Stueber
Fakultäten » Philosophische Fakultät » Indogermanisches Seminar » Allgemein » Prof. Dr. Karin Stüber » Stueber
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Women's Names in Indo-European | ||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||
| Original title / Originaltitel | Die indogermanischen Frauennamen | ||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Historical onomastics is an important subdiscipline of comparative Indo-European linguistics. Names display all the linguistic features also characteristic of the appellative part of the lexicon, but they contain even more: they represent a veritable treasure trove of linguistic archaisms, of lexemes no longer found independently and referring to past stages of the language. There are simplex names and compounds, which latter, in terms of the syntactical relationship of their elements, can be distinguished into various types such as possessive, determinative or verbal governing compounds. Names, however, have their own principles of word-formation, which are less restrictive than elsewhere in morphology: pet forms or hypocoristics permit the shortening of compound names, omitting - partly or entirely - either the first or the second element, e.g. Alexandra -> Sandra and Irmingard -> Irma respectively. Phonologically, names show a proportionally higher frequency of vowel syncope (e.g. Katharina -> Katrin) or gemination of consonants (Elisabeth -> Elli, Betti). Moreover, names are a first-rate source of information for disciplines such as history, ethnology, religious science or psychology. Lexemes found in anthroponomastics bear witness to the values and ideals of the society concerned, revealing details about people?s origins and professions, tradition and fashion, social rank and deities venerated: by its very nature, the scientific study of names is of an interdisciplinary character. While male names found in ancient Indo-European languages have been researched comparatively well, names of women have so far been neither systematically collected nor linguistically interpreted. Apart from a few exceptions, this applies to individual attestations as well as a cross-linguistic survey in general ? even though the field of Indo-European studies provides a wealth of data together with a sound and precise methodology which, in the past decades, has been continuously refined to an extent previously unimagined. Thanks to the application of comparative reconstruction, retracing linguistic forms attested from India, Iran, Greece, Anatolia (e.g. Hittites), Italy (Latins, Oscans, Umbrians), the Celts of Ireland, Britain, Gaul and Hispania, the Balts, Slavs, Armenians and Albanians, Tokharians and Germanic peoples to a common underlying linguistic and cultural union ? viz. the language community of the Indo-Europeans, assumed to have existed at about 3000 B.C. ? has led to the establishment of well-defined soundlaws which, together with the influence of analogy, are able to explain language change. Historical phonology and morphology, word-formation and syntax of both the individual daughter languages and the underlying Proto-Indo-European make up the subject of Indo-European linguistics. Not only is it capable of reconstructing the word for 'name' in the proto-language: *h3nom-n- (continued among others by Lat. nomen, Greek onoma, Old Indic naman-, Old Persian naman-, Old Irish ainm, Modern German Name et al.); it also reveals the Proto-Indo-European expression for the act of name-giving as such: *h3nomn dheh1- + dative 'to name somebody: a child, a human being, a ruler (when entering upon his or her reign), a god or a goddess. Even though the bulk of the personal names comprises innovations of the individual daughter languages, it has nonetheless been possible to trace several male names back to PIE: the Greek Euklees and the Vedic Indian Sushravas- bear names whose PIE pre-form can be reconstructed in accordance with the sound-laws as *h1su-k'leves-, all three of which meaning 'having excellent fame, very famous'. One single female name can be traced from the IE proto-language down to the present day, thus spanning a period of 5000 years: Old Irish Brigit, Old High German Purgunt, Old Indic Brhati go back to Proto-Indo-European *bhrg'hntih2 ''the high, elevated one'', which at the same time, interestingly enough, also functioned as a cultic epithet of the Indo-European goddess of dawn, who was of special value to women, notably intending wives. A cross-linguistic overview of female names raises justified hopes for further insights. But even from an analysis of newly-formed female names in the individual languages rich profit in respect of linguistics and the history of civilization can be expected, not least within the frame of gender studies. Arranged by individual daughter language, the handbook ''IE female names'' will comprise a collection of those female names that are transmitted by the literatures and epigraphics of the oldest linguistic strata at the time. To each name will be added the date of the text (if known) as well as a linguistic analysis (e.g. morphology, type of composition) and further comments on the origin and social rank of the bearer (if attested). Common features and specific characteristics in the way the various languages construe names will form the contents of the general part. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Stueber, Karin: Schmied und Frau. Studien zur gallischen Epigraphik und Onomastik. II Keltische Frauennamen aus Gallien, Budapest 2005 (Archaeolingua) Stueber, Karin: Frauennamen auf keltiberischen Inschriften: Eine Bestandesaufnahme, Beiträge zur Namenforschung 41.2, 2006, 115-139 Stueber, Karin: Indogermanisches in altirischen Frauennamen, Keltische Forschungen 1, 2006, 215-239 Remmer, Ulla: Frauennamen im Rigveda und Avesta. Studien zur Onomastik des ältesten Indischen und Iranischen, Wien 2006 (Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Stueber, Karin, Zehnder, Thomas, Remmer, Ulla: Indogermanische Frauennamen, Heidelberg 2009 Zehnder, Thomas: Die hethitischen Frauennamen. Katalog und Interpretation, Wiesbaden 2010 (Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie 29) |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | personal names, onomastics, gender studies, Indo-European culture, Indo-European linguistics, historical linguistics, women's names | ||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung), Private Sector (e.g. Industry) |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jun 2002 to Jun 2007 |