Bibliographic description: Suzdaltsev A.G., Chernyak O.V. How, with what and on what they wrote in Ancient Rus' // Young scientist. 2017. No. 3. P. 126-128..03.2019).
Before the adoption of Christianity, the Russian language did not have its own written language. Only from the end of the 10th century. The alphabet appeared in Rus' - the Cyrillic alphabet. It was named after the Byzantine monk Cyril, who, together with his brother Methodius, created it in the 9th century. one of the Slavic alphabet. The Slavic language for which the alphabet was created is called Old Church Slavonic. This language has been preserved in the form of Church Slavonic and is today used in Orthodox churches for worship.
Writing appeared in Rus', and many people mastered literacy. At first, only church ministers could read and write. Schools were created at the temples in which boys and girls, mainly from noble families, were taught to read and write. City dwellers also learned to read and write, but most rural residents remained illiterate.
What did they write on and which material was the most common? The main material for writing until the 14th century. was parchment, which in Rus' was called leather or veal. This is because it was made from the skin of calves, kids and lambs.
Each skin of future parchment had to be washed and all the hard lint removed from it. Then it was soaked in a lime solution for a week, after which the still wet skin was pulled onto a wooden frame, where it was dried and the soft fiber was cleaned from the inside of the skin, after which chalk was also rubbed into it and smoothed with pumice. The parchment was then bleached by rubbing flour and milk into it and cut into sheets of the required size.
Parchment was a very good writing material: you could write on it on both sides; it was very light and durable and did not allow the ink to bleed, thanks to the rubbed chalk; in addition, the parchment could be used several times by scraping off the top layer with previously written text. One calf skin yielded 7–8 sheets for a book. And the entire book required the entire herd.
Another interesting writing material was ceras(waxed planks). Cera is a small wooden board, convex at the edges and filled with wax. Most often the cerae had a rectangular shape. The wax used to fill the plaque was black, as it was the most affordable; wax of a different color was less commonly used. To ensure that the wax was securely attached to the wood, the inner surface of the prepared mold was covered with notches. When the layer of wax became unusable, it could be constantly replaced and a new one could be written in place of the previous text. But the wax coating on the wooden surface was short-lived.
In 2000, during archaeological excavations at the Trinity excavation site in Novgorod in layers of the first quarter of the 11th century. three planks covered with wax were discovered joined together. On these tablets were fragments of the biblical book of Psalms. This most valuable find indicates that books in Rus' began to be rewritten immediately after its Baptism. However, ceras were not widely used in Rus'. During archaeological excavations of the 20th century. Only 11 copies were found in Novgorod.
Unlike expensive parchment, the most easily accessible material for writing in Rus' was - birch bark. In order to use birch bark as a writing material, it was, as a rule, specially prepared. A birch bark leaf should have a minimum of veins. The brittle layers of bast were removed from its inner side, and the flaky surface layer was removed from the outer side. Then the birch bark was boiled in water with alkalis. But they wrote without it. In most cases, the text was applied to the inner surface of the bark, and sometimes to the outer surface using bone or iron. wrote.
Among the birch bark letters found in Novgorod there are many documents, personal letters, student “notebooks” with exercises in writing and counting.
Ancient scribes used bird, mainly goose, and swan feathers as writing instruments. Peacock feathers were used less often; in such cases, the scribe did not miss the opportunity to boast: “I wrote with a peacock feather.” The method of preparing goose feathers was stable and survived into the 19th century.
Only rich people could afford ink. They wrote books and manuscripts, legends and important acts of national importance. Only the king wrote with a swan or peacock feather, and most ordinary books were written with a goose feather.
The technique of preparing a pen required skills and correct actions. A feather from the left wing of a bird is suitable for writing, since it has a convenient angle for writing with the right hand. To soften the feather and remove fat, it was stuck into hot and damp sand or ash. Then, using a knife, they repaired it: they made an incision on both sides, leaving a small semicircular groove along which the ink flowed. For ease of pressing, the groove was split. The tip of the pen was sharpened obliquely. The scribe always had a penknife. Brushes were used to write capital letters and titles with paints.
The basis for most inks was gum (the resin of some types of acacia or cherry). Depending on what substances dissolved in the gum, the ink acquired one color or another.
