The Category of Dual in the Two Slavic Grammar Books: Adam Bohorič and Meletius Smotrytsky

Abstract

In the Slavic grammar books of the 16th-17th centuries, the category of dual was represented in the fi rst Slovenian grammar book «Arcticae horulae succisivae» (1584, Wit-tenberg) by the Protestant grammarian A. Bohorič (1520 –1588) and in the grammar book of the Church Slavonic lan-guage «Slavonic Grammar with Correct Syntax» (1619, Jevje) by M. Smotrytsky (1578–1633 (?)).It was assumed earlier that the Slovenian grammar had had a possible impact on Smotrytsky’s Grammar. However, the analysis of the dual forms in Bohorič’s G r a m m a r and Smotrytsky’s Grammar showed that such an impact was most likely impossible. When creating their gram-mar books, the authors were guided by different aims: if A. Bohorič was following the practice of using the forms of a living language, then Smotrytsky was orienting towards the fi xed stable forms of dead written language.