CONFESSIONAL MANUSCRIPTS’ LANGUAGE OF THE MEDIEVAL VOLYN

Abstract

The rich ancient material written in Volyn liturgical manuscripts of XIV-XV century has been stirring interest of the researchers from the time immemorial. Dialect features in papers require special attention since the dialect history is a part of the national language history. The objective of our scientific studio is to reveal dialect features in old Ukrainian language sound system of those time, to trace elements interaction of traditional writing and local folk speech on the basis of texts analysis of Volyn confessional manuscripts of XIV-XV centuries.
As a result of the conducted research were recorded many facts of peoples’ conversational influence, particularly such as manuscripts dialect features:
– yat continuant e in an unstressed position typical for Polisia dialects (не верѣнъ, зеницю, оу недоузе, отъвещаите, телесе, целовань4 etc.);
– yat continuant u typical for south-western dialects of Ukrainian language (вси, в мирилѣхь, на политане, свидѣтельство=ть, сирыхъ etc.);
– change of *ę,*’a in an unstressed position into e that reflects the influence of north dialects (на десете, заєцємь, ω кнезы, наоучитесе, родисе, свезано, оуглебохъ, чедо etc.);
– transition of vowel e after the fricative consonant into o typical for Polisia language areal (вшодшом;, им=]омоу, исечонъ, ωбышо(д)ших, осоужонъ, пославьшомоу etc.);
– сases of p depalatalization typical for south-western and northern dialects (кесар;, Лазара, мора, назаранине, рибара, ц,роу etc.);
– аffricate ц dispalatalization that is typical for northern Ukrainian (вл(д)чца, кам\ньца, молодцы, поб\дотворца, пьшеница etc.) and others. The analysis of language elements of ancient texts give reasons to assume: shown language system of Volyn region manuscripts is a certain synchronic cut of dialect development, since a scrivener, in spite of the significant influence of traditional orthography, tried to render the colloquial pronunciation, though not always he was able to reflect graphically the phonetic language peculiarities. Texts are characterized by distinctive northern Ukrainian features in sound system.