Rare Words and Hapax Legomena in Homiliary Gospels of Constantine of Preslav Cover Image

Редки думи и хапакси в Учително евангелие на Константин Преславски
Rare Words and Hapax Legomena in Homiliary Gospels of Constantine of Preslav

Author(s): Zheny Zhikova
Subject(s): History, Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Cultural history, Middle Ages, South Slavic Languages, 6th to 12th Centuries, Philology
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Constantine of Preslav; Didactic Gospel (Homiliary); Rare Words; Hapax Legomena; Old Bulgarian

Summary/Abstract: This paper is dedicated to rare words and hapax legomena used in the Didactic Gospel (Homiliary) of Constantine of Preslav, a medieval Bulgarian writer and translator, one of the most important men of letters working at the Preslav Literary School at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. The lexemes are given in the form of dictionary articles. Being “rare” is considered every word attested in up to fi ve sources apart from the Didactic Gospel (according to the lexicographical sources used as well as indices of words of published medieval sources and the research of the author of this paper). These rare words are viewed in the context of writings that are regarded as originating from the Old Bulgarian period (late 9th–11th c.) but surviving in later copies. As a result of this largescale comparison, it is established with which Old Bulgarian texts Constantine’s Homiliary shows the greatest lexical proximity.