Black ink was made from gum and soot (“smoked ink”). Black ink could also be prepared by boiling “ink nuts” - painful growths on oak leaves - in gum. By adding brown iron, rust or iron sulfate to the gum, brown ink was obtained. Blue ink was obtained by combining gum and copper sulfate, red ink was obtained from gum and cinnabar (mercury sulfide, a reddish mineral found everywhere in nature along with other rocks).
Depending on its composition, the ink was either prepared in small quantities shortly before use, or was stored in ceramic or wooden sealed containers. Before use, the ink was diluted with water and placed in special vessels - inkwells. The inkwell allowed the ink not to spill onto the table and therefore had to be shaped to allow it to stand firmly on the table.
Literature:
- Berenbaum I.E. History of the book. - M.: Book, 1984. - 248 p.
- Balyazin V.N. Interesting history of Russia. From ancient times to the middle of the 16th century. M.: September 1st, 2001.
- Drachuk V. Roads of millennia. - M.: Young Guard, 1977. – 256 p.
- Nemirovsky E. P. Journey to the origins of Russian printing. M.: Education, 1991.
- Pavlov I.P. About your book: Popular science literature. - L.: Det. lit., 1991. - 113 p.
- Yanin V.L. I sent you birch bark... - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 1975.
- www.bibliotekar.ru/rus - a selection of scientific, literary and visual works on the history of Ancient Rus'.
At first, a person wrote on whatever came into his hands: on stones, leaves, pieces of bark, bones, clay shards. The desired image was scratched onto them using a sharp bone or piece of stone.
In Ancient Babylon they wrote by pressing out characters with a sharp stick on a piece of soft clay, which was then dried and fired in a kiln. It was durable, but inconvenient - the clay could only be used once.
Therefore, in different parts of the world they began to look for more convenient material for writing. And this is what they came up with in Ancient Egypt.
Along the banks of the Nile, in swampy places, grew a strange-looking plant with a long bare stem and a cluster of flowers at the top. This plant is called papyrus. It was from this that the ancient Egyptians learned to make their writing material.
The papyrus stem was divided with a needle into thin, but possibly wider strips. These strips were glued one to another so that a whole page was made. The work was carried out on tables moistened with muddy Nile water: in this case the mud replaced glue. The table was placed at an angle to allow excess water to drain.
Having glued one row of strips, they cut them off and then laid another row on top - crosswise. It turned out something like a fabric in which some threads run lengthwise, others crosswise.
Having made a pack of sheets, they pressed it, placing some weight on top. Then the leaves were dried in the Sun and polished with a fang or shell. This material was called papyrus. Not only is he the closest ancestor of paper, but he also gave it its name. In many languages, paper is still called papyrus: in German - papir, in French - papier, in English - "paper".
But papyrus was not durable: a sheet made from it could not be folded or bent. Therefore, they began to make long ribbons from it, which were wound around a stick with a handle. The result was scrolls on which books and documents were copied. They read the scroll in this way: they held the stick by the curly end with their left hand, and unfolded the text in front of their eyes with their right hand.
In addition to papyrus, the stems of some palm trees began to be used. They were also used to make scrolls and small sheets of paper. They were written on in ancient India and Tibet. The scrolls were placed in special baskets. It is curious that the oldest version of the Buddhist sacred books is called “Tripitaka”, which literally means “five baskets”.
Paper was invented in a completely different place - in Ancient China.
About two thousand years ago, when the Greeks and Romans in Europe were still writing on Egyptian papyrus, the Chinese already knew how to make paper. The material for it was bamboo fibers, some herbs and old rags.
Having placed the material in a stone mortar, it was ground with water into a paste. Paper was cast from this pulp. The form was a frame with a mesh bottom made of thin bamboo sticks and silk threads.
After pouring a little slurry into the mold, they shook it so that the fibers intertwined and formed felt. The water was squeezed out, and a damp paper sheet remained on the mesh. It was carefully removed, placed on a board and dried in the Sun. Then the paper was smoothed with wooden rollers, polished and covered with chalk for whiteness.
From China, the secret of making paper passed on to the Arabs, and from them it spread to Europe.
Until 1951, there was a strong opinion that only selected social strata received education in Rus'. This myth was dispelled by the discovery of archaeologists, which occurred on July 26, 1951 in Novgorod. Experts discovered a birch bark letter preserved from the 14th century, or rather a scroll of birch bark, which could easily be mistaken for a fishing float, with words scratched on it.
