ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies
ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies 

Serbian etymological lexicography today

DOI:10.30842/alp230657371921742
PDF, 605.08 kb
Vlaich‐Popovich Ya. Serbskaya etimologicheskaya leksikografiya — tekushchiy moment. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 17–42.

After a brief overview of the development of modern etymological studies in Serbian, this paper proposes a description of the contemporary Serbian etymological lexicography. Two Serbian dictionaries are currently in the works: a comprehensive, multivolume, thesaurus-type Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language (Етимолошки речник српског језика, ERSJ), in publication since 2003, and a concise scientific-popular Concise Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language (Приручни етимолошки речник српског језика, PERSJ), to appear in 2023. With a focus on the latter (actually, rather more scientific than popular) dictionary, the paper discusses some similarities and differences between the two. The similarities come from the same original basic principles and authorship of both dictionaries as reflected in the lexematic lemma formation, trichotomous lemma segmentation, the same chronological retrospective, etc. The differences follow from the different purposes and, correspondingly, the different targeted corpоra, word-inventory and methodology (the list of lemmata, the range of lexis, the approaches to definitions, extralinguistic data, etc.). This comparison is illustrated with a few lemmata from both dictionaries covering the same small segment of the lexicon (the noun baba f. ‘a parent’s mother, old woman’ and its numerous homonyms and derivatives — with a reference to their treatment in Skok’s ERHSJ). The paper concludes that both dictionaries contribute significantly to Serbian and Slavic etymological studies. At the same time, the ERSJ will evidently take years or even decades to complete. The PERSJ, planned to appear in print much earlier, is expected to serve two purposes: to be used as a “skeleton” for etymological solutions in the subsequent ERSJ volumes (and thus speed up its development) and at the same time as a basis for a genuinely popular Serbian etymological dictionary. This arrangement should help the project to meet the requirement voiced in [Stachowski 2015: 280] that “every language should have three etymological dictionaries, tailored for various types of users”.

Keywords
Serbian language, etymology, lexicography, etymological dictionary, Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language, Concise Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language, Serb. baba ‘a parent’s mother, old woman’
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Keywords
Serbian language, etymology, lexicography, etymological dictionary, Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language, Concise Etymological Dictionary of the Serbian Language, Serb. baba ‘a parent’s mother, old woman’
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