BATTAGLIA1925-009 - ethnographic attestation
Boys of Dignano (Vodnjan); Croatian villages of the Rovezia
Croatia - Dignano - Vodnjan, Istria - Southeastern Europe
Play / practical
la sfronda Italian / local Istrian and Venetian names
Source term: la sfronda; Croatian-village frndalica
la sfronda — 'the sling' (= la fionda), onomatopoeic from sfrrr; Croatian villagers' frndalica covered both the slat and a pinwheel.
At Dignano the bullroarer belonged to the turn of the year: boys whirled it as winter loosened and into spring, and called it la sfronda, 'the sling' — an onomatopoeic name, Battaglia thought, born of the sfrrr of the blade itself. In the Croatian farming villages of the Rovezia round about, settled long before from Dalmatia, the same slat answered to frndalica — a name the villagers stretched, indifferent to the folklorist's categories, to cover their pinwheels too.
L'oggetto era chiamato 'la sfronda', cioe 'la fionda', come a Cittanova: termine onomatopeico anche questo, da sfrrr, frrr.
The object was called 'la sfronda', that is 'the sling', as at Cittanova: an onomatopoeic term too, from sfrrr, frrr.
Battaglia 1925:208
- Object
- Small wooden slat whirled on a cord; played about forty years before 1925.
- Function
- Boys' toy of winter's end and spring; in the Croatian farming villages of the Rovezia the same slat was frndalica, a name stretched to cover a pinwheel too.
- Map confidence
- high - Vodnjan town centroid; the Rovezia villages lie in the surrounding countryside.
- Source location
- printed pp. 208-209
- Toy / secular survival