Birch Bark Letters Against the Background of Written Language Acquisition

Numerous similarities between medieval vernacular texts and those written by present-day incipient writers (children and adults alike) suggest that there are certain regularities underlying the processes of literacy acquisition and the evolution of written language in general. This paper is a comparative case study of medieval vernacular Russian correspondence and letters written by contemporary Russian children. The aims of this study include the following: (i) identifying the specific structural and non-structural aspects of the similarity between the mentioned language varieties; (ii) formulating a theoretical basis for interpreting data in developmental terms; (iii) defining the role of oral strategies in the evolution of written language; (iv) proposing that our knowledge of the processes of writing acquisition by modern children and adults, which are accessible to immediate observation and experimentation, can illuminate our understanding of the pragmatics of historical texts.