NICKNAMES OF SLOVAKS IN SOME SLOVAK SETTLEMENTS IN THE BANAT

Abstract

The occurrence of nicknames is an ongoing sociolinguistic process with an important historical factor. Our goal was to record existing nicknames preserved in memory of the current residents of Slovak nationality in Slovak villages such as Aradáč, Jánošík and Kovačica. In the paper, we indicate in short the years and circumstances under which the first Slovak colonists came to the above-mentioned villages, as well as the current number of residents.

The results of our research can be summarized as follows: monomial nicknames are most frequent, although we also recorded a few binomial nicknames. Assigning of nicknames is often influenced by Central Slovak dialect spoken in all three villages, as well as by Serbian language as the region’s official language. We also recorded nicknames formed on the basis of the elements of other languages. The majority of nicknames were derived from personal first and last names. About 5% residents in Aradáč (64 people), Jánošík (53 people) and Kovačica (241 people) have a nickname.

In our previous two studies we dealt with nicknames of the residents of Slovak nationality in Kysáč and Slovak towns in the district of Báčsky Ptrovec - the towns with a larger population and consequently larger number of nicknames, which allowed us to construct our own classification with more categories and their sub-variants. This time we employed Ološtiak’s theory, who drew from the theoretical base of Patráš (1996: 48) and we classified the nicknames into the following categories: connotational (derived from personal first and last names), external (motivated by physical features or particularities of an individual), internal (motivated by the individual’s psychological features and characteristics), allusive (motivated by visible similitude between the nickname’s holder and a movie or story character, famous actor, singer, sportsman, etc.), situational (motivated by a significant event, penchants or inclinations of the holder). Connotational nicknames were motivated by direct relationship with a birth name (own or foreign), but more frequently with a surname (own or foreign). Situational nicknames are most common and allusive nicknames are least frequent. We also registered some unclear and ambiguous nicknames, which formation was hard to identify - what was the motivation for their occurrence. Other nicknames, by contrast, have more motivational possibilities.

The living naming scheme is vibrant and based on individual characteristics of the nickname holders, most frequently features – psychological, physical, then occupation, but also a variety of other motivations.