Non-standard forms of saints’ names in Old East Slavic

Russian linguistics. 2023. Vol. 47. P. 123–139.

Budennaya E.

The paper discusses non-standard forms of Old East Slavic saints’ names, such as truncated forms like Vasilь and Dmitr instead of Vasilii and D(i)mitrii and variants like Jurьi, Mikula and Tudor instead of Georgii, Nikola and Fe(o)dor, respectively. Being previously treated as indications of somewhat lower rank in the social hierarchy, these forms sometimes refer to saints and highly ranking Church officials. The research into this non-standard usage of names is discussed in three contexts: 1) gospels and other canonical religious literature (truncated forms only), 2) names of medieval East Slavic cities and calendar holidays derived from saints’ names (both truncated forms and forms like Jurьi, Mikula and Tudor), 3) informal graffiti-inscriptions. The analysis demonstrates the complex nature of the truncated forms, which, according to the genre of the text, can be attributed either to one of several possible interpretations of Greek names (in the case of canonical literature) or to the East Slavic vernacular character (city and holiday names). The latter context brings them close to forms like Jurьi, Mikula and Tudor, which perform a similar function.

Keywords: древнерусский язык, Old East Slavic, saints, святые, Christian name, hypocorism, христианское имя, гипокористика

Publication based on the results of: Русские имена в исторической перспективе (2023)