Original scientific paper

The Kajkavian dialect in early Kajkavian place names ni Podravina

Mijo Lončarić ; Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The analysis of the earliest recorded place names of Podravina, mostly names of settlements, confirms the existing knowledge and hypotheses on the Kajkavian dialect in the area. The corpus gives almost no indication of accentuation. The yat and the semi-vowel merged at the turn of the 16th century, while before that time separate phonetic units existed. The continuant of yat is closed e that can also be a rising diphthong (ie), which is more common, or a falling diphthong (ei), which is less common. The continuant of the semivowel has the value of a central indefinite vowel, schwa (ə). The semi-vowel assimilates with yat in the value of a yat continuant. Transitional idioms around Našice that developed in the direction of Štokavian under the influence of neo-Štokavian idioms assimilate the continuant of the semi-vowel with a, and the continuant of yat with the continuant e= ę (although in some settlements around Našice a separate phonological unit has been optionally preserved in the position of yat). Written records point to longer preservation of the syllabic l (ł) as a separate phoneme and a separate phonological unit in the position of the back nasal in the vocalic value between o and u – closed (o) before the 15th century. In some cases, ł can result from a scribal tradition. With respect to the assimilation of continuants of the back nasal vowel and the syllabic l, recorded forms confirm that their continuant had a separate phonological value everywhere before the 17th/18th century, while it later became assimilated with the early o or u. In present-day Podravina there is no special phoneme as their continuant, but it can be found in neighbouring areas of Varaždin, Kalnik and Moslavina. Written records indicate an early generalization of the suffix in o and roots where suffixes with e can be expected, starting from the beginning of the 14th century. Forms that point to depalatalization of ļ emerge in the 18th century. The situation varies in different Kajkavian idioms today.

Keywords

onomastics; toponymy; place-names; Croatia; Podravina

Hrčak ID:

22331

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/22331

Publication date:

28.3.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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