Goat names in six Hungarian settlements of the Sub-Carpathian region, Ukraine

Abstract

Goat names in six Hungarian settlements of the Sub-Carpathian region, Ukraine

The author discusses 138 goat names of six Sub-Carpathian Hungarian settlements, examining frequency, motivation, semantics and the number of syllables. Despite the continuously decreasing livestock, one can still speak about name frequency and name diversity. Bori, the most frequent name occurs 10 times (7.3%) in the corpus, whilst 42% of the names appear only once. Motivational categorization is worked out by the author himself. Motivational factors of name giving can be identified in cases of 86 goat names (61.6%). Semantic analysis clarifies that most goat names (110 names, 79.7%) are transferred proper names; but one can find 21 (15.2%) so-called “word names” (i.e. names having appellative meanings) and 7 (5.1%) “sign names” (i.e. names having no appellative meanings) as well. Most goat names are of two syllables (121 names, 87.6%).