Particles in Trubar’s Catechism of 1550

Abstract

In addition to the mainly textological study of the contemporary situation, it may be interesting how Trubar used particles in the first Slovene printed text, i.e., what the position of the particle is at the initial point when the language "changed the aggregate state." It is understandable that the Catechism includes only a quater of the particles known in the contemporary language, considering both the developmental stage as well as the textual limitations of the Catechism (in a homily, for instance, the frequency of particles is somewhat higher). The most common (functionally sometimes close to the coordinate cojunction) is the particle tudi, second in frequency is connective pa (pag), fairly frequent is vsaj 'at least' (with some ambiguous examples), rare but interesting is ja (ia; only three examples in the entire Catechism). - The article attempts to support the idea that particles in general, as in the first printed Slovene text, are indication of intelectualization of language on the communicative plane.