A New Study in Bosnian Onomastics. Review of the book: Turbić-Hadžagić A., Musić E., Haverić Đ., Muratović A. Bosanskohercegovačka prezimena (Vols. 1–3). Zagreb: Bošnjačka nacionalna zajednica za Grad Zagreb i Zagrebačku županiju, 2018–2023

Abstract

This paper provides a review of a comprehensive study of Bosnian-Herzegovinian surnames. It is a multidisciplinary research project that lasted from 2018 to 2023, involving several authors and publishers, resulting in three volumes. The results of the study under review are based on Bosnian-Herzegovinian and foreign archival material, birth registers, medieval and early modern inscriptions, charters, and contemporary population censuses. The reviewed volumes employ an adequate methodology which allows for systematic presentation of the results. Some shortcomings of the technical arrangement of the first volume were successfully eliminated in the following parts of the edition. Due to the abundance of material and insight into the chronological development of surnames as a category of anthroponyms, these books are of an immense importance for Bosnian linguistics. Additionally, beyond their onomastic value, these three volumes provide insight into the broader historical, religious, and cultural contexts, shedding new light on the complex ethnolinguistic contacts in that part of the Balkans, both in the past and today.

Keywords

• bosnian language
• bosnian surnames
• etymology
• historical anthroponymy
• language contacts
• structure of surnames
• balkans