Old Novgorod Dialect

LINGUISTIC FEATURES

The short birch-bark texts are written in a peculiar Slavonic Vernacular almost entirely free of church influence that has several features not known in any other Slavonic language, e.g.:

The Nominative Singular of ''o''-stem nouns ended in ''-e'' (instead of ''-ъ'' in all other Slavonic languages), e.g. ''brate'' 'brother' (cf. Modern Russian ''brat'').

The second Palatalization , characteristic of all other Slavic Languages (but somewhat blurred by secondary developments in East Slavic) seems not to have taken place, so that the Dative singular of Proto-Slavic ''---rěk-a'' 'river', ''---rěk-ě'', has not given ''rě'''c'''ě'' but remained ''rěkě'', or ''---kьrky'' 'church' (< German '''''K'''irche'') has remained ''kьrky'', in contrast to e.g. Modern Russian '''''c'''erkov’''.

Proto-Slavonic ''---kv, ---gv'' were kept (like in West Slavic Languages ) instead of being transformed to ''cv, zv'' before front vowels, e.g. ''květ-'' 'colour' vs. Modern Russian '''''c'''vet'', '''''g'''vězda'' 'star' vs. Modern Russian '''''z'''vezda''.

The third palatalization of /x/ did not take place, which is recognizable in the root ''vьx-'' 'all' (cf. Modern Russian ''v'''s'''-'').

The Orthography is also very special, using '' ъ '' and '' о '' on the one hand and '' ь '' and '' е '' on the other synonymically.

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)

грамота : отъ жизномира : къ микоуле :
коупилъ еси : робоу : плъскове : а ныне мя :
въ томъ : яла кънягыни : а ныне ся дроужина : по мя пороучила : а ныне ка : посъли къ томоу : моужеви : грамотоу : е ли
оу него роба : а се ти хочоу : коне коупивъ : и къняжъ моужъ въсадивъ : та на съводы : а ты атче еси не възялъ коунъ :
техъ : а не емли : ничъто же оу него :

Translation 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. 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 you have bought the slave from and ask him whether he has another female slave. 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'' 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 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)

поколоно ω гаврили ω посени ко зати моему ко горигори жи коумоу ко сестори моеи ко оулите чо би есте поихали во городо ко радости моеи а нашего солова не оставили да бого вамо радосте ми вашего солова вохи не осотавимо

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.

LITERATURE

Yanin, Valentin Lavrentyevich. ''Ja poslal tebe berestu...'' ("I've Sent a Birch Bark to You...") 3rd ed., with an afterword by A.A. Zaliznyak. Moscow 1998.

Zaliznyak, Andrey Anatolyevich. ''Drevnenovgorodskij dialekt.'' ("Old Novgorod Dialect") Moscow 1995.

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Old Novgorod Dialect