Vowel Shifts

Like many other medieval people, Russian played fast and loose with the spelling of their names. Here are my notes on some of the common vowel shifts (and disappearances).

Filler Vowels

It is necessary from time to time to add vowels to link themes and elements together. This is most commonly achieved by inserting an unstressed "-o-" between elements. If the theme ends with a soft sign ('), an "-i-" is more common. At times, an "-e-" or an "-u-" may be more appropriate. In the following sections, I have tried to provide the proper fill vowel with any theme or element that is capable of preceding another. However, remember that period orthography was far from consistent. For example, the simple combination of "Rad" (joy) and "Slav" (glory) could result in any of the following possibilities: Radoslav, Radislav, Rad'slav, or Raslav. Meanwhile, the combination of "Liut" (hard) and "Bor" (slay) could result in Liutobor, Liutibor, Liutebor, or Liutbor. As one can see, sometimes the filler vowel was neglected altogether.

http://heraldry.sca.org/names/paul/zmorphem.html

Interchangeable a/ia:

Sof'ia/Sof'a, Uliana/Uliania (s.n.Iu'liania), Feofana/Feofaniia, Katuna/Katunia & Kasiuta/Kasiutia (s.n. Ekaterina),

Interchangeable '/i/_ :

Sof'ia, Sofiia, Sofia. Ananiia, Anania, Anan'ia, etc.

Mstislav/Mistislav/M'stislav, Mstivoi/Mistevoi, Mstidrug/Mestidrug/Myztidruh/Miztidru

See http://sofyalarus.wikispaces.com/Vowel+Shifts+-+%27+i+_

Interchangeable '/e/_ :

The letter ь (transliterated as <'> and called "yer" or the "soft sign") in modern Russian has no sound of it's own, but softens the sound of the consonant before it. In medieval Russian, however it had a soft "eh" sound, see Wickenden 3rd Edition, p. ix. Thus one can see names written with either a <' >or a <e>. We don't see nearly as many examples of names written with <'> as we might expect in Wickenden because some of Wickenden's relatively modern sources probably tend to modernize this spelling and, thus, under-represent the prevalance of <'> in medieval Russian names. Sreznevskiy's Materials for a Dictionary of the Ancient Russian Language (Материалы для Словаря Древне-Русского Языка) written in 1893 has many words written with the <'> that in modern Russian are written with <e>. Examples: dv'r' -> dver', gor'ts" -> gorets, kon'ts' -> konets, vod'nyi -> vodnyj.

<P'trovits> is a 12th century variant patronymic form of <Petrov>/<Petrovi[ch]> per Wickenden. Other examples: Katerina/Kat'ryna, Pavel/Pav'l.

Beznata (m) -- Beznata. 1260. [Mor 10]

• Vars: Bezneta. 1167. [Mor 10]
  • Bznata. 1167. [Mor 11]
  • Bzneta. 1214. [Mor 11]
  • Bznethe. 1236. [Mor 11]
  • Bzneto. 1264. [Mor 11]
  • Bzneton. 1281. [Mor 11]

Lev (m) -- Russianization of Leo, or "lion."

• • Lev Aleksandrov syn Zaitsov. 1511. [RIB II 27]
• Dims: Levka (Levka Bogatyr', peasant of the Polonovsk parish). 1495. [Tup 50]
  • Levko (Levko Volk, peasant of the Oksochsk parish). 1495. [Tup 91]
  • Levukha (Levukha Shishka, serf). 1498. [Tup 447]
  • Levusha (Levusha Butakov). Mid 15th Century. [Gra 202]
  • Levushka (Levushka Fedorov). 1415. [Art III 55]

• Vars: Lewa. 1415. [Mor 113]
• Pats: L'vov (Matvei L'vov). 1594. [RIB II 105]
  • L'vovich (Aleksei L'vovich Tolochkov vnuk). 1506. [Tup 393]

• Pat Vars: Levkov [from Levko] (Boris Levkov). Mid 15th Century. [Gra 229]
  • Levkovich [from Levko] (Morgun Levkovich, craftsman). 1565. [Tup 255]
  • Levskoi (Istoma Fedorov syn Levskogo, Novgorod boiar's son). 1572. [Tup 168]
  • Lvov (Zloba Vasil'ev syn Lvova, landowner). 1484. [Tup 161]

• Pat Vars (f): Lvovicha (Princess Anna Lvovicha Glinskogo, wife of Prince Vasil'ev). 1533. [Nov 564]

Mstidrug/Mestidrug/Myztidruh/Miztidru, Mrshata/Mershata

Interchangeable e/i:

See http://sofyalarus.wikispaces.com/Vowel+Shifts+-+interchangeable+e+i

Interchangeable i/y :

The letter и (transliterated as i) and the letter ы (transliterated as y) are interchangeable in medieval Russian names, but generally only in stressed syllables (since the Russian letter ы is "always" the stressed syllable).

