Secret Knowledge : “God Gave It to Me”. Discourse of a Conjurer from Kosovo

Abstract

На основу транскрипата разговора са Вером Јовановић вођеног 2003. у селу Врбовац у близини Витине урађена је анализа идиолекта и садржаја разговора на тему народне медицине. Транскрипти, донети у прилогу рада, омогућили су и израду терминолошког речника бајања у идиолекту Вере Јовановић.

The paper offers the analysis of Vera Jovanovic’s (1934) discourse, from the village of Vrbovac in the enclave of Vitina. Vera is a well known local expert in traditional medicine. Based on the transcriptions of the interview held during the summer of 2003, the present paper provides us with the analysis of Vera’s idiolect and the content of the conversation about local traditional medicine. The transcriptions of this conversation also enabled the elaboration of Vera’s terminological dictionary of traditional medicine. Compiling a terminological dictionary of one informer differs from the usual linguistic procedure that aims to cover the terminology of the entire local community. This one informer dictionary was not made up according to a previously elaborated terminological questionnaire and is not considered definite and exhaustive. It reflects the personal perception of the “secret knowledge” of the informer, but in the broader frame of life in the enclave.