An ancient note, which listed the villages that paid taxes to some Roma, was the first to dispel the opinion that the population of Rus' was universally illiterate. Soon, in Novgorod and other cities, archaeologists began to find more and more new records confirming that merchants, artisans, and peasants knew how to write. AiF.ru tells what our ancestors thought and wrote about.
The first birch bark letter. It is highly fragmented, but consists of long and completely standard phrases: “So much dirt came from such and such a village,” so it is easily restored. Photo: RIA Novosti
From Gavrila to Kondrat
Unlike most traditional monuments of the 11th-15th centuries, people wrote birch bark letters in simple language, because the addressee of the message was most often members of their own family, neighbors or business partners. They resorted to writing on birch bark in case of immediate need, so most often household orders and everyday requests are found on birch bark. For example, a document from the 14th century known as No. 43 contains the most common request to send a servant and a shirt with him:
“From Boris to Nastasya. When this letter arrives, send me a man on a stallion, because I have a lot to do here. Yes, send a shirt - I forgot my shirt.”
Sometimes complaints and threats can be found in monuments found by archaeologists. For example, a birch bark letter from the 12th century known as No. 155 turned out to be a note, the author of which demands compensation for the damage caused to him in the amount of 12 hryvnia:
“From Polochka (or: Polochka) to... [After you (?)] took the girl from Domaslav, Domaslav took 12 hryvnia from me. 12 hryvnia arrived. If you don’t send it, then I will stand (meaning: with you to the court) before the prince and the bishop; then prepare for a greater loss.”
Birch bark document No. 155. Source: Public Domain
With the help of birch bark letters we can learn more about the daily life of our ancestors. For example, charter No. 109 of the 12th century is dedicated to the incident with the purchase of a stolen slave by a warrior:
“Certificate from Zhiznomir to Mikula. You bought a slave in Pskov, and the princess grabbed me for it (implied: convicting me of theft). And then the squad vouched for me. So send a letter to that husband if he has a slave. But I want to, having bought horses and mounted the prince’s husband, [go] to confrontation. And you, if you haven’t taken that money [yet], don’t take anything from him.”
Sometimes notes found by archaeologists contain extremely short and simple text, similar to a modern SMS message (No. 1073): “ From Gavrila to Kondrat. Come here”, - and sometimes they look like advertisements. For example, letter No. 876 contains a warning that repair work will take place on the square in the coming days.
Certificate No. 109. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Love affairs
“From Mikita to Anna. Marry me - I want you, and you want me; and Ignat Moiseev is a witness to this.”
The most amazing thing about this note is that Mikita directly addresses the bride herself, and not her parents, as was customary. One can only guess about the reasons for such an act. Another interesting text has been preserved from the 12th century, in which an upset lady scolds her chosen one (No. 752):
“[I sent (?)] to you three times. What kind of evil do you have against me that this week (or: this Sunday) you did not come to me? And I treated you like a brother! Did I really offend you by sending [to you]? But I see you don’t like it. If you were interested, would you break out from under [human] eyes and rush...? Even if I offended you through my foolishness, if you start to mock me, then God and my badness (that is, me) will judge [you].
It turns out that in Ancient Rus', the relationship between spouses was somewhat similar to modern families. So, for example, in letter No. 931, Semyon’s wife asks to suspend a certain conflict until her return. She’ll come and figure it out herself:
“An order to Semyon from his wife. You would simply calm [everyone] down and wait for me. And I’ll hit you with my forehead.”
Archaeologists have also found fragments of a love plot, possibly included in the draft of a love letter (No. 521): “So let your heart and your body and your soul burn [with passion] for me and for my body and for my face.” And even a note from a sister to her brother, in which she reports that her husband brought home his mistress, and they got drunk and beat her half to death. In the same note, the sister asks her brother to come quickly and intercede for her.
Birch bark document No. 497 (second half of the 14th century). Gavrila Postnya invites her son-in-law Gregory and sister Ulita to visit Novgorod.
The generally accepted date for the emergence of writing among the Slavs is considered to be 863, but some researchers argue that they knew how to write in Rus' even earlier.