Examples from Wickenden's 3rd edition: Demitere/Demytere, Katrina/Katryna, Martin/Martyn, Martinko/Martynko, Pirog/Pyrog

The letter й (transliterated as i or j or y or omitted) is not to be confused with the letter и. Й, at least in modern Russian, is always used as a semi-vowel like the "y" in "boy", but и is a true vowel. I have not made a serious study of й in medieval Russian names and whether it's also interchangeable with и and ы. Unfortunately, in Wickenden, й is transliterated the same way as и which makes serious analysis challenging.

Interchangeable o/e/e :

Khorok is listed on p. 141 of Wickenden as a diminutive of Khariton, p. 137, would pronounced very similarly to Horek and is essentially identical in sound to the Russian word for ferret, khoryok (

хорëк

is written as khorek in the Library of Congress transliteration system used by Wickenden) depending on where the accent falls. The standard patronymic form of Khorok would be Khorokov and would be very similar to the client's original submission of "Horekov".

Chern' -> Chern'ka

Temnyi

Zheltoi

Interchangeable o/a :

In modern Russian and in medieval Russian, there are regional differences in pronunciation. The most prominent is the fact that some parts of Russia pronounce their "o" more like "ah", and others pronounce "o" more like "oh". The verb акать means "to pronounce an unstressed o as a in standard Russian". This is an example of "vowel reduction". The verb окать means "to pronounce an unstressed o as o in standard Russian".

We know this also happened in the medieval period because of their phonetically random spelling practices. In addition, unlike modern Russian, they could apparently could change a stressed "o" to "a", for example Wickenden documents kol'tsa as a naming variant of kol'tso, which would normally be pronounced kohl-TSOH. Study of these medieval spellings indicates that in medieval Russia not only could "o" be changed to "a" (Yasko/Yaska - dim. of Yakov), but "a" could be changed to "o" (versions of "Aleksandr" spelled "Oleksandr").

The fact that "o" could change to "a" has relevance for the problem of gender in names. Properly speaking, virtually all words in modern Russian that end in -a or -ya are grammatically feminine. But as noted above, a word like кольцо (kol'tso) , which is grammatically neuter, could be written with an "a" at the end, which makes it look grammatically feminine.

Eg. All of the references for the Kravets names are 16th century or later, while Grishka is documented to the early 13th century. The version Grishko is documented to exactly the same time period as the Kravets names, but Grishka was probably used then, too, we just don't have a written source for it. The pronunciation of Grishko and Grishka would be identical in many parts of Russia.

Vowel Reduction in Russian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_reduction_in_Russian

Interchangeable o/io:

Russian names with a o/io shift found in both Wickenden's 2nd and 3rd edition (except as noted):

• Iosif/Osif, s.n. Iosif;
• Osip/Iosip s.n. Osip;
• Spiridon/Spiridion s.n. Spiridon;
• Zemomysl/Ziemiomusl s.n. Zemimysl;
• Piotr/Potr s.n. Petr;
• Semion/Smon (both ed.) & Semionov/Semonov (3rd ed. only) s.n. Semen.

The fleeting o/yo problem:

According to the Russian Wikipedia article on Torzhok - original names included Torg, Novyj Torg, Torzhets, and Torzhok, the article uses the adjectival form (Torzhokskoi), but mentions that the old variant "novotorzhskij" survived for a long time, and the region around the city was called "Novotorzhskoj" up until the Soviet Revolution, and a name for citizens of the city was and apparently still is "novotory". This is also a very relevant example of the Russian tendency to drop and add "o" sounds just before the ending of a word.

Other Examples:

Eagle -- Orlov (c1495) [250] from Orel (m) -- "eagle"

Finch, gold- -- Shcheglov (1597) [317]; Shchegolev (1591) [317] from Shchegol' (m) -- "goldfinch."

Liudomil (m) -- var of Liudmil.

http://www.goldschp.net/archive/zoonames.html

Kotok -> Kotkov - see email in Wickended with "Kot"

Pavel -> Pavla

Filler vowels - adding vowels, generally o or e, to link themes and word elements together to make new words/names. See Wickenden 3rd Edition, Appendix B: xxxix.