ŽE AS AN EMPHATIC PARTICLE IN CROATIAN CHURCH SLAVONIC LANGUAGE

Abstract

The particle že is among the most frequent words in Croatian Glagolitic texts written in Croatian Church Slavonic Language. Furthermore, as a distinct Church Slavonic word it is a good distinctive feature for the identification of such texts. It is often used as an adjunctive particle or a coordinating conjunction. We can also frequently find it in the function of a simple affix to different words with which it initially stood enhancing their meaning. This paper examines the status of that kind of že, the emphatic one, as an independent word in Croatian Church Slavonic.
It is shown that the particle že – already only sporadically confirmed in its emphatic role in Old Church Slavonic with imperatives, question words or other words that carry emphasis – in the Croatian Glagolitic texts appears as a distinct archaism that, through various editorial interventions, was usually disposed of from the system. This might be attributed to the fact that the original Glagolitic texts were either adapted to Latin or created according to the Latin template, and that the Latin language did not have a corresponding particle. But its disappearance is more likely due to the fact that the Church Slavonic texts emerged in the area where the (Čakavian) Croatian language was spoken, in which že had probably already disappeared long since and functioned only as a phonetically changed affix -re.