M a t e r i a l i e d i s c u s s i o n i
Studi Slavistici xi (2014): 171-181
Raffaele Caldarelli
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts.
Some Remarks on a Recent Paper by Salvatore Del Gaudio
In a recent paper written on the occasion of the 15th International Congress of Slavists,
Salvatore Del Gaudio tackled the problem of linguistic relations (mainly at a lexical level)
between Latin (later Romance) and Slavic. His article contributes some interesting data
and ideas concerning the ethnic and historical context and provides a good opportunity
for a reflection on the possibility of using different tools in research concerning the past of
South-Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, the paper is much less solid, at least in my opinion,
from the linguistics point of view.
For the sake of clarity, I’ll divide my observations into five points:
1. Author’s introductory remarks and the state of the art
Maybe the main cause of dissent lies in the first paragraphs. The author says (Del
Gaudio 2013: 49):
Latin elements are primarily investigated in Church Slavonic textual sources, also as a
consequence of a lack of written evidence in the early Slavic vernaculars. For this reason,
in the literature, the early Latin borrowings are often associated with the appearance of
Slavic writing and the formation of the distinct Slavic languages.
However ethno-linguistic research on ancient toponymy, along with archaeological evi-
dence, has demonstrated the fallacy of such an assumption.
According to the author, then:
a. until now, scholars have (at least “primarily”) investigated Latin borrowings in the
first Slavic written documents, especially Old Church Slavonic1 (hereinafter: OCS);
b. research on ancient toponymy etc., along with archaeological evidence, can contrib-
ute new, useful data;
c. we can then obtain entirely new results in the field of Latin (Protoromance?)-Slavic
linguistic relations.
1
To be precise: the author speaks of “Church Slavonic”.
© 2014 Firenze University Press – issn 1824-7601 (online)
172 Raffaele Caldarelli
That such disciplines as those mentioned in point b above can contribute useful data, is
true2. By contrast, however, it is not true that the problem of Romance-Slavic pre-documen-
tary linguistic relations has not been investigated. There is a considerable amount of bibliog-
raphy on this subject3. Pre-documentary relations were and are investigated with the usual
tools of historical linguistics, first of all the comparative ones. To deny this possibility is tanta-
mount to saying that pre-documentary linguistic stages cannot be investigated at all. Nor can
archeological or toponymic data replace the comparative method (though they can comple-
ment it). Why then do we only know a relatively small number of borrowings of Romance
origin that we can treat as Protoslavic4? Because linguistic comparison does not provide us
with sufficient linguistic evidence to prove such deep, extended loan relations; probably, such
deep relations simply did not exist. Moreover, I do not think it is methodologically correct to
infer wide lexical relations5 from data that are insufficient and partly contradictory.
In addition, the following passage (Del Gaudio 2013: 50) is somewhat unclear to me:
For this reason an approach to this topic can only follow if we examine the problem ac-
cording to two main directions: one that deals with the presumed “direct” oral contacts;
the other that assumes the cultural mediation of other languages. Nonetheless an over-
lapping of the two approaches is conceivable, due to the practical difficulty of operating
a clear-cut distinction between two aspects of the same issue. The oral contacts can be
distinguished as: a) pre-historic contacts; b) historic contacts.
What we really find here (leaving aside what is said in the last line, certainly true,
but rather self-evident) is an unjustified overlapping of two quite different problems: a) is
the contact popular/oral or cultural/bookish?; b) is the contact direct or not? A popular
but indirect contact (i.e. with mediation) is quite conceivable, and, for instance, “oral”
Romance-Slavic contacts through Gothic mediation are attested in several cases.
2. Periodization and the like
Like every scholar wanting to shed light on Slavic pre-documentary linguistic devel-
opment and the earliest phase of the documentation, Del Gaudio is concerned here with
2
It is generally well known that the study of hydronymy has been used for a long time with
reference to the problem of the first Slavic homeland; cf. Shevelov 1964: 20.
3
See for instance Meillet 1902: 179-187; Lehr-Spławiński 1929; Bernštejn 1961: 100; Shevelov
1964: 621 (and elsewhere); Boček 2010; Id. 2014: 343-357.
