Towards interpretation of some calques in the Belozerye toponymy: Loan translation types and verification methods

DOI:10.30842/alp2306573716311

Makarova A. A. K interpretatsii nekotorykh kalek v toponimii Belozerya: vidy kalkirovaniya i sposoby verifikatsii. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2020. XVI(3): 308–329.

The article discusses the types of loan translation in toponymy based on the lake hydronymy of Belozerye (of Russian and Finniс origins). The toponymy of Belozerye is a multilayered phenomenon. On the one hand, it clearly shows Northern Russian toponymy types associated with the Novgorod expansion to Belozerye and the subsequent settlement of the Slavic population on this territory. On the other hand, the extant substratum names contain traces of the previous Finno-Ugric (Finniс, Sami, and in the South, possibly, Volga-Finniс) population. The consequences of the ethnic contacts were reflected, in particular, in the calqued toponyms (primarily, names of lakes or other water bodies) attested on a wide strip running from the South-West to the North-East of this zone. Some of these names reflect historical (starting from the 10^th–13^th centuries) contacts, while other names are related to the modern (mainly, the 20^th-century) interactions in the area where Belozerye borders on the territories of Finnic peoples — the Veps (some of them live in the extreme North-West of Belozerye) and the Karelians.

The article considers irregular patterns in the toponymy of Belozerye, for which contact origins can be assumed, and also discusses the criteria that make it possible to qualify specific patterns as either borrowed or native. Fairly common cases of semantic and derivational (full) replication of popular Finnic patterns in the Russian toponymy, as well as not so obvious cases of toponymic pattern copying are investigated. Some patterns have a limited distribution, or appear semantically/lexically isolated against the background of Russian toponyms, or else have a structure that is typical of the Russian toponymy. In some cases, a Russian-looking stem is in fact a phonetically adapted Finniс stem; these cases are considered separately against the background of their toponymic environment.

Our methods of verification involve consideration of parallel Veps place names from the North-West of Belozerye and Karelian place names from the Republic of Karelia, as well as semantic parallels from the toponymy of East Finland and their toponymic counterparts from the territories of Prisvirye, Prioyatye, etc. The analysis tool uses toponymic parallels attested in the territory of the Russian North (using data from the Toponymic Expedition of the Ural Federal University) and Karelia (GIS “Toponymy of Karelia” and the KarNC RAS data).

Keywords

language contacts, toponymy, Russian language, Finnic languages, loan transition, Russian North, Belozerye

About the author

Makarova A. A.

toponimist@yandex.ru

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Keywords

language contacts, toponymy, Russian language, Finnic languages, loan transition, Russian North, Belozerye