|
|
|
|
Old Novgorod dialect
|
| |
|
| |
Old Novgorod dialect (Russian: ?????????????????? ???????, also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the astonishingly diverse linguistic features of the Old East Slavic birch bark writings ("berestyanaya gramota") from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings. The first birch bark letter was found on July 26th, 1951 by Nina Fedorovna Akulova, and at least 1025 have been unearthed henceafter, 923 of which in Novgorod alone.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Old Novgorod dialect' Start a new discussion about 'Old Novgorod dialect' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Old Novgorod dialect (Russian: ?????????????????? ???????, also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the astonishingly diverse linguistic features of the Old East Slavic birch bark writings ("berestyanaya gramota") from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings. The first birch bark letter was found on July 26th, 1951 by Nina Fedorovna Akulova, and at least 1025 have been unearthed henceafter, 923 of which in Novgorod alone. Today, the study of Novgorodian birch bark letters is an established scholarly field in Russian historical linguistics, with far-ranging historical as well as archaeological implications for the study of Russian Middle Ages.
Linguistic features
The short birch-bark texts are written in a peculiar Slavic vernacular, i.e. reflecting living speech, almost entirely free of Church Slavonic that has heavily influenced literary language of the period. Amongst the observed linguistic features, some of them are not found in any other Slavic dialect, representing important Proto-Slavic archaism.
Zaliznyak differentiates amongst Old Novgorod features that were already known before the discovery of birch bark letters, and those that have been ascertained after their study during the last few decades. Features previously known were:
- tsokanye
- the secondary pleophony, i. e. ???????? as opposed to ???????
- retention of /x/ in the root of the word "????", i. e. ????
- lack of the Slavic second palatalization in root-final position, i. e. ???h, ????
- the change vl’ > l’, i. e. ?????, ???????
- nominative singular masculine of o-stems -e, i. e. ?????, ?????????, ?????
- genitive singular of feminine nouns in -x i. e. ??? ???h
- nominoaccusative plural of feminines in -x, i. e. ???r?h, ?????h
Features of the Old Novgorod dialect ascertained by the philological study in the last decades are:
- lack of the second palatalization in root-initial position, i. e. ?h?-, ?h?-
- a particular reflex of *???? clusters, i. e. ????? versus ?????
- a particular reflex of *???? clusters, i. e. ???????? versus ?????????
- the change ml’ > n’, i. e. ?????? > ?????
- no merger of nominative and accusative singular of masculines regardless of animacy, i. e. N sg. ??????? : A sg. ?? ???????
- Proto-Slavic *kv, *gv clusters were retained (like in West Slavic languages) instead of being transformed to cv, zv before front vowels like in other East Slavic dialects
The orthography is also very special, using ? and ? on the one hand and ? and ? on the other synonymously.
Implications of Old Novgorod findings
According to Zaliznyak, the Old Novgorod linguistic features, instead of being merely isolated deviations, represent a bundle of peculiar isoglosses. The deviations are more abundant in older birch bark letters than in the younger ones, and this development indicates, contrary to what is expected, that the development was convergent rather then a divergent, with regard to other northern East Slavic dialects.
Therefore, according to Zaliznyak, the discovery of Old Novgorod dialect makes it possible to conclude that earlier conception of East Slavic as a relatively homogeneous linguistic unity has to be obsoleted by a view of East Slavic as an area of much greater dialectal diversity. Zaliznyak therefore divides East Slavic area into two dialectal groupings: Proto-Novgorodian-Pskovian on one side, singled out chiefly on the basis of two features of the lack of second palatalization of velars and the ending -e in nominative singular of masculine o-stems, and all the remaining East Slavic dialects on the other side.
Examples
A criminal case: Novgorod birch-bark letter no. 109
(between end of 11th century and 1110s; excavated 1954)
Original text (with added word division):
??????? : ??? ????????? : ?? ??????? :
??????? ??? : ????? : ???????? : ? ???? ?? :
?? ???? : ??? ???????? : ? ???? ?? ???????? : ?? ?? ????????? : ? ???? ?? : ?????? ?? ????? : ??????? : ???????? : ? ??
?? ???? ???? : ? ?? ?? ????? : ???? ??????? : ? ?????? ????? ???????? : ?? ?? ?????? : ? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ????? :
???? : ? ?? ???? : ?????? ?? ?? ???? :
Translation [with explanations in square brackets]:
Letter from Zhiznomir to Mikula: You have bought a female slave in Pskov. And now the princess has arrested me for it. [Obviously she has recognized the slave as having been stolen from her, and Zhiznomir is somehow connected with the affair, maybe as Mikula's family member or business partner.] But now my family has guaranteed for me. And now send a letter to that man [whom you have bought the slave from] and ask him whether he has another female slave. [This other slave would have to be given to the princess for the time the stolen slave would be needed as "corpus delicti" in a lawsuit to find out who the thief was.] And I want to buy a horse and have the magistrate (the "prince's man") sit on it and initiate a svod [the legal procedure to trace a whole buying chain back to the original seller and ultimately the thief]. And if you have not taken the money, do not take anything from him [i.e. the slave-trader, because otherwise the whole plan might leak out].
An invitation: Novgorod birch-bark letter no. 497
(1340s to 1380s; excavated 1972)
Original text (with added word division):
???????? ? ??????? ? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ? ?????? ?????? ?? ???????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ?????????
Translation:
Greeting from Gavrila Posenya to my brother-in-law, godfather Grigory and my sister Ulita. Would you not like to give me the pleasure of riding into the city, not leaving our word? God give you happiness. We all do not leave your word.
|
| |
|
|
