VILLAGE NICKNAMES IN KARAŠEVO: AN ADDENDUM TO THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF ONOMASTIC

Abstract

During the research of the ethnic identity of Carașova residents in Romania in 2015, the phenomenon of giving collective nicknames to all village inhabitants was observed. In Serbian ethnology-anthropology, as well as in other Ex-Yugoslav countries, this phenomenon has almost gone unnoted so far. The awareness of this phenomenon is not significantly higher in larger scientific communities, either (for instance, in the USA, in Spain), though it did receive a slightly better theoretical and empirical coverege in Romania and Russia. As opposed to etnologists and anthropologists, Serbian linguists are well acquainted with this phenomenon, but they have failed to provide sufficient empirical data on the subject. The present paper is an attempt to contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon. Village nicknames can be understood as an element in a system which, apart from nicknames, consists of invectives and stereotypes in a more narrow sense of the term. The initial hypothesis was that the Carașovians employed nicknames as an alternative form of communication and/or signifying, used in order to regulate social relations. Following this hypothesis, seven Carașovian villages, united by this polyfunctional system of signifying into a unique whole, were observed. The results of this research and data analysis are presented here.