Petrova Yulia

Lexis of slavonic origin in Paul of Aleppo's Journal

Abstract

This article deals with those words and expressions from Slavic languages (mainly Church Slavonic and Russian) that are found in the famous Journal by Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo (1627–1669), known as The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch. The study is based on the part of the Arabic text that covers Patriarch Macarius’s stay in Russia and Ukraine in 1654–1656 (fol. 64r–262r of Paris manuscript Arabe 6016). The foreign vocabulary was widely used by Paul of Aleppo in his travel notes to refer to specifi c realia of East-European countries visited by Patriarch Macarius and his retinue, as well as to add the local colour to the narrative. As can be seen from the textological data, the author had much more interest in the linguistic aspects of the Slavic culture compared to other foreign languages, and he made eff orts to refl ect them in his Journal. This was facilitated by a certain level of knowledge of Russian and Church Slavonic acquired during his travels. In our analysis of the Slavic vocabulary found in the manuscript we proceed following such criteria as motivated vs. non-motivated borrowing (equivalence vs. non-equivalence of foreign words), systematic vs. occasional usage, thematic spheres, morphological adaptation to the structure of the Arabic language. Functional features of some high-frequency lexemes have been analysed as well as the infl uence of the Greek language on the loanwords found in the Christian Middle Arabic (exemplifi ed by hybrid forms resulted from the combination of Slavic stems with Greek suffi xes). We have come to the conclusion that the majority of Slavic words found in the manuscript should be viewed as occasionalisms, since only a few of them came to be assimilated by the Arabic vocabulary as non-equivalent exotisms.

Keywords

Paul of Aleppo, travels of the Patriarch of Antioch Macarius III, Christian Middle Arabic, language contacts, loanwords, Slavic languages vocabulary, non-equivalent vocabulary, exoticisms, barbarisms, morphological adaptation

References

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Information about the author

Petrova Yulia

Academic Degree: Candidate of Sciences* in Philology;
Place of work: A. Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; 4 Grushevskogo str., Kiev 01001, Ukraine;
ORCID: 0000-0002-5130-232X;
Email: j.arabic2011@gmail.com.

*According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, the degree of Candidate of Sciences (Cand.Sc.) belongs to ISCED level 8 — "doctoral or equivalent", together with PhD, DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate or similar.