On Accentuation Strategies of Russian Scribes in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Abstract

The present article discusses the accentuation of Russian manuscripts from the 15th and 16th centuries. The author suggests that the scribes of the time could use one or more of three main strategies: 1) accentuation according to their own pronunciation, 2) accentuation according to a certain norm, to some extent different from their own pronunciation, 3) accentuation according to the original. The possibility of a correct interpretation of the sometimes complex accentuation of these manuscripts is dependent on our understanding of the accentuation strategies used by the scribes. The author undertakes an analysis of a 16th-century manuscript from Novgorod with a complex accentuation system and concludes that all three strategies have been used in the manuscript. Several scribes have been involved in the work, and one of them, the “Master”, has been using strategy No. 1. The other scribes seem to have been using, in many instances, strategy No. 2, but also No. 3, perhaps No. 1 as well. The basis for the accentuation norm is the liturgical pronunciation of north-western Russia, based, in its turn, on the colloquial language, but with a contribution of more or less stereotyped South Slavonic elements. Some of the accentuations seem to stem from the original, apparently with roots in Eastern Bulgaria. The results are corroborated by the fact that there are other Russian manuscripts where the accentuation can be explained as reflecting a norm of the described type.