as an individual." In the same book, Bono reported that Cher, who was both a gay icon and an ally of LGBT communities, was quite uncomfortable with the news at first and "went ballistic" before coming to terms with it: "By August 1996, one year after I came out publicly, my mother had progressed so far that she agreed to 'come out' herself on the cover of The Advocate as the proud mother of a lesbian daughter." Cher has since become an outspoken LGBT rights activist.

Bono's paternal relationship became strained after his father became a Republican Congressman from California. The differences in their political views separated them, and the two had not spoken for more than a year at the time of Sonny's fatal skiing accident in January 1998.

Bono worked as a writer at large for The Advocate. As a social activist, Bono became a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, promoted National Coming Out Day, campaigned for the reelection of Bill Clinton for US president, campaigned against the Defense of Marriage Act, and served as Entertainment Media Director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Bono was a team captain for Celebrity Fit Club 3 (2006) and was supported by girlfriend Jennifer Elia, who orchestrated exercise and training sessions.

In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Bono and others told the stories of the people killed there.

Transition
In mid-2008, Bono began undergoing a physical and social transition from female to male. This was confirmed in June 2009 by his publicist, who identified Bono's name as Chaz Bono and said, "It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his coming out did." GLAAD and the Empowering Spirits Foundation were quick to offer praise and support for the announcement. Bono's legal transition was completed on May 6, 2010, when a California court granted his request for a gender and name change. Bono made Becoming Chaz, a documentary film about his transition that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The Oprah Winfrey Network acquired the rights to the documentary and debuted it on May 10, 2011.

In September 2011, he became a competitor on the 13th season of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional ballroom dancer Lacey Schwimmer. The duo was eliminated on October 25, 2011. This was the first time an openly transgender man starred on a major network television show for something unrelated to being transgender.

His book, Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be was published in 2012, making him the first person of Armenian descent to publish a memoir about being an openly transgender man.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Chaz Bono


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Climbing wall

A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled into it. Recently, manufactured steel and aluminum have also been used. The wall may have places to attach belay ropes, but may also be used to practice lead climbing or bouldering.

Each hole contains a specially formed t-nut to allow modular climbing holds to be screwed onto the wall. With manufactured steel or aluminum walls, an engineered industrial fastener is used to secure climbing holds. The face of the multiplex board climbing surface is covered with textured products including concrete and paint or polyurethane loaded with sand. In addition to the textured surface and hand holds the wall may contain surface structures such as indentions (in cuts) and protrusions (bulges), or take the form of an overhang, underhang or crack. Some grips or handholds are formed to mimic the conditions of outdoor rock, including some that are oversized and can have other grips bolted onto them.

History
The earliest artificial climbing walls were typically small concrete faces with protrusions made of medium-sized rocks for hand holds. Schurman Rock in Seattle, WA is believed by some to be the first artificial climbing structure in the United States, constructed in 1939.

The first artificial climbing wall in the world seems to be the wall commissioned by the King of Belgium Leopold III in 1937 near his palace. This was documented by Mark Sebille in his book Bel'Wall.

The modern artificial climbing wall began in the UK. The first wall was created in 1964 by Don Robinson, a lecturer in Physical Education at the University of Leeds, by inserting pieces of rock into a corridor wall. The first commercial wall in the UK, The Foundry Climbing Centre, was built in Sheffield in 1991, traditionally England's centre for climbing due to its proximity to the Peak District. The first indoor climbing gym in the United States was established by Vertical World in Seattle in 1987. Terre Neuve in the heart of Brussels (Belgium) was opened in 1987 as well. It is not clear which gym was opened first.

Types
The simplest type of wall is of plywood construction, known colloquially in the climbing community as a 'woody', with a combination of either bolt-on holds or screw-on holds. Bolt-on holds are fixed to a wall with iron bolts that are inserted through the hold, which will have specific bolt points, and then fixed into pre-allocated screw-threaded holes in the wall. Screw-on holds are, by contrast, usually much smaller, owing to the nature of their fixing. These holds are connected to the wall by screws, which may be fastened anywhere on the wall's surface.

Some other types of walls include slabs of granite, concrete sprayed onto a wire mesh, pre-made fiberglass panels, large trees, manufactured steel and aluminum panels, textured fiberglass walls, and inflatables. A newer innovation is the rotating climbing wall: a mechanical, mobile wall that rotates like a treadmill to match your climbing rate of ascent.

The most common construction method involves bolting resin hand and foot holds onto wooden boards. The boards can be of varying height & steepness (from completely horizontal 'roofs' to near-vertical 'slabs') with a mixture of holds attached. These can vary from very small 'crimps', and 'pinches', and slanted-surfaced 'slopers', to 'jugs', which are often large and easy to hold. This variety, coupled with the ability for the climbs to be changed by moving the holds to new positions on the wall, has resulted in indoor climbing becoming a very popular sport.

Equipment
Proper climbing equipment must be used during indoor climbing. Most climbing gyms lend harnesses, ropes and belay devices. Some also lend climbing shoes and chalk bags. Some climbing gyms require use of chalk balls (as opposed to loose chalk) to reduce chalk dust in the air and chalk spills when a chalk bag is tipped over or stepped on. Reducing chalk in the air helps to avoid clogging ventilation systems and reduces the dust that accumulates on less-than-vertical surfaces.

Indoor climbing
Indoor climbing is an increasingly popular form of rock climbing performed on artificial structures that attempt to mimic the experience of outdoor rock. The first indoor climbing gym in North America, Vertical World in Seattle, was established in 1987. The first indoor climbing hall in the world was inaugurated in Brussels, Belgium on May 16, 1987, by Isabelle Dorsimond and Marc Bott. Terres Neuves integrated the concept of pre-drilled plywood walls fitted with T-nuts, as developed in 1986 by the Brussels-based firm Alpi'In. Pierre d'Haenens is the inventor of this system, which is now used worldwide by all climbing wall manufacturers. Terres Neuves still exists today in an almost unchanged form.

The first indoor walls tended to be made primarily of brick, which limited the steepness of the wall and variety of the hand holds. More recently, indoor climbing terrain is constructed of plywood over a metal frame, with bolted-on plastic hand and footholds, and sometimes spray-coated with texture to simulate a rock face.

Most climbing competitions are held in climbing gyms, making them a part of indoor climbing.

Compared to outdoor climbing
Indoor and outdoor climbing can differ in techniques, style, and equipment. Climbing artificial walls, especially indoors, is much safer because anchor points and holds are able to be more firmly fixed, and environmental conditions can be controlled. During indoor climbing, holds are easily visible in contrast with natural walls where finding a good hold or foothold may be a challenge. Climbers on artificial walls are somewhat restricted to the holds prepared by the route setter, whereas on natural walls they can use every slope or crack in the surface of the wall. Some typical rock formations can be difficult to emulate on climbing walls.

Routes and grading

Holds come in different colours, those of the same colour often being used to denote a route, allowing routes of different difficulty levels to be overlaid on one another. Coloured tape placed under climbing holds is another way that is often used to mark different climbing routes. In attempting a given route, a climber is only allowed to use grips of the designated colour as handholds, but is usually allowed to use both handholds and footholds of the designated colour and surface structures and textures of the "rockface" as footholds.

The grade (difficulty) of the route is usually a consensus decision between the setter of the route and the first few people who climb the route. Many indoor climbing walls have people who are assigned to set these different climbing routes. These people are called route setters or course setters. As indoor climbing walls are often used to check the development of climbers' abilities, climbs are color-coded.

Route-setting is the design of routes by placing climbing holds in a strategic, technical, and fun way that sets how the route will flow. There are many different techniques involved with setting, and up to 5 levels of certifications are awarded to those qualified. Route setting can be defined as the backbone of indoor climbing; without a great set of routes, a gym cannot easily hope to keep a good hoard of climbers.

title: Climbing wall


text: Talk:Senegal River

title: Talk:Senegal River


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Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic is the first Slavic literary language.

Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and undertaking the task of translating the Gospels and necessary liturgical books into it as part of the Christianization of the Slavs. It is thought to have been based primarily on the dialect of the 9th-century Byzantine Slavs living in the Province of Thessalonica (in present-day Greece).

Old Church Slavonic played an important role in the history of the Slavic languages and served as a basis and model for later Church Slavonic traditions, and some Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches use this later Church Slavonic as a liturgical language to this day.

As the oldest attested Slavic language, OCS provides important evidence for the features of Proto-Slavic, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Slavic languages.

Nomenclature
The name of the language in Old Church Slavonic texts was simply Slavic (словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ, slověnĭskŭ językŭ), derived from the word for Slavs (словѣ́нє, slověne), the self-designation of the compilers of the texts. This name is preserved in the modern native names of the Slovak and Slovene languages. The language is sometimes called Old Slavic, which may be confused with the distinct Proto-Slavic language. Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovene and Slovak linguists have claimed Old Church Slavonic; thus OCS has also been variously called Old Bulgarian, Old Croatian, Old Macedonian or Old Serbian, or even Old Slovak, Old Slovenian. The commonly accepted terms in modern English-language Slavic studies are Old Church Slavonic and Old Church Slavic.

The term Old Bulgarian (старобългарски, Altbulgarisch) is the designation used by most Bulgarian-language writers. It was used in numerous 19th-century sources, e.g. by August Schleicher, Martin Hattala, Leopold Geitler and August Leskien, who noted similarities between the first literary Slavic works and the modern Bulgarian language. For similar reasons, Russian linguist Aleksandr Vostokov used the term Slav-Bulgarian. The term is still used by some writers but nowadays normally avoided in favor of Old Church Slavonic.

The term Old Macedonian      is occasionally used by Western scholars in a regional context. According to Slavist Henrik Birnbaum, the term was introduced mostly by Macedonian scholars and it is anachronistic because there was no separate Macedonian language, distinguished from early Bulgarian, in the ninth century.

The obsolete term Old Slovenian was used by early 19th-century scholars who conjectured that the language was based on the dialect of Pannonia.

