Staropołabskie teonimy *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ: deadiectiva czy comp osita?
Old Polabian theonyms *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ: deadjectival nouns or compounds?

Summary/Abstract: The article reinterpretes the morphological structure of a series of Old Polabian theonyms: *Svętovitъ, *Jarovitъ, *Rujevitъ, *Borovitъ. In the literature, they are quite unanimously considered to be nominal compounds with the element *vitъ ‘dominus, potens’ but this author shows, based on a distribution analysis of the formant *-(o/e)vitъ in the Slavonic languages, that they should be viewed as suffixal derivatives in *-ov-itъ (in the attributive-possessive function), and from the formal point of view, as nouns coined from adjectival bases. The paper concludes with the supposition that theonyms created using this formula were a dialectal innovation and were most likely limited to Old Polabian mythological nomenclature. Probably, they were substitute names and, being appellative epithets, they only became independent in the function of theonyms.

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