The integration of digital technologies has become increasingly important across academic disciplines in the 21st century, rapidly transforming research possibilities and methodologies in the humanities and social sciences. Since the emergence of transformer neural networks like BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) and the subsequent rise of Large Language Models, linguistic research has experienced yet another wave of profound changes, especially in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Despite these developments, implementing digital technologies remains a desideratum in Slavic linguistics, particularly when working with low-resource historical varieties. The panel “Digitale Slawistik” (‘Digital Slavic Studies’), held as a part of the 48th Austrian Linguistics Conference (48. Österreichische Linguistiktagung) at the University of Innsbruck on December 18–19, 2024, aimed to address this gap by bringing together linguists who study Slavic languages and incorporate digital methods into their research practice. Over the two days, scholars from Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic presented their research. The event was organised by Elias Bounatirou (University of Vienna), Anna Jouravel (University of Freiburg), Maximilian Grübsch (University of Vienna), and Ilia Afanasev (University of Vienna).

This research presents the first step in digitising texts of historical Lemkian (Transcarpathian) dialects, recorded in 1930s, and transforming them into an open- access dataset. The developed dataset includes morphological tagging, lemmatisation, and data on the named entities and basic vocabulary items. This allows for the evaluation of pre- existing models for automatic tagging of basic vocabulary in Slavic on the new material quantitatively (checking their efficiency), qualitatively (going example-by-example), and formally (by analysing the research design of previous studies). The present pilot study shows that existing models are not able to efficiently detect enough Automatic Similarity Judgement Program (ASJP) basic vocabulary list items in the Lemkian texts (F1-score less than 0.5), finding only the words that formally completely coincide with their cognates in other Slavic languages (personal pronouns). The bar chart-based visualisation shows that the previously hypothesized formalisation of basic vocabulary items as similar in distribution to the named entities is incorrect, and a new formalisation is required. The main contribution of the work is an open-access dataset of historical Lemkian dialects.

We use BelarusianGLUE, a recently introduced benchmark, to analyze the performance of open-weight large language models (LLMs) on Belarusian language understanding tasks. The impact of prompting language, few-shot prompts, orthography (modern/classical/Latin), chat templates, and evaluation mode (discriminative/ generative) is investigated. Our findings suggest that more recent models generally perform better, but improvements are gradual. Fine-tuning on related Slavic languages doesn’t always improve Belarusian understanding. Classical orthography has limited impact, while latinization degrades performance. Analysis of specific tasks (sentiment analysis, Winograd schema challenge) reveals biases in the models, difficulties with understanding linguistic structure, and gaps in world knowledge and cultural context.

The automation of morphosyntactic annotation of Old Russian texts represents a key challenge in contemporary Slavistics, underscoring the need for computational tools capable of processing historical linguistic data with high accuracy. This study qualitatively evaluates the performance of two statistical taggers, Stanza and UDPipe, in annotating a text by Maximus the Greek, using the TOROT and RNC treebanks as reference corpora. The analysis assesses the accuracy of morphosyntactic annotation—specifically, part-of-speech tagging, morphological feature assignment, and lemmatisation—identifying recurring errors and structural limitations in applying these tools to historical Slavic texts. While both taggers facilitate annotation, they do not yet ensure a level of automation sufficient for fully reliable linguistic analysis. Key challenges include the misinterpretation of morphosyntactic relationships and inaccuracies in grammatical feature assignment. The comparison with their respective reference corpora highlights these issues, demonstrating the need for further refinement in automated annotation methods. This study critically examines the applicability of current NLP technologies to historical texts, emphasizing the necessity of adapting existing models.

This paper analyzes the concept of novaja ėtika (‘new ethics’) as represented in Russian media discourse, focusing on a comparison between two prominent Russian media sources: Lenta.ru and Meduza.io. The study is based on a corpus of 86 texts published between 2019 and 2024. Using corpus-based methods – including frequency analysis, topic modeling, and named entity recognition (NER) – the study identifies distinct differences in how the term novaja ėtika is conceptualized, discussed, and positioned in public debates. Lenta.ru is one of Russia’s largest mainstream news sites, known for its pro-government neutrality and wide readership across the country. Meduza.io, on the other hand, is an exile-founded outlet that is often critical of Russian state policy and targets a younger, urban, liberal audience. Lenta.ru frames novaja ėtika predominantly negatively, associating it with external pressures, cultural conflicts, and moral censorship. In contrast, Meduza.io approaches the concept analytically, emphasizing its philosophical foundations, discursive development, and socio-cultural implications. The analysis also highlights differences in the representation of actors, revealing that Lenta.ru focuses on geopolitical actors and institutional structures, while Meduza.io also prioritizes individual commentators and cultural influencers. The results illustrate broader discursive strategies and cultural cleavages in contemporary Russian media that reflect competing visions of social norms, public morality, and identity politics. As an exploratory study, it is subject to methodological limitations, including the size and scope of the corpus.

