Вопросы ономастики (Jul 2023)
Man and His Name in Oikonymy and Microtoponymy of South Karelia
Abstract
The paper deals with the personal names attested as parts of oikonyms (settlement names) and microtoponyms of South (Olonets) Karelia where most of the population in the last few centuries speaks the Livvik dialect of the Karelian language. According to the author’s statistics, more than 60% of the settlement names in the Livvik area are of anthroponymic origin, which explains the focus of research. Based on the studied oikonyms and microtoponyms, the author identifies three main groups of human naming: anthroponyms of Balto-Fennic origin, non-Christian names of Russian origin, Christian names and their forms. Within the first group, particular mention is made of the names that relate to the ancient Balto-Fennic “faunistic” tradition (village Hukkal < Hukka ‘Wolf’, village Kurrenselgy < Kurgi ‘Crane’, etc.); the names that characterize a person in terms of physical condition, behavior, social status (v. Keikkul < Keikku ‘Lame’, v. Hörpäl < Hörppö ‘Chatterbox’, v. Herranselgy < Herra ‘Rich Man’, etc.); personal names with negative semantics (v. Kel’l’ul < Kel’l’u ‘Scoundrel’, v. Tahtahal < Tahtas ‘Fool’, etc.). The second group includes a number of non-Christian names of Russian origin that once existed in South Karelia, reconstructed based on the toponymic material (*Gorb < v. Gorbal, *Zhdan < v. Ždianu, *Rubets < v. Rubčoilu, etc.). In some cases, Karelian Livviks could have two “Russian” names, from which the author carefully assumes that at least in the 16th–17th centuries, there was a tradition to give the child a double name: a Christian calendar name and an everyday non-Christian Russian name. The third largest group includes rare Karelian forms of Christian names, including female ones, reflected in the toponymy of the region. The appendix lists all forms of Christian names reconstructed by the author based on oikonymy and microtoponymy of Olonets Karelia.
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