Old Novgorod dialect (Russian древненовгородский диалект, also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak (Андрей Анатольевич Зализняк) to account for the astonishingly distinct linguistic features of the East Slavic birch-bark writings from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings since the middle of the 20th century (about a thousand of them have been found so far).

Linguistic features

The short birch-bark texts are written in a peculiar Slavonic vernacular almost entirely free of church influence that has several features not known in any other Slavonic language, e.g.:

• The nominative singular of o-stem nouns ended in -e (instead of -ъ in all other Slavonic languages), e.g. brate 'brother' (cf. Modern Russian brat).
• The second palatalization, characteristic of all other Slavic languages except Modern Russian, seems not to have taken place, so that the dative singular of Proto-Slavic *rěk-a 'river', *rěk-ě, has not given rěcě but remained rěkě, or *kьrky 'church' (< German Kirche) has remained kьrky, in contrast to e.g. Modern Russian cerkov’.
• Proto-Slavonic *kv, *gv were kept (like in West Slavic languages) instead of being transformed to cv, zv before front vowels, e.g. květ- 'colour' vs. Modern Russian cvet, gvězda 'star' vs. Modern Russian zvezda.
• The third palatalization of /x/ did not take place, which is recognizable in the root vьx- 'all' (cf. Modern Russian vs-).

The orthography is also very special, using ъ and о on the one hand and ь and е on the other synonymically.

Examples

A criminal case: Novgorod birch-bark letter no. 109

(between end of 11th century and 1110s; excavated 1954)

Birch-bark letter no. 109, c. 1100, Novgorod; outline

Original text (with added word division)

грамота : отъ жизномира : къ микоуле : коупилъ еси : робоу : плъскове : а ныне мя : въ томъ : яла кънягыни : а ныне ся дроужина : по мя пороучила : а ныне ка : посъли къ томоу : моужеви : грамотоу : е ли оу него роба : а се ти хочоу : коне коупивъ : и къняжъ моужъ въсадивъ : та на съводы : а ты атче еси не възялъ коунъ : техъ : а не емли : ничъто же оу него :

Translation [with explanations in square brackets]

Letter from Zhiznomir to Mikula: You have bought a female slave in Pskov. And now the princess has arrested me for it. [Obviously she has recognized the slave as having been stolen from her, and Zhiznomir is somehow connected with the affair, maybe as Mikula's family member or business partner.] But now my family has guaranteed for me. And now send a letter to that man [whom you have bought the slave from] and ask him whether he has another female slave. [This other slave would have to be given to the princess for the time the stolen slave would be needed as "corpus delicti" in a lawsuit to find out who the thief was.] And I want to buy a horse and have the magistrate (the "prince's man") sit on it and initiate a svod [the legal procedure to trace a whole buying chain back to the original seller and ultimately the thief]. And if you have not taken the money, do not take anything from him [i.e. the slave-trader, because otherwise the whole plan might leak out].

An invitation: Novgorod birch-bark letter no. 497

(1340s to 1380s; excavated 1972)

Birch-bark letter no. 497, c. 1340-90, Novgorod; photograph

Original text (with added word division)

поколоно ω гаврили ω посени ко зати моему ко горигори жи коумоу ко сестори моеи ко оулите чо би есте поихали во городо ко радости моеи а нашего солова не оставили да бого вамо радосте ми вашего солова вохи не осотавимо

Translation

Greeting from Gavrila Posenya to my brother-in-law, godfather Grigory and my sister Ulita. Would you not like to give me the pleasure of riding into the city, not leaving our word? God give you happiness. We all do not leave your word.

Literature

Janin, Valentin Lavrent’evič. Ja poslal tebe berestu... 3rd ed., with an afterword by A.A. Zaliznjak. Moskva 1998.

Zaliznjak, Andrej Anatol’evič. Drevnenovgorodskij dialekt. Moskva 1995.