alogia (2)

[Natalia Pylypiuk]

If Epiphanii Slavynec'kyj translates the Latin term
"alogia" as "be(z)slovesye," his subsequent Slavonic-Latin
dictionary, compiled in Moscow together with
his Ukrainian colleague Arsenij Korec'kyj-Satanovs'kyj,
translates
"be(z)slovesie" as "Irrationabilitas. Rationis carentia."

In this context, worthy of note is the fact that the OED
indicates that "alogy" comes from the Med. Latin "alogia"
and denotes "absurdity, unreasonableness."  The OED
cites a 1646 application of the term.

Slavynec'kyj's and Korec'kyj-Satnovs'kyj's predecessor,
Pamvo Berynda, in the 1627 *Leksikon Slavenorosskij...*
(i.e., Slavonic-Ruthenian) which was published in Kyiv, translates
the Slavonic "bezslovesnoe" into Latin "Bestia" and then into
Ruthenian (i.e., Middle Ukrainian) "dykoe / okrutnoe zvirja."
Berynda also renders Slavonic "bezslovesnî" as
Ruthenian "zvirsky, neljudsko."

Implicit in these entries is the Erasmian understanding of
speech as the distinguishing mark of humanity.

Kalynets', like other members of the Generation of the Sixties,
carefully studied Berynda and subsequent lexicographers.

NP

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