Старобългарският език и старите западнославянски книжовни езици

The importance of Old Bulgarian for the formation of the Old Slavonic literary languages during the Middle Ages is considered. Two stages of interaction are pointed out an early stage (9th –10th c.) during which Old Bulgarian actually played the role of a literary language in the West Slavonic countries too, and a late stage (13th–15 th c.), when the West Slavonic languages were formed and developed. During the second stage Old Bulgarian was of little influence – there are only traces or reminiscences mainly in the vocabulary. However, during this period Old Bulgarian was of importance as a language ideology; the fact that there existed old translations in a Slavonic language justified the translation of biblical books into Old Czech and Old Polish.