Folia onomastica Croatica, No. 6, 1997.
Original scientific paper
Names of springs and wells in Croatia
Dunja Brozović Rončević
; Zavod za lingvistička istraživanja HAZU
Abstract
Names of springs and wells in Croatia, together with terms used for this group of geographical objects are one of the most interesting parts of Croatian toponomastics. This semantic group displays rich possibilities of name-forming incentives and motives which are manifested in the great lexical diversity and specific areal diffusion of individual appelatives and names derived from them. This group is of a special interest for the study of interlinguistic and interdialectal relations not only in the South Slavic area as a whole, but also on the wider Slavic territory. It should be pointed out that Croatian terms bring together not only Slavic linguistic heritage but also substratic and adstratic lexical layers, which is especially prominent in Croatian border regions. This unique position within the group of Slavic languages is clearly reflected in the fact that only Croatian has several terms for submarine springs, some of which are adaptations of primary alloglotic lexems. The author examines etymologically almost 80 geographical terms for springs and wells trying to determine their diachronic background and distribution on historic Croatian territory. The paper presents a well-documented survey of Croatian hydronymy, providing information on the structure and semantics of the relevant toponyms.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
178541
URI
Publication date:
22.6.1998.
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