Accentual microsystem in a Russian manuscript of 17th century

This paper discusses the accentuation of verbs in different forms (Present, Imperative, Infinitive, Preterit, Participles) attested in a 17th century monastic-miscellany codex consisting of texts of various genres. The manuscript demonstrates a number of North Russian dialectal features, probably belonging to the original, as well as South Russian features stemming from the scribal native tongue. Of special interest in the manuscript is the assignment of two stresses to one word. In this way the vacillation between the South Slavic and Russian models is reflected. There are a number of deviations from the standard accentual paradigms a, b, c. Some of them have also been observed in other Russian 17th century texts: the full-scale transition of b-accentuated verbs into paradigm c and vice versa, the accentual variations in individual forms of the present according to the model тéрпитъ – терпúтъ, desinential stress of the a-accentuated verbs, stress retraction in the imperative, and others. Other deviations are dialectal (могýтъ) or individual (ищéтъ).