Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Roman Jakobson. "Studies in Comparative Slavic Metrics." Oxford Slavonic Papers, 3:21-66. Rpt. as "Slavic Epic Verse: Studies in Comparative Slavic Metrics." In Roman Jakobson: Selected Writings, vol. 4: Slavic Epic Studies. The Hague: Mouton, 1966, pp. 414-63.

On the basis of South, West, and East Slavic witnesses, he posits a Common Slavic oral epic line, the most obvious traces of which are found in the SC deseterac, and relates the parent meter to the IE line described by others (espec. Meillet 1923). Metrical evolution is of course understood to be an oral process, and the samples adduced are taken from various areas of oral tradition.
Area: SC, RU, AG, PO, CZ, UK, IE, CP