Volodymyr/Vladimir

[Will Ryan]

Very well put. I would add that the Chronicles use the polnoglasie form 
Volodimer because they were largely written in language close to the 
vernacular, other texts use Vladimir because they were in Church 
Slavonic, or close to it. Ilarion, 11 c. Metropolitan of Kiev, in his 
'Slovo o zakone i bladodati' addressed it to his 'kaganu nashemu 
Vladimiru'. The form Vladimir survives in modern Russian only because 
the literary language is far more influenced by Church Slavonic than is 
Ukrainian. The colloquial form, of course, is Volodia. And in case 
anyone challenges my use of 'Kiev' above, that is what it was called in 
the time of Volodimer/Vladimir(see the beginning of the Povest' 
vremian'nykh let).

Will Ryan

Simon Franklin wrote:
> Yes, the chronicles reflect East Slavonic 'Volod-'. For completeness, 
> however, if we're referring to sources, we should also note that the 
> inscriptions on the prince's own coins - the only authentic sources 
> which survive from his own time - use the South Slavonic/Church Slavonic 
> 'vlad-' form. The former happens to be equivalent to modern Ukrainian, 
> the latter to modern Russian; but, while such analogies may be 
> politically sensitive, they are not historically significant. The forms 
> of names have no relevance to substantive questions of continuity and 
> discontinuity between early Rus and any modern states or peoples.
> 
> Simon Franklin
> 
> --On 7 December 2008 15:48:07 -0500 "Robert A. Rothstein" 
> <rar at SLAVIC.UMASS.EDU> wrote:
> 
>>     The Poles have a handy adjective, staroruski, essentially "Old East
>> Slavic," used for example to refer to what Westerners tend to call "Old
>> Russian Literature" (such as the literature of Kievan Rus'). Around
>> Harvard people seem to have adopted the adjective "Rusian" in the same
>> function. Both are politically correct in a very narrow sense. Correct,
>> in that both those whose descendants would become Ukrainians and those
>> whose descendants would become Russians probably referred to the Kievan
>> ruler (if they were aware of him) as Volodimir or Volodymyr, later to
>> become Ukrainian Volodymyr and (after the so-called Second South Slavic
>> Influence) Russian Vladimir. And political, in the sense that the
>> terminology might help, as the singer Theodore Bikel says in his English
>> version of "Sten'ka Razin" "to prevent disputes and quarrels."
>>     (On rereading the above, I noticed that I twice used the form
>> "Kievan." I hereby authorize those who wish to to read that as "Kyivan"
>> to do so. I've successfully made the transition in my own usage from
>> Lvov/Lwów/Lemberg/Leopolis to Lviv, but I still find "Kyiv" too far
>> removed from English phonotactics to be comfortable with it.)
>>
>> Bob Rothstein
>>
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> 
> 
> Professor Simon Franklin
> Clare College
> Cambridge
> CB2 1TL
> 
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> 

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