Presència lèxica del Monachus monachus en català i altres llengües romàniques

Abstract

Monachus monachus is the only member of the Phocidae family native to the Mediterranean. Its presence has been established from the first written texts having to do with navigation, such as the Odyssey, to the latest publications on marine fauna. As to the denomination of the animal in Catalan, the term vell marí (‘old mariner’) has been documented from the 13th century until now. However, from the 15th century onwards we find other concurrent denominations that have restricted the territorial extension of the original form. Through time, forms such as bellmarí, llop de mar (‘sea wolf’), llop marí (‘marine wolf’), foca (‘seal’), bou marí (‘sea oxen’), lleona marina (‘sea lioness’), porc marí (‘sea pig’), ca marí (‘sea dog’) and vaca marina (‘sea cow’) have appeared. The study of these forms, of their semantic motivation and the contrast with the denominations in other Romance languages offer valuable information on the vision that coast dwellers had of this marine mammal and on the contributions to the Mediterranean lexical flow of each human community.