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SEPARATUM

UNIVEESITAS LIB.ERA UCftAINENSISFacultas Philosophlca

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,Studia T. 7 ,

SYMBOLAE IN HONOREMGEOBGII Y. SHEVELOV

ROBE.RT MATSIESEN

MONAGHII ISTI MUNCHEN

. A NOTE ONO PISMENEXb EBbNOBIZT,CA XRABEA

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A NOTE ONO PISMENEXB ERbNORIZbCA XRABRA

Robert Mathi.esen

\(zhich Churda Slayo,nic a,lp,habet, the glagolitic o,r rhe cyrillic, didCyril invent? Many nin,ereenth-cenrury slavis,ts tiurned to the textO pismenexz tranori,ztca xrabra for an answ'er to this q,trestio,n, and each,as a rule, fo,und supporr in it forr whichever anrswer he thought best. Finally,in- 1895, Vatroslav Jrgii poinred out that the passages cited in proofof each opindon were in fact either ambiguou,s oi-i. all proba,bifity-later interpo,lati,oru in the text. And this lis quiite correct: a numbei ofpassages fit the glagolitic a,lphaibet rnore clo,sely tha,n the cyriJJic, a.nd onepassage, posrsibly an interpo,lation, fits the cyrillic alphabet mo,re closelythan the glagolitic, bur no passrage refers to the o,n,e or the orher alphabetwith,o,ut any anabiguity wha,tso,ever.l

Curiosly enou,gh, one passage of the text whidr mighr have been citedin favor of the glagolitic alphabet saerns never to have received a saris-faotory exeg,esis in the lirera,ture of the quesrion.z This is all the morecuirious because it is, in my opi,nrion, the least ambiguous of all the pas-sages which might be cited in favor o,f either al,p,harb,ec I,t is this passagewhich is the su.bject of tihe presenr nore.

The passage in question is the foliouring:dr''urdzii Ie g[lagollgtr. podto esrts 38. pisment stvorils, a mo{etr sqi men'5imr togo pi$ari, jakole i grcci, 24. pilgtr. i ne v6dgtr koli-

1 I. V. J agi(, Razsuldeni.ja jutnoslavjanskoj i rasskoj stdriny o cerkoono-slavjan-skom jazyk6, Imp. Akademija nauk, OtdElenie russkago jazyka i slovesnosri, IzslEdova-nija po russkomu jazyku, I (1885-1895), 287-1023, esp. 315-317. Th,is view was re-affirrned rirn V. J o,git, Entstehungsgesehichte der kircbenslaoischen Spradte, 2nd eLd.(B,entrin, l9l3), p. 129. See al,so P. A. L,avrov's rsview of dre fi,rs,t edi,tion of theEntstehungsgeschicbte 'an lzvtstija OtdElenija russbago jazyka i slovesnosti. Imp. Akademiinauk, Yl (1901): 1, 242-324, esp. 288-289, and Valerij Pogo,rElov's reacsion toI;avrov's oornrments, Zambtka po poaoda skazanija Xrabra o pis'menax, ibidem, Yl(1901) : 4, 340-345.

2 Thirs passage iis rnendo,nod in passing irn PogorEl,ov! ZanEtha cLiterd above,p,344, and urnsati,sfactoirily imterpreoe,d rin R. Abich,t, Das Alphabet Chrabrs, Ardivfiir slavische Phi"loilogie, XXXI (1910), 210-217, esp.215*216.

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cEmr piSgtr grtci. es,tr bo u,bo, 24. pisment) ng ne naplrn6gt sq

t6rni knigy. nq prilo,iil,i sgt'r dvoglasnyxs, 11. i vt dis,menex Le,3:6,-e. i 9 desgtnoe. i 9 sttnoje. i s'sbiragt sq ixl, 38. t6m Ze po tornupod[o]bno i vs ttXde obraz's stvori s[vq]tyi Kirilt, 38. pismenrs.s

In other words, it was said that Cyril did not need to create 38 letters,since one can wr.ite with few,er, as do the Greeks with 24. The author ofO pi.srnenexr, refutes this by ob,serving that Cyril did not depart frornthe Greek rnodel in oreating 38 leuters, b'ut rather follo'wed it (po toru.upodIoJbno i rs'a t"aide obraz'u staori s[vg]tyi Kirilr, 38.pismen'a.), for theGree,ks too write with:g letters:24 letters'proper, 11 driphthongs and3 numerical signs (stail fw 6, k6ppa for 90 and sarnpi for 900).a

