Lietuvių pravardės

LTKnygą sudaro dvi dalys: monografija ir žodynas. Monografijoje analizuojama Lietuvos kaimo gyventojų pravardžių motyvacija, regioniniai motyvų savitumai, patroniminių ir kai kurių pravardžių struktūra. Žodyne, be pravardės, dar nurodomas jos motyvas, užrašymo vieta apylinkės tikslumu, tam tikrais atvejais ir kilmė. Pravardės rinktos 1976-90 m. iš viso lietuvių kalbos ploto. Žodyną sudaro apie 22500 pravardžių užrašymų.

ENThe main aim of this study is the investigation of Lithuanian country people's motivation for creating modern nicknames. It also considers the hierarchy of the motives of nicknames. In this work the term nickname is used in the sense 'a person's additional unofficial name which refers to some peculiarity of the person and is used for identification purposes. A nickname's derogatory meaning is irrelevant, i.e. it is not an inherent feature of a nickname. The main share of the nicknames investigated has been collected by myself with the assistance of my students of the Kaunas Humanities Department Vilnius University, throughout the whole territory on which the Lithuanian language is spoken, including Lithuanian villages in Latvia and Byelorussia. In 1977-84 several score of such expeditions were made. Another part of the nicknames investigated has been provided by country school teachers in their answers to my questionnaire. I also used the files of nicknames registered by my colleagues at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. So the total number of the nicknames investigated consists of more than 15.500 records. From the onomasiological point of view, i.e. in accordance with their motivation, all the nicknames are divided into ten groups: 1. Nicknames describing human physical features - 30.8 per cent of the total number of the nicknames investigated. 2. Nicknames referring to a man's kinship - 18.4 per cent. 3. Nicknames characterising a man's profession - 16.1 per cent. 4. Nicknames reflecting a person's speech contents - 10.5 per cent. 5. Nicknames describing a man's temper - 7.7 per cent.6. Nicknames given because of the associations produced by man's first name or his surname - 4.9 per cent. 7. Nicknames referring to a person's living place - 4.2 per cent. 8. Nicknames referring to a person's wealth or poverty - 1.4 per cent. 9. Nicknames informing about a man's origin or nationality - 1.3 per cent. 10. Nicknames describing any other human peculiarity - 1.0 per cent. On the average the motivation of 3.7 per cent of the nicknames is either forgotten or not quite certain. Now let us look at the motivation of each group of nicknames more closely. 1. Nicknames emphasizing people's physical features fall into several smaller groups: nicknames referring to a person's outward appearance (76.0%), to a person's motion (5.3%), to his speech peculiarities (11.0%), to his potential peculiarities (5.3%) and to his physiology (2.4%). 1.1. Outward appearance. Nicknames hinting at a person's head features make up about 45 per cent of the nicknames referring to appearance. Such nicknames indicate the colour of a person's hair or skin, or whether he has a beard or any other remarkable feature in his face, eyes, teeth, nose and his head on the whole (I mean its size, shape etc.). The other motives of the nicknames referring to appearance are as follows: hman height (28%), frame (15% ), clothing (6%), defects of arms and legs (3%), his carriage (3%). [...].