The integration of computational methods in historical philology is becoming increasingly essential, yet challenges persist in harmonizing linguistic and technical aspects of text analysis. This study presents a comprehensive and methodologically transparent use case that documents the entire computational philological workflow– from data acquisition and modeling to analysis and visualization–in a structured and reproducible manner. Using the Codex Suprasliensis, one of the most significant Old Slavic manuscripts, as a case study, we demonstrate how modern Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, particularly the Stanza library for morphosyntactic annotation and DataFrame-based corpus structuring, can facilitate the exploration of historical textual corpora. A special emphasis is placed on benchmarking Stanza’s performance in processing Old Church Slavonic, evaluating its segmentation, tagging, and parsing accuracy against existing Gold Standard datasets. Additionally, we discuss the role of DataFrame-based modeling in ensuring an efficient and transparent structuring of linguistic data, allowing for flexible transformations and reproducible analyses. To support further research and methodological validation, all functional and extensively annotated scripts–including the complete NLP pipeline–are permanently provided via the GitHub platform of the Berlin State Library. The findings highlight the importance of structured corpus processing in computational philology and contribute to the ongoing refinement of NLP methodologies for historical languages.

This article examines complex prepositions in Russian using the construction v lice as a case study. This denominal complex preposition, consisting of the primary preposition v and a noun, exemplifies the dynamic transitional processes between word classes. The central focus of the analysis is the question of which semantic properties are associated with the degree of establishment of such constructions. The article adopts both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, with particular attention to developments since the 19th century, during which complex prepositions increasingly entered scientific, technical, and journalistic writing styles. Using corpus-based methods and embedding- based techniques (BERT), the study reconstructs semantic shifts and identifies functional- semantic changes. In doing so, it contributes to the description of the internal dynamics of complex prepositions in Russian.

The papers in this section we­ re presented at the international con­ ference Emotions and Intellect: Repre­ sen­ta­tions in Balkan Languages and Cultures, which took place from 22–24 January 2025 at Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’. The event was or­ ga­ nised by the Institute of Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, as part of the reintegration programme of the Alexander von Hum­ boldt Foundation. Financial sup­ port was provided by the Bulgarian National Scientific Fund under contract № КП-06- МНФ/42 of 26.09.2024, in accordance with the Memorandum signed in August 2020 between the Foundation and the Fund. No funds from this contract were allocated or used for the publication of the articles in this journal volume.

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the Life of St. Eustathius, examining three key episodes through the lens of narrative structure, the adaptation of ancient literary models and their expressive richness to new Christian content, as well as the transformation of cultural codes and the development of psychological portraits of the characters. It demonstrates how the main Christian themes are interwoven into the narrative through the interplay of the characters’ emotions and their actions guided by reason. The emotional analysis reveals not only the emotions present in the text and their universality to human nature but also their connection to the characters’ rational choices, acting as a driving factor for the progression of the plot. The article also traces the role of perspective shifts in constructing the narrative and reinforcing the Christian message of the legend. The hagiography achieves its didactic purpose through catharsis, realized through the suffering of the saints, which not only prepares the characters for spiritual elevation but also transforms the audience, inspiring profound faith and empathy. Furthermore, the methodology applied here offers a valuable framework for investigating other hagiographies to analyze how narrative techniques, adapted from ancient genres like the novel, epic, and tragedy, are employed in constructing stories within the context of Christian literature. The Life of St. Eustathius is presented as not only a literary masterpiece but also a narrative landmark in the broader context of martyr hagiography, reaffirming its significance in understanding the evolution of narrative strategies in early Christian literature.