History
It is generally held that the language was standardized by two Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and his brother Methodius, for a mission to Great Moravia (the territory of today's eastern Czech Republic and western Slovakia; for details, see Glagolitic alphabet). The mission took place in response to a request by Great Moravia's ruler, Duke Rastislav for the development of Slavonic liturgy.

As part of preparations for the mission, in 862/863, the missionaries developed the Glagolitic alphabet and translated the most important prayers and liturgical books, including the Aprakos Evangeliar, the Psalter, and the Acts of the Apostles, allegedly basing the language on the Slavic dialect spoken in the hinterland of their hometown, Thessaloniki, in present-day Greece.

Based on a number of archaicisms preserved until the early 20th century (the articulation of yat as in Boboshticë, Drenovë, around Thessaloniki, Razlog, the Rhodopes and Thrace and of yery as  around Castoria and the Rhodopes, the presence of decomposed nasalisms around Castoria and Thessaloniki, etc.), the dialect is posited to have been part of a macrodialect extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, and covering southern Albania, northern Greece and the southernmost parts of Bulgaria.

Because of the very short time between Rastislav's request and the actual mission, it has been widely suggested that both the Glagolitic alphabet and the translations had been "in the works" for some time, probably for a planned mission to the Bulgaria.

The language and the Glagolitic alphabet, as taught at the Great Moravian Academy (Veľkomoravské učilište), were used for government and religious documents and books in Great Moravia between 863 and 885. The texts written during this phase contain characteristics of the West Slavic vernaculars in Great Moravia.

In 885 Pope Stephen V prohibited the use of Old Church Slavonic in Great Moravia in favour of Latin. King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia expelled the Byzantine missionary contingent in 886.

Exiled students of the two apostles then brought the Glagolitic alphabet to the Bulgarian Empire, being at least some of them Bulgarians themselves. Boris I of Bulgaria ((r. 852 – 889)) received and officially accepted them; he established the Preslav Literary School and the Ohrid Literary School. Both schools originally used the Glagolitic alphabet, though the Cyrillic script developed early on at the Preslav Literary School, where it superseded Glagolitic as official in Bulgaria in 893.

The texts written during this era exhibit certain linguistic features of the vernaculars of the First Bulgarian Empire. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably Croatia, Serbia, Bohemia, Lesser Poland, and principalities of the Kievan Rus' – while retaining characteristically Eastern South Slavic linguistic features.

Later texts written in each of those territories began to take on characteristics of the local Slavic vernaculars, and by the mid-11th century Old Church Slavonic had diversified into a number of regional varieties (known as recensions). These local varieties are collectively known as the Church Slavonic language.

Apart from use in the Slavic countries, Old Church Slavonic served as a liturgical language in the Romanian Orthodox Church, and also as a literary and official language of the princedoms of Wallachia and Moldavia (see Old Church Slavonic in Romania), before gradually being replaced by Romanian during the 16th to 17th centuries.

Church Slavonic maintained a prestigious status, particularly in Russia, for many centuries – among Slavs in the East it had a status analogous to that of Latin in Western Europe, but had the advantage of being substantially less divergent from the vernacular tongues of average parishioners. Some Orthodox churches, such as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric, as well as several Eastern Catholic Churches, still use Church Slavonic in their services and chants.

Scripts
Initially Old Church Slavonic was written with the Glagolitic alphabet, but later Glagolitic was replaced by Cyrillic, which was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire by a decree of Boris I of Bulgaria in the 9th century. Of the Old Church Slavonic canon, about two-thirds is written in Glagolitic.

The local Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, known as Srbinčica, was preserved in Serbia and parts of Croatia, while a variant of the angular Glagolitic alphabet was preserved in Croatia. See Early Cyrillic alphabet for a detailed description of the script and information about the sounds it originally expressed.

Phonology
For Old Church Slavonic, the following segments are reconstructible. A few sounds are given in Slavic transliterated form rather than in IPA, as the exact realisation is uncertain and often differs depending on the area that a text originated from.

Consonants
For English equivalents and narrow transcriptions of sounds, see Old Church Slavonic Pronunciation on Wiktionary.

 * These phonemes were written and articulated differently in different recensions: as ⟨⟩ and ⟨⟩  in the Moravian recension, ⟨⟩  and ⟨⟩  in the Bohemian recension, ⟨⟩/⟨щ⟩  and ⟨⟩/⟨жд⟩  in the Bulgarian recension(s). In Serbia, ⟨Ꙉ⟩ was used to denote both sounds. The abundance of Middle Ages toponyms featuring  and  in North Macedonia, Kosovo and the Torlak-speaking parts of Serbia indicates that at the time, the clusters were articulated as  &  as well, even though current reflexes are different.
 * appears mostly in early texts, becoming later on.
 * The distinction between, , and , on one hand, and palatal , , and , on the other, is not always indicated in writing. When it is, it is shown by a palatization diacritic over the letter: ⟨ л҄ ⟩ ⟨ н҄ ⟩ ⟨ р҄ ⟩.

Vowels
For English equivalents and narrow transcriptions of sounds, see Old Church Slavonic Pronunciation on Wiktionary.

 * Accent is not indicated in writing and must be inferred from later languages and from reconstructions of Proto-Slavic.
 * All front vowels were iotated word-initially and succeeding other vowels. The same sometimes applied for *a and *ǫ. In the Bulgarian region, an epinthetic *v was inserted before *ǫ in the place of iotation.
 * The distinction between /i/, /ji/, and /jɪ/ is rarely indicated in writing and must be inferred from reconstructions of Proto-Slavic. In Glagolitic, the three are written as <ⰻ>, <ⰹ>, and <ⰺ> respectively. In Cyrillic, /jɪ/ may sometimes be written as ı, and /ji/ as ї, although this is rarely the case.
 * Yers preceding *j became tense, this was inconsistently reflected in writing in the case of *ь (ex: чаꙗньѥ or чаꙗние, both pronounced [t͡ʃɑjɑn̪ije]), but never with *ъ (which was always written as a yery).
 * Yery was the descendant of Proto-Blato-Slavic long *ū and was a high back unrounded vowel. Tense *ъ merged with *y, which gave rise to yery's spelling as <ъи> (later <ꙑ>, modern <ы>).
 * The yer vowels ь and ъ (ĭ and ŭ) are often called "ultrashort" and were lower, more centralised and shorter than their tense counterparts *i and *y. Both yers had a strong and a weak variant, with a yer always being strong if the next vowel is another yer. Weak yers disappeared in most positions in the word, already sporadically in the earliest texts but more frequently later on. Strong yers, on the other hand, merged with other vowels, particularly ĭ with e and ŭ with o, but differently in different areas.
 * The pronunciation of yat (ѣ/ě) differed by area. In Bulgaria it was a relatively open vowel, commonly reconstructed as, but further north its pronunciation was more closed and it eventually became a diphthong (e.g. in modern standard Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin, or modern standard Serbian spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Czech — the source of the grapheme ě) or even  in many areas (e.g. in Chakavian Croatian, Shtokavian Ikavian Croatian, and Bosnian dialects or Ukrainian) or  (modern standard Serbian spoken in Serbia).
 * *a was the descendant of Proto-Slavic long *o and was a low back unrounded vowel. Its iotated variant was often confused with *ě (in Glagolitic they are even the same letter: Ⱑ), so *a was probably fronted to *ě when it followed palatal consonants (this is still the case in Rhodopean dialects).
 * The exact articulation of the nasal vowels is unclear because different areas tend to merge them with different vowels. ę /ɛ̃/ is occasionally seen to merge with e or ě in South Slavic, but becomes ja early on in East Slavic. ǫ /ɔ̃/ generally merges with u or o, but in Bulgaria, ǫ was apparently unrounded and eventually merged with ъ.

Phonotactics
Several notable constraints on the distribution of the phonemes can be identified, mostly resulting from the tendencies occurring within the Common Slavic period, such as intrasyllabic synharmony and the law of open syllables. For consonant and vowel clusters and sequences of a consonant and a vowel, the following constraints can be ascertained:
 * Two adjacent consonants tend not to share identical features of manner of articulation
 * No syllable ends in a consonant
 * Every obstruent agrees in voicing with the following obstruent
 * Velars do not occur before front vowels
 * Phonetically palatalized consonants do not occur before certain back vowels
 * The back vowels /y/ and /ъ/ as well as front vowels other than /i/ do not occur word-initially: the two back vowels take prothetic /v/ and the front vowels prothetic /j/. Initial /a/ may take either prothetic consonant or none at all.
 * Vowel sequences are attested in only one lexeme (paǫčina 'spider's web') and in the suffixes /aa/ and /ěa/ of the imperfect
 * At morpheme boundaries, the following vowel sequences occur: /ai/, /au/, /ao/, /oi/, /ou/, /oo/, /ěi/, /ěo/

Morphophonemic alternations
As a result of the first and the second Slavic palatalizations, velars alternate with dentals and palatals. In addition, as a result of a process usually termed iotation (or iodization), velars and dentals alternate with palatals in various inflected forms and in word formation.

In some forms the alternations of /c/ with /č/ and of /dz/ with /ž/ occur, in which the corresponding velar is missing. The dental alternants of velars occur regularly before /ě/ and /i/ in the declension and in the imperative, and somewhat less regularly in various forms after /i/, /ę/, /ь/ and /rь/. The palatal alternants of velars occur before front vowels in all other environments, where dental alternants do not occur, as well as in various places in inflection and word formation described below.

As a result of earlier alternations between short and long vowels in roots in Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic times, and of the fronting of vowels after palatalized consonants, the following vowel alternations are attested in OCS: /ь/ : /i/; /ъ/ : /y/ : /u/; /e/ : /ě/ : /i/; /o/ : /a/; /o/ : /e/; /ě/ : /a/; /ъ/ : /ь/; /y/ : /i/; /ě/ : /i/; /y/ : /ę/.

