Abstract. The article presents the historical development of the traditional Old Bulgarian lexemes людьѥ and чловѣци to хóра on the basis of limited excerpts from Bulgarian written monuments. The unanswered question of historical lexicology and semantics is when exactly the transformation from хóра g. r. singular‚ land, locality, administrative area‘ to хóра pl. tantum‚ men, people‘ took place. The lexeme хóра is considered a Balkan Grecism. Examples from the texts of Joseph Bradati and Todor Pirdopski testify to the uneven dynamics of phenomena in linguistic diachrony and open a wide field for the language historian to document and chronologize the changes. It is argued that the semantic development is related to the analytic tendency and the transformation of the accusative case into the casus generalis.
Keywords: Greek words, historical lexicology and semantics
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The publication was prepared with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science under the National Program „Development and Promotion of Bulgarian Studies Abroad“.
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