4
Let’s also note that, notwithstanding the author’s suggestion to the contrary, many among
these borrowings come to Slavic through the mediation of other languages (especially Germanic,
first of all Gothic); cf. Bernštejn 1961: 100.
5
Even less convincing is the attempt made by Mario Enrietti to demonstrate the strong in-
fluence of Protoromance and Old Romance dialects on Protoslavic (especially at the level of syllable
structure). I hold firm to my criticism for the reasons I illustrated in Caldarelli 2012. On the lively
debate between the Turin slavist and myself, see note 11.
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts 173
certain problems involved in defining and periodizing Protoslavic. What he says on this
subject is basically acceptable. Personally I would not say that “the Slavic peoples and their
Proto-Slavic ancestors were present in Eastern Europe from at least the first millennium
b.c.” (Del Gaudio 2013: 52). Moreover: I do not think it is possible to demonstrate any-
thing about the Slavic peoples or their ancestors for such early periods; but naturally these
problems remain open. Del Gaudio himself correctly acknowledges (ibid.: 51) that we are
mainly dealing with “theories of a speculative nature”; he is right also when he points to
the importance of the investigation of hydronymy, toponymy and the like and I also agree
on the importance of research into ethnogenesis, at least as long as it is based on solid
and verifiable data. What he says on the original homeland of the Slavs is acceptable too.
It is highly likely that Slavs, starting from an area located on the middle Dnieper (maybe
quite close to the Pripet marshes?), moved towards the central Danube (Holzer 2006)6
and further on to their later settlements. But on the subject of protolanguages, I have two
objections: a) it is a rough and partly misleading simplification to say (Del Gaudio 2013:
52): “The concept of Proto-Slavic in fact is a theoretical abstraction, since unlike Latin, in
relation to the Romance languages, Proto-Slavic was never recorded”. Although the latter
statement on Protoslavic is undoubtedly true, here the author fails to take into account a
very long and lively debate on the relations between literary Latin / Vulgar Latin / Proto-
romance7 etc.; b) (which for us is the main point): although it is true that “the concept
of Proto-Slavic is in fact a theoretical abstraction” (Del Gaudio 2013: 52, words already
quoted) and “the concept of Proto-System has been repeatedly questioned” (ibid.: 52, n.
10)8, the author seems close to completely denying the real value of the protolanguage as a
scientific tool. Protolanguage is a way of expressing a complex set of genetic relations (and
the only possibility to do so), notwithstanding the difficulty of a historical interpretation
of the construct. However, it is a complete mistake to quote Georg Holzer among the ad-
versaries of the heuristic possibilities of Protoslavic since he defends exactly the opposite
opinion (Holzer 1996, 1998, 2006). Holzer firmly believes in the possibility of, and the
need for, a rigorous reconstruction of protolanguages. Only after this technical operation
is it worth investigating the historical frame in which we can include this construct (he ac-
cepts the concern with the problems of ethnogenesis and the like; he also indicates a very
6
I’d only be a little more cautious on the allegedly frequent mentions of the Danube “in
ancient Slavic songs, folklore, rituals etc.” (Del Gaudio 2013: 51). Dunaj and the like often refer to
something different from the huge river nowadays known as the Danube. Such is clearly the case in
Igor’s tale; see Saronne’s remarks in Saronne 1998: 233.
7
See for instance Tagliavini 1982: 209-266 (operating entirely without the concept of “Pro-
toromance”) and, for a totally different approach, Hall 1950.
8
But there is a huge difference between the situation in the field of ie linguistics and what
the Slavist has to deal with. Where is a unitary ie reconstructed morphology? I think we only really
have just fragments of a picture here. But a Protoslavic reconstructed morphology does exist, with a
good degree of coherence.
174 Raffaele Caldarelli
precise chronological position for Protoslavic, i.e. around 600 a.d., cf. Holzer 1998: 57-58).
There is certainly a relation between the older stages of Slavic linguistic development and
later periods. But to speak of continuity without a clear vision of what is common and what
is not, is misleading.
