“Europäische Personennamensysteme: Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch”

179recenzijos / reviews WiLLy Van Langendonck katholieke universiteit Leuven Mokslinių tyrimų kryptys: žymėtumas ir ikoniškumas, referencija ir semantika (ypač tikrinių vardų), gramatinės kategorijos, tokios kaip apibrėžtumas, generiškumas, skaičius, gramatiniai ryšiai, prepozicijos, priklausomybių sintaksė ir žodžių tvarka. euroPäische PersonennaMensysteMe: ein handbuch Von abasisch bis zentraLLadinisch anlässlich der 65. geburtstage von rosa kohlheim und Volker kohlheim. herausgegeben von andrea brendler und silvio brendler. hamburg: baar, 2007, 863 p. issn 1610-7012 isbn 978-3-935536-65-3 in writing this review in english, i do not only want to make this voluminous and important handbook of european anthroponymic systems known to the english-speaking world, but also to indicate that german remains a language that one cannot possibly ignore for science, surely not for onomastics and linguistics. this book of 861 pages is dedicated to the kohlheims, rosa and Volker, two onomasts well known in the german onomastic world and beyond, on the occasion of their 65th birthdays. the editors, the brendlers, andrea and silvio, are another couple, much younger but promising researchers of german and even english names, both on the diachronic and the synchronic level. V. kohlheim and s. brendler are pioneers of the new approach of names, which they call nomematics (kohlheim 2005; kohlheim & hengst 2011; brendler 2008; see for a review of the latter Van Langendonck 2010). brendler & brendler realized a painstaking work in supervising this gigantic project, coordinating all these articles, which deal with 77 european languages presented in alphabetical order, pertaining to seven linguistic families (indo-european, basque, uralic, turkic, caucasian, arabic, and Mongolian). the systems described are meant to be representative of the european area, which is to be understood as a political and cultural construction rooted in the ancient greek tradition, rather than as a geographical unit. the contributions are structured acALL_62_63_maketas.indd 179 2011.06.17 08:24:12 180 WiLLy Van Langendonck acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXII–LXIII cording to the present state of the art, presenting specific core information. by the term system, the editors mean a structured and functional complex of personal names. in general, the authors use more or less the same model, beginning with the system containing one name, but quickly turning to a two-name system with first names and surnames, which started as bynames and gradually became family names. three-name systems also occur. the perspective is diachronic, going from the origin of the system until the present day situation. sometimes, the contemporary system is discussed first, and then one goes back to the origin. in addition, it seems clear that the papers are of unequal length and quality. in view of the confines of this review, i will limit myself to a few germanic languages, and also french, Latvian and Lithuanian, russian, and one non-indoeuropean language, basque. i will begin with the three main germanic languages: english, german, and my native language dutch. it could be expected that these three personal name systems have a lot in common, also in their historical development. however, this is not so well deducible from the articles in question since the respective authors focus on different aspects of the anthroponymic system dealt with. as the reading proceeds, there is a growing impression that the three papers are largely complementary in that, all in all, concurrent developments have taken place (see also Van Langendonck 2007, chapter 4). the English personal name system is described by john insley. this author clearly takes the chronological approach, starting with individual names in old english. in this initial stage, the system is clearly germanic. as in other languages of this group, the primary formations are dithem(at)ic men’s names consisting of two appellative stems, which together form a semantic unit, at least in the beginning, e.g., AElf-weald ‘elf-king’. Women’s names are formed in the same way, e.g., AEdel-hild ‘noble-fight’. Many first and second elements are discussed. When the sense of the compound disappears, this is in the first place due to the so-called principle of variation of germanic name-giving (see below, under german). the author should have explained what this is about, since he wrote for a manual. as other germanic languages, old english had several categories of monothematic names. first, there were nicknames like Ceorl ‘farmer’. secondary are short forms (Tida) and hypocorisms (Tottel < Torht-). from the end of the 9th up to the 13th century, scandinavian conquerors brought along their own onomastic inventory, typically names beginning with As-, as well as numerous danish hypocorisms. Many forms were anglicized. of major importance was the year 1066, in which the norman conquest took place. the original systems died out, except that reflexes of them are to be found in family names. in the Middle english era, a ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 180 2011.06.17 08:24:12 Europäische Personennamensysteme: Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch 181recenzijos / reviews