LAIMUTIS BILKIS

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-2902-4722

Research areas: toponymy, anthroponymy.

DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all86-04

ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES, ORIGIN, AND MOTIVATION OF THE EMERGENCE OF CERTAIN LITHUANIAN PLACE NAMES GŪDAS

On the Circumstances of Appearance, Origin and Motivation of Certain Lithuanian Toponyms Gūdas

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the most plausible hypotheses concerning the origin of several Lithuanian place names Gūdas. In proposing them, attention is paid to all the circumstances in which the toponyms were recorded from living speech, to the context of toponymic microsystems, and to the additional information supplied by the recorders concerning the place names and the objects they designate; this information is compared with actual historical and ethnographic data. On the basis of an analysis conducted according to the selected methodology, it is argued that the emergence of the names of two stones located in the Nemunas River near Darsūniškis and Dvareliškiai Manor is associated with the historically attested rafting of timber from Gudija to Königsberg and Rusnė. It is emphasized that Gudian raftsmen also engaged in this trade. Therefore, these two stone names are derived from the ethnonym gūdas ‘Belarusian; sometimes a Pole or Russian’...

It is also argued that the hydronyms Gūdas in the vicinity of Pumpėnai and Žemaitkiemis are most probably of ethnonymic origin as well; some linguists have derived them from Baltic *guda- ‘(having) bent’, ‘bending’ < Baltic gud- ‘to bend’. In the first case, this claim is based on data from an analysis of the mutual relations, origin, and semantics of the place names with gud– in a compact microsystem; in the second, it is based on an analysis of semantic parallels of an ethnonymic nature among the potamonyms located within the territory of the same settlement.

KEYWORDS: origin of place names, motivation of place names, context in which place names were recorded, semantic analogy, timber rafting on the Nemunas.

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ANNOTATION

The article discusses the most likely versions of the origin of several Lithuanian toponyms Gūdas. The versions are proposed taking into account all the circumstances of recording the toponyms from the spoken language, the context of toponymic microsystems, the additional information relating to place names and the objects designated by them provided by the recorders, which is compared to real historical and ethnographic data. Based on the analysis carried out under the chosen methodology, the article associates the appearance of the names of two stones situated in the Nemunas River near Darsūniškis and Dvareliškės Manor with the historically attested fact of timber rafting from Gudija (Belarus) to Karaliaučius (Königsberg) and Rusnė. It is outlined that there were also raftsmen who were gudai by descent. As a result, the two names of stones are traced to the ethnonym gūdas ‘Belarusian (sometimes Pole or Russian); a person speaking a different dialect’. The hypothesis proposed by other researchers concerning their origin from Lith. gūde ‘strickle, whetstone’, gudėti ‘to sharpen by a whetstone’ is questionable.

The article provides arguments to prove that the hydronyms Gūdas from the environs of Pumpėnai and Žemaitkiemis, which some linguists trace to Balt. *guda- ‘bent’, ‘bending down’ < Balt. gud- ‘to bend’, are most likely of ethnonymic origin. In the first case, this proposition is supported by the data of the analysis of the interrelations, origin and semantics of the compact microsystem toponyms with gud-. In the second case, it is evidenced by the semantic analysis of the ethnonymic parallel of the potamonyms situated in the same inhabited settlement.

KEYWORDS: origin of toponyms, motivation of toponyms, context of toponym recording, semantic analogy, timber rafting in the Nemunas River.

In Lithuanian toponymy, place names with the root gud constitute a fairly large and significant group. Approximately 670 names designating various objects have been recorded from the living language; among other things, they are distinguished by the diversity of their formation methods and types (see LVŽ III 331–337). Quite a lot has been written about the possible origin of toponyms with this root. In summary, several etymological hypotheses may be distinguished: 1) lake names are derived from Prussian gudde ‘bush, bushes; forest, scrub’, on the assumption that the origin of the root gūda-žolė, gūd-karklis, gūd-žvirblis and the like in Lithuanian flora and fauna terminology is also the same as that of gud (Savukynas 1966: 193); 2) it is claimed that many oikonyms and some other place names with gud derive from the personal name Gūdas, whereas hydronyms and most place names of other classes derive from Lithuanian gūdas ‘Belarusian; a person from another dialect’, on the assumption that the meaning of the ethnonymic root gud could have transformed in place names into ‘ordinary, unsuitable, useless, worthless’ (Vanagas 1981: 125–126); 3) the river names Gūdas, Gūd-upis are derived from Baltic *guda- ‘(bent)’, ‘curving’ < Baltic gud- ‘to bend’ (Mažiulis 1988: 420–421; 1996: 308–309); 4) in analyzing oikonyms, it is noted that they may derive from the personal name Gūdas or