3. Older stages of Slavic linguistic history
I think this concept of continuity, which in my opinion is not very clear, may lead to a
number of misunderstandings. Such is the case with the alleged isoglosses (V.V. Martynov)
linking Italic and Slavic. This idea undoubtedly deserves a discussion, which cannot be
held here. Anyway it couldn’t be rejected a priori. Baltic can also be involved in the discus-
sion, although it is far from clear which position it may occupy in this frame of linguistic
relations. The author fails to quote a key study on the prehistoric relations between Latin
and Slavic (Pohl 1977), but I think this is not the main problem. There is rather a fallacy
in the author’s reasoning, i.e. (again) the confusion between chronological phases that are
quite different. If there effectively was solidarity between (the linguistic ancestors of ) Italic
(including Latin) and Slavic, say in the second millennium b.c. or at the beginning of the
first millennium B.C. what has it to do with historical or socio-linguistics problems relat-
ing to the second century b.c.-second century a.d.? These are completely different ques-
tions. Even if Martynov and others are right in pointing to early (clearly prehistoric; say,
in the first millennium b.c.) Italic-Slavic relations, chronologically prior to Irano-Slavic
(Scythic; around the end of the first millennium b.c.), this in no way excludes the pos-
sibility of a wave of later Iranian influence (Sarmato-Alanic? first centuries a.d.) which
may well, in turn, have had a chronological priority over a further historical wave of Latin
(Romance) influences and eventually borrowings (last centuries of the Roman Empire /
age immediately after its fall). Why then say (Del Gaudio 2013: 51): “He [i.e. Trubačev]
dates the beginning of the first Slavic-Italic (Proto-Latin) contacts (and not Slavic-Iranian)
to a very early period”? Finally, I don’t understand why, as proof of Roman-Slavic military
and diplomatic contacts, he quotes “a few conflicts … between the Sarmats and the Roman
legions of the Danube area” (ibid.: 55). Sarmato-Alans are a very important presence in the
frame of this complex ethnic system. Clearly they had relations with the Slavs9, but equally
clearly they were not Slavs.
4. Linguistics, history, ethnogenesis. On the ethno-linguistic situation in South-Eastern
Europe, 200 b.c.-200/300 a.d. and later
Modern linguistic research on our problem starts with the contribution of Antoine
Meillet, who, though partly outdated, still deserves to be read (Meillet 1902: 179-187), as
does the whole of this great scholar’s scientific work. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński (1929) tried
9
On the problem of the Iranian influences on the Slavs see particularly Reczek 1991 (esp.
10-11 on ethnical relations mentioned above).
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts 175
to increase the number of possible Latin borrowings in Protoslavic. He also proposed an
interesting criterion for the distinction between direct borrowings and words that could
come to the Slavic area through Germanic mediation. His criterion is based on prosod-
ic considerations; though not always fully reliable, this criterion has the merit of being
grounded in the search for an objective solution in a field where the temptation of arbitrary
assertions is always present10. However, nowadays some of Lehr’s propositions seem unten-
able. The attempt to investigate Latin and/or Protoromance borrowings in Protoslavic was
never abandoned by modern research. It goes without saying that there is a great variety
of opinions. I’ve already mentioned the rather extreme position of Mario Enrietti, who
admits not only large loan relations but even a deep Romance structural influence on Pro-
toslavic11. On the other hand, several much more cautious positions do exist. For instance,
Luciano Rocchi in his well documented work (Rocchi 1990) investigates Romance bor-
rowings in South Slavic languages and clearly states that there is a very limited number of
Romance borrowings in Protoslavic. In the great etymological dictionary directed by the
late O. Trubačev only a few among currently proposed borrowings are accepted as pos-
sibly belonging to the “praslavjanskij leksičeskij fond”12. I think we can say that, although
the question of the Romance lexical influence remains open13 (indeed, opinions on the
relevance of Romance lexical influence on Slavic vary), it is safer to assume a rather limited
number of borrowings. Leaving aside the quantitative question, I cannot agree in particular
with Del Gaudio’s opinion that there was a significant amount of early direct borrowings
from Romance to Slavic (i.e. without the intermediate role of any other language such as
Gothic). Firstly, there are too many phonological problems to think systematically of such
a borrowing process (I repeat: an early and direct one). I’ll quote here just the example of
ocĭtŭ, “vinegar”. If it has come from lat. acētum (naturally through a Protoromance stage),
10
Lehr’s attempt could be usefully discussed today, after the progress undoubtedly made in
the investigation of Slavic prosody by P. Garde, V.A. Dybo and others.