number of northern french, especially romanized frankish names, pushed aside the autochthonous name treasure. other germanic names came from flanders and northern germany. these were supplemented by a series of biblical names, such as the still well known John, Peter, Simon, and Thomas. new hypocorisms were coined, with new suffixes, such as -kin (from dutch), yielding Thomkin, as well as romance formations with -in, -ot, and so on. for these ancient periods, we do not know much about sociological and historical factors in name giving. this is of course different in the new english era. some late medieval names have survived, e.g., Geoffrey, John, Margaret, Peter, Thomas, and William. the renaissance had also given rise to greek and Latin names like Alethea, Ambrose, Caesar, Diana, Julia, Lavinia, Penelope, and Virgil. the reformation led to old testament names, such as Abraham, David, Esther, Ruth, etc. dynasties and literary works are a further source of new names. some first names have come from family names ever since the elizabethan period, e.g., Ashley, Clifford. all the time, new names are being coined, from celtic or other areas. Middle class names (Hugh, Simon) seem to differ from lower class names (Wayne, Lee). insley does not go so much into the origin of family names. as everywhere, from the Middle ages, little by little, forenames were supplemented by patronymics and nicknames, especially because of the initial paucity of christian names, and the increase of bureaucracy. as elsewhere, the development of fixed family names was a long process, going from south to north in this case. the usual types are mentioned here, too: patronymics, geographical (appellative and proprial), occupational, and nicknames. in the last category, we encounter surnames like Shakespeare, or Lovejoy, with the original meaning ‘womanizer’. coincidentally, the last two are ‘satznamen’, compounds consisting of a verbal stem plus an object or subject noun. damaris nübling and antje dammel describe the German personal name system, starting with the contemporary situation. the two-name system contains a forename and a family name, as in all Western europe. although the law allows a couple to choose the family name either of the husband or of the wife, in most cases the husband’s name is chosen for wife and children. up to the Middle ages, the germanic one-name system was in use. here too, the gradual development of the actual two-name system goes from south to north. the early germanic names, such as Bern-hard, or Hilde-gund (see below) almost died out in favour of christian names, such as Johannes or Katharina. surnames came into use for the same reasons as elsewhere (see under english). Likewise, the number of first names has been growing for centuries. derivation and diminutivization played a part here. religious ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 181 2011.06.17 08:24:12 182 WiLLy Van Langendonck acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXII–LXIII or factors of tradition played a greater part in West than in east germany. nowadays, secularizing and internationalizing factors play an ever-increasing role, so the number of names has expanded especially from the second half of the 20th century. as in other european countries, the choice of a forename is now largely determined by the subjective, romantic criterion of euphony: does the name sound ‘good’ or not? forenames have to be ‘fashionable’, whatever that may mean. they are no longer given the names of saints, ancestors, or rulers. additional forenames, however, continue to refer to tradition or religion, where a difference may still occur between evangelical and catholic names. according to modern law, first names must differentiate between boys and girls. as everywhere, women’s names are longer, and are more subject to fashion, innovation, and foreign influences. then, the authors turn to the history of the name system. as in old english, initially, many dithematic names were coined, which showed a wishing character in the beginning. as such, they were ‘programmatic’ names. in later stages, when coining such names became mechanic and lost the motivation, new systems were created. for instance, the genealogical principle of variation was introduced, whereby the names of the children were composed of the four forename stems of the parents, e.g., Hildegund and Friedger were reconstructed as Friedhild, Gerhild, Hildger, Gundfried. children’s names could also be formed on the basis of alliteration, e.g., Grimhilt, Gunther, Gernot, Giselher. however, these two strategies did not square with the principle that the second member of the compound had to indicate sex: the gender was masculine for men’s names, feminine for women’s names. sex and gender were still more related than nowadays. as elsewhere, a number of short forms saw the light. in family names, we see more or less the same types of initial motivation: patronymics ending in -mann, -sen (< son), an -s genitive, or simply nothing. the main motive appears to be occupational names, with or without metonymy (e.g., Müller ‘Miller’, the most frequent german surname). the third category concerns nicknames pointing to physical or psychological properties of the name-bearer. as a fourth subclass, the authors mention names derived from words for dwelling places (Busch ‘bush’). related to this are names of places and countries, e.g., Bayer ‘bavarian’; simply Wien ‘Vienna’. for austria and switzerland, names derived from appellatives for dwelling-places appear to be typical, e.g., names in -er, such as Hofer ‘farmer’; Zumbach ‘at the brook’. strong and weak genitives are typical of areas neighbouring the Low countries (e.g., Peter-s, Hein-en). in the rest of the german area, so-called nominative forms dominate (e.g., Schmitt ‘smith’). the Dutch personal name system in the Low countries, i.e. the netherlands and flanders (belgium) is covered by doreen gerritzen. in contrast with the papers ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 182 2011.06.17 08:24:12 Europäische Personennamensysteme: Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch 183recenzijos / reviews on english and german, not much is said about the germanic roots of the system. the author states that the pre-medieval one-name system was gradually replaced by a two-name paradigm consisting of a christian name and a surname, mostly a patronymic, a geographical name, an occupational name or a nickname. in holland’s golden age, a three-name system was fashionable, for instance in the following example with two first names and two surnames: Dirck Ghijsbrecht Pellenzoon van Waetselaer. in the last example, a patronymic with -zoon ‘son’ and a geographical surname with van ‘from’ are combined. We can also mention such combinations as Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (with a patronymic and a byname, referring in this case to a famous poet). the byname is called an alias name, which is very clear in such explicit instances as Willem Pietersz, alias Schijtgelt, a ‘satzname’ meaning ‘shit-money’. the suffix -zoon was abbreviated as -z, and disappeared in later generations, leaving just the genitive -s. as elsewhere, there were several factors in the development of the surname system: christianization, which replaced the bulk of the old germanic dithematic names, i.e. names with two stems of the type Hilde-brand, by christian names such as Johannes and Elisabeth, which in the beginning were of course too few in number. another cause of the introduction of surnames was the growth of the population, then beginning to be concentrated in towns and cities. Matronymics were rare and always had special motivations, as elsewhere. in 1796, napoleon’s civil code imposed the adoption of an official family name in flanders. in the netherlands, this occurred around 1811, at least theoretically, as only in 1934 were family names established officially: it had to be the father’s name until 1998, when parents were allowed to decide themselves whether their children would bear the father’s or the mother’s surname. in belgium, this change of law is still under discussion. in the Low countries, there is a considerable freedom concerning the choice of the first name. in contrast with the german situation, in these two countries, a distinction between boys’ and girls’ names has not been imposed. on the other hand, forenames should be decent and not identical to family names. nevertheless, belgium is still somewhat stricter regarding the choice of a first name than the netherlands, especially for the orthography. a phonetic spelling like Ansjeliek for Angélique is accepted in the netherlands, not in belgium. as in most other areas, the first name precedes the family name, except in official enumerations and the like. as elsewhere, in the dialects, modern nicknames have come into use since family names became fixed, and lost their initial sense. in certain flemish areas, we still encounter the order [byname + forename], but this system is on the decline in favour of the reverse order, which is the normal order for first name and surname anyway. ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 183 2011.06.17 08:24:12 184 WiLLy Van Langendonck acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXII–LXIII the French personal name system was dealt with in detail by the late Martina Pitz. somewhat later than in the netherlands (2005), french parents acquired the right to decide themselves whether their children would bear the father’s or the mother’s surname. the origin of french forenames is mainly to be found in the gallo-roman era. some celtic names like Brice have been maintained thanks to christian support. until the present day, the french forename system has been dominated by traditional christian name lore containing hebrew, greek, Latin, celtic, and germanic elements. yet, from the Merovingian era, there has been a considerable germanic, especially frankish influence. however, the germanic dithematic names were not understood, and romanized, e.g., Walt-hari > Gautier, Willi-helm > Guillaume, Bern-hard > Bernard, Hluthu-wīgaz (Ludwig) > Clovis > Louis. from the 10th century, the number of these forenames decreased rapidly, whereby it is uncertain whether this process is due to or a consequence of the advent of byand surnames. Whilst in the 12th century, favourite men’s names were still of germanic origin (Guillaume, Gautier, Robert, Renaud, Raoul…), in the 13th century, we see a considerable increase of christian names due to an increase in popular piety (Jean, Pierre, Simon, Nichole, Etienne, Jeanne, Marie, Isabel…). concerning the formation of forenames, it is