This refutation is convincing o,nly if the number of all Prorper let,te,rs,diphthongs and nuirnericai signi in rhe alphabet created by-_Cyril alsototals 3g]5 If this were not the case, then the opponents of Cyril's alptrabetcotdd tu,rn the argument in O pisrnenex'u u,pon the head of its autho'r

3 Ten inderpenderr *nantr,sorirpts o,f wha,t rits assu,rned to be the olde,st version ot-

o pismenex.o tiunori.zaca xrabraire known; they are all listed (with bibltographv) in KujoKu,ov, Doa nopi prepisa na Xrabror.toto satinenie" Bolgarska akadernij,a na na,ukite, Ot-delenie za istorideski i pedagogileski nauhi, Izvestija na Institut za lstottja, X (1962),225_244. The ol&st,of these, manuscri[rts is d,ate,d 1348; the passage given i,s t,rans-literarted fnom thiis rext (as publ,ishad i" J i g it's Razswideniia 'already ciited, p' 298) wrirthomission of acceffs, breathings and ti.tla over nume,rals, and w,ith expansion oiabbreniated- words. Seven of the remaining nine witnesses w'ere available tome in good editions (the works by Kuev and by Jagii just mendoned, O. M'Bodifaiskij, O d.reztnbjiem svidbtelstr:i, tto cerkoono-bniinyi iazyk est slaojano-bulga,rskij, Zurnal Ministerstva narodnago pro,svEldenija, dast XXXVIIi (1843)' pp. 130-168, and Jorda,n Ivranov, Bolgarski starini iz Mahed.oniia, 1st,ed. (Sofia, 1908), pp.75-81, arnd 2nd ed. (Sofia, 1931), p'p.440-446; the two other witnesses were available torne only in the variant re,adings given to the texts in Kuev's articie. None of th,ese

'w,itnesses, nor any of the later redac,tions pubilished irn Jagrii's Razsuidenija, give anyvariant reardirngs whidr need to b,e oonsidered hene, excetpt perhaps that orne wittress haspismenix for tlre fo,rm tismenex of 'the mia,nulsorirp'.t of 1348 (Ku e v, p.234, va,tiant no.67).

4 Co,rnipare the acco,u,nt given farther on irn O pi'smenex't,of the creatio,n o,f lhe G,reekalphabot,|n seven stages: 16 trermers,3 fle,tterrs,2lertters,3l,er,ters,5 diphthongs,6 di,ph-thongs, and 3 numerical sitgns; rin a11,24 le,toeirs, 11 d,iiphthorngs'and 3 numeri]cal sigars.Note, i,nciden arily, that the "11 diphtfiongs" o,f ,the text, pres,uma'b,ly Greek ai, au, ei, e'u,

oi., ow, Qu, wi, fii, -gi and 5i, were at that time diphthongs only in spelling, not in pro-nunctiiation (ie, av, i, ev, ii, u, iv, ii, ao i and o/), and ,all but three of them mightbe rnore accurately aatrled digrapbs.

r Nril<otraj Du,rn.ovo, Mysli i predpoloienija o proisxoideni.i staroslaojanskogojazyka i slavjanskix alfaoitott, ByzantiinoLsllavittoa, I (1929), 48-85, esp' 70, points-'o'utihul th" 38 Chru,rdr Sl,avornic lerttc,rs of O pismenexo o,urglat to be taken as irncrlud,ing bo'thlettens proper and d,iph,tho,ngs, since the 38 Greek letters include ditphoho'ngs. Si;nce behas the-glagol.iri,c alphabet []rview, he do,es not consider the possiibitriny ,t]lat *re 38 ChurrchSlavoniJ lelters ought to be taken as including ,speoiral Churctr Stravonic numerical signsas well. Likew,ise Rajko N ahtigal, Doneski h opra\aniu o postanka glagolice,Znanstveno d,rultvo za humanistidne vetde v Liubljani, Razprave, I (1923), 735-178,esp. 148-149.

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and invalida€e ;tr,is claim rhat cyril followed the Greek rnod,el in crearinghis alpha,bet. For exarmple, if Cyr,il's alphabet had. a to,tal of 3g p,rope,rIetters and di,phtho,ngs, and also 3 n,urneriia,l srigns, then irs o,p,porr"rrti.rrldsay: even as the auchou: of O pismenex.o added all rhree rypes o,f GreekqSaphs to ger, a wtal of 38, so, musr ,he add alrl trhree types of Chni,rchs_lav9nlc graphs-and then this mtal will be 41, whidr p.o'"r rather tharcyril did not follo,w the Greel< rnodel, and leav,es the &arge agains,t h,imun,answered. co,nsequently, if rhi,s argument was mad,e with as Ludr skillas the other arguments in o pismenexa (and ,the fact that the airgurnenrattacks the statement trhat the Greeks vse 24 letters, which,

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technically true, can easily be corntroverted, radter than the statementthat o,ne can wrire church Slavonic wirth fewer than 38 lerters, which ismore troublesfine to corntrovert, rnay be taken as evidence of this ,srkillhere), then the rctal nnrmber of all pro,per letters, diph,trhongs and nnrrnericalsigns in the alphabet a,ttrirbiuted to Cyril was in fac,t 38.

