Kajkavian words in the Croatian translation of Johannes Herolt's Disipuli (†1468)

Kajkavian words had begun to enter Croatian medieval literature written in Glagolitic script by the late 14^th century (<i>Petris Miscellany</i>, <i>Vinodol Miscelany</i>, <i>Kolunić Miscelany</i> and other Glagolitic manuscripts). Four manuscripts containing a Croatian translation of the popular Latin work <i>Sermones</i> <i>Discipuli de tempore et de sanctis</i> by German Dominican Johannes Herolt (†1468) belong to the group of Glagolitic text that contain Kajkavian words. They are known as the Glagolitic <i>Disipuli</i> (<i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, <i>C</i>, <i>D</i>, and one fragment of <i>Disipuli</i>), 16^th century texts whose Čakavian language is interwoven with Kajkavian words. A determination of the frequency of some Kajkavian words in <i> Disipuli</i> based on the ratio of Kajkavian words to other words with the same meaning proves that these Kajkavian words are often a signal of the scribe’s ability to produce a text that differs from the text he is copying. By introducing Kajkavian lexemes into a Čakavian text, the scribe enriched the lexical level of the sermons, also creating a manuscript that could easily be accepted across a wider geographical area. The scribe’s intervention on the stylistic level of the text does not exclude the possiblilty that the proximity of Kajkavian areas also influenced the introduction of some Kajkavian words. The use of lexemes of different origins, especially in stylistically marked places, leads to the conclusion that the scribe sought to do more than simply his primary task of transcription in some parts of the text.