The semantic commemorative model in etymologies of common place names from the borderland of Silesia and Lesser Poland: Bytom, Będzin, Piekary (based on tales) Cover Image

, Semantyczny model pamiątkowy w etymologiach potocznych nazw miejscowych z pogranicza śląsko-małopolskiego: Bytom, Będzin, Piekary (na podstawie podań)
The semantic commemorative model in etymologies of common place names from the borderland of Silesia and Lesser Poland: Bytom, Będzin, Piekary (based on tales)

Author(s): Elżbieta Michow
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Western Slavic Languages
Published by: Instytut Śląski
Keywords: common etymology of toponyms;regionalism;Bytom;Będzin;Piekary

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article - basing on Silesian-Lesser Polish place names of Bytom, Będzin, Piekary - presents a tendency of giving the toponyms a commemorative semantic in the common etymologies that are placed in numerous contemporary electronic and paper publications. The most important causes of the phenomenon include the extralinguistic reasons (i.a. development of regionalism and regional education, rank increase of the concept of homeland, implementation of regional European projects, as well as local marketing and promotional strategies, regional megalomania in conjunction with the creation of the literary Myth of the Beginning of the original settlement and its inhabitants), linguistic causes (i.a. non-transparency of the toponyms, low level of knowledge of the language and the methods of creating the place names, the facility to confuse the commemorative with the possessive type, phonetic associations, spelling myths), and literary reasons (genre characteristics of the etymological tale, literary Myth of the Beginning). Furthermore, the author presents the methodology of description of common etymology of toponyms and proposes to use a more appropriate and widespread term, i.e. common etymology (of a toponym) instead of the currently used: folk etymology, since the unscientific etymologies are a natural consequence and manifestation of common thought.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 79
  • Page Range: 149-172
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish