"The Dawn of Slavic" by Alexander M. Schenker

The Dawn of Slavic An Introduction to Slavic Philology Alexander M. Schenker

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Series:: Yale Language Series
Format:: Paperback
Publication date:: 21 Oct 2014
ISBN:: 9780300212402
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 368 pages: 254 x 178mm
Illustrations:: 23 b-w illus.

Categories:

Language »
Language Reference & General »

This unique book weaves linguistic, cultural, and historical themes together to form a concise and accessible account of the development of the Slavic languages. Alexander Schenker demonstrates that inquiry into early Slavic culture requires an understanding of history, language, and texts and that an understanding of early Slavic writing is incomplete outside the context of medieval culture.

Drawing on contemporary manuscripts and other primary sources, Schenker presents a historical sketch of Slavic settlement in Europe, tracing the migrations, the political maneuvers, and the integration of the Slavs into the medieval European cultural commonwealth. He next outlines the development of Slavic from its Indo-European origins to the breakup of Slavic linguistic unity and the formation of individual Slavic dialects. In a chapter devoted to the beginnings of Slavic writing, he includes a thematic classification of the oldest Slavic texts, a section on Slavic paleography, and a discussion of the formation of Old Church Slavonic and its role as the first Slavic literary language. An overview of the development of Slavic philology, samples of early Slavic writing with facsimile illustrations, maps, and a chronological table contribute further valuable material to this volume.

Alexander M. Schenker is professor of Slavic linguistics at Yale University, author of Polish Declension and Beginning Polish, and editor of Fifteen Modern Polish Short Stories, the latter two published by Yale University Press.

Selected as a 1996 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine

Winner of the Modern Language Association’s 1997 second biennial Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures

"Schenker's years of experience in the classroom are apparent on every page. His scholarship is impeccable; his erudition, formidable. He tells the Slavic story as well as it has ever been told. The Dawn of Slavic is bound to become a classic."—Michael S. Flier, Harvard University