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the ethnonym gūdas (Razmukaitė 1998: 48, 49, 52, 58, 65, 71; Mickienė 2001: 65; Smoczyński 2007: 208); 5) the stone names Gūdas are associated with Lithuanian gūdė ‘whetstone, sharpening stone’, gudėti ‘to sharpen with a gūdė’, while hydronyms and geonyms, together with the ethnonym gūdas, are derived from Baltic guda- ‘small, little; poor, insignificant; poor, careless; false, bad; ordinary, customary; genuine; wild, uncultivated...’, gud- ‘pure, genuine’, without excluding the possibility that in some cases the basis of origin may be the personal name Gūdas (Karaliūnas 2004: 165–183); 6) names of uninhabited places, including hydronyms, are regarded as ethnonymic or personal-name-based (Mickienė 2001: 34; Endzelytė 2005: 73, 84, 112, 114, 170; Sviderskienė 2006: 52; 2010: 119; Bartkutė 2008: 78; Kačinaitė 2009: 64, 85; Morkūnas 2009: 989); 7) while stating that Lithuanian place names with gud may be of diverse origin, most names of uninhabited places are derived from the ethnonym gūdas ‘Belarusian (sometimes a Pole or Russian); a person speaking another dialect (Žemaitians call Aukštaitians, Panevėžys speakers call Kupiškis speakers, etc. gudai)’, adding that in their roots gud the meaning in most cases is directly associated with this ethnonym (‘belonging to a gudas, a place inhabited by a gudas’, etc.); it is also thought that most oikonyms probably arose from the personal name Gūdas, although their origin from the ethnonym gūdas is not excluded; furthermore, the possibility that place names in southern Lithuania derive from Prussian gude ‘scrubland, bushes’ is not excluded (LVŽ III 334–335).

Among the most problematic place names in terms of origin (and formation) may be considered the toponyms Gūdas. As is evident from the overview presented, Aleksandras Vanagas derives such river names and stone names from the ethnonym gūdas, and Renata Endzelytė (2005: 73) likewise regards the river name of the Pasvalys region as ethnonymic. Vytautas Mažiulis believes that the river name Gūdas derives from Baltic *guda- ‘(having) bent’, ‘bending’ < Baltic gud- ‘to bend’; Simas Karaliūnas associates the stone names with Lithuanian gūdė ‘whetstone, sharpening stone’, gudėti ‘to sharpen with a gūdė’, and derives the names of other geographical objects (rivers, forests, meadows, pastures, bushes, ditches) from Baltic guda- ‘small, little; poor, insignificant; poor, careless; false, bad; ordinary, customary; genuine; wild, uncultivated...’, gud- ‘pure, genuine’. The place name (the name of a single-farm settlement) Guds is also recorded in Latvian toponymy. It is derived from Latvian guds ‘Belarusian raftsman’ (Endzelīns 1956: 336–337).

The aim of this article is to collect as much linguistic and extralinguistic data as possible and present the most plausible hypotheses concerning the origin and motivation of several place names Gūdas¹. To this end, it seeks to review the circumstances in which the names were recorded from living speech, analyze the characteristics of the designated objects (denotata)

¹ The article does not aim to comprehensively or critically analyze all previously known hypotheses concerning the origin of these place names. It merely seeks to establish which hypothesis of origin is more plausible after analyzing the collected data. In other words, it is assumed that it is more important to present facts and arguments that permit one hypothesis to be advanced or confirmed than to refute other published explanations of origin.

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characteristics provided when the place names were recorded, their geographical surroundings, and the possible relations between toponyms and appellatives from an areal (distributional) perspective; and to advance and substantiate the most plausible motives for the emergence of the names of places (objects) Gūdas. The study uses not only such established traditional methods of etymology as comparison with other Lithuanian and Baltic onyms and Lithuanian appellatives, and the application of semantic analogy, but also takes into account the historical and social characteristics of the environment of the place names under investigation, relating the available material on the toponyms and the objects they designate to the actual historical context, which is presumed to be the most objective criterion for determining the origin of place names.

Thirteen place names Gūdas^² have been recorded from living speech. A larger group was recorded in the vicinity of Pūmpėnai, Pasvalys District: a pond, bushes, and a meadow in Kirkiliškis village; a river (stream, brook) flowing through Krikliniai town, and the villages of Daličkai, Račiškiai, and Gūstadalis; a pasture in Račiškiai village; and a ford in Ramonynė village. Other isolated objects bearing this name are distributed in various parts of Lithuania: two stones in the Nemunas, one near the church village of Darsūniškis in Kruonis Rural District, the other in the territory of Dvareliškiai Manor in Aukštoji Panemunė Rural District, Kaunas County; a stone in Seiliūnai village, Noragėliai vicinity, Lazdijai District, on the bank of the Lydekine stream; a depression in Sveriai village, Pajevonys vicinity, Vilkaviškis District; a forest in Mieleikiai village, Vyžuonos Rural District, Utena County; a marsh in Puodžiai village, Varėna Rural District; and a stream (ditch) flowing through Mediniai village, Žemaitkiemis Rural District, Ukmergė County.

