In C language, objects with static storage duration have to be initialized with constant expressions, or with aggregate initializers containing constant expressions.
A “large” object is never a constant expression in C, even if the object is declared as const.
Moreover, in C language, the term “constant” refers to literal constants (like 1, 'a', 0xFF and so on), enum members, and results of such operators as sizeof. Const-qualified objects (of any type) are not constants in C language terminology. They cannot be used in initializers of objects with static storage duration, regardless of their type.
For example, this is NOT a constant
const int N = 5; /* `N` is not a constant in C */
The above N would be a constant in C++, but it is not a constant in C. So, if you try doing
static int j = N; /* ERROR */
you will get the same error: an attempt to initialize a static object with a non-constant.
This is the reason why, in C language, we predominantly use #define to declare named constants, and also resort to #define to create named aggregate initializers.