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Peripheral Old Czech names for Owls
Hořejší, Michal ; Voleková, Kateřina
This paper focuses on the interpretation of the Old Czech peripheral ornithonyms vap, vapek a puňek. Based on an analysis of the context for the evidence, and with the help of more recent sources and an analysis of the morphological structure, several findings have been made: a) the Old Czech vap is a deverbative formed from the Croatian vapiti, which provides further proof of contact between the two languages during the Middle Ages, b) the formant -ek performs a complex function in the names of animals, as it may simultaneously carry a diminutive and an agentive meaning, while including the information that the word is the name of an animal, c) the distribution of the names of animals was loose in earlier times, with one term frequently relating to several referents, whereas one animal commonly bore several names.
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