ANTA TRUMPA

Institute of the Latvian Language of the University of Latvia

ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0001-6022-0433

Research areas: onomastics, semantics, historical lexicology, lexicography.

DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all85-09

SIENS ‘HAY’ IN LATVIAN PLACENAMES^¹

The Lexeme siens ‘hay’ in Latvian Placenames

ABSTRACT

The article surveys Latvian placenames based on the lexeme siens ‘hay’. The aim of the article is to investigate the motivational tendencies of this group of placenames and determine whether the short-lived nature of microtoponyms is also characteristic of placenames containing the lexeme siens. The article examines in detail the common Latvian placenames Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’, their uneven distribution across Latvian regions, and the causes of this phenomenon. It is established that the motivation of most placenames containing siens is simple: they designate meadows, marshes, lakeshores, islands where hay was cut, bridges over which hay was transported, and so on. In turn, placenames of the Siena purvs type provide material for more consistent research: their distribution area reflects farming differences characteristic of Latvian regions; the frequently occurring metaphorical use of these placenames should also be noted. The study shows that marsh names are more persistent than other microtoponyms: many marshes are still called Siena purvs, although hay is no longer cut there.

KEYWORDS: Latvian placenames, microtoponyms, helonyms, placename motivation, placename vitality.

ANNOTATION

This article discusses a group of Latvian placenames based on the lexeme siens ‘hay’. The main objectives are to analyze the main tendencies underlying the motivation of these placenames, and to find out whether the tendency of microtoponyms to rapidly disappear

^¹ The article was prepared on the basis of the project “Lietuvių valoda” (No. VPP-IZM-2018/2-0002) of the Lithuanian State Research Programme.

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is typical of this group, too. The article specifically focuses on the widespread toponym Siena purus ‘hay swamp/marsh’, the differences of its distribution in various regions of Latvia and the reasons thereof. The motivation of toponyms containing siens ‘hay’ is usually rather obvious – these names were given to meadows, marshlands or islands where hay was harvested; bridges across which it was being transported, etc. Nevertheless, the toponym Siena purus provides material for more research – its distribution area shows the agricultural traditions differences in various regions of Latvia; besides, it has often been used metaphorically. This study confirms that the names of swamps and marshlands survive longer than other microtoponyms. Several swamps have retained the name Siena purus even though hay is no longer harvested there.

KEYWORDS: Latvian placenames, microtoponyms, helonyms, toponym motivation, toponym vitality.

1. INTRODUCTION

Until quite recently, agriculture was the main occupation of the inhabitants of Lithuania’s rural regions, so it is not surprising that toponymy, and especially microtoponymy, contains names with the word siens ‘hay’. The name of this principal fodder for livestock was relatively common several decades ago as well, when material was still being collected for the card index of the Dictionary of Lithuanian Placenames (LVVK), the principal source of this study.

Although placenames are part of the system of proper names, in which archaic linguistic features—such as archaic loanwords or inherited lexemes that have disappeared in our time—occur fairly often, microtoponymy nevertheless tends to change more rapidly. Throughout the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first, the names of meadows and forests changed particularly rapidly, while the features themselves also disappeared: meadows became marshy or were turned into fields. In addition, the names of smaller features were and often still are local, used by only one family.

For almost a century, Latvian linguists have expressed various views on the short lifespan of microtoponyms, fearing that each land reform results in the loss of more names of meadows and other small topographical features (Ančītis 1933: 41; Draviņš 1939: 411; Štrausa 2013: 490 and elsewhere). The disappearance of microtoponyms is, of course, not a phenomenon characteristic only of Latvia. For example, the diversity of German microtoponyms decreased significantly after the reorganization of village territories in the 1960s and 1970s (German Flurbereinigung), when, in an effort to make agriculture more efficient and by merging many small parcels of land into larger ones, numerous former field and meadow names survived only in archival material and on maps from the previous century (see, for example: Bingenheimer 1996: 9; Greve 2016: 4).

