Temnić Inscription from Balkan-Slavic and Old Russian Perspectives

Abstract

The Temnić inscription is the oldest surviving written record of Slavic discovered on the territory of Serbia (the region of Temnić), however, the original provenance of the inscription is unknown. The tablet with the inscription (ca. 20 x 20 cm) was made of the limestone absent from the area where it was found, and thus the plate could have been brought from any other region. The Temnić inscription dates to the end of 10th-11th centuries, while other written records of Cyrillic script in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia are at least one and a half century younger, moreover, the Temnić inscription was found on the north from the Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian lands where Cyrillic writing spread in the 11th–12th century. The linguistic peculiarities of the inscription are too archaic in comparison with Church Slavic Glagolitic manuscripts of north Macedonian, east Serbian or Croatian provenance: it shows correct use of the letters for both jer-vowels and ы–и as well, which implies that hard and soft consonants did not yet merge in the dialect of unknown scribe. The inscription shows traits of higher varieties of Church Slavic: it presents jotized letters, a special sign for palatal consonant ĺ (ꙥ), stop points in the middle of the lines between the word forms which share common accent. These features are absent from Cyrillic epigraphic of Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian provenance, while the sign for palatal ĺ (ꙥ) appears in a single Old Bulgarian manuscript and in numerous east Slavic sources which go back to Old Bulgarian archetypes. While surviving Serbian writing provides no witness to Serbian origin of the inscription, its linguistic features perfectly correspond with manuscripts and inscriptions of Old Bulgarian provenance, and with East Church Slavic writing which goes back to Old Bulgarian sources. Consequently, linguistic data testify to the Old Bulgarian provenance of the Temnić inscription. Besides the provenance of the inscription, the author discusses regressive palatal accommodation of l after k which remained unknown in the south Slavic historical phonetics by far. The Temnić inscription shows this phenomenon along with other Old Bulgarian and Old Russian Church Slavic manuscripts. Finally, the article provides a new interpretation of three obscure passages in the Temnić inscription and presents its reliable transcription.