Vowel:∅ alternations sometimes occurred as a result of sporadic loss of weak yer, which later occurred in almost all Slavic dialects. The phonetic value of the corresponding vocalized strong jer is dialect-specific.

Grammar
As an ancient Indo-European language, OCS has a highly inflective morphology. Inflected forms are divided in two groups, nominals and verbs. Nominals are further divided into nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Numerals inflect either as nouns or pronouns, with 1–4 showing gender agreement as well.

Nominals can be declined in three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), three numbers (singular, plural, dual) and seven cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, genitive, and locative. There are five basic inflectional classes for nouns: o/jo-stems, a/ja-stems, i-stems, u-stems, and consonant stems. Forms throughout the inflectional paradigm usually exhibit morphophonemic alternations.

Fronting of vowels after palatals and j yielded dual inflectional class o : jo and a : ja, whereas palatalizations affected stem as a synchronic process (N sg. vlьkъ, V sg. vlьče; L sg. vlьcě). Productive classes are o/jo-, a/ja-, and i-stems. Sample paradigms are given in the table below:

Adjectives are inflected as o/jo-stems (masculine and neuter) and a/ja-stems (feminine), in three genders. They could have short (indefinite) or long (definite) variants, the latter being formed by suffixing to the indefinite form the anaphoric third-person pronoun jь.

Synthetic verbal conjugation is expressed in present, aorist and imperfect tenses while perfect, pluperfect, future and conditional tenses/moods are made by combining auxiliary verbs with participles or synthetic tense forms. Sample conjugation for the verb vesti "to lead" (underlyingly ved-ti) is given in the table below.

Basis
Written evidence of Old Church Slavonic survives in a relatively small body of manuscripts, most of them written in the First Bulgarian Empire during the late 10th and the early 11th centuries. The language has an Eastern South Slavic basis in the Bulgarian-Macedonian dialectal area, with an admixture of Western Slavic (Moravian) features inherited during the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia (863–885).

The only well-preserved manuscript of the Moravian recension, the Kiev Missal, or the Kiev Folia, is characterised by the replacement of some South Slavic phonetic and lexical features with Western Slavic ones. Manuscripts written in the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) have, on the other hand, few Western Slavic features.

Though South Slavic in phonology and morphology, Old Church Slavonic was influenced by Byzantine Greek in syntax and style, and is characterized by complex subordinate sentence structures and participial constructions.

A large body of complex, polymorphemic words was coined, first by Saint Cyril himself and then by his students at the academies in Great Moravia and the First Bulgarian Empire, to denote complex abstract and religious terms, e.g., (zъlodějanьje) from  ('evil') +  ('do') +  (noun suffix), i.e., 'evil deed'. A significant part of them wеrе calqued directly from Greek.

Old Church Slavonic is valuable to historical linguists since it preserves archaic features believed to have once been common to all Slavic languages such as:
 * Most significantly, the yer (extra-short) vowels: and
 * Nasal vowels: and
 * Near-open articulation of the yat vowel
 * Palatal consonants and  from Proto-Slavic *ň and *ľ
 * Proto-Slavic declension system based on stem endings, including those that later disappeared in attested languages (such as u-stems)
 * Dual as a distinct grammatical number from singular and plural
 * Aorist, imperfect, Proto-Slavic paradigms for participles

Old Church Slavonic is also likely to have preserved an extremely archaic type of accentuation (probably close to the Chakavian dialect of modern Serbo-Croatian), but unfortunately, no accent marks appear in the written manuscripts.

The South Slavic and Eastern South Slavic nature of the language is evident from the following variations:

 * Phonetic:
 * ra, la by means of liquid metathesis of Proto-Slavic *or, *ol clusters
 * sě from Proto-Slavic *xě < *xai
 * cv, (d)zv from Proto-Slavic *kvě, *gvě < *kvai, *gvai
 * Morphological:
 * Morphosyntactic use of the dative possessive case in personal pronouns and nouns: (bratŭ mi, "my brother"),  (rǫka ti, "your hand"),  (otŭpuštenĭje grěxomŭ, "remission of sins"),  (xramŭ molitvě, 'house of prayer'), etc.
 * periphrastic future tense using the verb (xotěti, "to want"), for example,  (xoštǫ pisati, "I will write")
 * Use of the comparative form (mĭniji, "smaller") to denote "younger"
 * Morphosyntactic use of suffixed demonstrative pronouns (tъ, ta, to). In Bulgarian and Macedonian, these developed into suffixed definite articles and also took the place of the third person singular and plural pronouns  (onъ, ona, ono, oni) >  ('he, she, it, they')

Old Church Slavonic also shares the following phonetic features only with Bulgarian:
 * Near-open articulation *æ / *jæ of the Yat vowel (ě); still preserved in the Bulgarian dialects of the Rhodope mountains, the Razlog dialect, the Shumen dialect and partially preserved as *ja (ʲa) across Yakavian Eastern Bulgarian
 * and as reflexes of Proto-Slavic *ťʲ (< *tj and *gt, *kt) and *ďʲ (< *dj).

With the exception of some Ukraining reflexes of *dj as, both Belarussian and Ukrainian mirror the development in Russian and feature ж and ч.

Local influences (recensions)
Over time, the language adopted more and more features from local Slavic vernaculars, producing different variants referred to as Recensions or Redactions. Modern convention differentiates between the earliest, classical form of the language, referred to as Old Church Slavonic, and later, vernacular-coloured forms, collectively designated as Church Slavonic. More specifically, Old Church Slavonic is exemplified by extant manuscripts written between the 9th and 11th century in Great Moravia and the First Bulgarian Empire.

Great Moravia
The language was standardized for the first time by the mission of the two apostles to Great Moravia from 863. The manuscripts of the Moravian recension are therefore the earliest dated of the OCS recensions. The recension takes its name from the Slavic state of Great Moravia which existed in Central Europe during the 9th century on the territory of today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, northern Austria and southeastern Poland.

Moravian recension
This recension is exemplified by the Kiev Missal. Its linguistic characteristics include:
 * Confusion between the letters Big yus ⟨Ѫѫ⟩ and Uk ⟨Ѹѹ⟩ – this occurs once in the Kiev Folia, when the expected form въсоудъ vъsudъ is spelled въсѫдъ vъsǫdъ
 * from Proto-Slavic *tj, use of from *dj,  *skj
 * Use of the words mьša, cirky, papežь, prěfacija, klepati, piskati etc.
 * Preservation of the consonant cluster (e.g. modlitvami)
 * Use of the ending –ъmь instead of –omь in the masculine singular instrumental, use of the pronoun čьso

Duchy of Bohemia
The Bohemian (Czech) recension is derived from the Moravian recension and was used in the Czech lands until 1097. It was written in Glagolitic, which is posited to have been carried over to Bohemia even before the death of Methodius. It is preserved in religious texts (e.g. Prague Fragments), legends and glosses and shows substantial influence of the Western Slavic vernacular in Bohemia at the time. Its main features are:
 * PSl. *tj, *kt(i), *dj, *gt(i) → c /ts/, z: pomocь, utvrьzenie
 * PSl. *stj, *skj → šč: *očistjenьje → očiščenie
 * ending -ъmь in instr. sg. (instead of -omь): obrazъmь
 * verbs with prefix vy- (instead of iz-)
 * promoting of etymological -dl-, -tl- (světidlъna, vъsedli, inconsistently)
 * suppressing of epenthetic l (prěstavenie, inconsistently)
 * -š- in original stem vьx- (všěx) after 3rd palatalization
 * development of yers and nasals coincident with development in Czech lands
 * fully syllabic r and l
 * ending -my in first-person pl. verbs
 * missing terminal -tь in third-person present tense indicative
 * creating future tense using prefix po-
 * using words prosba (request), zagrada (garden), požadati (to ask for), potrěbovati (to need), conjunctions aby, nebo, etc.

First Bulgarian Empire
Although the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius took place in Great Moravia, it was in the First Bulgarian Empire that early Slavic written culture and liturgical literature really flourished. The Old Church Slavonic language was adopted as state and liturgical language in 893, and was taught and refined further in two bespoke academies created in Preslav (Bulgarian capital between 893 and 972), and Ohrid (Bulgarian capital between 991/997 and 1015).

The language did not represent one regional dialect but a generalized form of early eastern South Slavic, which cannot be localized. The existence of two major literary centres in the Empire led in the period from the 9th to the 11th centuries to the emergence of two recensions (otherwise called "redactions"), termed "Eastern" and "Western" respectively.

Some researchers do not differentiate between manuscripts of the two recensions, preferring to group them together in a "Macedo-Bulgarian" or simply "Bulgarian" recension. The development of Old Church Slavonic literacy had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the South Slavs into neighboring cultures, which promoted the formation of a distinct Bulgarian identity.

