Abecedarius

Transcription of Constantine of Preslav's Bulgarian abecedarius Азбучна молитва ("Alphabetical prayer"). In this work, the first letter of each verse, highlighted in bold, is part of a series of letters that are in alphabetical order (from top to bottom).

An abecedarius[1] is an acrostic in which the first letter of every word, strophe or verse follows the order of the alphabet.[2] Abecedarius is also a generic term for an alphabet book, which dates back to Biblical writings[3] such as the Psalms, which used successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the first letter of each stanza. Another example is Old Polish poem Skarga umierającego[4] (A Dying Man Complaint). Such poems are important historical sources for development of orthography. They can be proofs that some letters were used long ago and later were totally forgotten. Bishop Constantine of Preslav's abecedarius (shown on the right) from 9th century documents the early Slavic alphabet. Nowadays abecedariuses are written chiefly for children.[5]

The most famous example of abecedarius in English literature is Geoffrey Chaucer's ABC.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Definition at merriam-webster.com.
  2. ↑ Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, p. 44-45 (in Polish).
  3. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  4. ↑ Full text in Polish at Staropolska.pl.
  5. ↑ Abecedrian. Poetic Form.
  6. ↑ Full text at Literature Project.


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