Język Latopisu supraskiego 1519 r. Fonetyka. Fleksja. Słownictwo

Abstract

The discovery and publication of Suprasl Chronicle started the development of studies on the language, context and the circumstances of coming into existence the West Ruthenian Chronicles of the 15th and 16th centuries. It allowed to reveal interesting characteristics of the historiography of Belarus and Lithuania of this period. The development of chronicle writing of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided into stages. Initially, separate historiography narratives were created – chronicles, which were later combined with each other and compilations were created. With time they were supplemented with new pieces of writing as the needs developed, it resulted in subsequent fuller digests. Each of the three digests of Byelorussian-Lithuanian chronicles is distinguished by its own individuality, connected not only with specific ideological significance, different in particular monuments, but also with the environment it was created in. It was also reflected in the specific linguistic nature of Old Byelorussian chronicles. The purpose of this work was linguistic characteristics of Suprasl Chronicle with regard to phonetic features, changes within declension and verbal flexion, as well as lexical borrowings. The linguistic analysis of the monument text proved that a portion of phonetic and inflection phenomena displays the West Ruthenian realization. Concurrently, the monument shows strong connections with Russian Orthodox traditions, what is reflected on both the phonetic and morphological level. The frequency of particular phonetic phenomena is on a varied level due to that fact most of them did not obtain the position of written standards. On the one hand, it is easy to notice, within lexical borrowings, the influence of the Polish language which mediated to transfer some borrowings into the West Ruthenian language. On the other hand, the text of the chronicle is riddled with Old Slavonic vocabulary what provides subsequent evidence that it has a connection to a literary tradition. A vast majority of phonetic phenomena displays fluctuations between Church Slavonic and (West) Ruthenian realizations. This refers, inter alia, to: 1) realization of Proto-Slavic groups of sounds *tort, *tolt, *tert, *telt, and onset clusters *ort, *olt; 2) onset forms with o- collateral to je- (<*ie-); 3) fluctuations of the Church Slavonic realization and Ruthenian realization of clusters *kt, *gt, *tj i *dj; 4) records with [ki], [gi], [xi] collateral to [ky], [gy], [xy]. A strong link to the chronicle writing tradition is attested by a negligible amount of records documenting the transition [e] > [o] after old palatal consonants [ž’], [š’], [č’], [c’] as well as after [r’]. The forms realizing the East Slavonic pattern gain advantage over the Church Slavonic forms, what can be observed in: 1) the development of Proto-Slavic combinations with short close vowels (yers) before consonants [l] and [r]; 2) continuants of the Proto-Slavic groups realization: labial + [j]. This monument documents, almost without any exceptions, the vocalisation of short close vowels typical of the Old East Slavic language in the Proto-Slavic combinations *trъt, *tlъt, *trьt, *tlьt. A group of phenomena justified in the West Ruthenian phonetics, without any consequences in the realization, is presented by: 1) spirant change [g] > [h], in Cyrillic monuments realized graphically in the form of кг and к in the place of etymological [g] and the omission of fricative - glottal [h] in words like: осподарь; 2) transition [ł] > [ṷ] in masculine of the past tense; 3) change [u] > [ṷ]; 4) writing Ђ or е in the place of etymological [ě], proving their articulation similarities; 5) narrowing of the articulation of [ě] typical of South-Byelorussian and North-Ukrainian dialects; 6) articulation of [a] sound in the place of [o] sound, documented by records with a in the place of etymological [o] in unstressed syllables, and indirectly, some records with o in the place of etymological [a] in an unstressed position; 7) articulation of [e] sound in the place of [’a] sound, strengthened by writing [e] sound in the place of unstressed [’a]. In the monument there are no evident examples confirming the influence of the Polish phonetics. The realization of vowels reduced in the morphemes of words raises conclusions that they were used intuitively, arising from their loss of phonological meaning. The analysis of inflectional forms of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, participles and verbs led to the conclusion that in the field of declension and verbal flexion this chronicle does not substantially differ from the state represented by most of the Old Byelorussian monuments of the 16th century. In the noun inflection there is a noticeable tendency to reduce the number of paradigms with regard to the general Ruthenian system by their unification. Concurrently, the noun inflection system is characterised by fluctuations in endings and inflexional stems, it leads to the occurrence of many collateral forms within particular paradigms. From all types of declension the most permanent turned out to be the declension of *ā. The processes of equalization of declination form into *ŭ are characterized by ǒ-stem declination in gen., dat., loc. singular and plural. Noun forms of consonant declination with *s were almost completely equalized to ǒ-stem declination. Some forms declined into *jǒ, *n, *jā, *ū and *r. were generalized and turned into inflectional endings of declination into *ǐ. A leveling tendency is noticeable within the given declination of *ū, *ā, *jā, as well as *ǒ, *jǒ and mutual interaction of hard and soft - stem declension. The tendency to level endings of all genders in plural in accordance with the paradigm of *ā