Ivan Franko as an Onomast

Abstract

The paper discusses three onomastic essays written by Ivan Franko: Uwahy pro pohojdennia nazvi “boiki” (1895); Pritchinki do ukrainskoi onomastiki (1906) and Slidy Rusyniv u Semyhorodi (1911-1912). They define one of the learned, journalistic, and literary trends in this Ukrainian, also Polish, writer and scientist (1856-1916). In the studies under consideration the author showed the accuracy of his etymological analyses of ethnic names (Boiko, Lhemko), personal (of the type Iwanczę, Paraszczęta, and Romanczata) and places of the type Dumbrawa, Moszna, Zlatna from the region of Transylvania in relation with ethnic, historical, and settlement conditions. What deserves a particular merit in these pioneer onomastic studies in the Ukrainian language is the author’s methodological maturity. We can find in the way he noticed linguistic and non-linguistic complexities in the problems under study, and how prudent he was in deciding about more or less detailed research issues.