Closed topic
The topic of pre-Christian writing in Ancient Rus' was considered in Soviet science, if not forbidden, then quite closed. Only in recent decades have a number of works devoted to this problem appeared.
For example, in the fundamental monograph “History of Writing” N.A. Pavlenko offers six hypotheses of the origin of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, and argues in favor of the fact that both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet were among the Slavs in pre-Christian times.
Myth or reality
Historian Lev Prozorov is confident that there is more than enough evidence of the existence of writing before the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Rus'. He argues that our distant ancestors could not only write individual words, but also draw up legal documents.
As an example, Prozorov draws attention to the conclusion of an agreement by the Prophetic Oleg with Byzantium. The document deals with the consequences of the death of a Russian merchant in Constantinople: if a merchant dies, then one should “deal with his property as he wrote in his will.” However, in what language such wills were written will not be specified.
In the “Lives of Methodius and Cyril,” compiled in the Middle Ages, it is written about how Cyril visited Chersonesus and saw there the Holy Books written in “Roussian letters.” However, many researchers tend to be critical of this source. For example, Victor Istrin believes that the word “Rous” should be understood as “Sour”, that is, Syrian writing.
However, there is other evidence confirming that the pagan Slavs still had writing. You can read about this in the chronicles of Western authors - Helmold of Bossau, Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, who, when describing the shrines of the Baltic and Polabian Slavs, mention inscriptions on the bases of the statues of the Gods.
The Arab chronicler Ibn-Fodlan wrote that he saw with his own eyes the burial of a Rus and how a memorial marker was installed on his grave - a wooden pillar on which the name of the deceased himself and the name of the Tsar of the Rus were carved.
Archeology
The presence of writing among the ancient Slavs is indirectly confirmed by excavations in Novgorod. At the site of the old settlement, writing was discovered - rods that were used to write inscriptions on wood, clay or plaster. The finds date back to the mid-10th century, despite the fact that Christianity penetrated Novgorod only at the end of the 10th century.
The same writings were found in Gnezdovo during excavations of ancient Smolensk; moreover, there is archaeological evidence of the use of writing rods. In a mound from the mid-10th century, archaeologists unearthed a fragment of an amphora, where they read the inscription in Cyrillic: “Dog’s pea.”
Ethnographers believe that “Pea” is a protective name that was given by our ancestors so that “grief would not become attached.”
Also among the archaeological finds of ancient Slavic settlements are the remains of swords, on the blades of which the blacksmiths engraved their name. For example, on one of the swords found near the village of Foshchevataya you can read the name “Ludota”.
"With lines and cuts"
If the appearance of samples of Cyrillic writing in pre-Christian times can still be disputed, in particular, explained by the incorrect dating of the find, then writing with “lines and cuts” is a sign of a more ancient culture. The Bulgarian monk Chernorizets Khrabr mentions this method of writing, still popular among the Slavs even after baptism, in his treatise “On Writing” (beginning of the 10th century).
By “lines and cuts,” according to scientists, they most likely meant a type of pictographic-tamga and counting writing, which was also known among other peoples in the early stages of their development.
Attempts to decipher the inscriptions made according to the “damn and cut” type were made by the Russian amateur codebreaker Gennady Grinevich. In total, he examined about 150 inscriptions found in the territory of settlement of the Eastern and Western Slavs (IV-X centuries AD). Upon careful study of the inscriptions, the researcher identified 74 main signs, which, in his opinion, formed the basis of the syllabic Old Slavic letter.
Grinevich also suggested that some examples of Proto-Slavic syllabic writing were made using pictorial signs - pictograms. For example, an image of a horse, dog or spear means that you need to use the first syllables of these words - “lo”, “so” and “ko”.
With the advent of the Cyrillic alphabet, the syllabary, according to the researcher, did not disappear, but began to be used as a secret writing. Thus, on the cast-iron fence of the Slobodsky Palace in Moscow (now the building of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University), Grinevich read how “the Hasid Domenico Gilardi has the cook of Nicholas I in his power.”
"Slavic runes"
A number of researchers are of the opinion that Old Slavic writing is an analogue of Scandinavian runic writing, which is allegedly confirmed by the so-called “Kiev Letter” (a document dating back to the 10th century), issued to Yaakov Ben Hanukkah by the Jewish community of Kyiv. The text of the document is written in Hebrew, and the signature is made in runic symbols, which have not yet been read.