declination was not certified in the monument by numerous examples. A varying level of the development of animate – inanimate category is worth mentioning. Genitive and accusative singular masculine are commonly used with reference to animate nouns of the paradigm *ǒ, *jǒ. Parallel forms of old and new accusative were certified in masculine plural nouns, instead in feminine nouns a total lack of syncretism of genitive and accusative can be observed. Changes that take place in the inflectional system of pronouns covered particular groups unevenly. Personal and reflexive pronouns, pronouns of the third person, and some of the gender-neutral pronouns underwent the least transformations. The most significant changes, which included mainly endings, took place in the field of indefinite pronouns. They refer, amongst others, to the parallel application of Church Slavonic and Old East Slavic endings in some cases and West Ruthenian forms. Noteworthy is the parallel use of the 2nd person pronouns and a reflexive pronoun based on Church Slavonic and Old East Slavic word roots. The most important changes observed in the declension of adjectives include the process of disappearing the forms of noun declension, which were best preserved in possessive pronouns with formatives -овъ (-евъ). The syntactic function of adjectives with simple declination changed, limiting their use to predicative roles. Within a group of complex adjectives regular Old East Slavic endings were recorded along with Church Slavonic endings. Inflectional innovations typical of the West Ruthenian languages found expression in nominative masculine of complex adjectives with the ending -ыи (-ии) reduced to -ы, -и and feminine possessive adjectives with complex declension endings. Participle forms in the analysed monument provide valuable research material, however, their system of declension compared to the All- Ruthenian system was significantly simplified. All forms of genders and numbers of present participles were unified to nominative feminine and their function was limited to non-declinable adverbial participle. The frequency of the use of similar forms in the monument is high. In the verbal system one can notice tendencies to unify and simplify the complicated structure of past tenses. Alongside traditional forms of aoryst, imperfect and plusquamperfect, which are frequently used, the function of universalized past tense is often adopted by perfect, usually simplified and used in the synthetic form of present participle of past tense with the ending -лъ. Only a few examples of old perfect with an auxiliary word есть were found. Attention should be given to the fact that in the original part of the monument, created already within the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it became the dominating form but not the only one. The regression of the complicated system of past tenses in spoken language is also documented in the monument by using grammatical numbers incorrectly and incorrect spelling of some of conjugational forms. The monument documents old forms of imperative with a particle да. The use of an auxiliary verb бы used with the 2nd and 3rd person plural proves the gradual evolution of conditional tense. The forms without a coda consonant in ending were documented in the 3rd person singular of present tense / future simple, mainly used in the function of praesens historicum. The review of borrowings carried out in the work proves that the most numerous group of borrowings in the Suprasl Chronicle constitutes words derived from the Church Slavonic language or the words which entered East Slavonic languages through the medium of the Church Slavonic language. The incidence of borrowings from particular languages is different in each portion of the chronicle. The majority of words derived from the Church Slavonic language (similarly Scandinavian loanwords) are found in the compiled All-Ruthenian portion of the Suprasl Chronicle. Chronologically newer extracts of the monument were marked with the influence of the Polish language (and German). Church Slavonic vocabulary was mainly linked to religious sphere and is used to define abstract concepts. These are usually the words of Greek origin, which entered the language of East Slavs through the medium of the Church Slavonic language. The most numerous group of borrowings documented in the chronicle constitutes: names determining people according to their profession, held office, a position in an orthodox church and monastery administration, membership of a particular social group and names of concepts connected with religious sphere. The analysis of phonetics, inflectional forms and lexical borrowings, carried out in this work, proves that Suprasl Chronicle is a monument, on the one hand, connected with the Ruthenian tradition of chronicle writing, as it is best evidenced by the All-Ruthenian portion, on the other hand – it is connected with the tradition of chronicle writing of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Most of linguistic phenomena which appear in the chronicles have an All-Ruthenian coverage, however, the monument documents also many linguistic phenomena typical of Church Slavonic language on the phonetic, morphologic as well as lexical level. A characteristic peculiarity of Byelorussian and Lithuanian chronicles was the presence of linguistic properties specific to the West Ruthenian territory, what is confirmed by the conducted analysis of the text of Suprasl Chronicle. They are characterized by the inconsistency of realization and the uneven level of exemplification in particular portions of the monument. All these properties reflect a living language of the author of this text, as well as the territory where it was written. Owing to this Suprasl Chronicle is a nonhomogeneous and rich monument in terms of language.