Original scientific paper
NAMES OF ANIMALS IN THE MEDIAEVAL ANTROPONYMS IN DALMATIA
Ivan Ostojić
Abstract
The author analysis over 700 forms of personal names for which he found that during the Middle Ages, from 11th to 14th centuries, the Dalmatians were given the names of about 150 various species of animals. More than half of these forms were formed on the Croatian and the rest on the Romance linguistic basis. It is not quite certain that every form was taken from zoology, still, if it could be proved that some of them were not of that origin the ratio would not be changed significantly. It should be taken into consideration that these results were based only on the published material. The relatively large number of Romance names in the mediaeval Dalmatia are due to the fact that almost all the studied documents were registered in the cities that, in the Middle Ages, were turning gradually from the Romance into the Croatian ones. Only four cities, Zadar, Trogir, Dubrovnik and Split, in that order, revealed more than two thirds of usable data. The third part, except for some very rare cases in villages, was found in some other places headed by Krk, Rab and Kotor. After their migration into the littoral Dalmatia the Croatian inhabitants often used the Romance linguistic basis for the names of animals, sea fishes in particular, which they found in their new homeland. The names of animal origin were given to the members of all social classes of both sexes. Of all the animal names »Vuk« (Wolf), in various forms, was most frequently used as a human name for its prophylactic and protecting reasons. It is followed by: ox, bear, hen, cat, sheep, goat, lion, pig, fox, dog. owl, falkon and its kind, and mouse.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
129536
URI
Publication date:
23.12.1987.
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