The term rai in Slavic languages

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 is a term for a heavenly or earthly paradise. In some of these languages the term is a synonym with the Greco-Persian term paradise

Paradise

Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...

.

Etymology

The etymology of Common Slavic rai is disputed now generally regarded as a direct borrowing from Iranian ray, "heavenly radiance, beatitude". If so then two Persian words ray ("radiance") and pardeis ("park") both separately passed into some Slavic languages; for example Russian where "paradise" is generally rai (Рай) but paradiz (Парадиз) from English is also encountered.
Alternative derivations have included:

• "glad"
• Proto-Slavic yrii, "land of warmth."

The term passed from Slavic usage into Romanian.

Slavonic

Usage of rai in Slavic languages differs from that of "paradise" in Western languages due in part to the influence of Old Church Slavonic versions of the Bible, which were translated from the Greek Septuagint. This influence is felt even in Protestant Slavic traditions such as Czech:

• Genesis 2:8 Štípil pak byl Hospodin Bůh ráj v Eden na východ, "God planted a paradise in Eden in the East" (where Czech follows Slavonic, which follows Greek).

In Old Slavonic texts rai and peklo were associated with parts of the underworld, but in modern Russian rai popularly stands for Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

 and peklo for Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

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Russian

The term rai is generally applied to the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

, though uncapitalized eden also exists in Pushkin's poems as a generic paradise. and also used in relation to "paradise". The diminutive rayok is an entertainment stall at a fair, and the title of lampoon songs by Musorgsky and Shostakovich.

Wordplay

In several slavic languages, including Russian, the nearness of rai to raj meaning "region", "district," creates opportunities for word-play. The opportunity also exists for confusion, as in the rai to reka, "river".

Place names

• Český ráj
  Bohemian Paradise
  Bohemian Paradise is a protected landscape area located in the North of the Czech Republic. There are numerous hiking and biking trails and several campsites...
  
  , "Bohemian Paradise" is a tourist area in the North of the Czech Republic.

See also

Wiktionary entries for:

• Bulgarian рай
• Czech ráj
• Lithuanian rojus
• Polish raj
• Romanian rai
• Russian рай
• Serbo-Croatian raj
• Slovak raj
• Slovenian raj
• Ukrainian рай