--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:
> Rick Derksen's online database of inherited lexicon in Slavic does
> cite OCS ablUko without an asterisk (he does the same in his Baltic
> database); Pokorny has "abg." ablUko, jablUko.
There is a healthy tradition among slavists of labelling
unproblematic reconstructed forms as "Old Church Slavonic". The
underlying cause appears to be that by the time Leskien isolated the
most archaic Church Slavonic texts as a distinct object of linguistic
enquiry (1886), Miklosich had written all those fabulous reference
works, which cast a wider net and which remained the best there was
for generations. A contributary cause is surely that it does not
often make much of a difference anyhow. The only example I know is
that of _sikU_, 'like this', which for a time tended to mess up
discussions about the progressive palatalization (real OCS has
_sicI_).
The OCS corpus is relatively large, but very one-sided. It
contributes only a single attestation of such a completely ordinary
word as _zajeNcI_ 'hare' (Ps 103,18). I would gladly dump all those
manuscripts into Lake Prespa for an opportunity to interview
Methodius's mother and ask her to explain how she bakes an apple pie.
Best,
W.