11
Basing himself initially on Bonfante’s suggestions, Enrietti has largely developed the idea
of very intimate loan relations from Romance to Slavic. See Boček 2014: 348-353 for the debate
between Enrietti and myself (the Czech linguist criticizes Enrietti’s opinion, then points to a lack of
sufficient theoretical frame concerning contact linguistics, in both Enrietti and myself ).
12
Trubačev seemed particularly restrictive in this regard (not without good reason, in my
opinion). See however Trubačev, Žuravlev 1974-, x: 134-135 for *kolęda, maybe the most certain
direct borrowing. The Romance origin of South Slavic kračun, proposed by Miklosich and ac-
cepted e.g. by Rosetti 1986: 270, is now currently rejected. The lexeme (Protoslavic, also attested
in Novgorod) has a quite different origin, see Fasmer 1986-1987, ii: 336, s.v. koročun. It is worth
remarking that even in the case of an old direct borrowing so widely accepted as *čeršĭna (Trubačev,
Žuravlev 1974-, iv: 78-79; see 77-78 for *čerša), Trubačev does not exclude the hypothesis of a direct
derivation from Indo-European in the Black Sea area (Georgiev-Hamp), although in the end he
prefers the hypothesis of borrowing. Sometimes we have to face particularly complex problems, as
for sr.-cr. lòćika < lat. lactūca, old but not Protoslavic according to Skok 1972: 312.
13
For the state of the art see Boček 2010; Id. 2014: 343-357.
176 Raffaele Caldarelli
we have to face two important problems, concerning vocalism (why Prsl ĭ < lat. ē?) and
consonantism (why Prsl c [ts] < Lat. [k] – the primary phonetic value of the Latin graph-
eme <c>?) respectively. I’ll restrict myself to briefly tackling the second issue. In the case of
alleged direct borrowing from Romance to Slavic we can, according to the frame proposed
by the author, only think of a contact in the Danube region. When? There is only one
possible answer: after the first Slavic palatalisation (or else we’d have *očĭtŭ) and before the
second. But this reasoning implies that we would be dealing with a Romance form still
displaying a fairly well preserved velar shortly before the date of the second palatalisation.
Then we are forced to think of some Romance dialect similar to the ancestor of Dalmatian,
spoken in a region where fairly profound contacts with Slavic could have taken place. It is
not impossible a priori 14, but it is, I think, highly improbable. Through these areal con-
siderations we come to the second problem. Such speculations as Del Gaudio’s, though
certainly legitimate, presuppose a strong presence of the Romance element not far from
Pannonia (better also in Pannonia). It seems to me that this is tantamount to accepting
the theory of Romance continuity in Dacia, but this is another fairly controversial point15.
I’ve already recognized that, notwithstanding shortcomings on the linguistic side16,
Del Gaudio’s paper gives a fairly interesting picture of the situation in Southeast Europe
(especially near the Black Sea) around 250 b.c.-250 a.d. and later. He’s certainly right in
saying that Latin was well known even on the Greek side of the Jireček line17. His com-
ments on the toponymic elements of Latin (Romance) originating in the Black Sea region18
as well as on the traces of the Roman monetary system are interesting. Basing his assertions
mainly on Magocsi 2010 and others (especially on Ukrainian historiography at home and
abroad, but also quoting a rich historical bibliography in Russian and English), Del Gau-
14
The possibility of a later palatalization of velars in Balkan Romance is indeed taken into
account by some scholars, cf. Tagliavini 1982: 244, 367-368. Yet it seems improbable that velars
could still be pronounced entirely without palatalization at such a late date, cf. also Shevelov 1964:
251 (see also 633).
15
The continuity of Romance settlement in Dacia is livelily defended by Sala 2009: 15-23.
Usually a more cautious position prevails, cf. for instance Shevelov 1964: 159.