The most information about the circumstances in which the place names arose, the nature of the geographical objects, and their locations was provided when recording the names of the stones located in the Nemunas River^³. The questionnaire for the Dvareliškiai Manor land-name inventory in Aukštoji Panemunė Rural District, compiled in 1935^⁴, states that the stone Gūdas is in the Nemunas at the boundary of Dvareliškiai village and the manor^⁵. The notes explain: “The gudai raftsmen avoided this stone when rafting. As they passed, they would ask one of their number to stand on the stone to indicate the direction required for the raft. It had to be shouted in the gudai language.”

^² So many such names were found in the card index of Place Names Recorded from Living Speech (VK).

^³ Stone names are a specific group of proper words whose assignment to place names may raise some doubts. On the other hand, stones are natural objects occupying a particular position on the land surface. Some onomastics researchers even classify them as oronyms—in this case, they rely on the view that this class includes not only the names of mountains but also those of all orographic objects (cf. Agapkina, Berezovič, Surikova 2020). In this article, given its aims, which are different, that is, not devoted to discussing terminology, stone names are provisionally regarded as place names.

^⁴ The place names in the manor territory were recorded by Juozas Vitkauskas, a teacher at the Šilėnai primary school; Jurgis Dubosas, a resident of Šilėnai, is identified as the informant.

^⁵ This place is now in the Kaunas Reservoir.

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That is why the name arose.” In the Darsūniškis questionnaire⁶, there is less information about the stone and its name: it is stated that the stone is in the Nemunas, 2 km downstream from the town, and that rafts traveling along the river catch on it.

As the descriptions show, the emergence of one stone name is associated with the rafting of timber on the Nemunas by gudai, and that of the other likewise with timber rafting. It cannot be ruled out that the explanations of the names’ origins given in the questionnaires may be folk etymology, but historical and ethnographic data make this doubtful. Studies by many historians and ethnographers emphasize that the Nemunas has long been one of the principal trade routes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, along which, among other goods, timber was rafted to Königsberg, the Curonian Lagoon, Rusnė (and from there to Klaipėda), and Tilsit. Timber rafts also traveled from the territory of present-day Gudija. For example, a publication devoted to the study of the organization of trade from the Sapieha and Radziwiłł ports located in the upper Nemunas in the 1760s and 1770s states that a total of 1,192 logs were rafted from the Radziwiłł estates in 1770 (Sakalauskas, Poška 2020: 74). The rafting of logs took place in two stages—first from Naujasis Sveržanis⁷ to Kaunas, and then from Kaunas to Rusnė or Königsberg. It is worth noting that more workers were hired for the section from Naujasis Sveržanis to Kaunas than for rafting from Kaunas to Königsberg. According to the authors of the article, more people were hired because of the more difficult natural conditions in the first section of the waterway—the narrower river channel and greater meandering (ibid.). It may be conjectured that another reason why more manpower was required to raft timber from the territory of Gudija to Kaunas was the rapids, shoals, and stones frequently encountered in the Nemunas. This is also confirmed by a historical fact presented in the publication mentioned above: a helmsman was hired in Rumšiškės to help guide the rafts through obstacles in the Nemunas known as rapids (ibid., 72). This trade continued later as well: in 1825, 2,500 rafts were transported by the Nemunas from Lithuania and Gudija (Belarus), and in 1900, 15,320 (Pupienis 1989: 49).

Timber was rafted from Gudija through Kaunas to Königsberg until the First World War. Much has been written about rafting on the Nemunas and the activities of gudai raftsmen in the monograph Nemunas (Kolupaila 1950) by the hydrologist Steponas Kolupaila, who himself traveled by boat down the Nemunas from Liubčia to Gardinas in the summer of 1932. According to him, the stretch of the Nemunas from Gardinas to Kaunas is rich in rapids—that is, places where the riverbed is rocky and the current stronger—so rafting timber from the upper reaches of the river was very difficult, and many rafts broke apart. For this reason, the raftsmen, mostly gudai from the upper reaches, called the rapids names reminiscent of misfortunes

⁶ The place names were recorded by Petras Puplešys, a teacher at the Darsūniškis primary school, who interviewed the townspeople Mikas Maculevičius, Adolfas Žukauskas, and Jonas Zavistanavičius.

⁷ Naujasis Sveržanis is a settlement in Belarus.

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names (ibid., 14). The scholar’s travel companion was the gudas raftsman Ivanas Trubka, who, according to the monograph’s author, transported timber dozens of times before the First World War from Liubčia or Stolpcy to Jurbarkas (pp. 45–47). The monograph also describes the Nemunas rapids near Kaunas: it mentions what was probably the most dangerous rapid in the river, Guoga, located 4 km below Darsūniškis (p. 164), and emphasizes that in the stretch between the settlements of Aštraga and Dvareliškis there is the Bičėnėtų rapid, named by gudai raftsmen, where the danger is considerable because large stones protrude from the bottom and rafts striking them break apart (pp. 167–168). Also described are the Bičiai rapid below Gastilioniai village; the rocky places Velnio Tiltas and Velnio Pirtis (p. 168); Žirgas (near Jakštonys village), Bajorė (near Žiegždriai village), and Kamendulė (near Pažaislis) (p. 174).

