Information about liturgical language

A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life.

The traditions involved in religious ritual and liturgy quite frequently provide a place where archaic forms of language occur. One of the last places the obsolescent English pronoun thou remains in frequent use is in religious liturgy; wherever the Authorised Version of the Bible is read, or older versions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer are in use.

Usage

The use of a sacred language represents a further development of this practice. Here, language has changed so far from the language of the sacred texts that the language of the old liturgy is no longer comprehensible without special training. Missionary and pilgrim faiths may then spread the old language to populations which never spoke it, and to whom it is yet another foreign language. Once a language becomes associated with religious worship, its believers often ascribe virtues to the language of worship that they would not give to their native tongues. The sacred language is typically vested with a solemnity and dignity that speech in the vernacular lacks. The enterprise of training clergy to use and understand the sacred language becomes an important cultural investment. Their use of the tongue gives them access to a body of knowledge that untrained lay people cannot access.

A number of languages have been used as sacred languages. They include:

Ecclesiastical Latin is the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church seems to have continued to use Greek in its liturgy until the mid fourth century AD. By the reign of pope Saint Damasus I Latin had been introduced into the liturgy at Rome. [A few words of Hebrew and Greek remained.] The adoption of Latin was further fostered when the Vetus Latina version of the Bible was edited and parts retranslated from the original Hebrew and Greek by Saint Jerome in his Vulgate. Latin continued as the Western Church's language of liturgy and communication, especially as there were no standardized vernaculars throughout the Middle Ages. The Vatican allowed the use of the (Old) Slavic language for two brief periods between 867-873 and 880-885. At the Council of Trent, a proposal to introduce national languages into the liturgy was put off due to their tendency to divide Catholics and disturb Catholic unity. [Interestingly, the liturgy was, for a short time in the seventeenth century, carried out in Classical Chinese during the Jesuit China missions.] By the 1960s, the Church had begun allowing the vernacular, especially for sacramental rites in mission territories. The second Vatican Council, however, allowed for a greater use of the vernacular, while respecting Latin as the language of the Roman Church. To a large degree, the Council's prescription was initially disregarded and the vernacular became not only standard, but exclusively utilized in the liturgy. Latin remains the language of the Roman Rite and its use is still encouraged. Large scale papal ceremonies often make use of it. Meanwhile, the numerous Eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome each have their own respective parent language, although many make wide use of the vernacular. However, the Eastern Code of Canon Law, for the sake of convenience, has been promulgated in Latin.
Syriac, used as a liturgical language by Syriac Christians who belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church, and Maronite Church.
Classical Arabic, for Muslims the only true language of the Qur'an; it differs markedly from the various forms of contemporary spoken Arabic.
Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism.
Classical Chinese, the language of older Chinese literature and the Confucian, Taoist, and in East Asia also of the Mahayana Buddhist sacred texts, which also differs markedly from contemporary spoken Mandarin.
Coptic, a form of ancient Egyptian, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Coptic Catholic Church.
Etruscan, cultivated for religious and magical purposes in the Roman Empire.
Ge'ez, the predecessor of many Ethiopian Semitic languages (e.g. Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre) used as a liturgical language by Ethiopian Christians (in both the Orthodox Tewahedo and the Catholic churches).
Early New High German is used in Amish communities for Bible readings and sermons.
Hebrew, the language of the Torah used in the liturgy of Judaism.
Koine Greek, which plays a similar role in Greek Christianity. It differs markedly from Modern Greek, but remains half-comprehensible for Modern Greek speakers.
Ladino, as a form of Judeo-Spanish closer to the original Hebrew syntax, was reserved for Bible translations by Sephardis.
Mandaic, an Aramaic language, in Mandaeanism
Various Native American languages are cultivated for religious and ceremonial purposes by Native Americans who no longer use them in daily life.
Palaic and Luwian, cultivated as a religious language by the Hittites.
Pali, the original language of Theravada Buddhism.
Some Portuguese and Latin prayers are retained by the Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) of Japan, who recite it without understanding the language.
Classical Punjabi is the language of the holy scripture of Sikhism. It is different from the various dialects of Punjabi that exists today.
Sanskrit, the tongue of the Vedas and other sacred texts of Hinduism as well as the original language of Mahayana Buddhism and Jainism.
Old Church Slavonic, which was the liturgical language of the Slavic Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Romanian Orthodox Church
Church Slavonic is the current liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church and certain Byzantine (Ruthenian) Eastern Catholic churches.
Old Tibetan, known as Chhokey in Bhutan, the sacred language of Tibetan Buddhism
Sumerian, cultivated and preserved in Assyria and Babylon long after its extinction as an everyday language.
Yoruba, the language of the Yoruba people, brought to the New World by African slaves, and preserved in Santería, Candomblé, and other transplanted African religions.
Gothic, only East Germanic language with substantial texts.

Judaism

The Holy Tongue (Hebrew: לשון הקודש,Leshon Ha-Kodesh), is a phrase used to refer to the Biblical Hebrew language. The expression is first attested in a fragmentary work preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls and later occurs in Rabbinic literature. Hebrew is the traditional language of Jewish religious services, though its usage today varies by denomination (Orthodox services are, generally entirely in Hebrew, Reform services make a much lesser use of the language, and Conservative services usually fall somewhere between).

Christianity

Christianity does not contain one single sacred language. By supporting the mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius to the Slavs, the pope rejected one heresy in the Middle Ages which proposed that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alone were suitable for the sacred liturgy since these were the languages inscribed upon the titulus on Jesus' cross at His crucifixion. However, those churches which can trace their origin to the early centuries of Christianity have often continued to utilize the standard languages of the day such as Latin in the Roman Catholic Church, Greek in the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek Catholic Church, Church Slavonic in several Eastern Orthodox Churches, Ge'ez in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Catholic Church, the Coptic language in Coptic Christianity, and Syriac in Syriac Christianity.

Hinduism

Hinduism is traditionally considered to have one liturgical language "samskrita" (that is, Sanskrit). It is the language employed by Krishna in his dialogue and discourse with Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshetra, recorded in the Bhagavadgita.

Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas and the Upanishads. It is used in the Sahasranama, Chama, Rudra, and other sacred texts, and is also the tongue of most Hindu rituals.

This is not accepted by many Tamil-speaking Hindus.[1] Tamils consider that their language is equally sacred and divine and offer the presence of many religious text in Tamil which were written during different milleniea. There is a growing tradition among Tamil Hindus to conduct marriages and other holy rituals in Tamil.[2] Most political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu support this trend.[3] The State Government of Tamil Nadu has enacted a law that allows Hindu Temples in the state to provide religious services in Tamil. There is a claim to make tamil as mandatory language for religious services.[4]

Islam

Classical Arabic is the sacred language of Islam. It is the language of the Qur'an, and the language of Islam's prophet Muhammad. Like Latin, classical Arabic shares both the role of an intellectual language as well as a liturgical language in much of the Islamic world.

References

Stone, M.E. and Eshel, S, An exposition on the Patriarchs (4Q464) and two other documents (4Q464a and 4Q464b) Le Muséon 105,3-4 (1992) 243-264 (contains a discussion of the Dead Sea scroll text.

Liturgical Language