The text of the Codex especially abounds with the usage of
asigmatic aorist, and very frequent is the assimilation of vowels in compound adjectival declension and present forms ( instead of instead of etc.). Analysing the language of the Codex, Vatroslav Jagić concluded that one of the scribes of the Codex came from the Eastern-rite
Štokavian area (see
Serbian recension), on the basis of substitutions
u -
ǫ,
i -
y,
u -
vъ,
e -
ę etc. The conclusion about Serbian origin of the Codex has been disputed by Russian
slavist Alexander Budilovich who believed that the Codex was written in northern Albania, in northern Macedonia or Mount Athos, in Bulgarian language environment, with only slight admixtures of Serbian elements. At the same time the Bulgarian researcher
Lyubomir Miletich analysing some dialectal characteristics, claimed Western Bulgarian origin (from
Macedonia) of the Codex. Later researchers as
Josip Hamm has warned that vocalization of
yers (
ъ >
o,
ь >
e), as well as the occasional disappearance of epenthetic
l, suggests Macedonian provenience. According to
F. Curta, the book was "certainly of Macedonian origin", written "either in Ohrid or in one of the monastic centers in the region." According to
H. G. Lunt, "Certain deviations from the theoretical norms indicate Macedonian influences, others possibly Serbian (if not northern Macedonian)". There are a number of arguments that link the Codex Marianus with Bulgarian territory that bordered that of Serbia. It is difficult to answer whether the Codex was created before the end of the First Bulgarian Empire (1018), or after its Byzantine conquest, i.e. into the
theme of Bulgaria. Lunt proposed the 1030s, ==Legacy==