_I{ ,hlr is so, th,en the alphaibet awrib,uted rn O pismenex-a w Cyrilcould no,t have been the cyrillLic alpharbet, for th.at con-,rains at least 2 (and.probably 3) nwnrerical signs,1 diphthong (u) and 24 proper letters, allb'orrowed from t&re Greek alpilrabet (anrd all 24 Greek pro,p.r lefters m*s€be ,included, eiuher as church s,lavo,nic proprer letters or as ehrrnch slavo,nicnumerical signs), arnd at least 13 prop,er letters, and diphtho,ngs created forspecifically Chur.ch Slavonic soundLs (b, i, c, t, !, -u, !, b, E,-ju, e, q, jg-and perhaps alsa' dz and !t); a total of at least 40, probably 41, and pLrhipsas many as 43 proper lerters, diphthongs and numerical signs.o

The alphabet described in O pismenexv could. have b,een the glagoliticalphabet; there are a num,b*r of plarusible reconstrucri,ons of an- originalgiagolitic alphabet contai,ning a to'ta,l of 38 proper leffiers and diphtho,ngs(and, of oourse, no special nuirnerical signs).7

Conseqtrently, one can aslsert ei,ther that the ailp,hatbet attriburted inO 'pisntenexra to Cyr,il was the glagolidc alphabet orr rhar, conf,rary toh,is practice in the rest of the text, the author af O pisruenex-a preseinteda clum,sy and unsuccesrsf,r,rl ref'urtanion o,f the charge brou,ght agains,t cyril's

6 In the earrliest cy,rillic the nurmerisal siigrns for 6 and 90 we,re d,isti,nct f,rorn theletters dz 'and t; it is not clear whether or not the earliiest cyrillic numenical sign for900 wa,s disdnct frorn tfu lemer g (rhe use of c as rb,e si,gn fior 900 serems ro be later).See A. X. Yostokov, Grammatilea cerkozsno-slooenskago jazyka izloEennnaja podr_eonij\im onago pis'rnennym pamjatnilearu, l)Eeny:1a ,apifii Vt*ogo odEleni.S',a' Imp.Akad,enr,ii naurk, vII (1s63) : 2, pp.8-9, or Pau,l o i e 1s, Altkirchenslioiscbe GrammatiL,2nd e,d. (Fleirderlberg, 1963), pp.22-23,25, atd 49: dnrn.43 (bibli,o,graphy).- -t_t9., for ex,arnple,,che reco,nstruction (of 36 le!1gns a,nd 2 dirphthongs (digralphs) nortirncluded in the alphabet prope,r) given in Nil<orlatls S. Tr ru b e 't zk o y, A-hkirdtenslaois&eGramruatik: scbrift-, Laut- und Formensystem, ed. Ru,dolf Jagoditsdr, sitzuur,gsberichteder phi,troso,phisdr-hirsmirisdren l(las.se der dstonneridrii,sdren Alkadirmri,e d,err \[issensdaft, Vol.228 (1954) : 4, pp. 15-37.

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alp,habet in this p'assage. 'We can not b€ absolutely certaio thar the seconda"lternative is not the cas,e, and so tlre judgsrnent of V. J , g i d sd,l,lremains correct. ft seemrs to mg however, that the seco,nd alternative isnot at all p,robable, and therdone tha,t the passage under discussion isa relatively ,unambriguou:s piece of, svidence that Cyril invented theglagol,iaic a,lp,habet.

Brown Uni.versity

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YKP AIH C bKYTfi B IJIb HItfi YH I B E P C,,ITETuniversitas Libera ucrainensis . Ilkrainische Freie universitiit

Ilkrainian Free university . universit6 Libre ukrainienne

@inoco$i.rnrft @axyJlbrer Facultas Philosophica

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S6ipHlrrcEa troruaHy Irpom. A-pa lOpia f[eserboBa

Symbolae in honoremGeorgii Y. Shevelov

MIOHXEH 19?1 . ivlUNCHgN

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