Birch Bark Letters and the Second Slavic Palatalization, part 1

Sep 13, 2011 by

While the second part of this posting’s title may sound scary to some of you, bear with me and you will discover one of the most fascinating puzzles of Slavic historical linguistics. But let’s concern ourselves with the...

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Birch Bark Letters, part 3

Sep 12, 2011 by

In the previous posting, I brought up an example of a short crime report known as the combined birch bark document #607/562. It’s diagram, transliterated text and translation are repeated below for ease of reference....

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Birch Bark Letters, part 2

Sep 12, 2011 by

In the previous posting, I embarked (no pun intended!) on an exploration of Novgorod birch bark letters. Let’s consider them a little more closely. As I mentioned in the previous posting, most of these birch bark documents are...

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Birch Bark Letters, part 1

Sep 12, 2011 by

This past summer a certain anniversary might have slipped you by: July 26 this year was the 60th anniversary of the first birch bark document discovery in Novgorod, Russia. While birch bark has been used for writing in various...

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You say "tomato", I say "tomahto"…

Apr 26, 2011 by

It is no surprise than people in different parts of the English-speaking world, or even of the US, say things differently. Claire Bowern, associate professor of Linguistics at Yale University and co-creator of the North American...

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