Vol.1, No 5, 1998 pp. 339 - 340
Projects
THE TOPONYMS OF ZOONYMIC ORIGIN
Vilotije Vukadinović
Prosveta, Niš, 1996, Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, number of pages:
75
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš
published the study of professor Vilotije Vukadinović, titled The Toponyms
of Zoonymic Origin, as the second book in the edition Lexicological Research
in Southeast Serbia.
The introductory part (7-10), having the same title as the study itself,
gives details on the scope and significance of the work in gathering onomastic
material, undertaken by the Council for Onomastics of the Serbian Academy
of Sciences and Arts with the help of collaborators in the field, primarily
ethnographers and geographers and then linguists. The toponyms are particularly
interesting as a dialectological lexical material, as they register the
state of a language from the time it had originated, remaining usually
almost unchanged ever since. The toponyms motivated by zoonyms (names of
animals) were singled out of this abundant material. They included the
names of 81 settlements, as well as the hydronyms and micro-toponyms from
the region of southeast Serbia. The material is dialectologically significant
because it shows the speech characteristics of this area.
The chapter on semantic characteristics (10-11) contains the material
classified in three groups: the first group encompasses the toponyms named
after the principle of metaphors, with unchanged zoonyms (???? - Wolves,
?????? - Raven, 10); the derivatives of zoonyms, their habitats or certain
animal characteristics are in the second group (???????? - Rabbit's Place,
???????? - Goat's Place, 10), and the third group contains the toponyms
designating the locations on which certain activities related to animals
had been performed. They are most often derived by the suffixes -??? and
-???? (???????????, ???????????, after ?????? - cattle, 11).
The chapter titled Structural (Formation) Characteristics (11-28) offers
a survey of formation possibilities applied in the formation of toponyms.
They can consist of: a) one word (12-15), such as: zoonymic appellatives
metaphorically used to designate a toponym (????? - Spider, ???? - Calf,
12), or derived by adding various simple or complex suffixes on a whole
word or a part of it (?????-?? - for Falcon, ???-?????? - for Snail, ???-??
- for Goat, ???-??? - for Urus, ???-???? - for Eagle, 13); b) two words
(15-28), which are the most in number, created of zoonymic determinatives
either possessive or descriptive in the meaning, and, most often, of geographic
appellatives (???? ????? - Bear's Den, ?????? ??? - Bitch's Whirlpool,
17). For the sake of better insight, they are classified according to both
appellatives and names of animal species (81 in number). The hydronyms
of zoonymic origin are specifically separated and analyzed in a similar
manner. They had been created of the zoonyms of the possessive meaning
(secondary) and appellatives (?????????? ???? - Serpent's River, 27); c)
the toponyms consisting of several words (28), which are small in numbers
(?? ???? ???????? - Of The Hung Wolf), and d) toponomastic combinations
(28) or compound words (?????????? - Chasing Mare, ???????? - Swine's Whirlpool)
that are also scarce.
In Some Linguistic Characteristics (28-31), particular attention is
paid to the problem of the category of numbers in toponyms. Most often,
they have the singular form, but the form of pluralia tantum may also appear
quite frequently (the suffixes -??, -?, -??), and it desig-nates the names
of houses, parts of villages and other toponyms. The suffix -??, which
designated families (????????????, ??????????? - Romanian cstrac=perch,
20), was later substituted by the suffix -?? (????????, ???????? - Rom.
sarpe=serpent, 29). The author also pointed out some phonetic features
characteristic for certain dialects of south-east Serbia, for example:
?, ? < ?, ? (??????, ???????, 30); ?, ? + ?, ? > ?, ? (????????? ???,
30); the vocalic ? is either preserved or unvocalized in the investigated
toponyms (????, ?????????, 30); the semivowel is preserved (?ü??ü?, 31),
and the forms ???????, ??????????? (31) appear in the furthest northeast
under the influence of Kosovo-Resava dialects.
The areas of the mentioned phonetic phenomena are presented in the
maps given in the enclosure (32-38): (in the sequence) 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The
map 1 shows the geographical region throughout which the material is collected,
and the map 2 depicts the area in which house names formed under the influence
of non-Slavic languages were observed.
Then, the Dictionary follows (39-60). It contains the alphabetical
list of all the analyzed material. Every lexical entry is accompanied by
the abbreviation of the (micro)toponym, and the abbreviation of the source
the material was taken from (these are the published and unpublished works
of the collaborators of the Council for Onomastics of the Serbian Academy
of Sciences and Arts). The toponym ubiety may most often be comprehended
through them, as well. The name of the borough or nearest place next to
the toponym location was cited where needed. The meanings of non-Slavic
zoonyms were also given, together with the explanations of less known geographical
appellatives.
The final part of the study contains the lists: Abbreviations of Sources
(61-62), References (62-64), and Technical Abbreviations (65) that facilitate
orientation in the Dictionary to the reader.
The epilogue (67-74), titled Recording of Cattle-Breeding Vocabulary
by Dr. N. Bogdanović, the editor of the Edition, represents not only a
mere review of the study on The Toponyms of Zoonymic Origin, but it may
be regarded as a separate article that opens some other aspects concerning
the cattle-breeding lexicon destiny and announces further publications
on this topic.
The Note on the Author (75), by which this book is finished, does not
contain the fact that, since recently, respected Dr. Vilotije Vukadinović
is, unfortunately, no longer with us. This work should have been the first
part of a monograph on the toponymy of southeast Serbia motivated by the
cattle-breeding vocabulary.
The study The Toponyms of Zoonymic Origin presents and gives a many-sided
(semantic, structural and linguistic) analysis of an abundant dialectological
material. Such a great number of examples illustrate the great importance
that cattle breeding has had in these regions. A particular validity and
historical significance are attributed to the toponyms motivated by the
names of animal species that do not exist here for a long time (urus, lynx).
Those who are aware of the withering away of our villages, with which the
designations of numerous locations in village districts irretrievably disappear,
comprehend the necessity for such studies.
Nadežda Jović