Speech acts like to pray, to swear or to make a prophecy include a transcendental participant to be felicitous. In a prayer the transcendental participant is included as interlocutor, in an oath as witness and, if necessary, punishing force, in a blessing as guarantor, and prophecy consists either in reporting the statements of a transcendental actor or a human speaker is making statements on his behalf. The illocution of a transcendental speech act is highly depend on introductory assumptions, especially sincerity. Accordingly, the linguistic classification of oath shifts between assertive and commissive speech acts. Our paper firstly discusses problems of the pragmatic classification of oaths in general; in a second step it is demonstrated, that the use of the Old Church Slavonic oath-formula „tako mi‟ and its descendants in Church Slavonic and in today’s oral speech are located within a pragmatic continuum between (transcendental) oath – extreme assertion – appellative request – emphatic salutation. The pragmatic classification of the formula is highly depend on register and substitution of the original 1st person pronoun (mi) by 2nd person pronoun (ti). Additionally, the paper offers a linguistic explanation about the original shape of the Old Church Slavonic formula in comparison with corresponding Greek utterances.

This contribution aims to elucidate the relationship between strategies of audience involvement and emotional means of address in Gregory the Great’s (c. 540– 604) homilies on the gospels (Homiliae in Evangelia). The Latin original is compared to both a medieval Church Slavonic version of Czech origin and a Modern Czech translation. A representative sample is taken from Gregory’s 40 homilies on the gospels as a case study into the maintenance of linguistic means of expressing emotivity and appellative strategies crossing the boundaries of linguistic and cultural domains. The focus is on the appellative (or ‘conative’ in Jakobsonian terms) aspect of emotive signs. More specifically, this case study concerns the translation of Latin gerundives with a deontic meaning. We shall note some significant parallels as well as differences in the semantics and pragmatics of the deontic expressions of appellative agitation between the Latin original, the medieval Slavic and modern Czech translations. Thus, investigating multiple stages of the transmission of the homilies, in three languages, we can trace the use of appellative rhetorical means, as well as their development over time and space.

Contemplation, as the highest activity of the intellectual being, is at the heart of Byzantine spirituality. Since Slavic Christianity was shaped according to the Byzantine model, this paper examines the extent to which this theme was assimilated in a newly discovered cycle of Slavic homilies, likely from the 9th century. Focusing on the object of contemplation, the paper explores several key topics, including the partial knowability of God, the movements of the divine essence, divine energies, and the notions of logoi and tropoi. Through the identification of sources, the paper also highlights the role and influence of the Church Fathers and traces the dynamic processes by which the author of these homilies shaped Patristic teachings into their final form.

Isaac of Nineveh, best known in the Slavic tradition as Isaac the Syrian, was a prominent figure in Eastern Christianity whose works were quickly translated into other languages. The two known medieval South Slavic translations were accomplished from Greek; the second one became particularly popular among the East Slavs and spread widely in that region. Isaac’s teachings found a large audience in monastic circles and were often included in miscellanies. This paper aims to analyse the language used to address the intellectual and noetic realms in the Slavonic translations of Isaac’s works. To this end, sections of the unedited Slavonic text have been prepared for comparison with the original Greek. This terminology is then be compared with translation equivalents found in other ascetic works in Slavonic. Apart from the linguistic aspect, the study also attempts to trace the influence of language on the transmission of ideas through translation. As an appendix, an edition of one sermon is presented for the first time, with the two known Slavonic versions printed side by side alongside the Greek text with critical apparatus and comments on the translation features.

This article explores the role of demonization in Byzantine hagiography (6th–11th centuries) as a propagandistic strategy rooted in philosophical, rhetorical, and folkloric traditions. It examines the demonization of political figures, particularly iconoclastic emperors, and entire groups such as Arabs, Bulgarians, and Jews, emphasizing anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery. Key aspects include kinesics, vocalization, and emotional excess as defining traits of the demonic. The study also draws parallels between medieval and modern propaganda, demonstrating how demonization serves as a powerful rhetorical tool that distorts political discourse and reinforces collective stigmatization, both historically and in contemporary narratives.

This paper analyzes the utilization of exclamation mark as a means of expressing a variety of emotions in two books written in the 19th c. by the Bulgarian monk Neophyte of Rila: The First Bulgarian Grammar (1835) and the Description of Rila Monastery (1879). The section of the grammar that addresses punctuation, particularly the exclamation mark, is examined by comparing it to other grammars that were published during the same period. Additionally, the sentences that contain exclamation mark have been selected from the Grammar and the Description. Some of them are presented here in conjunction with brief remarks that elucidate the intended emotional impact and the sentiments they embody. A comparative analysis of the two books reveals a subtle difference. In the Grammar, the author utilizes the exclamation mark predominantly to convey negative emotions. In the Description, although the negative tone predominates in the exclamatory sentences, there are also some that are rather positive. The broader range of emotions articulated in the Description is presumably attributable to its vivid and expressive nature, which starkly contrasts with the technical tone of a grammar book.

This article presents the first steps in the implementation of REGEST, a collaborative digital reference tool designed for the systematic documentation and semantic annotation of medieval Slavonic translations from Byzantine Greek. Developed at the University of Innsbruck as part of its joint project with KU Leuven – The Slavonic Metaphrasis of Byzantine Orthodoxy (2024–2028) – REGEST provides a structured approach to cataloguing Byzantine-Slavonic texts. Utilising Semantic MediaWiki, this open-access platform captures the dynamic relationships among medieval authors, source texts, translations, and collections, providing efficient processing and retrieval of information while enabling continuous expert curation and update. A case study on Christopher of Mytilene’s hagiographic epigrams illustrates the tool’s capacity for tracing textual transmission and transformation – from the composition of these poems (their initial context, function and target audience) to their later integration into a version of the Synaxarion of Constantinople and, finally, to their transmission within the Slavonic Verse Prolog through two independent South-Slavonic translations. This example highlights REGEST’s potential to reveal complex textual histories and facilitate comparative analysis. By combining semantic structuring with collaborative input, REGEST opens new avenues for research on Byzantine-Slavonic literary heritage.

Scripta & e-Scripta continues the series of publications reporting on the work carried out within the project “A Unified Annotation of the Stages of Bulgarian Language (AUSBUL)”, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund and the OeAD under the Programme “Bulgaria: Competitions for Financial Support for Bilateral Projects, Science & Technological Cooperation (WTZ) Austria / Bulgaria” No. КП- 06-Австрия / 2, 18.07.2023 / OeAD-GsmbH (Österreichischer Austauschdienst) (BG 09/2023, WTZ Bulgarien S&T Bulgaria 2023-25).

The article deals with a number of challenging points in the annotation of different categories (parts-of-speech, classes and subclasses) in the texts attesting the history of the Bulgarian language. The focus is on category changes which affect mainly the so-called function words (auxiliary verbs, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, pronouns, among others) in historical texts, with a goal of building a unified annotation scheme for the stages of the Bulgarian language. Annotation approaches followed by other projects will be discussed to arrive at practical solutions with a view of the theoretical assumptions and purposes of the data. Keywords:

The article examines the emergence and semantic uses of the cedar, and more specifically the ‘Lebanese’ one, not only as a separate tree species but also as a specific ‘topos’, used in a Biblical context not only in St. Prophet Isaiah, with more than one meaning and even separate thematic spheres, while in medieval Bulgarian literature its ideological and semantic uses expanded and it became part of the ‘Christ tree.’ The reasons for this are rooted in its Old Testament Biblical use, and later, a purposeful attempt was made not only to explain it in more detail but also to attribute to it an even more substantial meaning. The ‘Lebanese cedar’ finds its place in early interpretive literature because it is one of the symbols of the presence and power of God. The ‘topos’ also finds wide application in parabiblical literature that goes beyond or adds to the previously expected qualities and properties of the cedar. Some facts and hypotheses will be presented to the Bulgarian reader for the first time.

The article examines five South Slavic copies from Brontologion from the Late Middle Ages (16th–18th centuries), which are combined prognostic works. They contain the most numerous and detailed depictions of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. Also, through the text of prognostication works, data on the everyday life and lifestyle of medieval man can be found. These copies testify to the change in their social function. Initially, they were read in the royal and boyar courts. Because of the historical changes in the Balkans and the fall of Bulgaria under Turkish slavery, prognostication began to spread to the broader layers of society through the mediation of the lower clergy. Changes also occur in the language and structure of the text.