The German historian Konrad Schurzfleisch writes about the existence of runic writing among the Slavs. His 1670 dissertation deals with the schools of the Germanic Slavs, where children were taught runes. As proof, the historian cited a sample of the Slavic runic alphabet, similar to the Danish runes of the 13th-16th centuries.
Writing as a witness to migration
The above-mentioned Grinevich believes that with the help of the Old Slavic syllabary alphabet it is also possible to read Cretan inscriptions of the 20th-13th centuries. BC, Etruscan inscriptions of the 8th-2nd centuries. BC, Germanic runes and ancient inscriptions of Siberia and Mongolia.
In particular, according to Grinevich, he was able to read the text of the famous “Phaistos Disc” (Crete, 17th century BC), which tells about the Slavs who found a new homeland in Crete. However, the researcher's bold conclusions raise serious objections from academic circles.
Grinevich is not alone in his research. Back in the first half of the 19th century, the Russian historian E.I. Klassen wrote that “the Slavic Russians, as a people educated earlier than the Romans and Greeks, left behind in all parts of the old world many monuments testifying to their presence there and to ancient writing.”
The Italian philologist Sebastiano Ciampi showed in practice that there was a certain connection between the ancient Slavic and European cultures.
To decipher the Etruscan language, the scientist decided to try to rely not on Greek and Latin, but on one of the Slavic languages, which he knew well - Polish. Imagine the surprise of the Italian researcher when some Etruscan texts began to lend themselves to translation.
Of the sources on everyday writing of the 11th-15th centuries, the most interesting are birch bark letters and epigraphic monuments (epigraphy is a historical discipline that studies inscriptions on solid material). The cultural and historical significance of these sources is extremely great. Monuments of everyday writing made it possible to put an end to the myth of almost universal illiteracy in Ancient Rus'.
Birch bark letters were first discovered in 1951 during archaeological excavations in Novgorod. Then they were found (albeit in incomparably smaller quantities than in Novgorod) in Staraya Russa, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Torzhok, Moscow, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, Zvenigorod Galitsky (near Lvov). Currently, the collection of birch bark texts numbers over a thousand documents, and their number is constantly growing with each new archaeological expedition.
Unlike expensive parchment, birch bark was the most democratic and easily accessible writing material in the Middle Ages. They wrote on it with a sharp metal or bone rod, or, as it was called in Ancient Rus', a scribble. Letters were squeezed out or scratched onto soft birch bark. Only in rare cases was it written on birch bark with pen and ink. The oldest birch bark documents discovered today date back to the first half - mid-11th century. However, two bone writings were found in Novgorod, which, according to archaeological data, date back to the time before the baptism of Rus': one - 953-957 years, and the other - 972-989 years.
As V.L. Yanin notes in the book “I sent you birch bark...” (3rd ed. M., 1998. P. 30, 51), “birch bark letters were a common element of Novgorod medieval life. Novgorodians constantly read and wrote letters, tore them up and threw them away, just as we now tear up and throw away unnecessary or used papers,” “correspondence served the Novgorodians, who were not engaged in some narrow, specific sphere of human activity. She was not a professional sign. It has become an everyday occurrence."
The social composition of the authors and recipients of birch bark letters is very wide. Among them are not only representatives of the titled nobility, clergy and monasticism, but also merchants, elders, housekeepers, warriors, artisans, peasants and other persons. Women took part in the correspondence on birch bark. In some cases, they act as addressees or authors of letters. Five letters have survived, sent from woman to woman.
The overwhelming majority of birch bark letters were written in Old Russian, and only a small number were written in Church Slavonic. In addition, two birch bark letters were discovered, written by foreigners who lived in Novgorod in Latin and Low German. Greek and Baltic-Finnish charters are also known. The latter is a spell, a pagan prayer from the mid-13th century. It is three hundred years older than all currently known texts written in Finnish or Karelian.
Translation: “From Polchka (or Polochka)…(you) took (possibly as a wife) a girl from Domaslav, and from me Domaslav took 12 hryvnia. 12 hryvnia arrived. And if you don’t send it, then I will stand (meaning: with you to the court) before the prince and the bishop; then prepare for a big loss...”
