Adjectival vs. nominal: Surnames with ambiguous declension paradigm in the Polish onymy
Adjectival vs. nominal: Surnames with ambiguous declension paradigm in the Polish onymy

Summary/Abstract: The gender-marked -ski or -cki/-dzki ending surnames of adjectival origin are usually perceived, especially by foreigners, as the archetypal Polish surname type. Yet there also exists a numerically modest surname category, which includes such names as Załuska or Nędzka, and which was admittedly overlooked by prof. Kazimierz Rymut in his seminal surname dictionary Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (1992‒94). This type is characterised by a mixed declension: some part of the name bearers decline their surname within the adjectival paradigm (with the masculine form Załuski, Nędzki, and the respective feminine form Załuska, Nędzka), while others ‒ within the nominal paradigm (featuring the same form Załuska, Nędzka for both genders, with identical declension). The present paper seeks to answer several questions connected with this surname type: how many such surnames of this kind there are in current use in Poland, how they differ in the degree of their nominality, and ‒ where possible ‒ also to outline their etymology, which might help decide which form, adjectival or nominal, may have been historically first.

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