The article is devoted to observations of the text of the Story about Father Agapios in several Middle Bulgarian and vernacular Bulgarian copies from the 14th to the 18th century. A comparison is made between the witnesses found in the Adžar Miscellany (no. 326 in the National Library in Sofia), Panagjurište Miscellany (no. 433 in the same library) and the copy preserved in the Berlin Damaskin (Berl. Slav. Fol. 36, Berlin State Library). Conclusions are drawn regarding the structure of the text and its possible relations to the early Slavonic versions. The examined copies are edited in Appendices 1 and 2.

Monastic collections intended for individual (cellular) reading are often not associated with dates in the church calendar or the celebration of the cult of saints but are instructive reading. The Apocrypha that is included in them has a different function: (a) texts with a cognitive account of persons and events from the Old and New Testaments (re-reading the Bible); (b) works related to eschatology and apocalyptic; (c) readings related to natural phenomena and applied knowledge. Topics group some of them, while others are included in cycles according to formal criteria. Apocryphal works are completely “legalized”; they aim to enlighten readers, elevate them spiritually, and serve as reference materials. This feature is typical of manuscripts from monasteries in the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries. Of particular interest are manuscripts created in large monastic centres, such as the Hilendar Monastery on Mount Athos, in which rare copies of apocryphal works appear, e.g. Revelation of the Apostles. The author examines the causes of this phenomenon and its consequences.

This article explores the inks used to write three recipes for the production of ink found in the Cod. Jur. gr. 12, as well as the inks utilized to rewrite faded words on folios 7v and 111r, and notes on f. 325v of the same codex. The texts of the recipes were analyzed to determine the ink type described in each recipe. Microscopic multispectral imaging was employed to examine the inks in which these texts were written, providing valuable insights into their optical properties and allowing for an assessment of the inks used across the different texts. Additionally, computational statistical techniques were applied to infrared images of the inks, yielding information about their material properties and assisting in the recognition of the inks used in the texts studied. The combination of these two techniques reflects a multidisciplinary approach that integrates advanced imaging technologies, spectral analysis, and data processing. This methodology produced valuable qualitative and quantitative results regarding the similarities and differences among the examined inks.

The article examines the repertoire of chants containing fragments of ancient acrostics of the Burial Rite of Lay People (phrasal and alphabetical), which are found in two East Slavic Prayer-books (trebniki) of the 16th century. Both manuscripts come from the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The versions of the Burial Rite in them differ from each other and from the previously identified South Slavic editions. The author publishes in the appendix alphabetical stichera according to five copies.

2 Enoch is a very peculiar Old Testament Pseudepigraphon. One of its special features is the presence of hapax legomena and the usage of well-known words in Slavonic tradition with different meanings. The paper deals with the “astronomical chapter” of 2Enoch, especially with the contexts where mythological birds (or angels? or winds?), phoenix, and chalkydri are mentioned. The particularities of the meanings of these creatures and several possible interpretations of them in 2 Enoch are considered against the background of the history of these images in different ancient traditions, taking into account different usages of the characters in question in the two main recensions of 2 Enoch.

This work is a slightly modified version of my master’s thesis of the same title (Mihova 2024) and deals with the nominal compounds of a selected early New Bulgarian text from the genre of Damascenes, the Sbornik of Pop Punčo (1796). The compounds of the 18th-century Damascenes will be examined, using the Sbornik as an example. Their greater independence from Greek (as opposed to the Old Church Slavonic texts) will be used to gain insights into the origins of the compound types and to determine whether, in addition to compounds borrowed from Greek, they also include compound types inherited from Proto-Indo-European. All compounds found in the Sbornik are collected, translated, and assigned to a compound type from a morpho- semantic perspective.

In recent years, substantial progress has been made toward a better understanding of the semantic and syntactic distribution of periphrases with future reference in Late Middle Russian (cf. Penkova 2019, 2023a). Existing studies rely on manual semantic annotation. It seems reasonable to assume that such research could be advanced through statistical methods that depend less on manual processing. These methods may help verify hypotheses obtained through annotation and offer a broader, more systematic perspective on linguistic patterns. This study explores two such statistical approaches: Principal Component Analysis and Correspondence Analysis. In both cases, the analysis is based on a collection of sentences of infinitives occurring with modal, inchoative, and future-adjacent auxiliaries. Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that Principal Component Analysis is not well-suited for the semantic investigation of constructions with future reference using the available data. In contrast, Correspondence Analysis yields graphs that explain a greater proportion of the variation and are more readily interpretable from a bird’s-eye view.