16
In a fairly long paper, it is surely normal to find some inaccuracies. However, here some falla-
cies in technical details are annoying enough, and they should be amended in a possible resumption of
the research: a) Ancient Greek is graphically stressed monotonically, like Modern Greek since 1982; of
course with no breathing marks at all; k is systematically replaced by c; b) Del Gaudio 2013: 55, n.18: what
does the author mean by: “This root [i.e.: Common Slavic *vent-] is the superlative of the adjective [my
italics] ‘tall’”?; c) there is no slavist named Borys Wiesław; the person referred to is the well known Polish
slavist Wiesław (first name) Boryś (family name), author of the Słownik Etymologiczny Języka Polskiego
published in 2005 (and editor, with J. Rusek, of the volume here referred to under Holzer 1998).
17
This does not change the fact that the bulk of the Latin borrowings in Slavic is clearly
mediated through Greek (on the contrary, it rather confirms it).
18
As to the toponyms with the lexeme Trojan-/Trajan-, Del Gaudio correctly acknowledges
that there are also alternative explanations. Cf. Gieysztor 1982: 126-127.
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts 177
dio underlines the strong Roman influence, contributing several interesting historical data.
He is fairly convincing in asserting that, for a long time, the Black Sea was a kind of mare
nostrum. But can we be sure that this influence had a great impact in terms of linguistic
influence (especially of immediate, direct linguistic influence)? Inferences drawn from the
supposed close correspondence between linguistic and ethnic (or political) data are always
dubious19. Once again, I think we would need more ascertainable linguistic data to draw
such conclusions. Moreover: a strong Roman influence seems to be well documented in
the Black Sea region mainly between the third century b.c. and the third century a.d.,
but the Slavic element became really important in South-Eastern Europe around 500-600
a.d., i.e in a world that had changed completely.20. One thing is sure: late Greek borrowed
a significant number of Latin words. The author is right in saying that “the most copious
categories of loan-words belonged to the military, the government-administrative (state)
and juridical spheres” (Del Gaudio 2013: 57). The rest is much more difficult to ascertain, as
Del Gaudio himself correctly recognizes in the preceding lines: “The exact degree of Latin
influence on the languages spoken in the former Eastern regions of the Roman Empire
and in the border areas is difficult to estimate with any certainty”. Here below I shall try to
explain my dissent concerning Del Gaudio’s treatment of some ocs words, partly of Latin
origin, partly of different provenance.
5. Was there a strong Latin lexical influence on ocs?
In the final part of his paper, Del Gaudio extends his investigation to ocs. He attempts
to demonstrate an alleged continuity Prsl.-ocs as to the Romance influence21. He quotes
Pogorelov (Del Gaudio 2013: 64) on possible Latin syntactic influence on the ocs text
of the Gospel. Then he underlines (ibid.: 65) a “great frequency of Latin words in Mark”
[which] “has sometimes been used as an argument for a Roman provenance of the Gospel”.
Pogorelov’s remarks are certainly interesting and important for the study of ocs syntax,
but not as to ocs vocabulary. However, they have nothing to do with any possible conclu-
sion on lexical influence at the level of spoken language; and the frequency of Latinisms
in Mark’s Greek text has clearly no relation with Cyril and his way of working (see below).
In Del Gaudio 2013: 66-67 we find a table presenting eleven examples of words from
the ocs version of Mark according to Zographensis. Leaving aside the real need to choose
only Mark’s text, this table fails to prove the author’s point. The four columns contain
19
See for instance the history of the usa or Brazil, not to speak of the current situation in
Ukraine.
20
The well known theory of (Common) Slavic as lingua franca of the Avar empire (cf. Hol-
zer 2006: 47-48) also points to a quite different situation.
21
After pleading for pre-documentary relations to be investigated, here the author discusses
an ocs text much more extensively than he did before as to comparative data relevant for pre-docu-
mentary epoch. Naturally this would not matter if he came to solid conclusions, but in my opinion
this is not the case.
178 Raffaele Caldarelli
respectively: the Latin form of the word, then Greek, Gothic and ocs. Here we find quite
different situations. First I’ll exclude vino from my considerations, a word already discussed
by Lehr-Spławiński (1929: 708) but long recognized (cf. Fasmer 1986-1987, i: 316-317) as an
old substratum word and/or as a typical Wanderwort, which makes its treatment as a bor-
rowing too problematic to allow any certain conclusion. We then have five words (pěnędzĭ,
tepŭ, spo˛domĭ, stĭklě, voinŭ) the etymon of which has nothing to do with Latin or Greek22.