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The aim of this article is: 1) to determine whether the tendency toward a sudden decline in microtoponyms is also characteristic of Latvian place names with the lexeme siens, and to assess the age and vitality of the place names under study. Using a comparative method, data from the Latvian Place-Name Dictionary’s card index (see LVVK; collected mainly during the 1950s–1970s) will, in individual cases, be compared with material from earlier periods, for example, various nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century maps (e.g., BTКРИ 1866; KWR 1914–1919), as well as with material from contemporary databases: the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency’s databases (LĢIA database, LĢIA map), and the databases of place names collected during place-name-gathering campaigns and proposed by informants (TVDB); 2) to investigate, using the method of semantic analysis of toponyms, the lexical motivation tendencies of place names with siens^{lexical motivation tendencies²}, on the basis of data provided by place-name collectors and informants that attest to the possible motivation of the place names, and to determine whether this group of place names could reflect farming practices characteristic of Latvia (or a particular region thereof) in earlier periods. The distribution area of the place names under study is visualized using a cartographic method.

2. LEXICAL MOTIVATION OF LATVIAN PLACENAMES WITH SIENS ‘HAY’

According to LVVK data, the association of the word siens with various topographical features in Latvian placenames is uneven: the majority—102 of the total 134 placenames, or 77 percent—of placenames containing siens are names of the Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’ type. They mostly designate marshes, but meadows, forests, houses, and even villages have also been recorded under this name. Associations of the word siens with nomenclature words from other geographical categories occur much less frequently in LVVK: 4 meadow names Siena pļava ‘hay meadow’, 4 features Siena sala ‘hay island, or hay village’, 3 ponds Siena dīķis ‘hay pond’, 3 lakes with the same name Sienezers ‘hay lake’, 2 rivers named Sienupe ‘hay river’, 1 road Siena ceļš ‘hay road’, 1 square Siena laukums ‘hay square’, 1 bridge Siena tilts ‘hay bridge’, and so on (LVVK).

² In recent years, the motivation of microtoponyms in the Baltic languages has been studied by several onomasticians who devoted separate articles or chapters in larger studies to this topic, for example, Sanda Rapa (Rapa 2013), Laimutis Bilkis (Bilkis 2019), and Dalia Sviderskienė (Sviderskienė 2016, 2017, 2019). Other countries, especially Germany, likewise have a tradition of collecting microtoponyms in individual regions and studying them from various perspectives, including the search for motivations (e.g.: Aehnlich, Meineke 2015; Meineke, Tiefenbach 2011).

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2.1. LEXICAL MOTIVATION OF PLACENAMES SIENA PĻAVA ‘HAY MEADOW’, SIENA TILTS ‘HAY BRIDGE’, SIENA CEĻŠ ‘HAY ROAD’, ETC.

It is probably not surprising that the name Siena pļava ‘hay meadow’ occurs so rarely in the card index—only four times. Since in the past meadows in the countryside were primarily used to feed livestock, more precisely, to prepare hay, most meadows were naturally hay meadows, and the name siena pļava ‘hay meadow’ was most likely regarded as a common noun^³. Therefore, it was more appropriate to name meadows by highlighting some other characteristic feature, for example, the meadow Purene ‘marsh marigold’ in Pinki (1969) was probably named after the marsh marigolds growing there, or the meadow Viļķ gals ‘wolf’s end’ in Stiene, which extended near houses named Vilki ‘wolves’ (1957).

The motivation of placenames associated with the semantics of hay could be quite clear: meadows and marshes, lakes, and islands where hay was cut, and bridges over which hay was transported. Informant data recorded in the placename card index clarify these motivational meanings. For example, Siēna ceļš ‘hay road’ in Satiņi was indeed a “forest road along which hay was transported from forest meadows” (1953); Siena sala ‘hay island’ || Russian Cенокос, a name in the vicinity of Lake Ežezers in the Ezernieki parish, was explained by the fact that “hay was cut here” (1962, 1979); the name of the pasture in Aknīste, Siena laukums ‘hay square’, designated a place “where after the war there was a state hay receiving station”; and at the time this placename and its motivation were recorded, locals still said: “Joāzaņ guļ’is uz s’ina laukumu” ‘the cows have to be driven to the hay square’ (1979)—thus showing that even after 30 years, vivid memories of certain events or places had not faded.

The name Siena tilts ‘hay bridge, hay-bridge’ in Alsviķi, as well as Siena tilta gravas ‘hay-bridge ravines’ and Siena tilta upīte ‘hay-bridge brook’ also testifies to events several decades old (LVVK): “the name originated during the Second World War—there used to be a quagmire here, and soldiers brought hay into it, thereby building a bridge” (1972).

