Некоторые замечания об исследованиях еврейской антропонимии северо-восточной Польши в исторический период

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to draw attention to the need to supplement the existing research on the anthroponymy of the Jewish community in Bialystok in the first part of the 19th century. A sociological and linguistic analysis of these anthroponyms should be made. It is possible because we can use new sources – names and lists of inhabitants of Bialystok in the years 1799–1853 (compiled and published by W. Wróbel, W. Szwed). These sources contain a great wealth of Jewish anthroponyms. The oldest nineteenth-century sources show the process of the formation of surnames of Bialystok Jews. Surnames were imposed on Jews by the authorities of the Russian Empire. The lexical base of Białystok Jews’ surnames were Slavic languages, mainly Polish and Russian, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew. The patterns of the countries of the settlement were used to form surnames (Polish, Russian, German). What distinguishes Jewish anthroponymy in the research area are the artificial surnames. Because of women’s social rank, female surnames enclosed in the registers are not very common. The results obtained so far by onomast researchers involved in the historical anthroponymy of Podlasie, including Jewish anthroponymy, formed under the influence of the Slavic languages, are a serious contribution to the development of Slavic onomastics, are of great value to researchers of the history and culture of this multi-ethnic and multiconfessional border region.