Local Linguistic Features in the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” (Based on a 17th-Century Manuscript)
Elvira Yarmolenka (Minsk)
A large number of texts (liturgical books and other books of high ecclesiastical literature) written in Church Slavonic have survived from ancient times. The specificity of these texts accounts for the fact that only sporadically did local linguistic features find their way into them. Copyists strove to reproduce the text, and accordingly the orthography of the original, as accurately as possible [1, p. 106].
The degree to which elements of the author’s native dialect penetrated into the text was directly dependent on his literacy, education, personal training, and also on whether the manuscript was a copy of an Old Slavonic text or an original work. Therefore, for historical-dialectological research, Church Slavonic monuments provide a comparatively small amount of information. However, when clarifying the question of the place of origin of one or another copy or the ethnic affiliation of its author, the data from these monuments become important and sought after.
Characterizing the local linguistic features of ancient monuments is a complex task, since, as S.I. Katkov rightly noted, “even a comparatively full reflection in writing of the features of local speech does not provide a direct picture of it, since alongside direct reflection there is also indirect reflection, which requires correct decipherment, and sometimes several variants of interpretation are possible” [2, p. 3].
Among the hagiographic works created in East Slavic lands, the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” stands out, which was written shortly after the death of the saint around 1238 by his disciple Yefrem.
G. Bugaslavsky wrote: “The circumstances of the monastic life of the Venerable Avramiy of Smolensk stood out so sharply against the background of contemporary life that they involuntarily attracted the attention of admirers of the ascetic life, and therefore copies of his biography, or as they used to say in antiquity ‘the life and suffering’ of the Venerable Avramiy of Smolensk, were widely distributed in Rus both south of Smolensk and to the north” [3, p. 107].
The copies of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” known to date represent one recension (Yefrem’s), but they are divided into three types: 1) copies of the basic (complete) type, 2) copies of the prologue (abbreviated) type, 3) reworkings.
The 17th-century copy of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” from the “Hagiography of Russian Saints” (“Zhitiiynik russkikh svyatykh”) of the Pogodin collection of the Russian National Library No. 650 represents a reworking of the saint’s life, distinguished by the presence of headings in the text, the name of Avramiy’s father and Avramiy’s secular name, the writing of Sedalishche instead of Selishche and other features. The language of the manuscript is Church Slavonic. Our research is devoted to the analysis of local linguistic features that sporadically occur in the named text.
The author of the Pogodin copy consistently adheres to strict Church Slavonic norms and only occasionally deviates from them, for example, when using plural forms in place of dual: rutse i noze issushi (75) [1], but: napisa … dvу ikony (70), dast im (65). Deviations from etymological-morphological spellings, the appearance of which in the text can be linked to the influence of the copyist’s living pronunciation, are few in the given copy.
Isolated examples testify to the presence of akanne (unstressed “o” pronounced as “a”) in the speech of the manuscript’s author. Alongside the traditional word usage Zlatoustyi (70), the text contains spellings with “a” in place of “o”: Zlatoustago (67), Zlataustем (69). The reverse phenomenon - hypercorrect use of “o” in place of “a”: Afonasej (66) - indirectly testifies to the presence of akanne.
We qualify the writing of the letter ya in the first pretonic and first post-tonic syllable in place of the letter e as a reflection of yakanne: vremyani (73, two occurrences), vremyani (77), imyanem (65), imyanem (78), khristoimyanitoj (83), chetyradesyat (66).
The use of the variant gryazhane (79) parallel to grazhane (74) in the Life allows us to assume the presence of a soft r in the dialect of the manuscript’s author. According to the observations of N.N. Durnovo, in the northeastern part of Belarusian dialects, the soft r is used inconsistently; cases of soft r both in place of the old soft r and in place of the old hard r occur [4, p. 176]. P.A. Rastarguev also noted the use of soft r in place of hard r in Smolensk dialects, for example: ryama, viryabej [5, p. 63].
The spellings nachalnika (67), dalnii (67) indicate the hardening of l before n, which is characteristic, as N.N. Durnovo attested, of a significant part of Belarusian dialects, both northern Belarusian and southern Belarusian [4, p. 176]. He also noted that “l is not attested in such cases in northern Belarusian tsoking dialects” [4, p. 176].
In the studied copy of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk,” the word chepukh (76) has been recorded, where the use of the letter ch in place of ts can be viewed as a reflection of tsokanne, but considering the above-cited statement by N.N. Durnovo, as well as the fact that the same spelling is recorded in the oldest known copy of the Life (Uvarov copy No. 350, State Historical Museum, Moscow), the writing of ch in place of ts should rather be linked to the orthographic tradition or the influence of the language of the protograph.
