On the Etymology of the Oikonym Vogošća (Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Abstract

The paper describes the possible etymological development of the oikonym Vogošća, the name of one of the nine municipalities of Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the first traces of human presence in the area of Vogošća date back to the Neolithic period, its wider surroundings started being inhabited in Antiquity — first by the Illyrians who, in the early 1st century AD, were defeated by the Romans. The oldest records of this oikonym are found in the 15th and 17th centuries Ottoman cadastral books. Based on these defters, written in sijakat, a variety of the Arabic script, the form of the settlement name may be restored as Gogošta, Ogošta, Vgošta or Vogošta. These forms should be compared with other toponyms that prove both linguistically and geographically approximate, namely with the oikonym Ogošte (Ogošta, Hogošt) in Kosovo and the hydronym Ogosta in Bulgaria. It is assumed that the oikonym Vogošća goes back to the anthroponym August and that the etymological development is as follows: August + suffix -jь + suffix -a > Agọšta > Ogošta > Vogošta. Based on this etymological development, the authors conclude that the basis of this oikonym derives from the Slavic possessive adjective with the meaning ‘Augustʼs,’ the form Vogošća being thus an elliptical toponym. The authors discuss the phonetic changes in the course of this etymological development and provide historical evidence to substantiate the deanthroponymic formation of the oikonym Vogošća: based on the archaeological excavations, it is assumed the Roman military unit Augusta VIII or its veterans were located in the area of Sarajevo.