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ossnhughie
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Joined: 19 Sep 2010
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Location: Massachusetts, USA
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Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:28 am Post subject: Question about common village name endings

Hi a quick question to someone with knowledge of the Polish language or about village names in general. It turns out I found out both villages my Great grandparents were born in Dombrowciszki (1914 German army map) Dabrowciszki (1935 Polish Army map) and Kozakiszki. My question is what does (iszki) mean? I found a lot or majority of villages, around Wilno on old Polish maps have this ending on them.

Thanks I know I am in good hands on this forum,

P.s. does anyone know any good place to find out the history of living under Czarist rule in the 19th century, or about the Vilna Guberniya in general.

Dziekuje,

Hugh
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sirdan
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:23 pm Post subject:

Hello Hugh,
-iszki, -iczki itself do mean nothing. It is just suffix to make a diminutive form from a base word or from name of nearby town/bigger village. These two additionaly are plural forms. So, Dąbrowiszki may com from Dąbrowa, and Kozakiszki may come from Kozak. These diminutive forms may suggest that villiges are very small. Sometimes these forms sounds silly, as many other polish villige names:P
Other explanation would be that it's just a regional custom if many villages of that area have same endings.

ossnhughie
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:14 pm Post subject: Thanks for helping out

Thank you for your help I was always curious but before I found this great site I had no idea where and who to ask such questions.

A follow up if you could help out also, my grandfathers birth certificate from here in the states lists his father Jozef's birthplace as Dabrofczyszki although after contacting the Lithuanian archives the original Russian says Dombrowciszki or Dabrowciszki. My question is in English would the misspelling sound anything like or similar to the original Polish?

Thanks Hugh
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Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił.

Elzbieta Porteneuve
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 3:32 pm Post subject: Re: Thanks for helping out

ossnhughie wrote:

A follow up if you could help out also, my grandfathers birth certificate from here in the states lists his father Jozef's birthplace as Dabrofczyszki although after contacting the Lithuanian archives the original Russian says Dombrowciszki or Dabrowciszki. My question is in English would the misspelling sound anything like or similar to the original Polish?

Thanks Hugh

Hugh,

Dombrowciszki vs Dabrowciszki
The etymology is dąb - a with cedilla - which means oak.
But when you scribe without cedilla, it's "a", and the spelling diverges from original Polish one.
To recover the spelling you write "om" instead of "ą".

The name written in the USA as "Dabrofczyszki" is a random orthography, probably as good as scribe could make it.

Poland is part to the UNGENG group, dealing with geographic names worldwide. In the following document from 2011, page 10, you have Dąbrowciszki, geographic official name and administrative position:
http://ksng.gugik.gov.pl/pliki/protokol_ksng/protokol_ksng-61_posiedzenie.pdf
przyjęcie egzonimu Dąbrowciszki; położenie: rejon wileński, gmina Suderwa,
54°47′05″N, 25°02′03″E (aklamacja),

Best,
Elzbieta

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