Information that gudai transported timber on the Nemunas can also be found in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language. Its entry for gudas contains the illustrative sentence Gudai ant sielių plaukia Nemunais į Rusnę Prūsuose, taken from Antanas Juška’s Lithuanian–Polish Dictionary (LKŽe). The Latvian appellatives gūds, gudinis, gudinė ‘Belarusian raftsman’ also show an unquestionable connection between the gudai and rafting (LVV I 415, 675).

As can be seen, the essential motive for the emergence of the stone name indicated in the Dvareliškiai Manor land-name inventory questionnaire—the gudai rafted timber—is undoubtedly genuine and historically attested. It is also true that rapids and large stones existed in the Nemunas in the vicinity of this settlement. This was also written about by the Polish archaeologist and ethnographer Zygmunt Gloger, who sailed the Nemunas from Gardinas to Kaunas several times in the second half of the nineteenth century. He identifies as many as seven large stones in the Nemunas near Dvareliškiai, including the stone Gūdas: Katilas (Polish Kocioł), Malakavičius (Polish Malachowicz), Malakavičiai (Polish Malachowicy), Velnio Tiltas (Polish Dyabelski most), Stiklinė (Polish Szklanka), Rusėnas, or Gudas (Polish Rusak, czyli Gudas), Kirda (Polish Kirda) (Gloger 1903: 73).

Actual historical circumstances are the most important, though not the only, argument supporting the view that the names of the stones located in the Nemunas Gūdas are most probably etymologically associated with the ethnonym gūdas. This possibility is also convincing from structural and semantic perspectives. As is evident from the statements of the hydrologists, historians, and ethnographers cited above, the stones and rocky places (rapids) in the Nemunas caused raftsmen much trouble and misfortune and created many difficulties; consequently, the names of these objects often have negative contextual connotations, cf. the names of Nemunas rapids Kiaulė, Paršiukai, Avinas (a rocky rapid with a sharply falling current), Telyčia, Žirklės, Velnio Tiltas (Pupienis 1989: 55), Velnio Pirtis (Kolupaila 1950: 168;), and the stone name Katilas (Gloger 1903: 73). Pejorative meanings may also underlie some names of stones in other Lithuanian rivers, cf. the names of stones in the Neris Velniamindis, Velnio Tiltas, Bulius, Avinas (Vaitkevičius 2013: 47, 48, 51, 96–97), Karstas (Vaitkevičius 2014: 13), the name of a stone in the Šventoji, Grišką (probably from Lithuanian griška ‘devil’) (LVŽ III 306), and that of a stone in the Jūra, Judōšiaus stovyklą, or Velnio

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rapid (LVŽ IV 195). Thus, the motivation of the stone names Gūdas derived from the ethnonym may be ‘a poor, bad, unsuitable stone’. On the other hand, the motives for the emergence of these names may be commemorative, based on facts that gudai rafted timber past these stones, that a gudas climbed onto a stone and shouted in the gudai language, and so on. Place names with such meanings are recorded in Lithuanian toponymy, cf. Ūbago brastà (a beggar reached it), Birutės kalnas (Savukynas 1963: 239), Dieduko raistas, Puodžiaus plỹnė (Sviderskienė 2017: 90). From a structural and formative perspective, stone names Gūdas derived from the ethnonym would be formations arising without formal derivational means from the singular of the base word. This type of formation is highly characteristic of stone names. Many of the Nemunas stone names already discussed semantically were formed in this way: Avinas, Katilas, Kiaulė, Telvčia, etc. It should also be emphasized that many Lithuanian stone names are not very old; their age certainly does not reach Proto-Baltic or earlier times, cf. the stone names Čebatėlis, Dievo Altorius, Dievo Blūdas, Dievo Krėslas, Dūšių Staliūkai, Fabrikantai (a stone in the Nemunas near Rumišiškės!), Fėrmos akmuo, Geležinė Boba (LVŽ II 35, 265, 266, 417, 508; III 130), which (or one of whose components) derive from loanwords, as well as anthroponymic onyms Daujōčio Gryčėlė, Fıdrikų akmuo, Gągilo kūlis, Grigo akmuo, Grigōliaus akmuo, Grigučio akmuo, Ivoškiaus akmenys, Jánkų Bánkas, Jōnas, Juōzapas (LVŽ II 156, 513; III 8, 289, 292, 293; IV 88, 114, 173, 248), compound names derived from other place names, Gervinių akmuõ (from the marsh name Gervinės), Gri̇̀kiškio akmenas, Gri̇̀kiškio akmuõ (from the names of a pond, hill, and field, Gri̇̀kiškis) (LVŽ III 160, 296), and so forth. Thus, the relatively late emergence of the stone names Gūdas is not impossible.

