Means of Formation Parallel Anthroponyms in Georgian

Abstract

Anthroponyms are an interesting part of the general vocabulary of a language. Currently, our goal is to study parallel anthroponyms. Parallel variants generated by different means are called unofficial variants of official anthroponyms (for example: Daviti — Data, Dato, Dati, Datiko, Datikona, Datuna, Datunia, Dateba…).

For the analysis of parallel anthroponyms, we considered it necessary to put a matter  about the separation of base segments in official anthroponyms; A base  segment  is called the part of the official name that participates in the formation of parallel forms. In the presented example (Daviti) the first syllable and the last consonant (da-t) are used as a base segment.

The searched material, its analysis and the obtained conclusions should be interesting from an interdisciplinary (in particular: linguistics, psychology, sociology and etc.) point of view.

We analyzed the empirical material using Historical-comparative, Descriptive, Statistical and Corpus-based studies research methods.

In the official name, we represented one segment (Otari > Ot-iko, Ot-una — the base segment being “Ot”…); two-segmented (Elguja > Elgu // Guja, Guj-i — the base segments are  "Elgu" and "Guj") and three-segmented (Elisabedi > Eli, Liza, Sabedo) onyms.

Structurally, the base segment can be a) only a consonant part of the origin name (the base segment of "Nino" is the "n" phoneme (N-uts-a, N-uts-ik-o); b) only one syllable of the origin name (the parallel forms of "ana": An-uk-a, An-ka, An-ik-o, An-un-a, An-cho, etc. the base segment being "An") or c) two syllables of the origin name (in the onym "Ioane" segment is the two-syllable "Io").

The parallel form of the origin anthroponym is obtained by keeping the base segment and a) apocopating the sound or sounds of the onym (Tarieli > Taro; Bachana > Bacha); b) by loss of sound or syllable in anlaut (Iakobi > Koba; Mzekhatuna > Khatuna); c) syncopating a sound or sounds (Anastasia > Nastia; Elisabedi > Liza). A parallel anthroponym can be obtained by adding different affixes (for instance: Ana + uka > Anuka); The purposeful use of vowel suffixes in onyms, for example: Dat-i, Dat-a, Dat-u, Gvants-i, Nat-u...

The parallel variant of the origin anthroponym can be shorter than the official name (Nikolozi > Niko) or, on the contrary, represent a more extensive form (Saba> Sabunia). That is why we consider that the creation of parallel names is not a process caused by economy.