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Cognates and Doublets

by Mario CASSAR

Should Lombardo and Lombardi be analyzed as the same surname? What about De Marco and Demarco, German and Germani, Laganà and Lagana, Manicolo and Mannicolo, Xerri and Scerri? The answer is not so simple because in all cases one must deliberate on orthographic, morphological, phonological and semantic factors. However, some basic criteria are available to mitigate the problem.

Allographs are variant forms of a grapheme in the sense that in writing they are perceived as analogous to a phoneme. Such is the case of x, which in Sicilian and Southern Italian is often the medieval or archaic rendering of sc. It also happens to be the current Maltese grapheme with the same phonetic value / ∫ /. There is therefore no reason to doubt that Grixti/Griscti, Axiak/Asciak, Xerri/ Scerri, Xicluna/Scicluna, Xiberras/Sciberras, X(i)riha/Sc(i)riha are exactly the same surnames and should be treated as such when compiling statistical data of the local cognominal stock. It is important to note that the 2005 census treated all the pairs and groups discussed in this section as distinct names.

Surnames are sometimes agglutinated with prepositions signifying paternity or provenance. Thus De Gaetano/DeGaetano, De Marco/ Demarco, De Bono/Debono, D'Emanuele/Demanuele, De Martino/Demartino, De Noto/Denoto, etc. are nothing other than cognates. The same principle applies to La Rosa/Larosa and Sant 'Angelo/Santangelo. The differences are merely arbitrary orthographic conventions. Some names that should show a final accented vowel often abolish this diacritical mark: Laganà/ Lagana, Ciarlò/Ciarlo, Faurè/Faure, Burlò/Burlo, Marmarà/Marmara, Gialanzè/Gialanze. We are again dealing with cognates.

The following groups should also be considered as reflecting the same name since only orthographic idiosyncrasies seem to be at play: Meilak/Meilaq/Meylak/Meylaq/Mejlak/Mejlaq; Musù/Mousù; Theuma/Teuma/Thelma/Tewma; Briguglio/Brigulio; Calleja/Calleya/Kalleya; Mugliett/Mugliette/ Muliet/ Muliett/ Muliette. De and Di are cognates; therefore, both De Pasquale/Di Pasquale and De Battista/Di Battista should be treated as a single name.

Differentiation should begin with morphological considerations. Surnames with different endings, particularly those representing singular forms in -o/-e and plural forms in -i, should be treated as different names. This category is very extensive: Lupo/i, Mariano/i, Corrado/i, Costanzo/i, Rosso/i, Albano/i, Veneziano/i, Lombardo/i, Magro/i; Conte/i, Forte/i. The same criterion applies to names differentiated by their gender marker: Gravina/a, Giardino/a, Navarro/a.

Surnames in full form should be separated from their related apocopated forms: German/Germani, Gambin/Gambina, Paris/Parisi, Palmier/Palmieri. Names with the patronymic prefix De/ D' must be distinguished from their counterparts that have lost the preposition: Giorgio/Degiorgio, Felice/De Felice, Alfonso/D'Alfonso, Flavia/De Flavia, Giglio/De Giglio, Arrigo/D'Arrigo, Alessandro/ D'Alessandro, Esposito/D'Esposito, Anastasi/D'Anastasi.

Voiced/devoiced cognate names (e.g. Giliberti/Ciliberti, Montalto/Montaldo) and dialectal variations should be counted as distinct names (e.g. Aloisio/Aloiso, Barberi/Barbieri, Gialanze/Gelanze, Bongiovanni/Buongiovanni, Dandria/D'Andrea, Seracino/Saraceno). The traditional surname Abdilla must be differentiated from Abdalla(h) and Abdullah which are obvious recent additions from North Africa. Grech/Greco and Barun/Barone, despite being doublets, must also be differentiated. Doublets are two words in a language that are historically from the same source, but with different intervening stages.

It is much more difficult to be precise when dealing with geminated and metaphonic forms. The first group includes: Seracino/Serracino, Manicolo/Mannicolo Bonnici/Bonici, Carabot/Carabott, Azzopardi/Azzopardi/Azopardi, Cacciattolo/Cacciatolo, Benetti/Bennetti, Baluci/Ballucci, Sammut/Samut, D'Emanuele/D'Emmanuele, and Selvagi/Selvaggi. The second group includes: Sevasta/Savasta, Salomone/Salamone, Pantalleresco/Pantallaresco/Pantelleresco, Sciberras/Sceberras, Cacciattolo/Cacciottolo, Felice/Felici, Miruzzi/Meruzzi.

Caution is always recommended, and one should never dogmatize. Even these guidelines are subject to criticism. The enigma intensifies when semantic differences seep into the names. Is Muliett(e) really the same name as Mugliett(e)? The former is undoubtedly an apocopated form of the Sicilian mulièttu (sometimes muliètta), a cognate form of mulettu, a generic term designating various species of mullets. The latter may be a simple orthographic modification, but it may also be related to the Muglia family. Baluci and Ballucci may indeed be variants, but the former may be a hidden form of Balducci, while the latter may be another form of the surname Baluce.

In some cases, the variants are not authentic cognates or doublets but simple writing errors. In fact, spelling mistakes must also be taken into consideration. Aguis, Carauna, Aqulina, and Busutill obviously correspond to Agius, Caruana, Aquilina, and Busuttil.

The same problems resurface when dealing with names that are neither Italian nor Sicilian. British cognominal variants in Malta abound: Cox/Cocks, Burke/Bourke, Griffiths/Griffits, Giles/Gilles, Payne/Paine(e), Reed/Lire, Swaine/Swaine, Haig/Haigh, BonnettBonnet/ Bonett, Gracey/Gracie, Dixon/Dickson, O'Brian/O'Brien, Stroud/Strout. These should be treated as distinct names. Likewise for Connor/O'Connor, Dougall/Mac Dougall, Cann/McCann; Edward/Edwards, Champ/Fields, Owen/Owens. However, only a trivial orthographic convention seems to separate McLean/Mc Lean, McNamara/Mc Namara, Mackay/Mc Kay/Mckay/Mac Kay/McKay.

French and Spanish cognates include: Guillaumier/Gullaumier, Marquett/Marquette, Critien/Chrétien/Chritien, Mompalau/Monpalau, Gomez/Gomes, Garcia/Garzia (Garnier de terra Bengü in France?) Dorel, Poussieghes, de la Roche.

The Slavs have Ivanov for men and Ivanova for women. This artificial delimitation must be neutralized when calculating the number of existing names.

The 2005 census stated that there are some 12,310 different surnames in Malta. This number must be revised considerably downward. First, the particularly high number of double names (3,882) (74) must be subtracted, since all the Mifsud Bonnici and Borg Costanzi are in reality only Mifsud and Borg. This practice may be important for bureaucratic purposes and obviously for the bearers themselves, but from an anthroponymic point of view only the first name counts. This would leave 8,428 surnames. Then, all the clearly allotropic surnames discussed above must also be eliminated. This pruning exercise will reduce the actual number to approximately 7,000.

Notes:

NSO press release (5/6/06), unofficial count.

Text published with the kind permission of Mario CASSAR