Common features of both recensions:
 * Consistent use of the soft consonant clusters (*ʃt) &  (*ʒd) for Pra-Slavic *tj/*gt/*kt and *dj. Articulation as * & * in a number of Macedonian dialects is a later development due to Serbian influence in the Late Middle Ages, aided by Late Middle Bulgarian's mutation of palatal * & * > palatal k & g
 * Consistent use of the yat vowel (ě)
 * Inconsistent use of the epenthetic l, with attested forms both with and without it: korabĺь & korabъ, zemĺě & zemьja , the latter possibly indicating a shift from <ĺ> to . Modern Bulgarian/Macedonian lack epenthetic l
 * Replacement of the affricate (*) with the fricative  (*), realized consistently in Cyrillic and partially in Glagolitic manuscripts
 * Use of the past participle in perfect and past perfect tense without an auxiliary to denote the narator's attitude to what is happening

Moreover, consistent scribal errors indicate the following trends in the development of the recension(s) between the 9th and the 11th centuries:

 * Loss of the yers ( & ) in weak position and their vocalization in strong position, with diverging results in Preslav and Ohrid
 * Depalatalization of (*),  (*),  (*),  (*),  (*), and the  clusters. They are only hard in modern Bulgarian/Macedonian/Torlak
 * Loss of intervocalic, followed by vowel assimilation and contraction: sěěhъ (denoting sějahъ ) > sěahъ > sěhъ ('I sowed'), dobrajego > dobraego > dobraago > dobrago ('good', masc. gen. sing.)
 * Incipient denasalization of the small yus, (ę), replaced with  (e)
 * Loss of the present tense third person sing. ending ( tъ ), e.g.,  ( bǫdetъ ) >  ( bǫde ) (lacking in modern Bulgarian/Macedonian/Torlak)
 * Incipient replacement of the sigmatic and asigmatic aorist with the new aorist, e.g., vedoxъ instead of vedъ or věsъ (modern Bulgarian/Macedonian and, in part, Torlak use similar forms)
 * Incipent analytisms, including examples of weakening of the noun declension, use of a postpositive definite article, infinitive decomposition > use of da constructions, future tense with (>  in Bulgarian/Macedonian/Torlak) can all be observed in 10-11th century manuscripts

There are also certain differences between the Preslav and Ohrid recensions. According to Huntley, the primary ones are the diverging development of the strong yers (Western: >  (*) and  >  (*), Eastern  and  > *), and the palatalization of dentals and labials before front vowels in East but not West. These continue to be among the primary differences between Eastern Bulgarian and Western Bulgarian/Macedonian to this day. Moreover, two different styles (or redactions) can be distinguished at Preslav; Preslav Double-Yer ( ≠ ) and Preslav Single-Yer ( =, usually > ). The Preslav and Ohrid recensions are described in greater detail below:

Preslav recension
The manuscripts of the Preslav recension or "Eastern" variant are among the oldest of the Old Church Slavonic language, only predated by the Moravian recension. This recension was centred around the Preslav Literary School. Since the earliest datable Cyrillic inscriptions were found in the area of Preslav, it is this school which is credited with the development of the Cyrillic alphabet which gradually replaced the Glagolitic one. A number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the Preslav Literary School, including Naum of Preslav (until 893), Constantine of Preslav, John Exarch, Chernorizets Hrabar, etc.. The main linguistic features of this recension are the following:

 * The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were used concurrently
 * In some documents, the original supershort vowels and  merged with one letter taking the place of the other
 * The original ascending reflex (rь, lь) of syllabic and  was sometimes metathesized to (ьr, ьl), or a combination of the two
 * The central vowel ы (ꙑ) merged with ъи (ъj)
 * Merger of (*) and  (*)
 * The verb forms (naricajǫ, naricaješi) were substituted or alternated with  (naričjajǫ, naričjaješi)

Ohrid recension
The manuscripts of the Ohrid recension or "Western" variant are among the oldest of the Old Church Slavonic language, only predated by the Moravian recension. The recension is sometimes named Macedonian because its literary centre, Ohrid, lies in the historical region of Macedonia. At that period, Ohrid administratively formed part of the province of Kutmichevitsa in the First Bulgarian Empire until the Byzantine conquest. The main literary centre of this dialect was the Ohrid Literary School, whose most prominent member and most likely founder, was Saint Clement of Ohrid who was commissioned by Boris I of Bulgaria to teach and instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language. This recension is represented by the Codex Zographensis and Marianus, among others. The main linguistic features of this recension include:

 * Continuous usage of the Glagolitic alphabet instead of Cyrillic
 * Strict distinction in the articulation of the yers and their vocalisation in strong position (ъ > * and ь > *) or deletion in weak position
 * Wider usage and retention of the phoneme * (which in most other Slavic languages has dеaffricated to *)

Later recensions
Old Church Slavonic may have reached Slovenia as early as Cyril and Methodius's Panonian mission in 868 and is exemplified by the late 10th century Freising fragments, written in the Latin script. Later, in the 10th century, Glagolitic liturgy was carried from Bohemia to Croatia, where it established a rich literary tradition. Old Church Slavonic in the Cyrillic script was in turn transmitted from Bulgaria to Serbia in the 10th century and to Kievan Rus' in connection with its adoption of Orthodox Christianity in 988.

The later use of Old Church Slavonic in these medieval Slavic polities resulted in a gradual adjustment of the language to the local vernacular, while still retaining a number of Eastern South Slavic, Moravian or Bulgarian features. In all cases, yuses denasalised so that only Old Church Slavonic, modern Polish and some isolated Bulgarian dialects retained the old Slavonic nasal vowels.

In addition to the Czech-Moravian recension, which became moribund in the late 1000s, four other major recensions can be identified: (Middle) Bulgarian, as a continuation of the literary tradition of the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools, Croatian , Serbian and Russian. Certain authors also talk about separate Bosnian and Ruthenian recensions, whereas the use of the Bulgarian Euthimian recension in Wallachia and Moldova from the late 1300s until the early 1700s is sometimes referred to as "Daco-Slavonic" or "Dacian" recension. All of these later versions of Old Church Slavonic are collectively referred to as Church Slavonic.

Bosnian recension
The disputed Bosnian recension used both the Glagolitic alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet. A disputed home-grown version of the Cyrillic alphabet, commonly known as Bosančica, or Bosnian Cyrillic, coined as neologism in 19th century, emerged very early on (probably the 1000s). Primary features:

 * Use of the letters i, y, ě for * in Bosnian manuscripts (reflecting Bosnian Ikavism)
 * Use of the letter djerv (Ꙉꙉ) for the Serbo-Croatian reflexes of Pra-Slavic *tj and *dj (* & *)
 * Djerv was also used denote palatal *l and *n: = *,  = *
 * Use of the letter Щщ for Pra-Slavic *stj, *skj (reflecting pronunciation as *ʃt or *ʃt͡ʃ) and only rarely for *tj

The recension is sometimes subsumed under the Serbian recension, especially by Serbian linguistics, and (along with Bosančica) is generally the subject of a tug-of-war between Serbs, Croatians and Bosniaks.

Middle Bulgarian
The common term "Middle Bulgarian" is usually contrasted to "Old Bulgarian" (an alternative name for Old Church Slavonic), and loosely used for manuscripts whose language demonstrates a broad spectrum of regional and temporal dialect features after the 11th century (12th to 14th century, although alternative periodisation exists, as well). An alternative term, Bulgarian recension of Church Slavonic, is used by some authors. The period is generally defined as a transition from the synthetic Old Bulgarian to the highly analytic New Bulgarian and Macedonian, where incipient 10th-century analytisms gradually spread from the north-east to all Bulgarian, Macedonian dialects and Torlak. Primary features:

Phonological Morphological
 * Merger of the yuses, *ǫ=*ę (Ѫѫ=Ѧѧ), into a single mid back unrounded vowel (most likely ʌ̃), where ѫ was used after plain and ѧ after palatal consonants (1000s–1100s), followed by denasalization and transition of ѫ > * or * and ѧ > * in most dialects (1200s-1300s)
 * Str. *ě > *ja (ʲa) in Eastern Bulgarian, starting from the 1100s; (vjanec) instead of  (v(j)ænec), from earlier  (v(j)ænьc) ('wreath'), after vocalization of the strong front yer
 * *ě > *e starting from northwestern Macedonia and spreading east and south, 1200s
 * *cě > *ca & *dzě > *dza in eastern North Macedonia and western Bulgaria (yakavian at the time), (calovati) instead of  (c(j)ælovati) ('kiss'), indicating hardening of palatal *c & *dz before *ě, 1200s
 * Merger of the yuses and yers (*ǫ=*ę=*ъ=*ь), usually, but not always, into a schwa-like sound (1200–1300s) in some dialects (central Bulgaria, the Rhodopes). Merger preserved in the most archaic Rup dialects, e.g., Smolyan (> ), Paulician (incl. Banat Bulgarian), Zlatograd, Hvoyna (all > )
 * Degradation of the noun declension and incorrect use of most cases or their replacement of preposition + dative or accusative by the late 1300s
 * Further development and grammaticalization of the short demonstrative pronouns into postpositive definite articles, e.g., ('the sweetness')
 * Emergence of analytic comparative of adjectives, ('richer'),  ('better') by the 1300s
 * Emergence of a single plural form for adjectives by the 1300s
 * Disappearance of the supine, replaced by the infinitive, which in turn was replaced by da + present tense constructions by the late 1300s
 * Disappearance of the present active, present passive and past active participle and the widening of the use of the l-participle (reklъ) and the past passive participle (rečenъ) ('said')
 * Replacement of aorist plural forms -oxomъ, -oste , -ošę with -oxmy / oxme , -oxte , -oxǫ as early as the 1100s, e.g., (rekoxǫ) instead of  (rekošę) ('they said')

Euthymian recension
In the early 1370s, Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo implemented a reform to standardize Bulgarian orthography. Instead of bringining the language closer to that of commoners, the "Euthymian", or Tarnovo, recension, rather sought to re-establish older Old Church Slavonic models, further archaizing it. The fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule in 1396 precipitated an exodus of Bulgarian men-of-letters, e.g., Cyprian, Gregory Tsamblak, Constantine of Kostenets, etc. to Wallachia, Moldova and the Grand Duchies of Lithuania and Moscow, where they enforced the Euthymian recension as liturgical and chancery language, and to the Serbian Despotate, where it influenced the Resava School.

