CROATIAN WORDS IN GLACOLITIC TRANSLATIONS OF HYMNS OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

Abstract

Medieval Glagolitic missals and breviaries contain three translations of Latin hymns and one sequence of St. Thomas Aquinas. The songs were translated from Latin originals into Slavonic by Croatian editors, because there were no translations into Old Church Slavonic. Some local Croatian language characteristics can be found in these texts. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the above-mentioned Croatian linguistic features present in the Glagolitic translations of Pange lingua gloriosi, Verbum supremum Prodi and Sacris Solemnis, especially morphological and lexical aspects. Graphical analysis is not possible due to access only to the Latin versions. The examined songs date from the XIV and XV centuries – a period that marks the increasing influence of Croatian Glagolitic texts. This state was associated with the growing influence of old Croatian language in the form of the Chakavian dialect.