This study is devoted to a corpus of Old Russian letters, written on pieces of birchbark. These unique texts from Novgorod and surroundings give us an exceptional impression of everyday life in... Show moreThis study is devoted to a corpus of Old Russian letters, written on pieces of birchbark. These unique texts from Novgorod and surroundings give us an exceptional impression of everyday life in medieval Russian society. The organic material has been preserved in the soil, and every year new birchbark letters tend to be unearthed during excavations in Novgorod. In this study, the birchbark letters are addressed from a pragmatic angle. A number of linguistic parameters are identified that shed light on the degree to which literacy had gained ground in the communicative processes of the time. It is demonstrated that the birchbark letters occupy an intermediate position between orality and literacy. On the one hand, old oral habits of communication persisted, and are reflected in the way in which the birchbark letters are phrased; they are characterized by a large degree of context-dependence. On the other hand, new literate modes of expression emerged, which can be seen in the development of normative conventions and fixed formulae. The subject will be of interest not only to scholars of Russian, but also to a broader circle of linguists who work in the fields of corpus linguistics and historical pragmatics. Show less
In historical linguistics, the prevailing view is that sound change is phonetically regular: within one language variety, the same sound in the same phonetic environment always undergoes the same... Show moreIn historical linguistics, the prevailing view is that sound change is phonetically regular: within one language variety, the same sound in the same phonetic environment always undergoes the same sound changes, regardless of other factors like word meaning or part of speech. Many of the sound changes previously identified for Biblical Hebrew, however, seem to operate irregularly or only affect certain categories of words. Earlier attempts to make sense of these processes are either hindered by outdated assumptions about the nature of Hebrew, rely on implausible appeals to analogy, or offer explanations that are contradicted by other Hebrew data. This dissertation takes a fresh, holistic look at the sound changes affecting the vowels of Biblical Hebrew, starting from the reconstructed Proto-Northwest-Semitic stage. The sound changes investigated include the Canaanite Shift (*ā > *ō), the contraction of diphthongs and triphthongs, (pre-)tonic and pausal lengthening, changes of *i > *a and *a > *i, and the loss of word-final vowels. Additionally, the interaction of these sound laws with various morphological changes is examined in a concise historical morphology of Biblical Hebrew. The conclusion is that purely phonetic conditions can indeed be established for practically all sound changes affecting the Biblical Hebrew vowels. Show less