As to the rest, we have at least three clear cases of Greek mediation (kinsŭ, kenŭturionŭ,
legeonŭ) where it is impossible in my opinion to see old direct borrowings caused by a
situation of bilingualism and contacts in spoken language23 (less clear is the situation for
prětorŭ/pretorŭ, Hauptová 1966-1997, iii: 254, 495, which, however, can hardly be consid-
ered outside this contact frame)24.
What Del Gaudio (2013: 68) has to say about kesarĭ / cěsarĭ is equally unconvincing.
That kesarĭ is a bookish loanword is certainly true. But as to cěsarĭ, the hypothesis of a
direct Protoromance-Protoslavic borrowing involves too many difficulties. For the initial
consonant, we are up against the same phonetic difficulty already met in ocĭtŭ. Some think
here of an intermediate Gothic stage (Shevelov 1964: 137); others propose different expla-
nations. I would also like to point out that, if we assume that Slavic borrowed the continu-
ation of *c(a)esar(em) from Balkan Romance, it is rather difficult to explain why Romanian
has împărat, continuing a quite different lexeme.
I think Del Gaudio’s approach fails to take into account the historical position of
Cyril and his way of working. Cyril’s purpose was to render the whole of Greek lexicon into
Slavic as effectively as possible (naturally he also faced difficulties concerning morphosyn-
tax). Borrowings from Latin also belong to the Greek lexicon , but I see no trace of any par-
ticular treatment of this group. A word-for-word translation was inconceivable for Cyril,
due to his excellent literary and linguistic culture; for the same reason, a passive rendering
of foreign vocabulary was inconceivable too. When he could, he created new words merely
on Slavic material, as in the case of sŭtĭnikŭ (Hauptová 1966-1997, iv: 356). Anyway, Cyril
did not replace Latin centurio with the Slavic morpho-semantic calque sŭtĭnikŭ; he trans-
lated the Greek word ϰεντουρίων (borrowed from Latin centurio) with a morpho-semantic
calque based on genuine Slavic material, just as he often did. The problem of the coexis-
tence of genuine Slavic words and Greek (including Greek-Latin) words is undoubtedly an
22
I could not find tepŭ in Hauptová 1966-1997 and Cejtlin et al. 1994, and nor can any relat-
ed form be found in Havlová et al. 1989- or Fasmer 1986-1987. Zogr for ξέστης in Mc 7,8 has krŭčagŭ,
while stĭklěnica (not stĭklě) translates ποτήριον: cf. Cejtlin et al. 1994: 296, 633. Pěnędzĭ is a loanword
from Germanic, which probably dates back to Protoslavic, cf. Havlová et al. 1989-, xi: 638-639. A
derivation from lat. pondus for spo˛dŭ (not Instr. spo˛domĭ), proposed by Miklosich, is now currently
rejected, cf. Havlová et al. 1989-, xiv: 865-866. For voinŭ (once again, neither a Latin loanword, nor
in any way connected with Latin), cf. Fasmer 1986-1987, i: 334-335, s.v. voin.
23
Cf. Havlová et al. 1989-, v: 308, s.v. k’inŭsŭ; 308, s.v. k’enŭturionŭ; 406, s.v. leg’eonŭ.
24
In fact Havlová et al. 1989-, xii: 702, s.v. pretorŭ, asserts once more Greek mediation.
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts 179
old and difficult one. Jagić (1913: 299) already pointed out the complexity of the situation.
Now, we know even better that an older calque translation was often replaced later by a
loanword (this often happened in connection with the Preslav revision). However, in my
opinion, the terms of the problem remain two, not three: Slavic and Greek.
Research into foreign elements in Old Slavic (in all its different forms, including re-
costructed protolanguage) remains an essential part of Slavic studies. Ethnolinguistic and,
generally speaking, historical considerations can certainly contribute useful data. In this
sense, Del Gaudio’s attempt is welcome; but I think it is also necessary to avoid chrono-
logical and methodological misunderstandings, and to be aware of the complexity of the
problems we face.
