Geographical Terms of Russian Origin in the Toponymy and Dialectal Vocabulary of the Karelian Area of Tver Region

Abstract

The paper deals with Russian geographical terms in the Karelian dialects of Tver Region and is mainly based on field materials collected by the author in the 2000s. The author argues that the main corpus of geographical terms and place names of the studied area is of Karelian origin and correlates with geographical terminology and toponymy of other groups of the Karelian population that migrated in the past from the north-eastern Lake Onega Region. At the same time, as distinct from other areas of settlement of the Karelian population, the dialects of Tver Karelians are rich in loan words from the Russian language which appeared in different periods: a part of them represent traditional geographical terms of the Russian population of Tver Region, while others seem to be relatively recent innovations, mainly of the Soviet period. According to the data provided by the author, approximately 40 % of current geographical terms of the Karelian dialects of Tver region are of Russian origin. This proportion can be explained by the specificity of the landscape of the studied territory which differs from the landscape of the original Karelian areas, as well as by Tver Karelians' long habitation in the Central Russian Historical Zone which made permanent contacts with the Russian population inevitable.

Keywords

• Karelian language
• toponymy
• geographical terminology
• Tver region
• Tver Karelians