Grafija dubrovačkih testamenата 17. viјека

Abstract

This article deals with the way of writing (from Gr. graphein) of the old manuscript testaments of Dubrovnik showing that the old 17-th century scribes (notaries of the Republic of Dubrovnik) neither had a knowledge nor ever followed the orthographic reforms of their time. The scribes did not accept anything from the old Glagolic or Cyrillic alphabet rules but they did not accept to aplly the Italian orthography. In addition to this, it was more difficult for the „Latin“ scribes than for the early „Суrillic“ ones to put down all those Serbo-Croatian sounds which did not exist in the Latin orthography, such as the palatals. Therefore, this article takes into consideration graphic variations of the individual sounds, such as the vocal r sound, reflex of Old-Slavic „ja“, as well as the velar, fricative and palatal consonants.