In Search of Toponymic Borders in Belozerye

• Main Authors: Ekaterina V. Zakharova, Anna A. Makarova, Irma I. Mullonen
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2016-07-01
• Series: Voprosy Onomastiki
• Subjects: Russian language; Baltic-Finnic languages; Sami languages; substrate toponymy; geographic terms; Belozerye; toponymic area; etymology
• Online Access: http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2016.13.1.001.pdf

The article presents some results of the expedition aimed at documenting toponymic and lexical substratal data in the Lake Beloye area (Belozerye). The survey was carried out in the summer of 2015 in the south-western part of Belozersky District around Lake Andozero, since it had been suggested that in this area there could exist a boundary separating the zone of substratal toponymy of Baltic-Finnic origin (the nearest Vepsian settlements are located in 70 km from the lake) from the zone of substratal toponymy of Volga-Finnic type (Lake Andozero is situated in the upper reaches of the Andoga River which is a part of the Volga basin). The paper draws particular attention to the toponymic determiners derived from landscape terms of substratal origin. Their number and regularity, as well as their ability to serve as area markers make them the most reliable source for the reconstruction of the substratal language of Belozerye. Some of the analysed determiners (-humuz’, -solovo) are widespread only in the Lake Beloye area and may be associated with local substratal languages, while others (-loida, -pohta) have parallels in the toponymy of Baltic-Finnic type in the north and north-west of Belozerye. Recent researches hypothesized that, before Slavicization, Belozerye could be a part of the area of the southern group of the Baltic-Finnic languages. The combination within one place-name of structures with “Finnish” and “Sami” etymologies (e.g. Vanosmen’, Šundomen’, Kiboj, etc.) suggests the existence of a specific language of Baltic-Finnic-Sami type in the Lake Andozero area. Apparently, this must be a Finno-Ugric language belonging to the western group of the Uralic language family which, on the one hand, did not absorb the substratal language (“Palaeo-European”, for convenience) serving as a marker of the Sami speech, and, on the other hand, did not fully experience the Germanic influence which played an important role in the formation of the Baltic-Finnic and, to some extent, Sami languages.