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On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts 181
Abstract
Raffaele Cadarelli
On Latin-Protoslavic Language Contacts. Some Remarks on a Recent Paper by Salvatore Del Gaudio
The Author discusses a recent paper by Del Gaudio concerning the problem of Latin and
Protoromance borrowings in Protoslavic and Old Church Slavonic. He appreciates Del Gaudio’s at-
tempt to illustrate the historical frame of Latin/Romance – Slavic linguistic contact in a deeper and
more insightful way, but criticizes several statements regarding mainly: a) certain methodological
issues concerning Protoslavic and his reconstruction; b) linguistic relations between the Slavs and
other ethno-linguistic groups within the Indo-European family; c) some controversial phonologi-
cal questions involving lexical items borrowed by the Slavs; d) the treatment of eleven Old Church
Slavonic lexical items allegedly directly borrowed from Latin.
Keywords
Romance Borrowings; Protoslavic; Old Church Slavonic.
S t u d i S l a v i s t i c i xi · 2014
Profilo degli autori
Maria Grazia Bartolini è ricercatrice a tempo determinato presso il Dipartimento di
Lingue e Letterature straniere dell’Università degli Studi di Milano. È autrice delle monografie
Introspice mare pectoris tui. Ascendenze neoplatoniche nella produzione dialogica di H.S. Skovoroda
(Firenze 2010) e Nello stretto triangolo della notte. Jurij Tarnavs’kyj, il Gruppo di New York e la poesia
della Diaspora ucraina negli usa (Roma 2012). I suoi interessi di ricerca includono la letteratura
ucraina del periodo barocco, il funzionamento delle citazioni bibliche nella letteratura slava eccle-
siastica, la ricezione dell’esegesi mariana del Cantico dei Cantici nell’area rutena, il tema dell’“emble-
matica sacra” e del “libro religioso illustrato” nell’Ucraina del Seicento.
Giovanna Brogi Bercoff è professore ordinario di Slavistica presso l’Università di Mi-
lano. Ha pubblicato molti studi sulla lingua e letteratura del Medioevo slavo ortodosso, sulla sto-
riografia croata, polacca, ucraina e russa del Rinascimento e del Barocco, sulla letteratura barocca
ucraina. Da qualche anno si occupa di Taras Ševčenko. È stata presidente dell’Associazione Italiana
degli Slavisti (1993-98) e della Commissione Internazionale di Storia della Slavistica (1994-2011). È
attualmente Presidente dell’Associazione Italiana di Studi Ucraini. Fa parte della redazione delle
riviste “Studi Slavistici” e “Russica Romana”. Fra le pubblicazioni segnaliamo Il Barocco letterario nei
paesi slavi (a cura di G. Brogi Bercoff, nis, Roma 1996), Królewstwo Słowian. Historiografi a Rene-
sansu i Baroku w krajach słowiańskich (Wyd. Świat literacki, Warszawa 1998) e Taras Ševčenko. Dalle
carceri zariste al pantheon ucraino, Mondadori education 2015. Membro staniero dell’Accademia
delle Scienze Ucraina, è stata insignita di una laurea honoris causa dall’Università Mohyliana di Kiev
e dall’Università Ivan Franko di Leopoli.
Raffaele Caldarelli ha lavorato come glottologo e slavista presso le Università di Mace-
rata e Salerno; attualmente è professore associato di Filologia Slava presso l’Università della Tuscia
di Viterbo. Si occupa di storia cirillo-metodiana e altre questioni legate all’agiografia slava medie-
vale, storia degli alfabeti slavi, linguistica slava storica e comparativa (con particolare riguardo a
problemi fonologici), storia culturale slava, letteratura di viaggio.
Aldo Ferrari insegna Lingua e Letteratura Armena, Storia del Caucaso e dell’Asia Centrale
e Storia della Cultura Russa presso l’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. Per l’Istituto degli Studi di
Politica Internazionale (ispi) di Milano dirige i Programmi di Ricerca su Russia/Vicini Orientali e
Caucaso/Asia Centrale. è presidente dell’Associazione per lo Studio in Italia dell’Asia centrale e del
Caucaso (asiac). Tra le sue pubblicazioni principali: Alla frontiera dell’impero. Gli armeni in Russia
1801-1917 (2000); La foresta e la steppa. Il mito dell’Eurasia nella cultura russa (2003); L’Ararat e la
gru. Studi sulla storia e la cultura degli armeni (2003); Il Caucaso. Popoli e conflitti di una frontiera
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