New “ancient” East Slavic demonyms: the second half of the XX and the beginning of the XXI century

Abstract

The article analyzes the functioning of the names of residents (demonyms) which have appeared in the 20^th century and at the same time have ancient forms due to an archaic word-formation pattern or some cultural associations. The names of Yaroslavl residents, including yaroslavichi (pl. masc.), yaroslavna (sing. fem.), and Vitebsk residents, including vit’bichi (Rus.) / vits’bichy (Belarus.) (pl. masc.), are discussed. According to the author’s hypothesis, transonymization of the anthroponym Yaroslavna, which resulted in the appearance of the demonym yaroslavna, was due to the emergence, in 1963, of the eponymous epithet as the periphrastic name of the first female cosmonaut V. V. Tereshkova, a native of the Yaroslavl land. The distribution of the name yaroslavna in local usage as an actual demonym led to the building of the onym yaroslavichi which is used, however, in limited representational contexts. The demonym vit’bichi / vits’bichy, which primarily names the ancient population of the Vitebsk land, came into literary usage after 1973, in rare cases being positioned as an alternative name in the situation concurrence between the ancient vitebliane (Rus.) / vitsiabliane (Belarus.) and vitebchane (Rus.) / vitsiabchane (Belarus.). The author outlines sociocultural background, both the all-Soviet one which determined the prestige and general demand for such ancient names in the second half of the 20^th century, and the local one which contributes to their actualization (in particular, the situation of celebrating the anniversaries of ancient cities). It is concluded that the functioning of such ancient demonyms can be limited, in particular, when they are used as sublime poetic names. Their coming into usage as actual names of residents depends on additional conditions.