Author:
Lina Pliško
Email:
lplisko@unipu.hr
Summary
In this paper we present the immediate etymology (etymologia proxima) of twenty words of
Romance origin belonging to the semantic field of furniture (5), bed parts (4), bed linen (5) and
decorations and certain objects found (6) in the bedroom. The words have been obtained through
field work in the Hreljići area, and attestations of these words were sought in dictionaries of the
speech of the north Adriatic (Boljun, Grobnik, Labin, Medulin, Roveria dialects) as well as the
south Adriatic, primarily island, regions (Ugljan, Pag, Brač, Hvar).
On the basis of the analysis of all the words obtained, it may be concluded that only two words from the
questionnaire are of Slavic origin: postelja and punjava, and that, according to the immediate etymology,
twenty words are of Istro-Venetian origin, i.e. from the Istrian variants of the Venetian dialect, which
has been spoken in the region of Istria for centuries. This idiom is still spoken by many today, although
it no longer serves as a lingua franca among the several ethnic and language groups living in the area
as it once did: nowadays its role has been taken over by the standard Croatian language.
By comparing the words obtained from Hreljići with those from other Čakavian dialects in Istria (in
Medulin, Labin, Boljun and Roverian dialects), in Grobnik, as well as those from the southern
Adriatic islands (Novlja on the island of Pag, Kukljica on the island of Ugljan, Brač, as well as Pitava
and Zavala on Hvar), we have concluded that many words are used and have been preserved in the
same form and with the same meanings that can be found in the dialect of Hreljići.
In all the dictionaries we have consulted, nine words and their variants corresponding to those in
Hreljići have been attested: armar/armarun/ormarun, lampadina/lampa, koltrina, šusta/šušta, kučeta/
kočeta, štramac, lancun, kušin, intima/intimela. Two attested words of Venetian origin have only been
found in certain Istrian idioms: špikijera (only in Roverian dialects) and kovaltur (in Medulin, the
Roverian dialects and Boljun). Six words were not attested in all of the dictionaries we consulted:
paljarica/pajarica are not attested in Grobnik and Novalja; koltra can only be found in Kukljica, žveljarin
only in Kukljica and some of the dialects of Hvar, komo in Labin and Grobnik, bonagracija in Boljun,
Grobnik, Kukljica, Labin and Novalja. In Hreljići the word for ‘clothes hanger’ (‘vješalica’ in standard
Croatian) is pikerin/pikarin, i.e. the same as in Labin, Medulin and the Roverian dialects. In the dialects
of Boljun, in Grobnik and on the island of Brač the word used is pikabit. In the dictionaries of Kukljica,
Novalja and Hvar we found no attestations of any of these forms. Two words (kašetin ‘drawer’ and
škabelić ‘commode’) have different variants and meanings that differ from those in Hreljići: 1. ‘drawer’
kašetin (Medulin, Roverian dialects, Labin), škafetin (Hvar) and škabelin (Grobnik, Boljun, Brač and
Roverian dialects) and 2. ‘commode’ škabelić (Boljun, Roverian dialects, Medulin), škabel (Novalja,
Medulin), škabelin (Kukljica), komodin (Labin, Grobnik, Kukljica), komoncin (Hvar). There are two
words for which the Croatian and Venetian variants are used: špegalj : zrcalo (‘mirror’) (Novalja,
Kukljica, Grobnik, Brač); bukalin : vrčina/varčina (‘jug’) (Novalja, Grobnik, Kukljica, Medulin, Hvar).
In conclusion, what can be stated is that the lexical heritage from the period of the Venetian
Republic pertaining to the semantic field of bedroom furniture, bed parts, bed linen, as well as
the decorations and various objects fond in the bedroom included here, as a result of cultural and
intimate borrowing, has been well preserved and can still be found in the organic idioms from
Istria to Hvar, as our research has demonstrated.
Key words
immediate etymology; etymologia proxima; Čakavian lexicon; Hreljići;
SW Istrian dialects; Romance loanwords
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