The ethnonymic origin of the names Gūdas is also indirectly attested by another toponymic analogy. In the interwar land-name inventory questionnaire for Darželiai village in Liñkmenai Rural District, the meadow name Gudãakmenis was recorded. The meaning of this geonym is apparently ‘a meadow in which there is (or was) a stone *Gudãakmenis’. Its stem gudata may derive from gūdas and cannot phonetically be derived from gudė ‘whetstone, sharpening stone’ or gudėti ‘to sharpen with a gude’. That stone names more likely arose from the ethnonym gūdas than from Lithuanian gudė or gudėti is also suggested by the areal aspect of the analysis of place names and appellatives. The onyms and appellatives are distributed across different dialect areas: the stone names are located in the territories of Western Aukštaitian Kauniškiai and Southern Aukštaitian speakers, whereas the common nouns occur in Žemaitija and the Klaipėda region (see Fig. 1).

For the sake of accuracy, it should be emphasized that a semantic connection between the stone names and words denoting sharpening is possible⁸. This is also confirmed by the stone name Galąstuvas⁹, recorded from living speech, ← Lithuanian galąstuvas ‘a device used for sharpening, a sharpening stone,

⁸ Cf. the statement: “a smoothed piece of stone or rock used for sharpening is a whetstone, sharpening stone” (Karaliūnas 2004: 172).

⁹ The name was recorded in 1986 in Ketūnakiai village, Žlibinai vicinity, Plungė District.

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FIG. 1. Distribution of the stone names Gūdas and Lithuanian gūdė, gudėti (created using Google Maps).

▼ Gūdas ● gūdė ★ gudėti

whetstone, pustaš’ (LVŽ III 47). However, the matters already discussed cast doubt on the possibility that the stone names Gūdas have such a meaning (and origin).

It is naturally more difficult to substantiate the connection of the Southern Aukštaitian stone name Gūdas with the ethnonym gūdas, because data on the location, purpose, and other circumstances of this object are lacking. As mentioned, the recorder merely indicated that the stone is on the bank of the Lydekine stream. In this case, one must rely primarily on the areal aspect—the names and appellatives gūdė, gudėti occur in different dialect areas.

When elucidating the possible origin of the river names Gūdas, the information associated with their recording from living speech must likewise be considered separately. As mentioned, two potamonyms have been recorded: a river (stream, brook) flowing in the vicinity of Pumpėnai¹⁰ and

¹⁰ The name was recorded in the 1935 land-name inventory questionnaire for Gustadalis village, in the 1938 questionnaire for Dalickai village, and also in Gustadalis village in 1983. The designated object is described as a stream 3–4 m wide that flows only after heavy rain, in autumn and spring, and dries up in summer.

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FIG. 2. Place names with Gud– in the vicinity of Pumpėnai (created using Google Maps). ✦ Gūstadalis (Gūdstadalis), village ◈ Gūdas, river ● Gūdas, pasture ★ Gūdas, ford ▼ Gūdas, pond, bushes, meadow

A stream in the territory of Medinai village, Žemaitkiemis Rural District, which is called a ditch in the 1935 land-name inventory questionnaire^¹¹.

It should be noted that the river Gūdas in the vicinity of Pumpėnai flows through Gustadalis village and, within its territory, flows into the Pyvesa. The official form of the village name, Gūstadalis, is probably secondary, arising from the primary form Gūd–stadalis^¹², derived from the ethnonym gūdas or the personal name Gūdas¹³ and Lithuanian stadalà, stadãlė ‘a roadside house with a shelter for horses; a shelter for horses at a roadside house—

^¹¹ The questionnaire states that the ditch (ravine) is 0.25 km long, deep, with steep slopes. ^¹² In the 1935 land-name inventory questionnaire for Gustadalis village, compiled by Antanas Soka, a teacher at the Rimkūnai primary school, the village name Gūdstadalis is written in the column “Name in the pronunciation of the local people,” while Gūstadalis appears in the column “Name written in standard orthography.” ^¹³ The personal name Gūdas is also recorded in Pumpėnai Rural District—see LPDB.