The spellings zh, zhzh in the words bezdozhzhie (74), bezdozhzhii (76), dozh (76), dozhzha (77) draw attention. In parallel, traditional spellings with zhd are recorded: dozhd (77). P.A. Rastarguev noted that “the affricate dzh is found only in a few dialects of the Smolensk region, namely in the northwestern part…” [5, p. 87].
A.M. Bulyka, characterizing the orthographic features of the Old Belarusian language that developed under the influence of living speech, notes that there was no special letter for representing the new sound dzh in writing; it was represented in various ways, by the letters ch, zh, combinations dch, dzh, for example: dozhzhu [6, p. 123].
The writing of the letter y after ts in place of the traditional tsi has been recorded, testifying to the hardening of the sound ts: Vladychitsy (65), Bogoroditsy (65), v serdtsy (79).
Cases of using kh in place of k have been noted: khto (80) alongside kto (67), kh koemu (80), myakhku (82). E.F. Karsky provided a significant number of examples of such fluctuations from monuments of Old Belarusian writing [7, pp. 373-374].
In the studied copy, cases of the disappearance of the initial unstressed sound in prepositions and the prefix iz (is) have been identified, which is also characteristic of Smolensk dialects, cf.: iz monastyrya s Vysokosedalnego (69) - iz monastyrya iz Vysokosedalnego (69).
In the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk,” cases of consonant assimilation by voicedness-voicelessness have been identified: bes pechali (66), z bozhieyu (68), bespravdy (73), z bogoboyaznivymi (76), z zhenami (79), zbystsya (79), opshchago (79), as well as cases of consonant merging: na tritsati (75).
An even smaller number of deviations from the traditional Church Slavonic norm, which can be qualified as local linguistic features, have been identified at the morphological level.
Masculine nouns in the genitive singular form are sporadically used with the ending -u: otrocha muzhska polu (65), polno narodu (72). As is known, the process of unification of forms with earlier stems in -o and in -u began very early. A.M. Selishchev provided examples of genitive singular forms of earlier -o-stems with the ending -ou from Old Slavonic monuments [8, p. 94]. Researchers of the history of Belarusian writing note that in the Belarusian literary-written language of the 16th-17th centuries “in the formation of the genitive singular of inanimate masculine nouns… the leading role in all without exception genre-stylistic varieties of Old Belarusian writing was acquired by the ending -u/-yu” [9, p. 16]. The use of such forms in the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” may be linked to local linguistic features, as well as to orthographic tendencies.
More indicative for the localization of the monument is the use of the dative form Luku: yavisya Gospod prepodobnomu Luku Prosinu (72). As is known, the preservation of sibilants before u in the case endings of nouns with stems in g, k, kh is characteristic of the Belarusian language [see: 10, pp. 70-71]. However, N.N. Durnovo noted that in northern Belarusian dialects, forms in which g, k, kh are preserved are not infrequently encountered [4, p. 172].
As a characteristic feature of the Belarusian language, N.N. Durnovo also names the preservation of the ending -i in the dative and locative singular forms of nouns with the former -a-stem, as well as the locative singular of masculine and neuter nouns with soft stems [4, p. 172]. In the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk,” the use of feminine and neuter nouns in the locative singular with the ending -i (y) has been recorded: na zemli (64), v serdtsy (79).
The range of local linguistic features noted by us in the studied copy of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” (akanne, yakanne, the presence of soft r in place of old hard r, hardening of l before n, etc.) allows us to suggest that the named manuscript was created on the territory of the Smolensk region or its author was a speaker of Smolensk dialects.
The conducted research represents only an attempt at a possible localization of one of the copies of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk.” For a more substantive conclusion, it is also necessary to conduct an analysis of the graphic features of the manuscript, as well as a lexical and syntactic analysis of the monument’s language.
Bibliography
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[1] The language of the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” was studied based on the copy printed by S.P. Razanav in the book: Lives of the Venerable Avramiy of Smolensk and services to him / S.P. Rozanov // Monuments of Old Russian literature. - Issue 1. - SPb., 1912. - pp. 64-84. The cited material is given according to this edition. The page of the edition is indicated in parentheses.
Elvira Yarmolenka. Local linguistic features in the “Life of Avramiy of Smolensk” (based on a 17th-century manuscript) / That our Word may live: a collection of scholarly articles for the 90th anniversary of the birth of Fiodar Yankouski / ed. M.I. Novik; - Brest, 2009. - pp. 103-106