Ruczaj in the 19th century Polish – a lexicographic experiment

Abstract

Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (A geographical dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and of other Slavic countries) is a great geographical lexicon of 16 volumes published in Warsaw between 1880 and 1902, well‑known to linguists (especially toponomasticians). It was co‑authored or supported by over 800 contributors based in various parts of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, many of whom were also the main or single authors of its entries. The scope of the edition (over fourteen thousand double column pages) allows us to consider it as a sui generis specialized mini‑corpus of the Polish language of the 19th century and invites to use it to investigate linguistic phenomena it comprises. In the present contribution the occurrences, in the dictionary entries, of the word ruczaj ‘small stream’ as a neutral hydrographic term were analyzed and correlated with respective countries and/or identifiable authors. Two different complementary automated methods of searching through the digitalized contents of the dictionary available to us were tested and used. About 280 entries containing the word in question were found, over 98% of which refer to localities situated outside of the eastern border of Poland (chiefly in present‑day Ukraine, Belarus or Lithuania). Although most entries are not signed with their authors’ cryptonyms, a detailed analysis of ca. 30 cryptonyms accompanying the entries allowed us to conclude that a major part of these authors were indeed connected biographically with territories of present‑day Ukraine, Belarus or Lithuania. The results of our investigation thus support the opinion, already put forward on multiple occasions, according to which the term ruczaj was originally confined to the eastern periphery of the area of the Polish language and remained largely unknown (or not considered neutral) in the primordial Polish territory as late as during the 19th century.