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near the tavern’. This alternation of forms can be explained by the loss of d after the voiced consonant became voiceless: Gūd-stadalis ‘a roadside house or shelter belonging to a person of gudai ethnicity or to a person surnamed Gudas’ → Gūt-stadalis → Gūstadalis^¹⁴. Thus, the river Gūdas flows through a village whose name is directly or indirectly (through the personal name Gūdas) associated with the ethnonym gūdas. Assuming that place names belonging to the same toponymic microsystem would hardly have different origins, this river name too most probably derives from the ethnonym rather than from Baltic *guda- ‘(having) bent’, ‘bending’ < Baltic gud- ‘to bend’. In this case, the motivation is associated with relations of belonging (‘flowing through fields belonging to a gudas’) or with a derogatory evaluation of the denotatum (‘a small river that does not flow continuously and dries up in summer’). In addition, the aforementioned microsystem includes the names of a pond, ford (across the Svalia), pasture, bushes, and meadow recorded in the same local area (in neighboring villages sharing boundaries) Gūdas (see Fig. 2), which are apparently also cognate, that is, of ethnonymic origin.

Another potamonym, as mentioned, was recorded during the interwar period in the questionnaire of the place names of Medinai village, Žemaitkiemis district^¹⁵. In analyzing its origin, the context of other toponyms of this village could be important. In the same questionnaire, alongside the name of a ditch (ravine) Gūdas, the name of a slowly flowing stream that dries up in summer, Mozūras (dial. Mazūras), is also provided. It undoubtedly derives from the ethnonym mozūras ‘a member of the Mazur ethnic group’; cf. mozūrai ‘a large ethnic group of Poles living in northwestern Poland and speaking a distinct Polish dialect’ (see also Vanagas 1981: 220). Thus, a semantic parallel of the same microsystem (the territory of the same village) may be established: the potamonyms Gūdas and Mozūras are of ethnonymic origin. The motives for the emergence of the ditch name Gūdas most likely have a pejorative connotation: as indicated in the questionnaire, the ditch in question is deep and has steep slopes; therefore, it may be said to be ‘dangerous, unsuitable, poor, bad’. Regarding the semantic parallel between Gūdas and Mozūras, it should be added that yet another Lithuanian hydronym, Mozūras, has been recorded in Lithuanian toponymy—the name of a ditch in Raudondvaris district. In addition, a highland in Sasnava district and a field and meadow in Alsėdžiai district are called Mozūras. These facts, among other things, once again confirm the claim that Lithuanian place names can be formed from the singular form of ethnonyms without acquiring any additional formal derivational formants.

^¹⁴ For a different explanation of the origin (from the personal name Gūstas and Lithuanian dalis), see Endzeltytė 2005: 62.

^¹⁵ Recorded by Kostė Banelytė, a teacher at the Žemaitkiemis primary school, after interviewing Vladas Terėka, a resident of Medinai village.

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CONCLUSIONS

1. Place names Gūdas recorded from living Lithuanian speech belong to various toponymic classes (subclasses)—hydronyms (names of streams, ditches, and fords), helonyms (names of swamps and marshes), agronyms (names of pastures and meadows), and drymonyms (names of forests and thickets); in addition, this onym denotes stones and a low-relief site (a hollow). This variety of denoted objects presupposes potentially differing motivations for these toponyms and different hypotheses concerning their origins, reflected in the works of toponymy researchers to date. In determining which origin of the place names Gūdas is most likely, attention should be paid to all known linguistic and extralinguistic circumstances of their recording and functioning.

2. On the basis of the information provided in the primary recording sources about the objects denoted and their names (the motivation of the names), whose reality is substantiated by historical and ethnographic data, it may be stated with considerable confidence that the names of stones located in the Nemunas River, Gūdas, are of ethnonymic origin, i.e. derived from Lithuanian gūdas ‘Belarusian (sometimes a Pole or Russian); a person speaking another dialect’. The motivational connection of the names with the ethnonym may be either direct, based on memorial motives, or secondary, conditioned by a transformation of the ethnonym’s meaning in toponyms, associated with the emergence of a pejorative connotation (‘a poor, bad, unsuitable stone’). This version of the origin is also supported by the place name Gūdā-akmenis, whose stem guda can only have derived from gūdas and cannot phonetically be derived from gūdė ‘whetstone, sharpening stone’ or gudėti ‘to sharpen with a gūda’, by semantic analogy. The possibility of deriving it from gūdė, gudėti is further weakened by the data of the areal study: these common nouns and the stone names are distributed across areas of different dialects.

3. The river name Gūdas in the vicinity of Pumpėnai most likely likewise derives from the Lithuanian ethnonym gūdas. This claim is supported by the context of place names of possibly the same origin found at its location. The toponymic microsystem consists of place names of various classes, and some of them—for example, the name of the village through which the Gudas flows, Gūstadalis ← Gūd-stadalis—clearly cannot be derived from Baltic *guda- ‘(bent) toward, ‘inclining’ < Baltic gud- ‘to bend’.

4. The ethnonymic-origin hypothesis for the potamonym Gūdas of Žemaitkiemis district can first of all be substantiated by the semantic parallel within the same toponymic field: the name of a stream located in the same village, Mozūras, undoubtedly derives from the ethnonym mozūras ‘a member of the Mazur ethnic group’; therefore, a semantic correlation between the hydronyms Gūdas and Mozūras may be established. The motivation of the ditch name Gūdas should most likely be associated with a negative evaluation of the denotatum—the ditch is deep and has steep slopes and is therefore ‘dangerous, unsuitable, poor, bad’.

