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Old Novgorod dialect
The Old Novgorod or Old Novgorodian dialect (Russian: древненовгородский диалект, romanized: drevnenovgorodskiy dialekt, lit. 'ancient Novgorodian dialect') was the East Slavic variety used in the city of Veliky Novgorod and its surrounding area. It is mainly known from medieval birch bark writings dating to the 11th to 15th centuries. According to Andrey Zaliznyak, together with the Old Pskov dialect, it formed a cluster of closely related dialects which converge with the other East Slavic dialects only in the Proto-Slavic stage. The Novgorod-Pskov dialect is also referred to as (Early) North Russian and Northwest Old Russian. Zaliznyak distinguished it from "supra-dialectal Old Russian".
The Old Novgorod dialect is of particular interest in that it has retained some archaic features which were lost in other Slavic dialects. For example, the birch bark letters from the Novgorod-Pskov area attest that the second palatalization failed to reach this area. Other manuscripts have also shown distinct north Russian dialect forms, in addition to the birch bark letters. Furthermore, the letters provide unique evidence of the Slavic vernacular, as opposed to the Church Slavonic, which dominated the written literature of the period. Most of the letters feature informal writing such as personal correspondence, instructions, complaints, news, and reminders. Such widespread usage indicates a high level of literacy, even among women and children. The preserved notes display the original spelling of the time; unlike some texts, they were not copied, rewritten or edited by later scribes.
Today, the study of Novgorodian birch bark letters is an established scholarly field in Russian historical linguistics, with far-ranging historical and archaeological implications for the study of the Russian Middle Ages.
The mainstream view is that the Old Novgorod dialect is an East Slavic variety that has some significant deviations from what Andrey Zaliznyak called "supra-dialectal Old Russian", although there have been some attempts to classify it as a separate branch of the Slavic languages.
As Church Slavonic was used in liturgical and religious writing, while a supra-regional variety was used for trade, it is unclear to what extent Novgorodians at the time would have considered them to have been separate languages or distinct registers of a single language. In addition, there is some variation in birch bark letters due to a lack of standardization that is seen with modern literary languages. Some texts are also written with a mixture of Church Slavonic and Old Novgorodian, but most are written in a pure vernacular. The language found in the birch bark manuscripts represents the closest approximation to vernacular Old Russian language, as opposed to the formal language used in chronicles.
The Novgorod-Pskov dialect had notable differences to supra-dialectal Old Russian, while the convergence of the western and eastern dialects of the Novgorod Land took place with the rise of Novgorod as a political center. The eastern dialects were comparatively close to supra-dialectal Old Russian, while the western dialects, close to Pskov, were distinct. Novgorod itself was located in the transitional zone, with its dialect based on the western dialects but with some influence of the eastern dialects. This mixed dialect served a koiné function as a result.
In the 13th to 15th centuries, there was a marked displacement of the specific features of the Old Novgorod dialect in the context of increasing inter-dialectal contacts in the territory later known as Great Russia. This process accelerated after 1478, when Novgorod lost its independence. The Old Novgorod dialect disintegrated into a number of independently developing dialect groups, which merged into the all-Russian dialect continuum.
The first birch bark letter, called N1, was found in the city of Novgorod on July 26, 1951, by Nina Fedorovna Akulova. It was written in what is now called Old Novgorodian. As of 2018, a total of 1,222 items have been discovered in 12 cities, of which 1,113 were found in Novgorod. Nearly all others have been found in nearby cities, including 49 in Staraya Russa and 19 in Torzhok. Among the most notable letters found is N202 discovered in 1956, which was written by a young boy called Onfim who lived in Novgorod and is dated to the 13th century.
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Old Novgorod dialect
The Old Novgorod or Old Novgorodian dialect (Russian: древненовгородский диалект, romanized: drevnenovgorodskiy dialekt, lit. 'ancient Novgorodian dialect') was the East Slavic variety used in the city of Veliky Novgorod and its surrounding area. It is mainly known from medieval birch bark writings dating to the 11th to 15th centuries. According to Andrey Zaliznyak, together with the Old Pskov dialect, it formed a cluster of closely related dialects which converge with the other East Slavic dialects only in the Proto-Slavic stage. The Novgorod-Pskov dialect is also referred to as (Early) North Russian and Northwest Old Russian. Zaliznyak distinguished it from "supra-dialectal Old Russian".
The Old Novgorod dialect is of particular interest in that it has retained some archaic features which were lost in other Slavic dialects. For example, the birch bark letters from the Novgorod-Pskov area attest that the second palatalization failed to reach this area. Other manuscripts have also shown distinct north Russian dialect forms, in addition to the birch bark letters. Furthermore, the letters provide unique evidence of the Slavic vernacular, as opposed to the Church Slavonic, which dominated the written literature of the period. Most of the letters feature informal writing such as personal correspondence, instructions, complaints, news, and reminders. Such widespread usage indicates a high level of literacy, even among women and children. The preserved notes display the original spelling of the time; unlike some texts, they were not copied, rewritten or edited by later scribes.
Today, the study of Novgorodian birch bark letters is an established scholarly field in Russian historical linguistics, with far-ranging historical and archaeological implications for the study of the Russian Middle Ages.
The mainstream view is that the Old Novgorod dialect is an East Slavic variety that has some significant deviations from what Andrey Zaliznyak called "supra-dialectal Old Russian", although there have been some attempts to classify it as a separate branch of the Slavic languages.
As Church Slavonic was used in liturgical and religious writing, while a supra-regional variety was used for trade, it is unclear to what extent Novgorodians at the time would have considered them to have been separate languages or distinct registers of a single language. In addition, there is some variation in birch bark letters due to a lack of standardization that is seen with modern literary languages. Some texts are also written with a mixture of Church Slavonic and Old Novgorodian, but most are written in a pure vernacular. The language found in the birch bark manuscripts represents the closest approximation to vernacular Old Russian language, as opposed to the formal language used in chronicles.
The Novgorod-Pskov dialect had notable differences to supra-dialectal Old Russian, while the convergence of the western and eastern dialects of the Novgorod Land took place with the rise of Novgorod as a political center. The eastern dialects were comparatively close to supra-dialectal Old Russian, while the western dialects, close to Pskov, were distinct. Novgorod itself was located in the transitional zone, with its dialect based on the western dialects but with some influence of the eastern dialects. This mixed dialect served a koiné function as a result.
In the 13th to 15th centuries, there was a marked displacement of the specific features of the Old Novgorod dialect in the context of increasing inter-dialectal contacts in the territory later known as Great Russia. This process accelerated after 1478, when Novgorod lost its independence. The Old Novgorod dialect disintegrated into a number of independently developing dialect groups, which merged into the all-Russian dialect continuum.
The first birch bark letter, called N1, was found in the city of Novgorod on July 26, 1951, by Nina Fedorovna Akulova. It was written in what is now called Old Novgorodian. As of 2018, a total of 1,222 items have been discovered in 12 cities, of which 1,113 were found in Novgorod. Nearly all others have been found in nearby cities, including 49 in Staraya Russa and 19 in Torzhok. Among the most notable letters found is N202 discovered in 1956, which was written by a young boy called Onfim who lived in Novgorod and is dated to the 13th century.