Rozważania o nazwach bałtyckich fok

• Authors: Sadziński Witold , Witczak Krzysztof Tomasz

Title variants

EN

Considerations on names of the Baltic seals

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Lexical data demonstrate that no common term for ‘seal’ was attested in the Indo-European protolanguage, thus it is suggested that the Indo-European people originally knew no kind of seal. Also the Uralic tribes, living in their putative homeland, were hardly acquainted with seals. The north-west groups of the Indo-Europeans and the northern tribes of Uralic origin, which have gradually settled down on shores of the Baltic Sea, the Northern Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Arctic Ocean, introduced a number of innovative appellatives. Only the Slavs are deprived a common term for ‘seal’. It documents that the Slavic population have settled down relatively late on shores of the Baltic Sea. The East Balts use the common appellative *rōnjas m. ‘harbor seal, Phoca vitulina L.’, the Germanic tribes have one common name for ‘seal’ (Gmc. *selxaz m.) and two dialectal ones (West Gmc. *rubjō f. ‘seal’, North Gmc. *kōpaz m. ‘id.’), whereas the Insular Celts possess the common term *rōnos m. ‘seal’. On the other hand, the appellative *šülke ‘harbor seal’ is securely attested in the Balto-Finnic languages. The present authors discuss the origin of numerous terms for ‘seal’ attested in the Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Balto-Finnic and Saami languages, as well as a suggested relation between Gmc. *selxaz m. ‘harbor seal’ and Balto-Finnic *šülke ‘id.’. They agree with the traditional opinion that the Balto-Finnic term for ‘seal’ represents a borrowing from a Germanic source.

• Publisher: Muzeum Archeologiczne w Gdańsku
• Journal: Pomorania Antiqua
• Year: 2016
• Volume: Tom XXV
• Pages: s. 49-66

Contributors

author

Sadziński Witold

• Uniwersytet Łódzki, Wydział Filologiczny, Instytut Filologii Germańskiej, Zakład Językoznawstwa Niemieckiego, ul. Pomorska 171/173, 90-236 Łódź

author

Witczak Krzysztof Tomasz

• Uniwersytet Łódzki, Wydział Filologiczny, Katedra Filologii Klasycznej, Zakład Latynistyki i Językoznawstwa, ul. Pomorska 171/173, 90-236 Łódź