well-known that in the 7th century, Latin endings faded away, also in names, so first names often became ambiguous between masculine and feminine (Claude, Dominique, Camille…). to avoid this, the definite article was often added, which is still visible in surnames derived from them (Lemartin vs. Lamartine). for the same reason, many suffixed hypocorisms were formed (Paul-in, Claud-el, Paul-et, Paul-at, Paul-ot, Paul-in-et…). old germanic second stems became suffixes as well (Mich-ard, Mich-aud, Jak-ier). apocope and reduplication have been applied until the present day (Coco < Colette). compounds have been coined (Jean-Paul, Marie-Louise…). Women’s names were derived from men’s names, ending in -e (Albert-e, Paul-e…), -ie, -ine, -ette; these are no longer fashionable. for men, forenames of germanic origin have become popular (Gilbert, Hubert; Thierry, Bertrand, Richard). after World War ii, anglo-american influence can be observed (Dany, Freddy, Harry, Johnny). as in all europe, a number of new forenames have been introduced from 1968, coming from any area in the world. as elsewhere, there is an evolution from the one-name to the two-name system, starting with nicknames and other bynames, and ending in the establishment of family names. the first people to bear surnames were of noble origin. from the 11th/12th century, patronymics of the type X filius y were formed, geographical names or nicknames could be added to this pattern, e.g., Pierre [li filz] Guillaume ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 184 2011.06.17 08:24:12 Europäische Personennamensysteme: Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch 185recenzijos / reviews d’Arras, Jehan [dit] la Chievre du Hamel. because of the growth of the population, and the formation of towns and cities, the use of surnames spread to other classes. in 1539, the regulation of Villers-cotterets gave rise to a civil code, which furthered the adoption of surnames. this was corroborated by the introduction of church registers at the council of trent in 1547. both events furthered the process of surnames becoming hereditary. in the formation of family name types, patronymics played a major part. in this process, germanic suffixes were often used: (Acc-ard, Bern-ard, Bern-ier, Mich-aud…). as elsewhere, matronymics were rare. however, these so-called patronymics can be seen as ordinary bynames according to the author. this moot question pops up repeatedly. the high frequency of surnames like Martin (with its derivations: Martinet, Martinon…), Michel (with Michelet, Michelin…), and so on, is out of all proportion to the frequency of the related forenames in the late Middle ages. by contrast, it squares well with the high frequency of the related patron saints. this fits in with the numerous surnames of the type Saint-Martin, Saint-Michel, Saint-Paul, Saint-Remi, SaintEtienne, which apparently are mostly not bestowed after a place, but after the patron of the baptismal church in question. therefore, if we want to classify surnames, we should bear in mind that there exists a category of surnames that are not father’s names. in my view to call them ‘bynames’ does not solve the problem. the category of ‘bynames’ is often used as a waste-basket for unclassifiable names. as elsewhere, french surnames may have originated as geographical names, with a preposition (e.g., Darras, Demetz) or without (Arrambourg, Bretteville, Espagne), or in the form of inhabitant names, with an article (e.g., Lebreton, Lallemand) or without (Picard). especially in the countryside, terms for dwelling-places occur: Duval ‘from the valley’, Dupont ‘from the bridge’. occupational names are, for instance: Boulanger ‘baker’, Cordonnier ‘shoemaker’, Fèvre or Lefèvre ‘blacksmith’, etc. Metonymy is sometimes found here: Marteau ‘hammer’. the last category comprises nicknames of all kinds: Petit/Lepetit ‘small’, Noir/Lenoir ‘black’, etc. names such as Lévêque ‘bishop’, Leroi ‘king’ are classified among the nicknames. Likewise kinship terms (Lefils ‘son’, Lepère ‘father’) as well as animal names (Leloup ‘wolf’, Lechat ‘cat’), which generally seem to refer to personality features. as elsewhere, ‘satznamen’ (taken in a rather wide sense) play a considerable part: Boileau ‘drink-water’, Quinement ‘who does not lie’, Grosjean ‘fat john’. as for the frequency of all these name classes, it should be pointed out that not names of dwelling-places like Dupont are as numerous as people seem to think, but rather patronymics (Martin, Bernard, Richard). Laimute balode and ojārs bušs deal with the Latvian personal name system. ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 185 2011.06.17 08:24:13 186 WiLLy Van Langendonck acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXII–LXIII Pre-christian forenames are not well attested. in 12th and 13th century chronicles, we encounter some old Latvian personal names, especially of tribal chiefs. in that time, Latvians bore mainly dithematic names, e.g., Tali-baldus ‘wide+reign’ (still a contemporary first name: Tālivaldis), Wari-gribbe ‘power+want’. Monothematic names also occurred: Gaile. from the 12th to the 15th century, german missionaries tried to eradicate these ‘pagan’ formations and to replace them by (Low german) christian names. thus, biblical names were introduced. a few of them have remained until now (Indriķis < Hindrik). Latvian forenames of the 15th and 16th centuries are: Andres, Hinrick, Hansz, Pauwel, Jacobus; Margrethe, Ilske, Magdalene, Anna, Katherine, etc. from the 17th century, Latvian formations have been on the increase: Ansis, Jānis (< Johannes). in the 17th century, Latvia was under swedish rule, which gave rise to scandinavian based names like Ivars, Gunārs, Gustavs, Ingrīda, furthered by the popularity of scandinavian literature in the 20th century. an onset of truly Latvian first names came at the end of the 18th century. at that time, the inventory of forms was still limited. in the last quarter of the 19th century, nationalism brought about more truly Latvian names, such as Guntis, Dainis for men, and Velta, Aina for women. nowadays, a number of Western european, especially anglo-saxon names have come in: Roberts, Ralfs; Laura, Samanta . the making of the contemporary Latvian family name system goes back to the first half of the 19th century. an important factor was the liberation of serf farmers by tsar alexander i, which called for the introduction of surnames for all farmers. on the other hand, in big cities, the need for a surname had already arisen. as everywhere, family names developed out of nicknames and other bynames. the main motivation appears to be the occupation of the person to be named, e.g., Kalējs ‘blacksmith’. surnames like Beķeris ‘baker’, Brūveris ‘brewer’, or Melderis ‘miller’ are german borrowings. a geographical source is to be found in Lībietis ‘Livonian’, Leitis ‘Lithuanian’, Prūsis ‘Prussian’, etc. other surnames were derived from nicknames, e.g., Garais ‘long’, Mazais ‘short’, Lielgalvis ‘big-headed’. a number of other surnames go back to denominations for animals and plants, e.g., Balodis ‘pigeon’, Vilks ‘wolf’, Ozols ‘oak-tree’. surnames are often formed by suffixes like -iņ(š), or -īt(is), which in appellatives are diminutive suffixes. a grammatical peculiarity of Latvian surnames is the distinction between masculine and feminine forms according to the sex of the name-bearer. Masculine nominative suffixes are (as in appellatives) -s,-š, -is, -us, -a, -e. the last two can be feminine as well, except if functioning in contrast: Balodis vs. Balode. a number of surnames were borrowed from other linguistic areas, e.g., scandinavian (Karlsons), so much ALL_62_63_maketas.indd 186 2011.06.17 08:24:13 Europäische Personennamensysteme: Ein Handbuch von Abasisch bis Zentralladinisch 187recenzijos / reviews that -sons became a surname suffix. still more are of german origin: Grīnbergs (< Grünberg), Freimanis (< Freimann), Bušs (< Busch); of Polish origin are, e.g., Dombrovskis, Jankovskis . some are russian: Petrovs, Markovs. a few are italian, but remained uninflected: Rosini, Martini. in the soviet era, the russian three-name system (see below) was introduced. colloquially, forename and patronymic were used as one unit. after this era, the two-name system was restored. finally, nowadays, two first names can be given, and even two surnames combined. the Lithuanian personal name system is dealt with by Vitalija Maciejauskienė. the author starts from contemporary name giving, and distinguishes between official and unofficial uses. officially, here too, there is a two-name system of [first name + family name]. as almost everywhere, family names are inherited from the father’s family name. feminine forms are derived from the father’s name by means of the suffixes -aitė, -ytė, -utė, and ūtė, which are added according to the ending of the father’s name, e.g., Rimšaitė < Rimša, Skinkytė < Skinkis, Žitkutė < Žitkus. in case of marriage, the wife can take the husband’s surname, whereby, as a rule, the suffix -ienė is added: Dausienė < Dausa. since 2003, it is also possible to add the suffix -ė, as in: Agilbė < Agilba. in a colloquial context, the official model undergoes various changes, on linguistic and extralinguistic grounds. either the forename, the surname, or a nickname can be used on their own. forename and nickname can be combined, several suffixes added to women’s names. as elsewhere, the development of the pattern [forename + family name] went slowly and took several centuries for its completion. in the anthroponymy of the 15th to the 17th century, three types in the naming of persons prevail in historical sources. the first is the one-name system. Later on, we find first names plus bynames derived from appellatives, e.g., Czeputis doilida ‘carpenter’, Bartlomiej, bojarzin ‘bojar’, or near-patronymics as in Zygmunt, Pawlow zięc ‘Paulius’ son-in-law’. real patronymics can take Lithuanian suffixes such as -aitis, -onis, -ūnas, -ėnas (Mykolay Petrutaytis, Michno Dawtortonis), slavic suffixes (Adam Sruogiewicz), or no suffix at all (Jan Alksnis). at the same time, three components show up: Stefanus Andruszkowicz Jatolgowicz . the prevalent pattern is [forename + patronymic]. Little by little, the surname becomes inheritable, and hence, a real family name. as elsewhere, the nobility started this pattern from the 15th century. the first family names of people in cities were attested in the beginning of the 16th century; those of farmers by the end of it. the system spread rapidly in the 17th century. in the 18th century, the process ended. however, after the incorporation of Lithuania in the russian emALL_62_63_maketas.indd 187 2011.06.17 08:24:13