Croatian recension
The Croatian recension of Old Church Slavonic used only the Glagolitic alphabet of angular type. It shows the development of the following characteristics:

 * Denasalisation of PSl. *ę > e, PSl. *ǫ > u, e.g., OCS rǫka ("hand") > Cr. ruka, OCS językъ > Cr. jezik ("tongue, language")
 * PSl. *y > i, e.g., OCS byti > Cr. biti ("to be")
 * PSl. weak-positioned yers *ъ and *ь merged, probably representing some schwa-like sound, and only one of the letters was used (usually 'ъ'). Evident in earliest documents like Baška tablet.
 * PSl. strong-positioned yers *ъ and *ь were vocalized into *a in most Štokavian and Čakavian dialects, e.g., OCS pьsъ > Cr. pas ("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 rь and rъ, e.g., krstъ and trgъ as opposed to OCS krьstъ and trъgъ ("cross", "market")
 * PSl. #vьC and #vъC > #uC, e.g., OCS. vъdova ("widow") > Cr. udova

Russian recension
The Russian recension emerged in the 1000s based on the earlier Eastern Bulgarian recension, from which it differed slightly. The earliest manuscript to contain Russian elements is the Ostromir Gospel of 1056–1057, which exemplifies the beginning of a Russianized Church Slavonic that gradually spread to liturgical and chancery documents. The Russianization process was cut short in the late 1300s, when a series of Bulgarian prelates, starting with Cyprian, consciously "re-Bulgarized" church texts to achieve maximum conformity with the Euthymian recension. The Russianization process resumed in the late 1400s, and Russian Church Slavonic eventually became entrenched as standard for all Orthodox Slavs, incl. Serbs and Bulgarians, by the early 1800s.
 * PSl. *ę > *ja/ʲa, PSl. *ǫ > u, e.g., OCS rǫka ("hand") > Rus. ruka; OCS językъ > Rus. jazyk ("tongue, language")
 * Vocalisation of the yers in strong position (ъ > * and ь > *) and their deletion in weak position
 * *ě > *e, e.g., OCS věra ("faith") > Rus. vera
 * Preservation of a number of South Slavic and Bulgarian phonological and morphological features, e.g.
 * - (pronounced *ʃt͡ʃ) instead of East Slavic  (*t͡ʃ) for Pra-Slavic *tj/*gt/*kt:  (prosveščenie) vs. Ukrainian  (osvičennja) ('illumination')
 * - (*ʒd) instead of East Slavic  (*ʒ) for Pra-Slavic *dj:  (odežda) vs. Ukrainian  (odeža) ('clothing')
 * - Non-pleophonic -ra/-la instead of East Slavic pleophonic -oro/-olo forms: (nagrada) vs. Ukrainian  (nahoroda) ('reward')
 * - Prefixes so-/voz-/iz- instead of s-/vz- (z-)/vy-: (vozbuditь), vs. Ukrainian  (zbudyty) ('arouse'), etc.

Ruthenian recension
The Ruthenian recension generally shows the same characteristics as and is usually subsumed under the Russian recension. The Euthymian recension that was pursued throughout the 1400s was gradually replaced in the 1500s by Ruthenian, an administrative language based on the Belarusian dialect of Vilno.

Serbian recension
The Serbian recension used both the Glagolitic alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet. A home-grown side version of the Cyrillic alphabet, commonly known as Srbinčica, Srbislova or Serbian Cyrillic, emerged very early on (probably the 9th century).

Was written mostly in Cyrillic, but also in the Glagolitic alphabet (depending on region); by the 12th century the Serbs used exclusively the Cyrillic alphabet (and Latin script in coastal areas). The 1186 Miroslav Gospels example belong to the Serbian recension.

Primary features:

 * Nasal vowels were denasalised and in one case closed: *ę > e, *ǫ > u, e.g. OCS rǫka > Sr. ruka ("hand"), OCS językъ > Sr. jezik ("tongue, language")
 * Notable extensive use of diacritical signs by the Resava dialect
 * Use of letters i, y for the sound in other manuscripts of the Serbian recension
 * Use of the Old Serbian Letter djerv (Ꙉꙉ) for the Serbian reflexes of Pre-Slavic *tj and *dj (*, *, *, and *)

Resava recension
Due to the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria in 1396, Serbia saw an influx of educated scribes and clergy, who re-introduced a more classical form that resembled more closely the Bulgarian recension. In the late 1400s and early 1500s, the Resava orthography spread to Bulgaria and North Macedonia and exerted substantial influence on Wallachia. It was eventually superseded by Russian Church Slavonic in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Role in modern Slavic languages
Old Church Slavonic was initially widely intelligible across the Slavic world. However, with the gradual differentiation of individual languages, Orthodox Slavs and, to some extent, Croatians ended up in a situation of diglossia, where they used one Slavic language for religious and another one for everyday affairs. The resolution of this situation, and the choice made for the exact balance between Old Church Slavonic and vernacular elements and forms is key to understanding the relationship between (Old) Church Slavonic and modern Slavic literary languages, as well as the distance between individual languages.

It was first Russian polymath and grammarian Mikhail Lomonosov that defined in 1755 "three styles" to the balance of Church Slavonic and Russian elements in the Russian literary language: a high style—with substantial Old Church Slavonic influence—for formal occasions and heroic poems; a low style—with substantial influence of the vernacular—for comedy, prose and ordinary affairs; and a middle style, balancing between the two, for informal verse epistles, satire, etc.

The middle, "Slaveno-Russian", style eventually prevailed. Thus, while standard Russian was codified on the basis of the Central Russian dialect and the Moscow chancery language, it retains an entire stylistic layer of Church Slavonisms with typically Eastern South Slavic phonetic features. Where native and Church Slavonic terms exist side by side, the Church Slavonic one is in the higher stylistic register and is usually more abstract, e.g., the neutral (gorod) vs. the poetic  (grаd) ('town').

Bulgarian faced a similar dilemma a century later, with three camps championing Church Slavonic, Slaveno-Bulgarian, and New Bulgarian as a basis for the codification of modern Bulgarian. Here the proponents of the analytic vernacular eventually won. However, the language re-imported a vast number of Church Slavonic forms, regarded as a legacy of Old Bulgarian, either directly from Russian Church Slavonic or through the mediation of Russian.

By contrast, Serbian made a clean break with (Old) Church Slavonic in the first half of the 1800s, as part of Vuk Karadžić's linguistic reform, opting instead to build the modern Serbian language from the ground up, based on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect. Ukrainian and Belarussian as well as Macedonian took a similar path in the mid and late 1800s and the late 1940s, respectively, the former two because of the association of Old Church Slavonic with stifling Russian imperial control and the latter in an attempt to distance the newly-codified language as further away from Bulgarian as possible.

Canon
The core corpus of Old Church Slavonic manuscripts is usually referred to as canon. Manuscripts must satisfy certain linguistic, chronological and cultural criteria to be incorporated into the canon: they must not significantly depart from the language and tradition of Saints Cyril and Methodius, usually known as the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition.

For example, the Freising Fragments, dating from the 10th century, show some linguistic and cultural traits of Old Church Slavonic, but they are usually not included in the canon, as some of the phonological features of the writings appear to belong to certain Pannonian Slavic dialect of the period. Similarly, the Ostromir Gospels exhibits dialectal features that classify it as East Slavic, rather than South Slavic so it is not included in the canon either. On the other hand, the Kiev Missal is included in the canon even though it manifests some West Slavic features and contains Western liturgy because of the Bulgarian linguistic layer and connection to the Moravian mission.

Manuscripts are usually classified in two groups, depending on the alphabet used, Cyrillic or Glagolitic. With the exception of the Kiev Missal and Glagolita Clozianus, which exhibit West Slavic and Croatian features respectively, all Glagolitic texts are assumed to be of the Macedonian recension:
 * Kiev Missal (Ki, KM), 7 folios, late 10th century
 * Codex Zographensis, (Zo), 288 folios, 10th or 11th century
 * Codex Marianus (Mar), 173 folios, early 11th century
 * Codex Assemanius (Ass), 158 folios, early 11th century
 * Psalterium Sinaiticum (Pas, Ps. sin.), 177 folios, 11th century
 * Euchologium Sinaiticum (Eu, Euch), 109 folios, 11th century
 * Glagolita Clozianus (Clo, Cloz), 14 folios, 11th century
 * Ohrid Folios (Ohr), 2 folios, 11th century
 * Rila Folios (Ri, Ril), 2 folios and 5 fragments, 11th century

All Cyrillic manuscripts are of the Preslav recension (Preslav Literary School) and date from the 11th century except for the Zographos, which is of the Ohrid recension (Ohrid Literary School):

 * Sava's book (Sa, Sav), 126 folios
 * Codex Suprasliensis, (Supr), 284 folios
 * Enina Apostle (En, Enin), 39 folios
 * Hilandar Folios (Hds, Hil), 2 folios
 * Undol'skij's Fragments (Und), 2 folios
 * Macedonian Folio (Mac), 1 folio
 * Zographos Fragments (Zogr. Fr.), 2 folios
 * Sluck Psalter (Ps. Sl., Sl), 5 folios

Sample text
Here is the Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic:

Authors
The history of Old Church Slavonic writing includes a northern tradition begun by the mission to Great Moravia, including a short mission in the Lower Pannonia, and a Bulgarian tradition begun by some of the missionaries who relocated to Bulgaria after the expulsion from Great Moravia.

The first texts written in Old Church Slavonic are translations of the Gospels and Byzantine liturgical texts begun by the Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius, mostly during their mission to Great Moravia.

The most important authors in Old Church Slavonic after the death of Methodius and the dissolution of the Great Moravian academy were Clement of Ohrid (active also in Great Moravia), Constantine of Preslav, Chernorizetz Hrabar and John Exarch, all of whom worked in medieval Bulgaria at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. The full text of the Second Book of Enoch is only preserved in Old Church Slavonic, although the original most certainly had been in Greek or even Hebrew or Aramaic.

