East Slavic lexemes in the Slavic translation of Scholia in orationes Gregorii Nazianzeni by Nicetas of Heracleia

The oldest Slavic translation of Scholia in orationes Gregorii Nazianzeni by Nicetas of Heracleia, made in the late 11th — early 12th century, belongs to the type of translated texts in which the East Slavic language features coexist with the South Slavic. The language of the Scholia differs significantly from both the first Slavic translation of the Orationes, and his elder redaction undertaken after the translation of the Scholia. Despite the fact that the Slavic translation of the Scholia was early combined with the Orationes of Gregory, and the monument existed in this form for centuries, the scribes made no attempt to harmonize the language of these two texts, so that even corresponding word forms in Orationes and Scholia (in the instances when Nicetas cites Gregory’s text literally) preserve their original difference. It is highly probable, therefore, that other (invariable) lexical features of the Scholia also belong to the archetype of the translation. These include a considerable amount of various East Slavic lexemes, which reveal a link between the literary tradition to which the translator of the Scholia adhered, and the Old Russian literary practice. Of special interest for the estimation of this tradition are certain South Slavic lexemes found in the text, which were not very common in South Slavic written language and usually were not used in original Old Russian texts.