Recent Findings on 19th-century Student Names Connected with vulgo

Abstract

Recent Findings on 19th-century Student Names Connected with vulgo

The paper expands on previous works (Boros 2004, Kecskés 2002, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) exploring traditional student nicknames in the town of Selmec (today: Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia). The paper expands on Boros’s previous account (2004) with some additional 19th-century data. Can her umbrella term alias name be used in the analysis of 19th-century student names connected with vulgo ‘also known as’ name types, and how does a multicultural educational environment impact these latter name types? The paper applies classical research methodology to examine nicknames and student names by analysing name constituent order and categorising them according to their linguistic origins. According to known sources from the 19th century, the author points out that structures identifying a student with vulgo are common. At the same time, there was no instance of alias structures among higher-grade students. Thus, Boros’s umbrella term alias name does not apply to all 19th century data. Furthermore, the analysis based on the cognitive-pragmatic model also reveals that although student names were usually descriptive, this naming strategy was not motivated by identification needs but by the intention to reinforce group cohesion. In the multilingual, multicultural educational environment, student nicknames applied by the community came from the Latin, German, and Hungarian languages used in education, from the specialised languages of mining and military practices, and from the mediating languages and the mother tongue used in everyday communication. Vulgo structures all incorporated elements of these various languages.