Rosyjskie nazwy zawodowe w łódzkich dokumentach archiwalnych z początku XX wieku
Russian Occupational Titles in Archival Documents in Łódź from the early 20th Century

Author(s): Anna Iacovou
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: archival document; birth certificate; occupational title; suffix; word formation
Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the archival documents prepared in the Russian language in Poland within the territory of the city of Łódź during 1910—1914. The source material is the birth certificates made in St. Ann’s Parish. The object of analysis is apellatives naming persons on account of their occupations. These include both suffix derivatives and morphologically unmotivated nouns, for instance закройщик, музык(ант), писарь, торговец, and сторож. Compounds such as электротехник and terms such as прядильный мастер occur rather seldom. Occasionally, the function of an occupational title is played by substantivized adjectives and participles, for instance пожарный, портной, and торгующий. The names of persons discussed in this article are semantically diversified and characterize, with more or less accuracy, persons on account of their occupation, trade, specific field of trade, specialization, performed function, etc. As a general rule, these appellatives pertain to fathers registering births of their children. Since these documents have been written out in longhand by Poles in the foreign language, many of the analyzed forms turn out to be only the phonetic equivalents of Polish words or the inventions of their authors. Lack of experience or bad language habits rooted in the authors’ memory translate into numerous spelling mistakes.

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