The Life of Basil the Younger in comparison with the linguistic division of the pre-Mongol translations from Greek

This paper examines the elder translation of the Life of St. Basil the Younger in the lexical aspect. The focus of attention is the translation of some lexical units that are relevant for the division of the Church Slavonic translations on the basis of lexical criterion and of the features of the translation techniques, such as the translation of certain Greek words (k)osmoq, monogen)hq, akolouy)ew, pl6hyoq, ponhr)oq, eiq m)athn, 4eteroq, d6hyen), Greek borrowings, lexical doublets, the specificity of the transfer of the place names, the meaning of the root mъlv-. The obtained data are compared with the data of the Old Bulgarian translations and also with the data of the group of the East Slavonic translations (such as the Alexandria, the Life of St. Andrew the Fool, the Pčela, the History of the Jewish war, the Typikon of Alexios the Studite), as well as with the data of the group of the translations combining East Slavic and South Slavic regionalisms (such as the Chronicle of George Hamartolos, the Pandektes of Nikon of the Black Mountain, the Prologos-Synaxarion, the commentaries on the Gospels of Theophylact of Bulgaria). Together with the predominance of the regional elements in the Life of Basil the Younger, typical for the East Slavic translations, one can also find similarities with the translations, combining East Slavonic and South Slavonic elements in their structure. The specific position of this translation among the others is determined by its early appearance in the Old Russian literary tradition (the end of the 11th century) and, as a consequence, by its orientation to the strict Church Slavonic standard, especially on the New Testament usage.