Zavarnichek, the Son of Chainik, of the Nazar’s Breed: Refl ection of People’s Kinship Ties in Contemporary Nicknames

The article is devoted to the modern nicknames of the Perm Krai inhabitants that refl ect kinship ties between people. Linguistic means of various levels of language serving to broadcast information about family relationships in a social microgroup are consistently considered. 1. Lexical 9 means: terms of kinship, synonyms, co-hyponyms and homonyms are used in nicknames for this purpose, as well as a distinctive category of anthroponyms — “street” surnames. 2. Word-formative means: most often, presence of family ties is transmitted through microanthroponyms, including morphemes with the meaning of ‘wife of the person named as the producing basis’ (-ikh(a), -k(a), -sh(a), -ank(a), etc.), ‘son of the person named as the producing basis’, ‘junior’ (suffi xes -onok-, -ik-, -onysh-, -evich, etc., prefi x polu-); possessive suffi xes and suffi xes with possessive interpretation are active (-in-,-sk-, -ich-,-ts(y)-, etc.); in rare cases, composites are formed. 3. Grammatical means: these are some rare examples of adjectives formed from nouns, use of plural forms as independent nominations and com binations of words with the meaning of possessiveness. 4. Semantic means: kinship ties can be playfully expressed by using names of adult and nonadult animal species, names from the same thematic area, precedent names, etc. Conclusions are drawn that various means of nicknaming of relatives refl ect peculiarities of the contemporary family way of life, namely the continued social signifi cance of (a) consanguinity and matrimony and (b) subordinating relationships between the older and the younger, the adult men and other family members, the parents and the children. Nicknames appear as a kind of information channel for broadcasting socially signifi cant qualities of persons nominated by them and values and semantic guidelines of society.