ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Anna Arkadyevna Plotnikova
Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

RAJAC AND PARADISE: NAMES OF EAST SERBIAN VILLAGES IN FOLK TRADITION

For citation
Plotnikova, A. A. (2024). Rajac and Paradise: Names of East Serbian Villages in Folk Tradition. Voprosy onomastiki, 21(3), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2024.21.3.038

Received on 11 May 2024
Accepted on 15 July 2024

Abstract: The article examines folk motivations for the names of villages in the southern part of the Negotin region in Eastern Serbia, exploring their historical context and legends about local heroes. The first section analyses the onomastic elements within these legends. This is followed by an analysis of the perception of the name of the central village, Rajac, by contemporary speakers of the local dialect. The final section considers the narratives concerning visions and dreams associated with the imagery of paradise, continuing the folk interpretations of this oikonym. The findings are based on the author’s fieldwork conducted during expeditions in 2023 and 2024. The region studied forms part of a wine-producing area that was under Ottoman rule for an extended period. Consequently, many folk stories explaining the origin of village names are connected with local resistance to the Ottomans and tales of heroes (including the voivode Veljko) whose adventures often involved the consumption of alcoholic beverages. These narratives frequently take on a humorous tone, especially when wine and winemaking are central to the stories. The interpretations of village names vary among informants from different ethnic groups and neighboring villages, which often compete in their winemaking traditions. The name of Rajac, in particular, is widely understood as meaning “paradise corner.” Scholarly explanations of this toponym either partially align with this modern interpretation or suggest links to a reconstructed Slavic cultural concept of paradise as a space associated with water.

Keywords: toponymy; toponymic legends; oral narratives; Serbian language; ethnolinguistics; folklore; funeral and memorial rites; paradise; lethargic sleep; the Turks

Acknowledgements
The work was carried out in the framework of the Russian Sciencе Foundation project No. 22-18-00484 Slavic-non-Slavic Borderlands: Funeral and Memorial Rite in Ethnolinguistic Coverage (https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00484/).

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