Birch bark letters are mostly private letters. The daily life and concerns of a medieval person are presented in them in great detail. The authors of messages on birch bark talk about their momentary affairs and concerns: family, household, economic, trade, monetary, judicial, often also about trips, military campaigns, expeditions for tribute, etc. All this everyday side of the medieval way of life, all these little things everyday life, so obvious to contemporaries and constantly eluding researchers, are poorly reflected in the traditional genres of literature of the 11th-15th centuries.
Texts on birch bark are diverse in genre. In addition to private letters, there are various kinds of bills, receipts, records of debt obligations, ownership labels, wills, bills of sale, petitions from peasants to the feudal lord and other documents. Texts of an educational nature are of great interest: student exercises, alphabets, lists of numbers, lists of syllables with which they learned to read. In charter No. 403 of the 50-80s of the 14th century there is a small dictionary in which for Russian words their Baltic-Finnish translations are indicated. Much less common are birch bark letters of church and literary content: excerpts of liturgical texts, prayers and teachings, for example, two quotes from the “Tale of Wisdom” by the famous writer and preacher Cyril of Turov, who died before 1182, in the birch bark list of the first 20th anniversary of the 13th century from Torzhok. Conspiracies, a riddle, and a school joke have also been preserved.
Of all the East Slavic written sources of the 11th-15th centuries, birch bark letters most fully and diversely reflected the features of living spoken language. The study of texts on birch bark allowed A. A. Zaliznyak to restore many of its features in the monograph “Ancient Novgorod Dialect” (M., 1995). Let's look at the most important of them.
The Old Novgorod dialect lacked the common Slavic result of the second palatalization: the transition of back-lingual [k], [g], [x] into soft sibilant consonants [ts?], [z?], [s?] in position before the front vowels [e] ( ) or [and] diphthong origin. All Slavic languages survived the second palatalization, and only the Old Novgorod dialect did not know it. Thus, in charter No. 247 (11th century, probably second quarter) the false accusation of burglary is refuted: “And the lock is intact, and the doors are intact...”, that is, ‘And the lock is intact, and the doors are intact...?. Is the root kl- ‘whole? presented in both cases without the effect of second palatalization. In a birch bark document of the 14th century. No. 130 the word khr is found in the meaning of ‘gray (undyed) cloth, homespun? (root hr- ‘gray?).
In Im. pad. units h. husband r. the solid o-declension ending was -e. This ending is found in the nouns brother ‘brother?, adjectives meretve ‘dead?, pronouns same ‘sam?, participles ruined ‘ruined?’, in the nominal part of the perfect - forgot ‘forgot?. “Is bread cheaper,” that is, “is bread cheap (here)?,” wrote the Novgorodian Gyurgiy (George) in the first quarter of the 12th century, advising his father and mother to sell the farm and move to Smolensk or Kyiv, since in Novgorod, obviously, there was hunger. Inflection -e distinguishes the Old Novgorod dialect from all Slavic languages and dialects. In the rest of the Slavic world, in the ancient era it corresponds to the ending -ъ (for example, brother, sam), and after the fall of the reduced ъ and ь - zero inflection (brother, sam). Let us recall that in ancient times the letters ъ “er” and ь “er” denoted special super-short sounds, somewhat similar in their pronunciation to [ы] and [и], respectively, which finally disappeared from the Russian language at the beginning of the 13th century.
In Rod. pad units h. For nouns of a-declension in the Old Novgorod dialect, from the very beginning of writing, the ending - (in women) was dominant, while in the standard Old Russian language there was an ending -ы (in wife). The present tense of the verb was characterized by a clear predominance of 3 liters. units tsp and 3 l. pl. including forms without -t: live, grind, beat, coming, etc. In the standard Old Russian language it was accordingly: live, grind, beat, come.
Everyday literacy is extremely close to dialect speech. However, they cannot be considered as an accurate representation of the spoken language. Everyday writing had its own established custom of language use, which was learned during literacy training. N.A. Meshchersky established that in private correspondence there were special address and etiquette epistolary formulas on birch bark. Some of these formulas are of book origin, although the overwhelming majority of birch bark letters are not literary works and monuments of the book language. So, at the beginning of the letter, the traditional formula of veneration or bow from such and such to such and such is often used, and at the end of the message there are stable phrases of goodness, ‘be kind, please? or kiss you in the sense of ‘I greet you?
