Intonation and sound means of orthodox missionary sermon of the early 21st century

The paper reveals the specifics of the prosodic organization of the modern missionary sermon. We present the results of analyzing the use of intonation and sound means in sermons posted in the video blog “Batushka answer”. It is revealed that the intonation and sound structure of the sermon has a number of features associated with the sequential reproduction of individual prosodic markers of the sound of the modern pastoral word, a reduction in the volume of archaic phonetic elements, as well as the redistribution of the frequency of use of a number of phonetic means. We’ve found out that the missionary preaching actualizes separate phonetic markers, constitutive for the genre as a whole, such as modern orthoepic norms, the principles of proportionality and symmetry in the division of the speech stream, the use of tonal and dynamic components of intonation, to highlight the optional centers of intonational structures. It is determined that the reduction in archaic phonetic elements in the modern missionary preaching is due to the following factors: the lack of demand for duration as a marker of major intonation centres; the reduction in the frequency of using this marker for the formation of optional centers; actualization of pronunciation properties ascending to the old Church Slavonic traditions; reduction in the number of two-point and multi-point intonation patterns and accent structures. We characterize the redistribution of the frequency of using the basic intonation types, and show that this leads to the emergence of new stylistic meanings and to the transformation of stylistic colouring of its sound in general.