Temporal Names in Kujawy Dialects

Abstract

The subject of research in this article are temporal names associated with relative time, occurring in the Kujawy dialects. The research material comes from the Dictionary of dialect and culture of Kujawy and its extensive – numbering several thousand dictionary entries – file. The purpose of the analysis is to describe their motivations and meanings. A review of the names shows that native terms dominate, and that time by the Kujawiaks was not understood as a physical quantity regulated by clock hands. People living according to the rhythm of the seasons, days, liturgical calendar, used temporal names resulting from the observation of repetitive natural phenomena and related to church holidays and annual customs important for their community.