Modern Slavic nomenclature
Here are some of the names used by speakers of modern Slavic languages:
 * стараславянская мова (starasłavianskaja mova), 'Old Slavic language'
 * старобългарски (starobalgarski), 'Old Bulgarian' and старославянски, (staroslavyanski), 'Old Slavic'
 * staroslověnština, 'Old Slavic'
 * старословенски (staroslovenski), 'Old Slavic'
 * staro-cerkiewno-słowiański, 'Old Church Slavic'
 * старославянский язык (staroslavjánskij jazýk), 'Old Slavic language'
 * staroslovenski / staroslavenski, старословенски / старославенски, 'Old Slavic'
 * staroslovienčina, 'Old Slavic'
 * stara cerkvena slovanščina, 'Old Church Slavic'
 * староцерковнослов'янська мова (starotserkovnoslovjans'ka mova), 'Old Church Slavic language'

title: Old Church Slavonic


text:
Talk:Hagia Sophia

Construction of the dome, ca. 535
Witold Rybczynski, in his 2022 history of architecture, mentions that Justinian's architects, to reduce the weight of the dome, used (as was Byzantine practice then) thin bricks layered and set in very thick mortar mixed with brick dust. "Long iron tie-bars below the springing of the arches and vaults countered the horizontal thrust" of the weight of the flat dome.

I wonder if this is the first recorded instance of the use of iron-reinforced masonry. Anyone? Pete Tillman (talk) 03:58, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure why that would reduce the weight of the dome. However, brick dust is a pozolan, and converts lime mortar into hydraulic cement. Using crushed bricks instead of volcanic ash (pozolano) is an ancient Roman technique described by Vitruvius.
 * John Romer also mentions that a lot of iron was used in Byzantine buildings. He claims the “Little Hagia Sophia” (Sts Sergius & Bacchus) has a tension ring created by using iron staples to link together the marble blocks of the cornice. It's doubtful the first story cornice in St. Sergius and Bacchus would meaningfully counteract that thrust of the dome, which is much higher up. Romer and others imply a similar system was repeated at the Hagia Sophia, but I can't find any sources that verify the use of a tension ring on the main dome.
 * There are a lot of iron bars spanning across arches and vaults throughout the lower portions of Hagia Sophia. These would counteract the thrust of those particular spans. However, these wouldn't counteract the thrust of the main dome, which is much higher up.
 * The first version of the dome also collapsed, so whatever they did wasn't very effective. Livius Plinius (talk) 16:46, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I came across this today article today, ”Hooping as an Ancient Remedy for Conservation of Large Masonry Domes”, which described the structural history of the Hagia Sophia's dome since construction.
 * According to this article, the original dome (which collapsed in 557) had wooden chains embedded into the masonry. The second dome had thin iron chains embedded into the masonry, but still collapsed in 989 and 1346. In the 16th century, the Ottoman architect Sinan encircled the dome with tie rods. Additional tie rods were again added by Gaspare Fossati in 1847. Livius Plinius (talk) 14:43, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

Affiliation and history
Starting on November 10, the user Mattia332 made edits to the opening paragraph and infobox of the article and repeatedly reinserted them after they were reverted. The modified material in the opening paragraph read:

"The site was an Catholic Eastern Rite church from 360 AD to 1054, when the Great Schism caused it to become an Eastern Orthodox Church, until it was converted back to a Catholic church following the Fourth Crusade. It was seized by the Orthodoxs in 1261 and remained an Eastern Orthodox church until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453."

The edits also changed the infobox to assert that the Hagia Sophia had been an Eastern Rite Catholic church from 360 to 1054, and apparently left out the dates 1054 to 1204 completely.

These edits and the language they used were clearly pushing a point of view, were ideologically charged, and do not reflect the scholarly consensus on the topic. In addition, the citations provided did not support the claim that the Hagia Sophia had been an Eastern Rite Catholic church until 1054.

It is possible to engage in a reasoned debate about whether the Hagia Sophia, and other churches of its time, could rightly be said to have been "Eastern Orthodox" in a time when the division between the Catholic and Orthodox churches had not yet evolved. However, the details of the institutional history of the Christian church are not relevant to the introductory paragraph of an article about a prominent church building. Readers can obtain more context for the description of the church as "Eastern Orthodox" by clicking the article link to Eastern Orthodoxy. That is what article links are for.

I am very doubtful that there are any reputable, mainstream sources that describe the Hagia Sophia as having been an "Eastern Rite Catholic church." If Mattia332 continues in his attempts to inject POV-pushing language into the page, I would think there ought to be a discussion about what steps should be taken to protect the page from further bad-faith edits.

I have reverted the opening paragraph and infobox to their state as of November 1, 2023.

My apologies in advance for any breaches in etiquette or procedure; I've never edited Wikipedia before. IkSculdeSega (talk) 03:28, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

 * From what i see, the changes were initially made by an IP a few days earlier, on 5 November (diff); this was apparently the same individual as User:Mattia332. I also removed the rest of the original research that was added by them. None of the three tertiary sources that were cited support their claims. I also don't see any relevant mention in the article Byzantine Empire; as claimed by the user. Demetrios1993 (talk) 03:21, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Conservation
There has been some recent news about the building's physical state and conservation, namely: concerns about ongoing deterioration of the structure (recently prompted by a report in a Turkish news source and then repeated by several Greek outlets, , , ) and a recent Turkish government declaration in September that a 50-year restoration would commence to repair damages. Things like this probably deserve a mention somewhere. I'm wondering whether they belong towards the end of the current history section, or are perhaps better suited for a "Conservation" section (focused on present-day conservation) in the future? Any thoughts welcome. R Prazeres (talk) 20:37, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

No
How could you possibly in common sense say that it was built as an Eastern Orthodox Church when they didn’t exist yet. There was only one church until the schism that church called themselves Catholic. you should stop trying to change church and Christian history Fleurdesboiteaux (talk) 00:29, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

 * @Fleurdesboiteaux The proper academic term pre-schism would be Chalcedonian, not Catholic. Your infobox changes are therefore not accurate.
 * It might indeed be strange to talk about an "Eastern Orthodox" church in the 4th century, however, and the article body (though not the infobox) seems to do that. Perhaps that could be changed. Uness232 (talk) 02:44, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * If Chalcedonian is the correct term for the period in history, then it should be used. Wikipedia should not rewrite history. Mjroots (talk) 05:07, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hagia Sophia


text:
299

Year 299 (CCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, less frequently, year 1052 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 299 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Peace of Nisibis: Emperor Diocletian signs a treaty with the Persian king Narseh that will last for 40 years. The Persians accept Roman dominion over Armenia, the Caucasus, and Upper Mesopotamia. The pro-Roman ruler Tiridates III receives all of Armenia as far as the border with Atropatene. Mirian III of the Kingdom of Iberia is made a Roman client, and at some point in time, as a result of the treaty, Caucasian Albania will follow suit. Rome also gains five satrapies beyond the Tigris, which are perhaps given to Tiridates to administer.
 * To celebrate his victory over the Persians, Galerius commissions the Arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki (modern Greece).
 * In this or the following year, Galerius campaigns with success against Sarmatians and the Marcomanni, attacking through a swamp to defeat a Sarmatian army.
 * Having first crossed into Africa in 296, Emperor Maximian concludes his campaigns against the Quinquegentiani and other Berbers. His campaigns had ranged as far as Mauretania in the west and Tripolitania in the east. Julianus, a rebel leader in Africa, throws himself into a fire after the Romans breach the walls of his stronghold.
 * Returning to Rome in triumph, Maximian commissions the Baths of Diocletian in honour of his 'brother' Diocletian.
 * Diocletian expels Christians from the Roman army.

China

 * Empress Jia Nanfeng frames Crown Prince Yu for treason and has him deposed.

Births

 * Jin Mingdi, Chinese emperor of the Jin Dynasty (d. 325)

Deaths

 * Judah bar Ezekiel, Babylonian amora (b. 220)
 * Qi Wannian, Chinese chieftain and rebel leader

title: 299


text:
298

Year 298 (CCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Faustus and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 1051 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 298 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Spring: Emperor Diocletian retakes Alexandria and crushes the usurpation of Aurelius Achilleus.
 * Diocletian then travels into Upper Egypt and possibly campaigns on the Nubian frontier. In either this year or in 300/301, he makes agreements with the Meroitic Nubians and the Blemmyes. He agrees to pay subsidies to both peoples, and he cedes the Dodecashoenos to the Nubians on the understanding that the Nubians will defend the region against the Blemmyes.
 * Caesar Galerius restores Tiridates III to the throne of Armenia and invades the Sassanid Empire. His army marches through Adiabene, Atropatene, Susiana and Lower Mesopotamia. He then retakes the strategically important city of Nisibis in Upper Mesopotamia.

Korea

 * The manufacture of cultured silk becomes popular from Korea to Japan.
 * Bunseo becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.
 * Girim becomes the king of the Korean kingdom of Silla.

Births

 * Athanasius of Alexandria, Egyptian patriarch (d. 373)

Deaths

 * Aurelius Achilleus, Roman usurper
 * Cassian of Tangier, Christian martyr
 * Chaekgye of Baekje, Korean ruler
 * Marcellus of Tangier, Christian martyr
 * Yurye of Silla (or Yuri), Korean ruler

title: 298


text:
297

Year 297 (CCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valerius and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 1050 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 297 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Emperor Diocletian introduces a new tax system and other economic reforms.
 * Diocletian watches over the Syrian provinces while Caesar Galerius makes preparations for a campaign against the Persian king Narseh. He recruits veterans from Illyria and Moesia, recruits new soldiers, and strengthens his army with Gothic mercenaries and the Armenian units of Tiridates III.
 * August: Domitius Domitianus launches a usurpation against Diocletian in Egypt. He is perhaps aided by popular discontent with Diocletian's taxation reform.
 * Autumn: Diocletian besieges the rebels in Alexandria.
 * December: Domitianus dies, but his corrector Aurelius Achilleus takes over as the leader of the rebellion.
 * Battle of Satala: Galerius launches a surprise attack against Narseh's camp in western Armenia. The Romans sack the camp and capture Narseh's wives, sisters and daughters, including his Queen of Queens Arsane. Narseh is wounded and escapes to his empire.

