From the history of Russian conditional conjunctions: conjunctional use of the word form pritcheyu in the Middle Russian language

The article examines the use of the word form pritcheyu as a conditional conjunction in the Middle Russian language. The main source of the material was the Charter of martial, cannon and other matters related to military science. The cases of the conjunctional use of the word form pritcheyu in this text are compared, on the one hand, with its German source — the second volume of L. Fronsperger's treatise Kriegsbuch, and on the other hand, with cases of similar use of pritcheyu in other Russian written monuments of the same period. Conclusions are made about the chronology of the conjunctional use of pritcheyu in the Middle Russian language, its stylistic characteristics and dialectal localization. Chronologically, the use of pritcheyu as a conditional conjunction is limited to a short period from late 16th century (its first recorded occurrence in written texts) through mid-17th century (its decline). Its heyday occurred between the 1600s and 1620s. Stylistically, the analogue of conditional conjunction pritcheyu is characterized by a colloquial tone and is found primarily in business writings.