2017, Volume 14, Issue 3

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Tatyana P. Romanova
Samara National Research University named after academician S. P. Korolev
Samara, Russia

An All-Slavic Dictionary of Folk Zoonymy.
Review of the book: Warchoł, S. (2007–2016). Słownik etymologiczno-motywacyjny słowianskiej zoonimii ludowej [The Etymological and Motivational Dictionary of Slavic Folk Zoonyms] (Vols. 1–5). Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.

Voprosy onomastiki, 2017, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp. 233–240 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2017.14.3.033

Received 20 June 2017

Abstract: The review gives a critical assessment of the content and structure of the five-volume dictionary of Slavic animal names (zoonyms), compiled by Stefan Warchol, a professor at the University of Lublin. The author is given high credits for systematizing the extensive lexical material (over 120,000 items) collected on the indigenous Slavic territories in Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Upper and Lower Lusatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. It is highly appreciated that the research material was recorded directly from informants (1,500 people) and is supplemented by commentary elaborating on each name’s motivation. The dictionary articles are noted for particular thoroughness of the lexicographical description to include information about the original form of the animal’s name, the place where it was registered (the name of the village, region, country), the nomination background and the frequency of use. The breadth of coverage of zoonymic data, which includes the names of 44 species of domestic and domesticated wild animals, is emphasized. The first volume contains the names of buffaloes, bulls, oxen and horses; the second — the names of cows; the third is devoted to cats and dogs names; the fourth collects the names of different kinds of pet animals (hedgehogs, foxes, hares, canaries, parrots, etc.). The dictionary articles of the fifth volume present the names of animals of different species categorized on the common root basis, which allows one to trace the level of its productivity and the breadth of its distribution throughout the Slavic territory. Particular attention in the review is given to the conceptual side of the research which builds on the author’s study of the archaic layer of zoonymic vocabulary and develops into the original hypotheses on Slavic ethnogeny problem and delineating the boundaries of the ancestral home of the Slavs. The peer-reviewed dictionary provides rich and well-systemized information relevant for research in the fields of Slavic zoonyms, onomastics, semasiology, onomasiology, etymology, dialectology, ethnolinguistics, and the cultural history of the Slavic peoples.

Keywords: zoonymy, motivation, etymology, Slavic languages, ethnogenesis of the Slavs, onomastic lexicography

References

Kriukova, I. V. (2011). Reklamnaia zoonimiia [Zoonyms in Advertising]. Rozprawy Sławistyczne, 23, 123–132.

Romanova, T. P., & Salmina, O. V. (2003). Traditsionnyi plast russkoi zoonimii (na materiale klichek zhivotnykh sela Pokrovka Samarskoi oblasti) [Traditional Russian Animal Names (on the data from of the village of Pokrovka, Samara Region]. In S. Warchoł (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of Dialectologists and Geolinguists (Lublin, 24–29 July, 2000) (Vol. 2, pp. 221–231). Lublin: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Press.

Suprun, V. I., & Madieva, G. B. (2011). Razvitie onomasticheskoi teorii v trudakh professora Stefana Warchola [The Development of Onomastic Theory in the Works of Professor Stefan Warchoł]. Rozprawy Sławistyczne, 23, 259–270.

Warchoł, S. (1988). Uwagi o kwestionariuszu do badania zoonimii ludowej [Commentary on a Survey in Common Zoonymy]. Rozprawy Komisji językowej, 34, 287–292.

Warchoł, S. (1993). Kwestionariusz do badania zoonimii ludowej w Polsce (na tle słowiańskim) [A Survey in Common Zoonymy in Poland (against the Slavic Background)]. Rozprawy Sławistyczne, 8.

Warchoł, S. (1998). Znachenie zoonimii dlia izucheniia problem slavianskogo etnogeneza: vvedenie v problematiku [The Role of Zoonymy for Studying the Problems of Slavic Enthnogeny: an Introduction to the Problem]. In V. I. Suprun (Ed.), Onomastika Povolzh’ia: tez. dokl. VIII Mezhdunar. konf. (Volgograd, 8–11 sentiabria 1998 g.) [Onomastics of the Volga Region: Abstracts of the 8th International Conference. (Volgograd, September 8–11, 1998)] (p. 126). Volgograd: Peremena.

Warchoł, S. (2001). Znachenie zoonimii v issledovanii problem etnogeneza slavian (krug problem) [The Role of Zoonymy for Studying the Enthnogeny of the Slavs (An Overview of the Issues)]. In V. I. Suprun (Ed.), Onomastika Povolzh’ia: mater. VIII konf. po onomastike Povolzh’ia [Onomastics of the Volga Region: Materials of the 8th Conference on Onomastics of the Volga Region] (pp. 208–218). Moscow: Izd-vo In-ta etnologii i antropologii RAN.

Warchoł, S. (2007). Prarodina slavian i ee pervonachal’nye granitsy v svete sovremennoi i traditsionnoi zoonimii [The Ancestral Homeland of the Slavs and its Original Boundaries in the Light of Modern and Traditional Zoonymy]. Vestnik Kazakhskogo natsional’nogo universiteta. Seria «Filologiia», 37, 120–123.