5. The derivation of the place names Gūdas from the nominative singular form of the ethnonym gūdas is not contradicted by the derivational

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analogies of toponyms of ethnonymic and other origins; cf. Možūras, a ditch in R a u d o n d v a r i s district, a highland in Sasnava district, a field and meadow in Alsėdžiai district, Katilas, Sitklinė, stones in the Nemunas, Avinas, Bulius, stones in the Neris, and others.

S U T R U M P I N I M A I

ap. – vicinity avd. – personal name balt. – Baltic dial. – dialect lat. – Latvian

lenk. – Polish liet. – Lithuanian pvd. – surname r. – district

LITERATURE AND SOURCES

Agapkina Tatiana A., Berezovich Elena L., Surikova Olesia D. 2020: Агапкина, Татьяна А., Березович, Елена Л., Сурикова, Олеся Д. Имена камней в заговорах восточных славян [Imena kamnei v zagovorakh vostochnykh slavian], Moscow: РАН [Moskva: RAN].

Bartkutė Nerija 2008: Joniškio rajono teritorijos toponimija: daryba ir raidos polinkiai: doctoral dissertation, Šiauliai: Vytautas Magnus University, Šiauliai University.

Endzelīns Jānis 1956: Latvijas PSR vietvārdi 1(1), Riga: Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences Publishing House.

Endzelytė Renata 2005: Šiaurės vidurio Lietuvos vietovardžiai: doctoral dissertation, Kaunas: Vytautas Magnus University.

Gloger Zygmunt 1903: Dolinami rzek. Opisy podróży wzdłuż Niemna, Wisłu, Bugu i Biebrzy, Warsaw: Nakład Ferdynanda Hosicka.

Kačinaitė Dalia 2009: Priesaginės darybos lietuvių oronimai: doctoral dissertation, Vilnius–Kaunas: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vytautas Magnus University.

Karaliūnas Simas 2004: Baltų praeitis istoriniuose šaltiniuose 1, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language.

Kolupaila Steponas 1950: Nemunas, Chicago: Publication of the Lithuanian Catholic Press Society.

LKŽe — Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 1–20 (1941–2002), editorial board G. Naktinienė, J. Paulauskas, R. Petrokienė, V. Vitkauskas, J. Zabarskaitė, editor-in-chief G. Naktinienė, electronic version, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2008 (updated version, 2017). Available online: https://ekalba.lt/lietuviu-kalbos-zodynas.

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LPDB – Lietuvių pavardžių duomenų bazė. Available online: https://ekalba.lt/pavardziu-duomenu-baze/.

LVŽ II – Lietuvos vietovardžių žodynas 2, authors L. Bilkis, G. Blažienė, M. Norkaitienė, M. Razmukaitė, A. Ragauskaitė, D. Sviderskienė, responsible editor L. Bilkis, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2014.

LVŽ III – Lietuvos vietovardžių žodynas 3, authors V. Adamonytė, L. Bilkis, G. Blažienė, D. Kačīnaitė-Vrubliauskienė, M. Norkaitienė, M. Razmukaitė, A. Ragauskaitė, D. Sviderskienė, responsible editor L. Bilkis, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2018.

LVŽ IV – Lietuvos vietovardžių žodynas 4, authors L. Bilkis, G. Blažienė, A. Ragauskaitė, D. Sviderskienė, responsible editor L. Bilkis, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2021.

Mažiulis Vytautas 1988: Prussian Etymological Dictionary 1, Vilnius: Mokslas.

Mažiulis Vytautas 1996: Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas 3, Vilnius: Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing House.

ME I – Mīlenbahs Kārlis. Latviešu valodas vārdnīca. Rediģējis, papildinājis, turpinājis J. Endzelīns 1, Riga: Published by the Ministry of Education, 1923–1925.

Mickienė Ilona 2001: Telšių rajono toponimų daryba: doctoral dissertation, Kaunas: Vytautas Magnus University.

Morkūnas Kazys 2009: The language of the land of Gelvonai. – Gelvonai, Vilnius: Versmė, 980–1016.

Pupienis Antanas 1989: Rafts traveled along the rivers. – Kraštotyra 23, 49–58.

Razmukaitė Marija 1998: Lietuvos priesaginiai oikonimai: doctoral dissertation, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vytautas Magnus University.

Sakalauskas Darius, Poška Aivaras 2020: Organization of trade on the Nemunas from the upstream ports of the Sapiehas and Radziwiłłs in the 1760s and 1770s. – Lietuvos istorijos studijos 45, 61–78.

Savukynas Bronys 1963: Lithuanian place names with genitive formation. – Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai 6, 235–246.

Savukynas Bronys 1966: Lake names. – Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai 8, 183–194.

