The corpus of the Old Russian copies of the Paraenesis of Ephraem Syrus. II: RNB, Pogod. 71a

Abstract

In the article we continue our research on the Old Russian copies of the Homilies (Paraenesis) of Ephraem Syrus. The article deals with the description of the earliest copy of the Paraenesis-the Old Russian copy RNB, Pogod. 71a. We reproduce the record made by the scribe of the manuscript. On the basis of the record we prove its early dating-around 1289. The copy is of Galich-Volyn' origin. A complex analysis of the copy's phonetic and grammatical peculiarities is provided. The copy displays early dialectal forms and innovations: reflection of the palatalization * zg > *ẑ'dẑ' in the spellings like Russian source; non-distinguishing of the hushing sounds and sibilants; development of the new jat' [e > ie] and a new o [o > uo]; [i] > [y] shift; variant transformation of the type tτrt > tort, trot, trt; development of the Accusative- and Genitive-homonymy; formation of Locative with a generalized -o- as in; appearance of new forms of numerals; appearance of verbal forms like Russian source; spreading of the Imperative as in; and many other phenomena. In the appendix we give a list of errors found in the first volume of the Paraenesis edition by Bojkovsky, Aitzetmüller (1984, 1986-1988). © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V