alogia (2)

[Ralph Cleminson]

Although the educational orientation of the Ukrainian confraternity
schools was indeed largely Latin, one should not underestimate their
awareness of Greek: they did, after all, publish a grammar of it
(Hrammatika dobrohlaholivaho ellinoslovenskaho jazyka, L'viv,
Adelfotes [i.e. Bratstvo], 1591).  Epifanij, who certainly knew Greek
very well, naturally renders alogija as be(z)slovesie, because
logos=slovo.

In rendering Church Slavonic "beslovesnoe" (note the neuter gender!!)
as "bestia/dykoe zvirja", Berynda is surely aware of the underlying
Greek "alogon zôon", of which the Church Slavonic is a loan
translation and which has precisely this meaning.  (In Modern Greek,
incidentally, "alogo" means a horse.)

There seems little doubt that Ukrainian alohija is Byzantine Greek
alogia, which had the same meaning, i.e. absurdity.  (It is not,
apparently, current in Modern Greek.)  It is not inconceivable that it
was borrowed via Latin, but still, borrowings non sunt multiplicanda
praeter necessitatem.  It is interesting to note that, according to Šanskij,
alogizm, which is current in modern Russian with this meaning,
replaced an earlier alogia.  "Alogizm" is apparently a nineteenth-
century borrowing from German.  I would guess (none of my German
colleagues are around to ask) that Alogismus in German refers to the
philosophical tendencies, in which case the younger borrowing must
have been assimilated to the meaning of the older one.


R.M.Cleminson,
Professor of Slavonic Studies,
University of Portsmouth,
Park Building,
King Henry I Street,
Portsmouth PO1 2DZ
tel. +44 23 92 846143, fax: +44 23 92 846040

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