Births

 * Murong Huang, ruler of the Former Yan (d. 348)
 * Yu Wenjun, empress of the Jin Dynasty (d. 328)

Deaths

 * Chen Shou, author of the San Guo Zhi (b. 233)
 * Tirumalisai Alvar, one of the 12 Alvar saints. (b. 4203 BCE)
 * Zhou Chu, Jin dynasty general, son of Zhou Fang (b. 236)

title: 297


text:
Nordic Council

The Nordic Council is the official body for formal inter-parliamentary Nordic cooperation among the Nordic countries. Formed in 1952, it has 87 representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as from the autonomous areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. The representatives are members of parliament in their respective countries or areas and are elected by those parliaments. The Council holds ordinary sessions each year in October/November and usually one extra session per year with a specific theme. The council's official languages are Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish, though it uses only the mutually intelligible Scandinavian languages—Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish—as its working languages. These three comprise the first language of around 80% of the region's population and are learned as a second or foreign language by the remaining 20%.

In 1971, the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental forum, was established to complement the council. The Council and the Council of Ministers are involved in various forms of cooperation with neighbouring areas in Northern Europe, including the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, the Benelux countries and the Baltic states.

History
During World War II, Denmark and Norway were occupied by Germany; Finland was under assault by the Soviet Union; while Sweden, though neutral, still felt the war's effects. Following the war, the Nordic countries pursued the idea of a Scandinavian defence union to ensure their mutual defence. However, Finland, due to its Paasikivi–Kekkonen policy of neutrality and FCMA treaty with the USSR, could not participate.

It was proposed that the Nordic countries would unify their foreign policy and defence, remain neutral in the event of a conflict and not ally with NATO, which some were planning at the time. The United States, keen on getting access to bases in Scandinavia and believing the Nordic countries incapable of defending themselves, stated it would not ensure military support for Scandinavia if they did not join NATO. As Denmark and Norway sought US aid for their post-war reconstruction, the project collapsed, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland joining NATO as founding members. Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Further Nordic co-operation, such as an economic customs union, also failed. This led Danish Prime Minister Hans Hedtoft to propose, on 13 August 1951, a consultative interparliamentary body. This proposal was agreed by Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during a meeting in Copenhagen on 15–16 March 1952. The council's first session was held in the Danish Parliament on 13 February 1953 and it elected Hans Hedtoft as its president. When Finnish-Soviet relations thawed following the death of Joseph Stalin, Finland joined the council in 1955, following a voting in the Parliament of Finland on 28 October that year, effective from 23 December the same year.

On 2 July 1954, the Nordic labour market was created and in 1958, building upon a 1952 passport-free travel area, the Nordic Passport Union was created. These two measures helped ensure Nordic citizens' free movement around the area. A Nordic Convention on Social Security was implemented in 1955. There were also plans for a single market but they were abandoned in 1959 shortly before Denmark, Norway, and Sweden joined the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). Finland became an associated member of EFTA in 1961 and Denmark and Norway applied to join the European Economic Community (EEC).

This move towards the EEC led to desire for a formal Nordic treaty. The Helsinki Treaty outlined the workings of the council and came into force on 24 March 1962. Further advancements on Nordic cooperation were made in the following years: a Nordic School of Public Health, a Nordic Cultural Fund, and Nordic House in Reykjavík were created. Danish Prime Minister Hilmar Baunsgaard proposed full economic cooperation ("Nordek") in 1968. Nordek was agreed in 1970, but Finland then backtracked, stating that its ties with the Soviet Union meant it could not form close economic ties with potential members of the EEC (Denmark and Norway). Nordek was then abandoned.

As a consequence, Denmark and Norway applied to join the EEC and the Nordic Council of Ministers was set up in 1971 to ensure continued Nordic cooperation. In 1970 representatives of the Faroe Islands and Åland were allowed to take part in the Nordic Council as part of the Danish and Finnish delegations. Norway turned down EEC membership in 1972 while Denmark acted as a bridge builder between the EEC and the Nordics. Also in 1973, although it did not opt for full membership of the EEC, Finland negotiated a free trade treaty with the EEC that in practice removed customs duties from 1977 on, although there were transition periods up to 1985 for some products. Sweden did not apply due to its non-alliance policy, which was aimed at preserving neutrality. Greenland subsequently left the EEC and has since sought a more active role in circumpolar affairs.

In the 1970s, the Nordic Council founded the Nordic Industrial Fund, Nordtest and the Nordic Investment Bank. The council's remit was also expanded to include environmental protection and, in order to clean up the pollution in the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic, a joint energy network was established. The Nordic Science Policy Council was set up in 1983 and, in 1984, representatives from Greenland were allowed to join the Danish delegation.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Nordic Council began to cooperate more with the Baltic states and new Baltic Sea organisations. Sweden and Finland joined the European Union (EU), the EEC's successor, in 1995. Norway had also applied, but once again voted against membership. However, Norway and Iceland did join the European Economic Area (EEA) which integrated them economically with the EU. The Nordic Passport Union was also subsumed into the EU's Schengen Area in 1996.

The Nordic Council became more outward-looking, to the Arctic, Baltic, Europe, and Canada. The Øresund Bridge linking Sweden and Denmark led to a large amount of cross-border travel, which in turn led to further efforts to reduce barriers. However, the initially envisioned tasks and functions of the Nordic Council have become partially dormant due to the significant overlap with the EU and EEA. In 2008 Iceland began EU membership talks, but decided to annul these in 2015. Unlike the Benelux, there is no explicit provision in the Treaty on European Union that takes into account Nordic co-operation. However, the Treaties provide that international agreements concluded by the Member States before they become members of the Union remain valid, even if they are contrary to the provisions of Union law. However, each Member State must take all necessary measures to eliminate any discrepancies as quickly as possible. Nordic co-operation can therefore in practice only be designed to the extent that it complies with Union law.

Council
The Nordic Council consists of 87 representatives, elected from its members' parliaments and reflecting the relative representation of the political parties in those parliaments. It holds its main session in the autumn, while a so-called "theme session" is arranged in the spring. Each of the national delegations has its own secretariat in the national parliament. The autonomous territories – Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland – also have Nordic secretariats.

The Council does not have any formal power on its own, but each government has to implement any decisions through its national legislature. With all countries being members of NATO, the Nordic Council has not been involved in any military cooperation.

Council of Ministers
The original Nordic Council concentrates on inter-parliamentary cooperation. The Nordic Council of Ministers, founded in 1971, is responsible for intergovernmental cooperation. Prime Ministers have ultimate responsibility but this is usually delegated to the Minister for Nordic Cooperation and the Nordic Committee for Co-operation, which coordinates the day-to-day work. The autonomous territories have the same representation as states. The Nordic Council of Ministers has offices in the Baltic countries.

Secretary General

 * Secretary-General of the Nordic Council

Languages
The Nordic Council uses the three Continental Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) as its official working languages, while interpretation and translation service is arranged for Finnish and Icelandic (but never between the Scandinavian languages). The council also publishes material in English for information purposes. The Council refers to Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish collectively as Scandinavian and considers them to be different forms of the same language forming a common language community. Since 1987, under the Nordic Language Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. The Convention covers visits to hospitals, job centres, the police, and social security offices. The languages included are Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish.

On 31 October 2018, the council established it has five official languages, giving Finnish and Icelandic equal status with Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish from 1 January 2020 onward. While the working languages of the council's secretariat remain the three Scandinavian languages, the Council emphasised that the secretariat must include personnel with comprehensive understanding of Finnish and Icelandic as well. The then-President of the Council Michael Tetzschner thought the compromise good but also expressed concern over the change's expenses and hoped they would not increase so much that there would be pressure to switch over to using English.

Language understanding
The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers have a particular focus on strengthening the Nordic language community; the main focus of their work to promote language understanding in the Nordic countries is on children and young people's understanding of written and oral Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, the three mutually intelligible Scandinavian languages.

Location
The Nordic Council and the Council of Ministers have their headquarters in Copenhagen and various installations in each separate country, as well as many offices in neighbouring countries. The headquarters are located at Ved Stranden No. 18, close to Slotsholmen.

Members
The Nordic Council has five full members (which are sovereign states) and three associate members (which are self-governing regions of full member states).

Observer, guests and other cooperation with neighbouring countries and regions
In accordance with § 13 of the Rules of Procedure for the Nordic Council the Sámi Parliamentary Council is the only institution with observer status with the Nordic Council. In accordance with § 14, the Nordic Youth Council has the status of "guest" on a permanent basis, and the Presidium "may invite representatives of popularly elected bodies and other persons to a session and grant them speaking rights" as guests. According to the council, "within the last couple of years, guests from other international and Nordic organisations have been able to take part in the debates at the Sessions. Visitors from the Baltic States and Northwest Russia are those who mostly take up this opportunity. Guests who have a connection to the theme under discussion are invited to the Theme Session."

The Nordic Council of Ministers has established four Offices outside the Nordic Region: In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The offices form part of the secretariat of the Nordic Council of Ministers; according to the Council of Ministers their primary mission is to promote cooperation between the Nordic countries and the Baltic states and to promote the Nordic countries in cooperation with their embassies within the Baltic states.

The Nordic Council and the Council of Ministers also define Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia as "Adjacent Areas" and has formal cooperation with them under the Adjacent Areas policies framework; in recent years the cooperation has focused increasingly on Russia.

The Nordic Council had historically been a strong supporter of Baltic independence from the Soviet Union. During the move towards independence in the Baltic States in 1991, Denmark and Iceland pressed for the Observer Status in the Nordic Council for the then-nonsovereign Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The move in 1991 was opposed by Norway and Finland. The move was heavily opposed by the Soviet Union, accusing the Nordic Council of getting involved in its internal affairs. In the same year, the Nordic Council refused to give observer status for the three, at the time nonsovereign, Baltic states.

While the Nordic Council rejected the Baltic states' application for formal observer status, the council nevertheless has extensive cooperation on different levels with all neighbouring countries, including the Baltic states and Germany, especially the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Representatives of Schleswig-Holstein were present as informal guests during a session for the first time in 2016. The state has historical ties to Denmark and cross-border cooperation with Denmark and has a Danish minority population. As parliamentary representatives from Schleswig-Holstein, a member of the South Schleswig Voter Federation and a member of the Social Democrats with ties to the Danish minority were elected.

