Euchologion

The analysis of the content, structural and lexical-semantic features of the Macedonian euchologia from 15th to 18th century confirms that this is an extremely important linguistic material, which offers the opportunity for further analysis of various aspects related to the text of the Euhologion. The first chapter of this book comprises an analysis of the lexicon of the euchologia dated from 15th to 18th century regarding the lexical semantic aspect, in order to determine its main features, having in mind all its diversity. The lexemes are grouped on the basis of the common semantic feature into 11 basic lexical-semantic groups. Based on the detailed analysis of the lexicon of euchologia of Macedonian origin from 15th and 18th, we came to rich data on the lexical layers embodied in them, from a territorial and chronological aspect. These observations are presented within the second chapter. The third chapter examines the word-formation features of the euchologia, thus analyzing the basic word-formation types represented in the analyzed euchologia, on the aspect of their productivity, their function, i.e. their semantic capacity, as well as the innovations that distinguish them from other compared texts. The fourth chapter explores the lexical synonymy in medieval euchologia, which we found is complementary to the notion of synonymy in Church Slavic literacy, as a testimony to the rich expressive capacity of the Church Slavic language.

Subject of interest are the medieval euchologia regarding their genre and structural features. The structure of the Sinai Euhologion does not match to the other euchologia, which is why it is supposed to contain the original Cyril and Methodius tradition characteristic for the Ohrid literary center. The structure and the language of the euchologia vary especially in the period between 15th and 18th century, which the analysis of our basic euchologia also confirms (МII5 and M10 from 15th century, НБКМ621 and НБКМ622 from 17th century and MII6 from 18th century). Namely, we found that all these euchologia are different by their composition and order of prayers and services, i.е. not one of the euchologia matches to another completely, neither to the Slavonic prototype. However, some parts of certain prayers are repeated almost identically, although maybe placed on various places within the selected euchologia. Such specific and various structure contributes to specific language and stylistic features of the euchologia.
Keywords: Church Slavonic language, Euchologia (Books of Prayers), genre and structural features

Роднинската терминологија во македонските средновековни требници, КИРИЛОМЕТОДИЕВИСТИКА 8 (2014), Скопје 2014, 69‒85.
Names for persons based on their family, relative, marital relations are a semantic category representing one of the oldest lexical layers and they name the person by its kinship relations. The most important prayers and rites within the structure of Macedonian medieval Euchologia are those concerning the Christian religious services, like: baptizing, wedding ceremony, funeral, confession etc. These prayers and rites contain most of the kinship terms. Their contents clearly depict the medieval family structure and relations, as well as rules of conduct among the family members, which in that period were prescribed by the church.
The analysis of the kinship terminology in Macedonian medieval Euchologia provides information on the precise semantic realizations of lexemes, the lexical and semantic changes of this system, as well as their origin. Occurrence of synonymic forms can be also perceived, as well as the word formation variety resulting from the continuous process of filling the archaic Slavonic lexical fund with new words by means of new methods of word derivation.
Keywords: medieval Euchologia, Church Slavonic lexis, kinship terminology.

This multi­authored article presents a new project to study Byzantine prayer books (euchologia) by a team of scholars at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The long­term aim of the project is to create a census of all extant prayer book manuscripts for the use of priests in Greek up to the year 1650, in order to facilitate the study of the ‘occasional prayers’ as sources for daily life and social history. After an extended introduction to the history of scholarship and the methodological challenges encoun­tered in the first three years of the project, the first two individual contributions highlight the importance of manuscript study in situ, by addressing issues of codicology and the history of manuscripts as evidenced in the liturgical commemorations they contain. The following three contributions demonstrate the value of the ‘small prayers’ as a largely untapped historical source through the study of prayers for changing religious affiliation, prayers for female purity in conjunction with childbirth, and prayers in the context of primary education.

Subject of our interest are the lexical layers in the medieval Euchologia.
The variability of Euchologia regarding their structure and language is typical for the period between 15th and 18th centuries. They differ in the composition and order of prayers and services, so not one of the Euchologia matches to another completely, nor to the Slavonic prototype, although some prayers are very similar. Such specific and various structure brings specific language and stylistic features to the Euchologia, especially to the lexicon. The analysis of the lexical system shows use of Graecisms, Moravisms, archaic and new lexemes, i.e. lexical variants etc.
Keywords: church Slavic language, Euchologia, lexical system,
Graecisms, Moravisms, archaisms, innovations, lexical variants

Abstract: Subject of our interest is the geographic terminology in the medieval euchologia (book of needs) dated from 15th to 18th century, classified in several semantical sub-fields: names for waters and related object; names for bulging, hilly terrains; names for hollow terrains, valleys; names for vegetative morphology forms; general names for land. Most of this lexis is from Slavic origin, including archaic lexis confirmed in other Old Slavic manuscripts, i.e. Church Slavic texts, and some innovations as well. The registered synonymic pairs confirm the richness of the lexis of this field, together with the word-formation variants. Some of the names for geographic terms are part of various phrases, usually denoting abstract theological conceptions, or specialized terminological units or certain toponyms.
Keywords: Church Slavic language, Euchologion, lexis, geographic terminology.

Subject of our interest is the abstract lexis in the medieval Euchologia, which generally belongs to the field of theology, and is due to the Old Testimony and New Testimony readings included in certain prayers and services. This lexical field is related to religion, Jesus Christ, Mother of God and other saints, cult and rituals, divine features, church sacraments etc. The abstract lexis related to moral and ethics is more frequent in the rites of religious profession, i.e. redemption prayers, while certain general abstract terms belong to philosophy. The analysis of abstract lexis, despite Slavic lexis, confirms presence of Graecisms as well, archaic versus innovated lexis, i.e. lexical variants etc.