Filologija, No. 8, 1978.
Original scientific paper
Methodological assumptions for a linguistic analysis of Croatian Glagolitic codices of the 14th to 16th centuries
Eduard Hercigonja
Abstract
From the literary-historical point of view, specific spiritual manuals and miscellanies containing various non-liturgical texts written from the 14th to the 16th century represent an important phenomenon in the evolution of Croatian Glagolitic medieval literature. They were compiled from texts either copied from older, traditional Church Slavonic sources or from translations of Latin, Italian, or Czech texts. The language composition of these miscellanies is multilayered and heterogeneous: they contain texts written in (a) mainly pure Old Church Slavonic (Croatian version), (b) transitional hybrids of the vernacular (chiefly Čakavian, but sometimes Kajkavian or Štokavian as well) and the traditional Old Church Slavonic literary language, and (c) mainly pure vernacular with some stylogenic elements of Old Church Slavonic (this vernacular was chiefly Čakavian, sometimes with Kajkavian or Štokavian elements). The author ·points out the problems which the language composition of these miscellanies poses for researchers and concludes that two methodological approaches have evolved in research on this topic. The first of these approaches the author calls the method of parceling. This approach involves a separate linguistic description of each article in the miscellany and treats each contribution as a language problem in itself. The second is the direct method. Researchers using this method try to isolate and systematize elements of the fundamental Čakavian layer of the writer's language, disregarding the different ratios between vernacular and Old Church Slavonic features that are found in the miscellanies. The results of research done in the past twenty years show that both methods are functionally adapted to the needs of various investigative purposes. In that sense they represent the basis of a future systematic linguistic venture into this still unexplored field of our literary and language history.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
184204
URI
Publication date:
15.10.1978.
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