South Slavic Languages

Ефективност на генерични модели HTR за историческа кирилица и глаголица: Сравнение на средства Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 23, 2023 floyd Sun, 12/03/2023 - 16:14
Performance of Generic HTR Models on Historical Cyrillic and Glagolitic: Comparison of Engines

The present study offers a comparative evaluation of the performance of different AI-based digital tools for handwritten text recognition (HTR) on historical manuscripts and prints. The focus is on generic models capable of transcribing a range of texts in a similar script. The training dataset for these comprises Old Cyrillic ustav and poluustav manuscripts, on the one hand, and early Glagolitic printed books, on the other. We give an overview of the performance statistics for the HTR platforms Transkribus and eScriptorium as well as for the command-line tool Calamari. In each case, we additionally offer a close, qualitative analysis of select examples in order to convey a sense of the models’ real-world performance. In this way, our study supplies comparative data on the respective capabilities of these technologies that ought to be of interest to scholars working with them in digital humanities projects.

Subject: Language studies Language and Literature Studies Theoretical Linguistics Applied Linguistics Historical Linguistics Computational linguistics South Slavic Languages Philology Translation Studies Keywords: handwritten text recognition TRANSKRIBUS MACHINE LEARNING Cyrillic palaeography Glagolitic printings
К истории древнеболгарского часослова Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 23, 2023 floyd Sun, 12/03/2023 - 13:58
Toward the History of the Early Bulgarian Horologion

No Horologion (“Book of the Hours”) has survived in the Old Church Slavonic corpus. Since early Russian sources, however, tend to retain South Slavic liturgical traditions, the authors attempt to reconstruct such a book for daily prayer on the basis of Russian manuscripts from the 13th–14th centuries. A key factor in the reconstruction are the so-called kata stichon hymns, an archaic genre of Byzantine hymnography used for night prayer. The authors analyze the text and meter of these hymns, including one hymn originally composed in Slavonic in imitation of the Byzantine genre, and argue that the later Russian sources reflect an Horologion translated in Bulgaria in the late 9th or early 10th century.

Subject: Language studies Language and Literature Studies Theoretical Linguistics Studies of Literature Historical Linguistics South Slavic Languages Philology Translation Studies Keywords: daily office Liturgy of the Hours Horologion stichic hymnography alphabetic hymnography Old Church Slavonic translations
Славянски превод на Охридския хрисовул от 1273 г. Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 23, 2023 floyd Sun, 12/03/2023 - 13:52
A Slavic translation of the Ohrid Chrysobull of 1273

The Slavic text of the Ohrid chrysobull of 1273 in Muz. 3070 (Russian State Library) represents a translation by a Slav with a poor understanding of the original Greek.

Subject: Language studies Language and Literature Studies Theoretical Linguistics Historical Linguistics South Slavic Languages Philology Translation Studies Keywords: Ohrid; chrysobull Viktor Ivanovič Grigorovič Zograph monastery

Electronic Edition and Linguistic Annotation of Slavic Fragments


Терминология в палеославистике и создание сети между существующими цифровыми корпусами

Terminology in Palaeoslavistics and Set up Networking between Existing Digital Corpora


Sv. Kliment Ohridski: His Tombstone and its Inscription

  • Summary/Abstract

    In the Presveta Bogoroditsa Perivlepta church in Ohrid the tombstone of St Kliment Ohridski is preserved. This large stone slab, with several inscriptions from the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, remained there, while the holy relics of St Kliment have been transferred back to its original place – the church, built by the saint himself (completely rebuilt in 2001–2002). Until recently not much attention has been given to the tombstone. The paper offers a new reading of the main inscription, illustrated by the first contemporary picture and a new drawing made out of it, thus correcting many mistakes in the earlier publications.


Comparison of Four Medieval Bulgarian Inscriptions by Letter Frequency

  • Summary/Abstract

    This article compares the letter frequencies of four old Bulgarian inscriptions: the Samuel inscription of 993, the Samuel inscription of Voden, the Bitola inscription of Ivan Vladislav and the Tărnovo inscription of Ivan Asen II. We establish the proximity of the letter frequencies of these inscriptions and thus obtain an argument in favor of the view that the Voden inscription is a product of the same scribal tradition and orthography, and of the same epoch, to which both Samuel’s of 993 and Bitola’s inscriptions belong. The impressive ‘frequency proximity’ of the Voden and Bitola inscriptions is used to offer the hypothesis that the Samuel Dynasty’s royal administration has had a consistent tradition of writing and orthography.


Аріевъ ледъ

Ares Ice

  • Summary/Abstract

    The paper discusses the translation of Ἄρειος πάγος into Slavonic, which until the late seventeenth century is almost invariably Аріевъ ледъ. It is suggested that although this does not correctly render the original meaning of the Greek, translators (and others, including their Greek contemporaries) did not necessarily perceive place names as literally meaningful. Аріевъ ледъ was thus simply the established Slavonic name for the Areopagus, and known as such to Slavonic writers. The principle place where it occurs is in the Acts of the Apostles, where it is used consistently, and there is a varied body of commentary in Slavonic attached to this passage, which is discussed in detail. The use of the toponym in a number of non-Biblical texts is also traced.


Chronological Layers in Translated Texts: Observations on a Sticheron of Archangel Michael


Исторический корпус как цель и инструмент корпусной палеославистик

Diachronic OCS Corpus as an Object and an Instrument of Corpus Palaeoslavitic


Copies of Filip Stanislavov’s Abagar (Rome, 1651)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article discusses the currently available information on the extant copies of Filip Stanislavov’s Abagar, printed in Rome by the Propaganda Fide in 1651. Starting from Božidar Rajkov’s 1979 edition, which lists fifteen known copies and their presumed location, the article offers information on several copies that are not reported by Rajkov. These include copies in London, Paris, and Uppsala, the latter in the form of a scroll. In addition, the current location of most of the earlier known copies has been verified, and new information on a number of copies is presented: for example, the copy formerly located in Brussels is currently preserved at the Bibliothèque Diderot in Lyon, whereas the two German copies seem to have been lost.


Scholia from Gregory of Nyssa’s Apologia in Hexaemeron in the Fourteenth-Century Slavonic Hexaemeron Collection


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