Birch bark letters provide rich material for the study of non-book, everyday graphic systems. In Ancient Rus', the elementary literacy course was limited to just learning to read. But after finishing it, the students, although unprofessionally, could write, transferring reading skills to writing. The art of writing and spelling rules were taught specifically, mainly to future book writers. Unlike book texts created by professional scribes, birch bark letters were created by people who, for the most part, did not specifically learn to write. Without passing through the filter of book spelling rules, birch bark letters reflected many local features of living speech of the 11th-15th centuries.
In the monuments of book writing, on the contrary, the features of dialect speech were carefully eliminated. Only those local linguistic features that were difficult to get rid of, such as clicking, penetrated into the book text. The birch bark letters show how important the filter of book spelling was, how radically medieval book writers abandoned the regional features of living speech in their professional activities.
Part 2.
As Zaliznyak established, the main differences between household graphic systems and book writing boil down to the following points:
1) replacing the letter ь with e (or vice versa): kone instead of horse, slo instead of village;
2) replacing the letter ъ with o (or vice versa): bow instead of bow, chet instead of chto;
3) replacing a letter with e or b (or vice versa). The consistent replacement of e and ь with h (a very rare graphic device) is presented in the inscription of the 20-50s of the 12th century, scratched on a wooden tablet (tsere): “A yaz tiun dan z uyal” 'A ya, tiun, dan something did you take it? (tiun ‘butler, house manager for princes, boyars and bishops; official for the administration of a city or locality?).
4) scanning, or the scanning principle of writing, is that in writing any consonant letter must be followed by a vowel letter. If there is no vowel at the phonetic level, then “dumb” ъ or ь, o or e are written, depending on the hardness or softness of the preceding consonant, for example: the other side instead of the other side. y or i could also be used as “silent” vowels after consonants: ovisa instead of oats, svoemy instead of svoem.
As you can see, a text written using everyday graphic rules differs significantly from book writing. Thus, in the letters of the 40-50s of the 12th century, the spelling ko mon is found, which in book orthography corresponds to the form ky mun. Nevertheless, everyday graphic systems sometimes penetrated book writing. Their use is known in a number of ancient Novgorod and ancient Pskov manuscripts.
The language of birch bark letters is similar to graffiti inscriptions, drawn with a sharp object (often the same writing) on a hard surface. Texts on the plaster of ancient buildings, mainly churches, are especially numerous and linguistically interesting. Currently, graffiti has been found on the walls of architectural monuments of many ancient Russian cities: Kyiv, Novgorod, Pskov, Staraya Ladoga, Vladimir, Smolensk, Polotsk, Staraya Ryazan, Galich South, etc. A large number of inscriptions made not only by representatives of princely-boyar and church circles , but also warriors, artisans, simple pilgrims, testifies to the widespread spread of literacy in Rus' already in the 11th-12th centuries. Important studies by historians and linguists have been devoted to ancient Russian graffiti (see, for example: Vysotsky S.A.
Kyiv graffiti of the XI-XVII centuries. Kyiv, 1985; Medyntseva A. A. Literacy in Ancient Rus': According to epigraphic monuments of the X - first half of the XIII century. M., 2000; Rozhdestvenskaya T.V. Old Russian inscriptions on the walls of churches: New sources of the 11th-15th centuries. St. Petersburg, 1992).
Rozhdestvenskaya identifies the following types of inscriptions: “prayer” inscriptions with the formula “Lord, help (remember, save, etc.)”, memorial inscriptions with a message about death (such is the entry in Sophia of Kyiv about the death of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise in 1054 ), autograph inscriptions (for example, the 12th and 13th centuries in the St. George Cathedral of the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod: “and behold Sozon?l the fierce..." - 'But the fierce Sozon wrote?, “Ivan?l with his left hand”), liturgical inscriptions ( biblical and liturgical quotations, repentant verses, etc.), “chronicle” or “event” inscriptions, inscriptions of a business content, inscriptions of a “literary” nature (for example, sayings from a translated translation quoted on the wall of Sophia of Kyiv in the second half - the end of the 11th century the monument “The Reasons of the Build of Barnabas the Unlikely,” known from manuscripts only from the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, date the appearance of this work in Rus' to no later than the second half of the 11th century), folklore inscriptions (proverbs, sayings, riddles, etc.), “ everyday" inscriptions (for example, from the 14th-15th centuries in the Church of Fyodor Stratelates in Novgorod: "about the priest priest, avoid drunkenness..." - "oh priest-priests, avoid drunkenness!?, "And(o)sav(e) with me I walked from the market and knocked me down, and I wrote it down?).
