SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENITIVE OF VERBAL NOUNS IN 15th–16th CENTURY-MANUSCRIPT FROM WESTERN RUSSIA

There are numerous forms of the genitive case of verbal nouns in the 15th–16th century Kormčaya from Kharkov that coincide with the accusative case (Gen = Acc): bezъ ob̾shchenije, ot svoego iměnje, cěnu izbavlenje. Such forms with the ending -е instead of -а refl ect the phonetic phenomenon — |е| instead of |а|, or rather |a| → |e| in the fi nal open syllable after |j|. Both scribes of the Kharkov Kormčaya use Gen = Acc of verbal nouns on a par with the usual genitive form. Therefore, we may assume that the phonetic phenomenon was fi xed in a particular grammatical form of nouns of one class and P = V became a variant mainly used by scribes and entered the usus. Gen = Acc of verbal nouns is found in other manuscripts of XII–XVII centuries; usually there is only a small number of these forms, and they refl ect |е| instead of |а|. The exceptions are the manuscripts of Pskov of the 15th century, which was described by N. M. Karinsky. The Kharkov Kormčaya was also written in the western part of the East Slavic territory; the manuscript contains numerous western dialectal features. Thus, the Gen = Acc of verbal nouns is predominantly found in manuscripts of Western and Northwestern origin.