The phrase Siena tirgus ‘hay market’ survives as the name of squares and public gardens in various Latvian cities—Riga, Ventspils, Liepāja, and Jēkabpils. These names recall the once-vibrant tradition of selling hay in city squares specially designated for this purpose. It is true that the names of streets, squares, and

^³ The toponymy of other peoples also contains meadow names based on appellatives meaning ‘hay’, for example, Belarusian Сенажа́ць, a meadow in the Homiel district, and Сенако́с, a meadow in the Minsk district (MiБ 219).

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public gardens were almost never included in the Latvian placename card index, so such a placename is absent from the card index; however, it is recorded, for example, on the website Zuduši Latvija, dedicated to vanished places in Latvia, and in the database Tautas vietvārdu datubāze (TVDB), into which people from rural regions can enter placenames familiar to them.

The true motivation of the name of the forest Siēn-kaudzes priedes ‘haystack pines’ near Sātiņi (1953; cf. forest Sienkaudzes priede, Plāķis 1936: 155, 156) is unclear. Since the card contains no explanation, one can only assume that the name is either metaphorical—the trees growing there resembled the shape of haystacks—or metonymic—hay was stored in stacks somewhere nearby in a forest clearing.

The hill in the marshes of the Ružina forest, S‘ina d‘iegl‘is‘ (meža purūš, 1960), apparently denotes a burned-out area of forest where grass grew after a fire and hay was cut, as suggested by one of the meanings of the word d‘ēglis—‘a burned-out area, a burnt clearing’ (ME I 461).

2.2. LEXICAL MOTIVATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF PLACENAMES SIENA PURVS ‘HAY MARSH’

As already mentioned, among Latvian placenames containing siens, names of the Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’ type predominate.

When these placenames are reviewed by feature category and according to the description of placename motivation recorded in the card index, it appears that not all geographical features named Siena purvs are marshes where hay was formerly cut. In one-third of cases, this name was given to wet, marshy meadows, often extending along riverbanks or lakeshores or at the edges of forests, for example: Siena pūrs in Daudzese was explained as a “marshy meadow” (1961); Siena pūrvs in Dignāja, “marshy meadows beyond the village of Mikainė” (1961); Siena pūrvs in Sīnuole, “a marshy forest meadow within the boundaries of the Krači homestead, north of the house” (1980); Siena pūrvs in Viesiena, “a marshy meadow” (1970); Siena purvs in Preiļi, “a marshy meadow in the fields along the Jaša River, on the eastern side” (1979). River meadows are apparently wet and resemble marshes; thus, it may be assumed that such wet hay meadows were described with the pejoratively connoted nomenclature word marsh as meadows of inferior quality. For example, Sanda Rapa has surveyed similar manifestations of metaphorical abstractions in Latvian placename formation (Rapa 2013: 54; Rapa 2017: 63). However, some cases may be metonymic: a drying marsh becomes a meadow, or a meadow bearing such a name lies beside a marsh. Such cases in the context of Latvian microtoponyms have been described by S. Rapa and Ojaras

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Bušas (Rapa 2017: 67; Bušs 2019: 348). The fact that wetter forests are called marshes was also mentioned by Valija Dambė in her study of the placenames of Blydene Parish (Dambė 2012: 32).

Marshes are somewhat more often called Siena puros than meadows are. The card index most often contains no explanations or comments as to why the marsh was given this name; apparently, the fact that hay was cut in these marshes was self-evident. In rare cases, an explanation is nevertheless added, for example, the name of the marsh Siena puros in Beja is supplemented by the note: “a marsh in the middle of a forest near the Krutupe; hay is cut in dry summers” (1961), or Siēna pur̃vis, a marsh in Taurkalne, “opposite the Penderi homestead, a large, partly drained marsh; hay was formerly cut here” (1961).

Studies of the history of plant cultivation in Latvia (Gustiņa 2016, Dumpe 1985, and elsewhere) suggest that natural grasslands in Latvia generally form near rivers or lakes, while other meadows arise through human activity, when forests are cleared. Since during the previous millennium crop cultivation was more profitable than livestock farming, all areas suitable for ploughing were turned into fields, leaving the more difficult-to-reach places—riverbanks and marshes—for meadows (Gustiņa 2016: 66). “Since hay was needed on farms, all areas where grass grew were mown, whether overgrown lake shores, sedge meadows growing in small marshes, or heathlands” (Gustiņa 2016: 67–68). This type of farming continued until the 1920s–1930s, when “by cultivating meadows or managing pastures using modern methods, more fodder was obtained from them, and little by little the need to devote every grass-covered patch of land to this purpose disappeared. Thus, less fertile meadows were gradually abandoned and occasionally planted with forest” (Gustiņa 2016: 68).

