Języki, alfabety, tożsamość: rozważania o chrystianizacji Słowian

Abstract

The glagolitic alphabet aims at defending a cultural identity endangered by the political situation existing in IXth century Europe; and the history of the cyrillic alphabet is also widely determined by the same factor, i.e. the defense of an identity. But how are we to conceive such an identity in medieval Europe? The author examines this question, stressing the differences between the medieval concept of ethnic identity (which is the identity of an ethnically determined Christian community, in the contest of a universal power) and the modern one. After shortly discussing some features of the Slavic alphabets (including the writing systems based on the Latin letters), the author proceeds with examining the Slavic identity as seen by the other european peoples in the Middle Ages. This perception is more positive in the Byzantium Commonwealth, whereas in central Europe the situation is more complex, and the Slav is often perceived as an enemy. After an appreciation of some lexical data, first of all from Ilarion s works, as possible hints of the ideas of nation and people then common among the Slavs, the author briefly addresses the relation between the history of the Slavs and the process of formation of the european identity as a whole.