Volodymyr Glushchenko
Doctor of Science (Linguistics), Professor, Head of the Department
of Germanic and Slavonic Linguistics,
Donbas State Teachers’ Training University
Sloviansk, Ukraine
e-mail: sdpunauka@ukr.net
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000–0002–2394–4966
DOI:https://doi.org/10.24195/2616-5317-2022-34-1
Key words: P. Lavrovskyi, ancient manuscripts, chronicles, reduced vowels, decline of the reduced vowels, the Common Slavonic language, the Old Russian language, the Eastern Slavonic languages.
SUMMARY
In the 50’s of the XIX century Peter Lavrovskyi (1827–1886), a prominent Slavic philologist and educator, published a number of works on the ancient Russian (Proto-East Slavic) language and its dialects. Among these studies, which have retained their scientific significance to our time, the book «On the language of northern Russian chronicles» (1852) should be mentioned, in which P. Lavrovskyi, basing on ancient East Slavic manuscripts, studied in detail the nature, origin and history of reduced vowels [ъ], [ь] on the East Slavic territory. Ancient manuscripts were a priority source for the study of the reduced for P. Lavrovskyi: chronicles, deeds, treaties, acts. At the same time, the scientist used the material of his contemporary Slavic languages, primarily East Slavic, as an auxiliary source
As well as A. Vostokov and І. Sreznevskyi, P. Lavrovskyi regarded [ъ], [ь] as Common Slavonic heritage in the Old Russian language. P. Lavrovskyi thought that А. Vostokov used improper term «semivowels». He found it necessary to call [ъ], [ь] vowel sounds. P. Lavrovskyi proved that G. Pavskyi speaking about «breathed sounds» in fact defend the consonant nature of [ъ] and [ь]. However, the discrepancy of G. Рavskyi’s treatment of [ъ], [ь] doesn’t end with it. G. Pavskyi further writes that, [ъ] and [ь] in the most ancient Cyrillic texts were used for defining hardness and softness of the consonant sounds as well as for substitution of vowels that fall together. P. Lavrovskyi stressed that here the insensibility of meanings of the letters ъ, ь in the Old Russian and the Modern Russian languages can be traced. P. Lavrovskyi paid a great attention to the origin of the sounds [ъ], [ь]. P. Lavrovskyi stated that Common Slavonic [ъ], originated from Proto-Indo-European short [u], and Common Slavonic [ь] — from Proto-IndoEuropean short [i]. So P. Lavrovskyi gave the most overall for its time record of Old Russian [ъ], [ь] from the point of their nature and origin.
P. Lavrovsky’s contribution to the study of the East Slavic process of the decline of the reduced, which consisted in the transition [ъ], [ь] to [o], [e] in the strong position and the disappearance of [ъ], [ь] in the weak position, is significant..
REFERENCES
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