Contemporary surnames of Białostocczyzna people of Eastern-Slavonic provenance

This paper concerns Eastern-Slavonic linguistic features found in various aspects of language in contemporary surnames of Białostocczyzna people. With respect to lexis, these are mainly Eastern equivalents of first names, their full forms, formal (Charyton, Tichoniuk), as well as abbreviated and informal (Siegień, Chomaniuk), hypocristics and diminutives (Dorosz, Ostapkowicz). Surnames originating from first names are found in the form of first names (Gierman, Olichwier) and derivatives of first names (Nikitiuk, Waśkiewicz). Eastern-Slavonic origin also has many appellatives of various semantics, which provide a word-formation basis for contemporary surnames (Bieroza, Karawaj; Busłowicz, Skoworodko). With respect to word-formation, the Eastern-Slavonic origin of the analyzed anthroponyms is reflected mainly by numerous surname-forming suffixes, such as -ew/-ow, -in/-yn, -enko, -eńko, -inko, -ynko, -ońko, -uk/-czuk, -iszyn/-yszyn, -owicz/-ewicz etc. (Nikołajew, Sorokin, Simonienko, Fiedorczuk, Hapunowicz). The most important phonetic processes determining the Eastern-Slavonic origin of a given personal name are: alternation rz/r (Gregorczuk), substitutions f > p (Stepaniuk), b > w (Awramiuk), ą, ę > u, a (Dubowski), w > u (Ułasiuk), g > h (Hawrylik), full vocalisation (Derewońko, Kołos), soft consonants (Ignatiuk, Kordiukiewicz), akanye (Amieljańczyk), dziekanye and ciekanye reflected in written language (Dziemidow, Cimoszko) and others.michal1437@gmail.comUniwersytet w Białymstoku1121923