Вопросы ономастики (Jun 2014)
On Some Oikonymic Models of the Eastern Lake Onega Region
Abstract
The paper analyzes several models of settlement naming present in Eastern Lake Onega region and reflecting different stages of its ethnolinguistic history. The author focuses on oikonyms suffixed with -itsy/-itchi and those containing Balto-Fennic words kontu, kondu, kond ‘peasant household’ and selgä, vuara ‘mountain’. The areal analysis shows that oikonyms in -itsy/-itchi resulted from adaptation of Vepsian and Karelian names and outline the ways of ancient migrations of the Russians from Lake Ladoga region to Svir River and Lake Onega regions (Prisvirye and Obonezhye), Eastern Lake Onega region being a peripheral zone of the area traced by the model in question. The author argues that the few settlement names with the stem Kond- have relatively late origins, most likely Vepsian, though for some toponyms the Karelian origin is not to be ruled out. The low productivity of the selgä oikonymic model and the absence of settlement names with the determinant -vara can be explained by the historical dominance of the naming patterns using the Russian term gora ‘mountain’ which brings this region closer to the territory of the Russian North. The areal, statistic and linguistic analysis of the settlement names of Eastern Lake Onega region testifies to its marginal position as related to the Vepsian territories on the South, as well as the Karelian territories on the West and the Northern Russian lands on the East. This peripheral, marginal position of the region is due to its geographic features, first and foremost, to its association with the transit waterway which was, in the past, the Vodla River.
