Staropołabskie teonimy *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ: deadiectiva czy composita?

Abstract

Old Polabian theonyms *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ: deadjectival nouns or compounds? The article reinterpretes the morphological structure of a series of Old Polabian theonyms: *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ. In the literature, they are quite unanimously considered to be nominal compounds with the element *vitъ ‘dominus, potens’ but this author shows, based on a distribution analysis of the formant *-(o/e)vitъ in the Slavonic languages, that they should be viewed as suffixal derivatives in *-ov-itъ (in the attributive-possessive function), and from the formal point of view, as nouns coined from adjectival bases. The paper concludes with the supposition that theonyms created using this formula were a dialectal innovation and were most likely limited to Old Polabian mythological nomenclature. Probably, they were substitute names and, being appellative epithets, they only became independent in the function of theonyms.

Keywords

• teonimia słowiańska
• antroponimia
• deadiectivum
• compositum
• nazewnictwo mitologiczne