Вопросы ономастики (Dec 2023)
Variability of Perm Old Believers’ Name System in the Early 20th-Century Middle Prikamye
Abstract
The article describes the variability of the name system of Perm Old Believers — former peasants of the Stroganov Perm estate living in Middle Prikamye in the early 20th c., that ostensibly belonged to the Chasovennye confession. The research is based on the Perm Old Believers’ metric books of 1908–1917 from the Bogorodskaya, Vasilyevskaya, Stryapuninskaya and Malo-Zagarskaya communities, featuring the naming records made by Old Believers’ mentors. The database under study consists of 1082 names including duplicates and variants of names (as distinct from Believers’ and Orthodox name forms due to phonetic, morphological, and other transformations) that are the main object of the research. The variety of personal name forms is explained by the Old Russian principle of permissible variability of personal names in the Old Believers’ community. Another reason for the variability is the diversity of the Old Believers’ culture as such, embracing many confessions, communities, and traditions. The main research method was stratigraphic analysis, i.e., comparing Old Believers’ names with the names from sources of the earlier periods. This one showcases the consistency of naming tradition with the anthroponymy that was in use before the schism. The age of historical sources and types of transformations in groups of names determine the chronological layers within the name system. It was also established that the variability was reinforced by the preservation of the old “pre-Nikonite” (Menaions, Synaxaria) books which the Perm Old Believers used for naming. The preservation of the ancient name forms, particularly the relict forms with extra-short ъ/ь became possible due to the preserved tradition of special Old Believers’ singing (so-called, Khomovy Chant), in which ъ/ь are sung as syllabic ones, respectively о/е. It has also been revealed that the variability of personal names is partly caused by the peculiarities of the North Russian dialects.
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