A Discontinuation or a Preservation of the (Old) Belarusian Writing Tradition in the 18th Century? Contributions to the Discussion on the Development of the Literary Belarusian Language as Applied to Publications of the Basilian Printing Offices in Supraśl and Vilnius

Abstract

The article presents elements of simple speech, the 18^th century Ruthenian language, the testaments to which are the religious texts of that period published by the Basilian printing office in Supraśl (Sobranije pripadkov, 1722, Kratkoje soslovije, 1759, Pouczenije o obrjadach, 1788). The analysis of the Supraśl texts is supplemented by an analysis of a text published by the monastic printing office in Vilnius (Ecphonemata Liturgiey Greckiey 1671) in the Church Slavonic language but using the Latin script. Due to a variety of factors: whether political ones or scholarly stereotypes, religious texts were omitted in language research (on simple speech, Ruthenian language) and the Belarusian writing of the 18^th century. The linguistic features recorded therein point to the necessity of revising the axiom, popularised in the 1960s by prominent researchers of the Belarusian language: Arkadz Zhurausky and Ivan Kramko and upheld by other researchers, regarding the disappearance of the Old Belarusian language in the 18^th century. Their thesis was constructed on the basis of an analysis of the following factors: graphic, grammatical, orthographical, lexical, and those relating to genre. The crowning argument for the break in the continuity of tradition was an enumeration of specific features of the Old Belarusian writing which are absent in modern literary Belarusian. In accordance with the data obtained from the analysed Basilian publications, one ought to speak of an evolutionary character of the development of the literary Belarusian language.