The Sámi political structures long desired formal representation in the Nordic Council's structures, and were eventually granted observer status through the Sámi Parliamentary Council. In addition, representatives of the Sámi people are de facto included in activities touching upon their interests. In addition, the Faroe Islands have expressed their wishes for full membership in the Nordic Council instead of the current associate membership.

Three of the members of the Nordic Council (Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, all EU member states), the Baltic Assembly, and the Benelux sought intensifying cooperation in the Digital Single Market, as well as discussing social matters, the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, the European migrant crisis and defense cooperation. Foreign relations in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea and the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum were also on the agenda.

Following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, the Finnish member of Parliament Mikko Kärnä announced he would launch an initiative at the Nordic council to grant Scotland observer status. Scotland's relationship with the Nordics has also been explored by Scottish journalist Anthony Heron, who would go on to interview Bertel Haarder on the topic.

Nordic unification
Some desire the Nordic Council's promotion of Nordic cooperation to go much further than at present. If the states of Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland were to merge in such an integration as some desire, it would command a gross domestic product of US$1.60trillion, making it the twelfth largest economy in the world, larger than that of Australia, Spain, Mexico, or South Korea. Gunnar Wetterberg, a Swedish historian and economist, wrote a book entered into the Nordic Council's year book that proposes the creation of a Nordic Federation from the Council in a few decades.

title: Nordic Council


text:
388

Year 388 (CCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1141 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 388 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Battle of the Save: Emperor Theodosius I defeats Magnus Maximus near Emona (modern Slovenia). Theodosius is in command of an army including Goths, Huns and Alans. Valentinian II, now 17, is restored as Roman Emperor.
 * August 28 – Magnus Maximus surrenders at Aquileia, and is executed. Theodosius I devotes himself to gluttony and voluptuous living. Maximus' son Flavius Victor is executed at Trier, by Valentinian's magister militum Arbogast.

Persia

 * King Shapur III dies after a reign in which he has partitioned Armenia with the Roman Empire. He is succeeded by his son Bahram IV, who becomes the twelfth Sassanid king of Persia.

India

 * Emperor Chandragupta II, ruler of the Gupta Empire, begins a war against the Shaka Dynasty in West India.

Religion

 * Paternus becomes bishop of the Episcopal see of Braga (Portugal).
 * Isaac, age 50, is named Catholicos (spiritual head) of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
 * Jerome moves to Palestine, where he spends the rest of his life as a hermit near Bethlehem.
 * A group of Christians storms the synagogue of the city Callinicum (Syria), at the Euphrates.

Births

 * Elpidius of Atella (or Elpidio), Christian bishop (d. 452)
 * Yao Hong, Chinese emperor of the Qiang state (d. 417)

Deaths

 * August 28 – Magnus Maximus, Roman emperor
 * Flavius Victor, Roman co-emperor (Augustus)
 * Huan Shiqian (or Zhen'e), Chinese general
 * Maternus Cynegius, Roman praetorian prefect
 * Qifu Guoren, Chinese ruler of the Xianbei state
 * Shapur III, king of the Sassanid Empire (Persia)
 * Themistius, Byzantine statesman and rhetorician
 * Xie Xuan (or Youdu), Chinese general (b. 343)

title: 388


text:
387

Year 387 (CCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Eutropius (or, less frequently, year 1140 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 387 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Spring – Emperor Theodosius I increases the taxes in Antioch. A peasant uprising leads to a riot, and public buildings are set afire. Theodosius sends imperial troops to quell the disturbance, and closes the public baths and theatres.
 * Magnus Maximus, usurping emperor of the West, invades Italy. Emperor Valentinian II, age 16, is forced out of Rome. He flees with his mother Justina and sisters to Thessaloniki (Thrace).
 * Winter – The widowed emperor Theodosius I takes Valentinian II under his protection, and marries his sister Flavia Galla.

Persia

 * Peace of Acilisene: King Shapur III signs a treaty with Theodosius I. Armenia is divided in two kingdoms, and becomes a vassal state of the Roman Empire and Persia.

Art and Science

 * Oribase, Greek doctor, publishes a treatise on paralysis and bleedings.

Religion

 * Augustine is baptized on Easter Vigil by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

Births

 * Vardan Mamikonian, Armenian military leader (d. 451)

Deaths

 * Aelia Flaccilla, Roman Empress and wife of Theodosius I
 * Alatheus, chieftain of the Ostrogoths
 * Saint Monica, mother of Augustine of Hippo
 * Zhu Fatai, Chinese Buddhist scholar (b. 320)

title: 387


text:
386

Year 386 (CCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Euodius (or, less frequently, year 1139 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 386 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Emperor Theodosius I signs a peace treaty with King Shapur III; they divide Armenia into two kingdoms (vassal states). The treaty establishes friendly relations between the Roman Empire and Persia for the next 36 years.
 * The Greuthungi cross the Danube to raid the Roman garrisons on the northern frontier. They are met midstream by a well-armed fleet, and their rafts and dugouts sink. Those not drowned are slaughtered.
 * Magnus Maximus invades Italy; he destroys Novara for supporting his rival Valentinian II.
 * Theodosius I begins to rebuild the present-day Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
 * A column is constructed at Constantinople in honour of Theodosius I. Reliefs depict the emperor's victory over the barbarians in the Balkan.

Asia

 * The Northern Wei Dynasty begins in China. The Tuoba clan of the Xianbei tribe (proto-Mongol people) is politically separated from the Chinese dynasties established in Jiankang (modern Nanjing). The Northern Wei rulers are ardent supporters of Buddhism. Prince Dao Wu Di, age 15, becomes the first emperor (see Northern dynasties).

Religion

 * Saint Ambrose defends the rights of the Catholic Church with respect to those of the State.
 * John Chrysostom becomes a presbyter; he also writes eight Homilies entitled "Adversus Iudaeos" ("Against the Jews").
 * Augustine converts to Christianity. He ends his marriage plans after hearing a sermon on the life of Saint Anthony.
 * The fight in the Roman Empire against anti-pagan laws becomes increasingly futile.
 * Sumela Monastery is established in Asia Minor.

Births

 * Jin Gongdi, last emperor of the Jin Dynasty (d. 421)
 * Nestorius, founder of Nestorianism (approximate date)

Deaths

 * November 23 – Jin Feidi, emperor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 342)
 * Cyril of Jerusalem, theologian and saint
 * Demophilus, Patriarch of Constantinople
 * Duan Sui, ruler of the Western Yan
 * Fu Pi, emperor of the Former Qin
 * Murong Chong, emperor of the Western Yan (b. 359)
 * Murong Yao, emperor of the Western Yan
 * Murong Yi, ruler of the Western Yan
 * Murong Zhong, emperor of the Western Yan
 * Pulcheria, daughter of Theodosius I (b. 385)
 * Wang Xianzhi, Chinese calligrapher (b. 344)
 * Yang, empress of the Former Qin

title: 386


text:
384

Year 384 (CCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Ricomer and Clearchus (or, less frequently, year 1137 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 384 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for giving names to years.

Roman Empire

 * Magnus Maximus elevates his son Flavius Victor to the rank of Augustus.
 * Magnus Maximus returns to Britain, to aid the Roman army with the barbarian raids triggered by Maximus' withdrawal of troops to the continent.
 * The Forum of Theodosius ("Forum of the Bull") is built in Constantinople.
 * Quintus Aurelius Symmachus becomes urban prefect of Rome.
 * An edict of Theodosius I closes pagan temples in the Nile Valley (Egypt).
 * Stilicho marries Serena, adopted niece of Theodosius I.

Persia

 * King Shapur III signs a treaty with Theodosius I. Armenia is divided in two kingdoms, and becomes a vassal state of the Roman Empire and Persia. The friendly relations survive for 36 years.

Asia

 * King Chimnyu ascends to the throne of Baekje (Korea); he welcomes the Indian Buddhist monk Marananta into his palace, and later declares Buddhism the official religion.
 * Gogugyang becomes ruler of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

China

 * The Battle of Fei River - Former Qin forces are defeated by the numerically inferior Eastern Jin army, preserving the Jin state in the south and precipitating the destruction of Former Qin in the north.

Religion

 * December 17 – Pope Siricius succeeds Damasus I as the 38th pope. He takes the title Pontifex Maximus, after it is relinquished by the late emperor Gratian.
 * Jerome, Christian prophet, writes his celebrated letter "De custodia virginitatis" (vow of virginity) to Eustochium, daughter of the ascetic Paula. He has by this time completed his Vulgate translation of the Gospels.
 * Ambrosius refuses the request of Empress Justina for a church in Milan, where she can worship according to her Arian belief.
 * A synod is held in Bordeaux (France).
 * The Gallaeci or Gallic woman Egeria concludes her Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land at about this date; her narrative of it, the Itinerarium Egeriae, may be the earliest surviving formal writing by a woman in western European culture.

Births

 * September 9 – Honorius, Roman Emperor (d. 423)
 * Chu Lingyuan, last empress of the Jin Dynasty (d. 436)
 * Maria, empress and daughter of Stilicho (approximate date)
 * Sengzhao, Chinese Buddhist philosopher (d. 414)
 * Wang Shen'ai, empress of the Jin Dynasty (d. 412)

Deaths

 * May 13 – Servatius of Tongeren, Roman Catholic bishop and saint
 * July 20 – Pope Timothy I of Alexandria
 * December 11 – Pope Damasus I

Date unknown

 * Chu Suanzi, empress of the Jin Dynasty (b. 324)
 * Geungusu, king of Baekje (Korea)
 * Huan Chong, general and governor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 328)
 * Murong Hong, founder of the Xianbei state Western Yan
 * Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, praetorian prefect
 * Xi Zuochi, Jin Dynasty historian

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