The folklorist Helga Grasė’s study, based on folk-song material and dealing with meadows and work performed in meadows in various Latvian regions, likewise mentions marshy meadows mown during the previous century. As the scholar acknowledges, Latvians regarded marshy meadows as poor and spoke disparagingly of them and those who mowed them: Ni man tī̀k tā pļaviņa, / Ni pļaviņas pļavējiņi: / Purē bija tā pļaviņa, / Zili meļļi pļavējiņi 28666,3 (Nē man mjela ta pjevēle / Nē tos pievos pļovējēlai / Pelkē buvo ta pjevelē / Pamēlē juodi pjovējai) (Grasė 1937: 169). The researcher states that marshy meadows were celebrated in folk songs throughout all Latvian regions, including Zemgale, apparently confirming that these—seemingly the poorest meadows—were used to a greater or lesser extent throughout Latvia up to a certain historical point. Nevertheless, the Latvian linguist and cultural figure Kārlis Draviņš, born in Stende, Kurzeme, recalls that “small marshes were not considered or called meadows. If any of them was mown, it was not for hay but for the grasses used to stuff mattresses” (Draviņš 2000: 179).

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The material of the card index of the Dictionary of Latvian Placenames (LVVK) testifies that the intensity of marsh mowing could indeed have differed in various parts of Latvia.

FIG. 1. Latvian placenames Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’ distribution area^⁴

When all placenames containing Siena purvs—marshes, meadows, and other features alike—are marked on the map (see Fig. 1), an informative picture emerges. It becomes clear that geographical features bearing this name are distributed fairly compactly, mainly in the eastern part of Latvia: in Latgale, Sēlija, eastern Vidzeme, and the eastern fringe of Zemgale, they form a continuous area.

Comparing this map with the map of Latvian marshes published on the website “Cits ģeogrāfijas skatījums” (see LPK), which shows that marshes are distributed more densely or sparsely throughout Latvia’s territory, it can be established that the distribution area of the placenames Siena purvs does not indicate the distribution of marshes themselves in Latvia; rather, it reflects regional characteristics of economic activity. It does show, however, that there are genuinely fewer marshes in Zemgale. It is interesting that O. Bušas has established a similar relationship between the relief characteristic of a region and the distribution of a particular name describing a given feature category: he observed that placenames Putraskalni do not occur in western Zemgale, because in this region “there simply are not very many geographical features that could be called a hill” (Bušs 2019: 341, 342).

It is possible that in Latgale, as a historically poorer region, more hay was mown in marshes, and perhaps for longer, than in other Latvian regions, and this is reflected on the map.

^⁴ Maps 1 and 2 were drawn by Edmundas Trumpa.

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For comparison with the toponyms, a map of the placename Purva pļava ‘marshy meadow’ was created (see Fig. 2), based on data from the card index of the Dictionary of Latvian Placenames (LVVK). It can be seen that the distribution area of this placename is larger than that of Siena pļava ‘hay marsh’ (cf. Fig. 1); it also includes Kurzeme, except for its northwestern part. Nevertheless, there are some correspondences: as can be seen, both placenames are rarer in Zemgale and more frequent in Latgale. Their distribution could also indicate that in Zemgale, as a region of greater fertility in Latvia, marshes were indeed mown relatively less often.

FIG. 2. Distribution area of the Latvian placename Purva pļava ‘marshy meadow’

3. VITALITY OF PLACENAMES WITH SIENS ‘HAY’

As mentioned, LVVK consists mainly of Latvian placename data recorded up to the 1960s, so this is information approximately half a century old. One aim of this article is to determine how persistent and vital these toponyms—mostly microtoponyms—with the element siens are. In the Latvian placename-collection campaign organized in 2017, when residents had the opportunity to upload the names of features in their immediate surroundings to the placename database themselves, approximately 4,000 placenames were published. This is a large number for such a campaign, but small in relation to all Latvian placenames. Of those 4,000 placenames, the lexeme siens occurred in only one placename: the Siena tirgus ‘hay market’ pier in Riga (TVDB).

