Eastern Slavic Elements in the Women’s Forenames of the Bourgeois and Peasant Classes of Central-Western Podlasie (17th–18th Centuries)

Abstract

Central-western Podlasie is a border area where Western and Eastern Slavic ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural influences have clashed since its settlement. Such territories are extremely interesting research areas due to the variety of factors acting on the studied objects on a synchronic and diachronic levels. This study examines the forenames of women of the bourgeois and peasant classes of this area in the period from the beginning of the 17th to the end of the 18th century. The author of the study was particularly interested in the forenames showing East Slavic linguistic features. The formal determinants of these features turned out to be the phonetic and morphological properties of onymic derivatives, resulting from the adaptation of names on a local linguistic basis. The main aim of the article was to examine whether the occurrence of East Slavic elements in the forenames is determined by the origin of the onyms. To achieve this, it was necessary to make a genetic classification of the forenames, both as a whole and as a group containing East Slavic elements. As a result of the research, it turned out that the vast majority of the forenames with East Slavic linguistic features are hagiographic forenames of Greek origin. These units appeared in a significant number of phonetic and morphological variants, which proves the vitality of onymic transformation processes in the local area. The conclusion resulting from the analysis is that the form and origin of the forenames were related to the confessional affiliation of their bearers, in this case, followers of Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Catholicism.