Имена у српским владарским породицама до почетка XIII века

Abstract

Разматра се најранији српски именослов VIII–XIII века, тј. раздобља које претходи и приближно коинцидира са почецима старосрпске писмености под првим Немањићима. Тиме бива оцртан типолошки оквир у којем се онда изнова преиспитују досад понуђене етимологије личног имена Немања.

Our knowledge of Serbian onomasticon in the Early Middle Ages is limited to the names of rulers and members of ruling houses, most of them recorded in Greek and Latin before the development of Old Serbian literacy since the late 11th century. They are predominantly compounds of the inherited Proto-Slavic type: Vyše-, Rodo‑, Čěje‑, Priby‑, Miro‑slavъ, Vladi‑, Vlasti‑, Hvali‑, Mǫti-, Stroji‑, Straci‑, Tiho‑, Kloni-mirъ, Ćuđi-měrь (probably inspired by Gothic Thiudimer), Vyše-budъ, Prosi‑gojь). Μonothematic names, based on adjectives (Bělъjь, ‑ojь ‘the white one’) or arisen through shortening (Branъ from Brani‑mirъ / ‑slavъ, Des-a from Desi-slavъ), were less common. Christian names (Stephen, Peter, Paul, Zachary) began to be used in the second half of the 9th century, but never prevailed; instead, an onomastic formula consisting of both a Christian and a Slavic name (e.g. John Vladimir) came into use during the 11th century. A special attention is paid to the much discussed origin of the name Nemanja, borne by Stefan Nemanja († 1199), the progenitor of the Nemanjić dynasty. Within the typological framework sketched in this paper, the attempts at interpreting it as an agglomeration of hypocoristic elements seem anachronic, all the more so as the toponymy bears witness to its former occurrence among the northern Slavs (Nemaňov, Nemanice in Bohemia, Nemanica in Belarus, Nemannestorph in the Eastern Germany), which suggests a Common Slavic origin of the name. For the same reason, it can hardly be considered the same as the Biblical name Naaman, although it is written the same way by Greek and Latin authors (Νεεμᾶν, Neeman). Such a spelling may rather be explained by an original form *Nejman(‑ja) related to SCr nȅmān f. ‘monster’, Russ. dial. néjman’ ‘an untameable animal; an unrestrained person’, ultimately going back to the negative form of the verb *jьmati ‘to catch, to have’. Underlying Ne(j)man(ja) might be the passive participle *ne‑jьmanь ‘not caught, uncatchable’ or a compound *Nejьma‑něgъ ‘deprived of care’, an apotropaic name for a child born in exile, as Stephen Nemanja happened to be; for this type of short names cf. Borisъ from Bori‑slavъ and, with the same second element, Domanъ from Doma‑něgъ, Pribynja from Priby‑něgъ. Under Nemanja’s descendants his name together with Stefan ‘Stephen’ and Uroš (< Hung. úr ‘lord’) became a part of the royal titulary an not unlike these two names was prohibited to be voluntarily given, which explains its later appearance only in the border areas of medieval Serbia (Adriatic coast, Macedonia).