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In turn, the placename database of the Lithuanian Geospatial Information Agency contains 17 placenames with the word siens or the dialectal form šīns: of these, 1 is Siena ezers ‘hay lake’, 10 are features whose names contain the phrase Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’ (including 2 meadows, 4 marshes, 1 locality, 1 village, 1 homestead, and 1 river), 5 are Siena sala ‘hay island’, and 1 is Siena tīrelis ‘hay marsh’ (in the LĢIA database).

Thus, this material appears to confirm the assumption that microtoponyms in general are highly unstable, since compared with the situation fifty years ago, nowadays only two meadows named Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’ have been recorded^⁵.

Nevertheless, marsh names, or helonyms, should be regarded as more persistent than microtoponyms. On the basis of maps from previous decades and centuries, an attempt was made to determine whether this assumption is valid, or more precisely, whether the maps support it. Unfortunately, old maps were not very useful in this case: small marshes named Siena purvs (such as those shown on the map of the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency) are marked in cartographic material from earlier periods, but without names. This situation has been documented for at least the past 150 years. In any event, the names of small marshes appear on the maps available to us only with the arrival of the digital era.

For example, Siena purvs in Līgatne Parish, as can be seen on the LĢIA map (see Fig. 3), is nowadays located beside the railway line between the Zeltkalni and Kazkaļi homesteads.

FIG. 3. Siena purvs in Līgatne Parish (LĢIA map)

The Kazkaļi homestead is already marked on the 1866 military topographic map (cf. Fig. 4), but the marsh beside it is not actually visible yet (BTKРИ 1866).

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FIG. 4. Possible location of Siena purvs on the 1866 map (BTKРПИ 1866)

On the map of Western Russia published in 1914–1919 (see Fig. 5), the marsh between the Kazkaļi and Zeltkalni homesteads is already marked, although without a separate name (KWR 1914–1919).

FIG. 5. Location of Siena purvs on the 1914–1919 map (KWR 1914–1919)

The same is true of the map of the Latvian Army from 1920–1940 and the 1963 map (see Fig. 6): a small marsh is marked, but without a name (LAK 1920–1940; КГШ 1963).

Thus, it can be concluded that topographic sources from earlier centuries are of little use for studying microtoponyms and searching for the names of smaller marshes, which were apparently used mainly for mowing, as well as for the names of those marshes. Renāte Siliņa–Pinkė likewise observed in her study of placenames based on the appellative sala that “[...] recording the names of forests, meadows, marshes, fields, and other similar features in old written or cartographic sources is a great rarity” (Siliņa–Pinkė 2017: 46).

A somewhat clearer chronological picture can be obtained by comparing placename collections and publications from different years, for example, the encyclopedia Latviešu konversācijas vārdnīca (LKV) or the 1906 lists of inhabited places in Vitebsk Governorate (Спис.).

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FIG. 6. Location of Siena purvs on the maps from 1920–1940 and 1963 (LAK 1920–1940; КГШ 1963)

On the basis of these sources, it can be observed that meadow names are indeed apparently short-lived: meadows bearing the name Siena purvs, mentioned in Jūrijs Plāķis’s collections from the 1930s, are no longer recorded in the 1960s. Nevertheless, there are exceptions: two meadows included in collections from the 1950s–1960s are also recorded in the contemporary database of the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency, for example, the Siēna-pūrs meadow in Grundzāle (1964), which most probably is the same meadow as Siena purvs || Priežkalnu pļavas || Stirnu purva pļavas in Grundzāle Parish (in the LGIA database).

Since the data of old sources have shortcomings, it nevertheless remains unclear whether the disappearance of meadow names is related to the fact that meadow names are inherently unstable, or to the fact that farming methods in the countryside changed profoundly during the last century, causing smaller meadows as topographical features to disappear together with their names. In that case, it is entirely possible that meadow names were more persistent in earlier centuries.

Placename collections and publications do confirm that marsh names and the names of inhabited places derived from them persist longer. For example, Siena purvs in Barkava was recorded as a marsh name in 1962, whereas today it is mentioned in the LGIA database as an inhabited place; moreover, this marsh name, Синоныпс (Спис.), was already mentioned in the 1906 list of inhabited places in Vitebsk Governorate. In turn, the village Sinapūrs, which still exists today in Aglona, was recorded under this name as early as 1794—“Sinija Pury Starodvorskaja” (Zeps 453).

