Certain characteristics of the toponymy of the Kornati islands

Abstract

According to its location, its geolnorphology and form of inhabitation, the Kornati islands are a distinct island group on the Adriatic. Remuants of man’s presence on this site date from the time of the neolith. Sunken vivariums and salt ponds indicate that there was lively economic activity on Kornati during the Roman period. With Hvar and Vis, Kornati are the most significant fishing locale on the Adriatic, chiefly because of Sali of which there is mention as far back as the MiddJe Ages. In the XVII century the owners of the Kornati pastures brought to the islands as settlers the inhabitatns of the island of Murter so that from 1627 there are two kinds of population on the Kornati islands: fieldhands and shepherds from Murter are on ithe large islands (Kornat, Žut, Sita) while the fishermen from Sali are on the sea and on the small islands. These two populations practically do not come into contact because each is orientated to their own activity and geographical region which will be decisive in constituting the toponymy of the Kornati islands. The continual inhabitation of the larger Kornati islands ensured the continual transformation of toponomastic information so that this toponymy is stable, without oscillations and variations in the placenames. On the other hand, the toponymy of the small islands and the seacoast; was exposed to various namegivers, to various incoming fishermen who because their stay was inadequate could not ensure the continuity of placename transfer. So that different place- names for the same geographical object are here almost a rule. Another significant process with which we meet on Kornati is the toponitnyzation of appelatives. In different contexts, depending on the need for identification, toponomastic nouns become toponyms. If these are found in the vicinity of the Kornati settlements or places of significant economic activity, they remain so. Others, at a distance from such locations, return to their appelative state.