Some inscriptions have been carefully crossed out. One of them, from the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century, was dismantled from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. According to Medyntseva, this is a children’s counting song, but Rozhdestvenskaya connects the inscription with a pagan funeral rite: “(ako s)dite pyro(ge in) ovens, gridba in ships... pelepelka steam (and in) Dubrovo post(avi) porridge on ( st)avi pirogue tu [there. - V.K.] go.” As Rozhdestvenskaya notes, this rhythmic text is based on semantic parallelism, which is supported in syntactic structures and grammatical forms: pie (singular) - in the oven, grillba ‘druzhina? (units) - in the ship, quail (units) - in the oak forest. Some contemporary of the inscription carefully crossed it out and cursed the author, writing below: “Shrink your hands.”
Sometimes graffiti representing legal documents appeared on the walls of temples. On the wall of the Kyiv Sophia, the main temple of Kievan Rus, an inscription was made about the purchase by the widow of Prince Vsevolod Olgovich of the land that previously belonged to Boyan for the huge sum of 700 hryvnia sables. The inscription is drawn up according to the form of deeds of sale with the mention of witnesses-“rumors”: “... and before these rumors, buy all the land of the princess Boyanya...”. Vysotsky, who discovered the inscription, dated it to the second half of the 12th century and suggested that the sold land once had something to do with the famous poet-singer “prophetic” Boyan, who lived in the 11th century and was sung in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” According to a less probable assumption by B. A. Rybakov, the inscription dates back to the end of the 11th century and could have been made shortly after Boyan’s death. However, Rybakov emphasized that “the text of the graffito itself does not give us the right to identify Boyan the songwriter with Boyan the landowner.”
Glagolitic writing, invented by the first teacher of the Slavs, Saint Cyril, was not widespread in Ancient Rus' and was used only by skilled scribes. Not a single East Slavic Glagolitic book has survived to our time. Only eight surviving Cyrillic manuscripts from the 11th to 13th centuries contain individual Glagolitic words and letters. Meanwhile, Glagolitic and mixed Glagolitic-Cyrillic inscriptions of the 11th-12th centuries are known on the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedrals in Novgorod and Kyiv. One of them was scratched by the “fierce Sozon” in the first half of the 12th century, ending the above Cyrillic text with Glagolitic letters.
According to Rozhdestvenskaya, since most of the finds of Old Russian inscriptions with Glagolitic letters and Cyrillic manuscripts with Glagolitic “interspersed” belong to Novgorod and Northern Rus' (in Novgorod, for example, 10 graffiti of the 11th century have been preserved, and in Kiev 3), this suggests the existence of closer and independent connections of Novgorod in comparison with Kiev with the Glagolitic tradition and Glagolitic centers in Western Bulgaria, Macedonia and Moravia.
According to Rozhdestvenskaya’s observations, an important difference between epigraphic monuments and book texts is a freer attitude to book norms. Moreover, the degree of implementation of the book norm largely depends on the type of inscription. If in liturgical inscriptions the Church Slavonic language is more Russified compared to similar book texts, then in the inscriptions of secular content the language of narrative and business genres of Old Russian writing is reflected. Lively colloquial speech can be heard in a small rhymed mockery of the 11th-12th centuries, perhaps at a dozing choirboy or pilgrim in Sofia Novgorod: “Yakim, standing, sleeps and does not touch a stone.” “Yakim, standing, will fall asleep, but will not break his mouth on a stone (that is, will not disclose)?.
In graffiti inscriptions of all types there is no strict opposition between the Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages. At the same time, Novgorod inscriptions reflect the book's spelling norm more consistently than the birch bark letters. As for dialectal features, in this regard, graffiti, like epigraphy in general, is more restrained than birch bark letters, which is explained by the smaller volume of text and the stability of written formulas. Thus, the book language norm in epigraphy is more variable than in book texts, and less variable than in birch bark letters.
