Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The researcher A. Bańkowski recognised 585 lexemes in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego (Etymological Dictionary of Polish Language), as probable ruthenisms. 176 units were refered to the old Polish language, and 129 belonged to the modern general Polish language, but their Ruthenian origin has been described earlier. In this case, A. Bańkowski's task was just to confirm these facts. 280 lexical units which have not yet been described as units of Ruthenian (Belorussian, Ukrainian) provenance are much more important for us. These words are in the orbit of interest of this sketch for obvious reasons, and just they are the subject of the detailed, multifaceted, chronological, geographical, and etymological analysis. This analysis showed clearly that the etymologist from Częstochowa quantitatively exaggerated the issue of ruthenisms in Polish beyond the real and acceptable measure. Among 280 units not mentioned so far as genetically Ruthenian, he acknowledged as such 82 Proto-Slavicisms, 35 dialectal (northern) Proto-Slavicisms, 54 native Polish words, 15 borrowings from languages other than Ruthenian. Among the remaining 94 lexical units, possible to postulate with a high degree of probability the Ruthenian origin for only 15 of them. These words are: czeznąć, czort, dobroduszny, gołąbka (‘caressingly about a girl’), hałaśliwy, klucz ‘szyk lecących ptaków’, koleina, kraszanka, krupnik, na pohybel, napytać się, oszołomić, perkoz, pokrój, ryży. What about the remaining 79 lexemes, it is difficult to uniquely determine their origin and they require further in-depth and systematic research. Thus, it should be concluded that the only unquestionable contribution made by A. Bańkowski to the study of the role of Ruthenian languages in the formation of the lexical resource of general Polish has actually been the expansion of the existing number of Polish ruthenisms by just 15 lexical units.
Source: Rocznik Slawistyczny
Author: Adam Fałowski
Institution: Jagiellonian University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409554360