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Sviderskienė Dalia 2017: Motivation of compound helonyms of Marijampolė County. – Acta Linguistica Lituanica 77, 78–102.

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VK – Abėcėlinė vietovardžių, surinktų iš gyvosios kalbos, kartoteka. Preserved at the Centre for Baltic Languages and Onomastics Research of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language.

On the Circumstances of Appearance, Origin and Motivation of Certain Lithuanian Toponyms Gùdas

SUMMARY

Toponyms Gùdas may be considered some of the most problematic Lithuanian toponyms with the root gudin terms of origin (and word-formation). Aleksandras Vanagas traces such river and stone names to the ethnonym gùdas; Vytautas Mažiulis argues that the river name Gùdas derives from Balt. *guda- ‘bent’, ‘bending down’ < Balt. gud- ‘to bend’; Simas Karaliūnas traces stone names to Lith. gudė ‘strickle, whetstone’, gudėti ‘to sharpen by a whetstone’ and links the names of other geographical objects with Balt. guda- ‘tiny, small; simple, poor; scanty, negligent; unreal, plain; ordinary, usual, real; savage, uncultivated...’, gud- ‘pure, real’.

Most information on the circumstances of the appearance of these toponyms, the type of geographic objects designated by them and their location was provided in the records of the names of stones situated in the Nemunas River. The Land Names Questionnaire, dated 1935, says that the stone Gùdas is situated in the Nemunas River near Kaunas, on the boundary between Dvareliškės village and manor. The Comments section includes the following note: “While drifting logs along the river, the raftsmen, gudai by descent, tried to avoid this stone. When approaching the stone, they would send a raftsman to stand up on the stone and to show the right direction. He used to shout in the gudų language. That is why such a name was given to the stone”. The Darsūniškis Questionnaire contains less data on the stone and its name: it is indicated that the stone rests in the Nemunas River, 2 km below the town; as logs were drifted along the river, they used to hit the stone. Most historians and ethnographers highlight in their studies that the Nemunas River had been one of the major trade routes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the old times along which logs, in addition to other goods, used to be transported to Königsberg, the

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Curonian Lagoon, Rusnė, Tilsit. Wood logs were also transported from the present-day territory of Belarus. The stretch of the Nemunas River from Grodno to Kaunas is full of riffles, i.e., places where the river bed is full of stones and water flows quickly, making it very difficult to float rafts from the upper reaches of the river; quite a few rafts used to break apart. For this reason, raftsmen, usually gudai from the upper reaches, used to call riffles by the names reminding of misfortune. Therefore, the key motive behind the appearance of the stone name (timber rafting by gudai) specified in the Land Names Questionnaire on Dvareliškės Manor is definitely true and historically attested. The motivation of the stone names deriving from the ethnonym Gūdas may be ‘a poor, bad, useless stone’. On the other hand, the motives of the appearance of such names may be memorial and supported by the facts that gudai used to drift timber rafts past these stones.

The river from the area of Pumpėnai, Gūdas, flows across Gustadalis village and discharges into the Pyvesa River in its territory. The official village name form Gūstadalis is most likely secondary and originated after the voiceless consonant d was dropped out from the primary form Gūd-stadalis deriving from the ethnonym gūdas or personal name Gūdas and Lith. stadalà, stadalė ‘an inn with a shelter for horses; a shelter for horses in an inn yard’. Hence, the river Gūdas flows across the village whose name can directly or indirectly (through the personal name Gūdas) be linked with the ethnonym gūdas. Considering that the toponyms of the same toponymic microsystem could hardly be of different origin, the river name is most likely traceable to the ethnonym rather than Balt. *guda- ‘bent’, ‘bending down’ < Balt. gud- ‘to bend’. In this case, the motivation is linked with the relationship of belonging (‘flowing across the fields of gudas; belonging to gudas’) or the pejorative evaluation of the denotatum (‘a small river, which does not flow all the time and dries out during the summer’).

In the analysis of the ditch name Gūdas located in Medinos village, Žemaitkiemis district, the context of other toponyms in the village could play an important role. Next to the ditch name Gūdas, the name of the slowly flowing stream, which dries out during the summer, Možūras, is specified in the same questionnaire. It definitely derives from the ethnonym možūras ‘a person of Masurian ethnic group’, cf. možūrai ‘a large ethnic Polish group in northwestern Poland speaking a separate Polish dialect’. Hence, we may conclude that there is a semantic parallel of the same microsystem: ethnonymic potamonyms Gūdas and Možūras. The motives of the appearance of the ditch name Gūdas most likely have a pejorative shade: as indicated in the questionnaire, the ditch being designated is deep and steep-sloped and can therefore be considered ‘dangerous, useless, poor, bad’.

Submitted on 26 April 2022.

LAIMUTIS BILKIS

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

5 Petro Vileišio Street, LT–10308 Vilnius, Lithuania

[email protected]

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