The emergence of inhabited-place names from marsh names of this semantic type can also be seen among neighboring peoples. For example, in Anykščiai District, Lithuania, there is the village of Šienraištis (GP); in turn, the Estonian dictionary of placenames mentions

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the village name Heinasoo in the vicinity of Viru [Võru] (heina ‘hay’ + soo ‘marsh’) (EKR 89). Apparently, the use of hay marshes was formerly customary not only in Latvia but also across a wider area.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The motivation of Latvian placenames with hay-related semantics is found in meadows and marshes, lakes, and islands where hay was cut, bridges over which hay was transported, and so on. Among placenames containing the lexeme siens, the most frequent is Siena purvs ‘hay marsh’. The distribution area of these names reflects historical agricultural characteristics associated with Latvian regions: Siena purvs is more widespread in Latgale and eastern Vidzeme, and least widespread in Zemgale, the so-called granary of Latvia. On the one hand, there are fewer marshes there than in the rest of Latvia; on the other, this region has more fertile soils, so apparently there was less need to mow hay in marshes.

Only some of the place names Siena purus ‘hay marsh’ actually designate marshes; another part of the names probably describes poor-quality wet meadows, although these were sometimes in fact quite far from marshes. One more source is oikonyms that arose from helonyms, for example, Sinapurs, a village in Agluona.

The names of smaller marshes are not marked on older maps, so their age cannot be assessed on the basis of them. However, collections of place names and lists from past centuries allow us to form a picture: there are few meadow names that have survived for 100 years, because meadows are not permanent objects; they can become fields, become overgrown with forest, or turn into marshes, and buildings can appear in former meadows. The decline in the number of village inhabitants also affects their vitality. Thus, there are considerably fewer of these microtoponyms (as of others) in general than there were 50 or 100 years ago. It is possible that in earlier centuries, before agrarian reforms, meadow names were more enduring, but there is insufficient data to prove this.

Although marshes are not mown continuously, compared with meadows, they have nevertheless retained their names for almost a century longer. Apparently, this is because marshes, compared with meadows, are significantly larger and more stable geographical objects, and their names are known not only to the inhabitants of surrounding homesteads but also to residents of larger areas.

LITERATURE AND SOURCES

1953 [or other year indicated]: Materials from toponym-collecting expeditions of 1953 [or another indicated year].

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A e h n l i c h B a r b a r a, M e i n e k e E c k h a r d (Hrsg.) 2015: Namen und Kulturlandschaften, Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.

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B i n g e n h e i m e r S i g r i d 1996: Die Flurnamen der Gemeinden um den Wissberg in Rheinhessen, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

B u š s O j ā r s 2019: Mozaīka: onīmu un apelatīvu cilme, nozīme, lietojums. Darbu izlase, Rīga: LU Latviešu valodas institūts.

D a m b e V a l l i j a 2012: Darbu izlase, Rīga: LU Latviešu valodas institūts, 27–71.

D r a v i ņ š K ā r l i s 1939: The life of place names. – Ceļi IX, Rīga: Ramaves apgāds, 1939, 407–418.

D r a v i ņ š K ā r l i s 2000: Kurzemē aizgājušos laikos, Rīga: Jumava.

D u m p e L i n d a 1985: Lopkopība Latvijā 19. gs.–20. gs. sākumā, Rīga: Zinātne.

EKR – Eesti kohanimeraamat, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2016.

GP – Lietuvos erdvinės informacijos portalas. Available online: https://www.geoportal.lt/map/ [accessed 2021–06–04].

G r a s e H e l g a 1937: Meadow and meadow work in various regions of Latvia: based on folk-song materials. – Ceļi VIII, Rīga: Ramaves apgāds, 167–185.

G r e v e D i e t e r 2016: Flurnamen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mit einem Lexikon der Flurnamenelemente (Flurnamen von A bis Z), Schwerin: Eigenverlag Dieter Greve.

G u s t i ņ a L a i m a 2016: History of grassland management in Latvia. – Latvijas Veģetācija 25, Salaspils: Latvijas Valsts mežzinātnes institūts Silava, 65–79.

KWR 1914–1919 – Karte des westlichen Russlands, 1914–1919. Available online: https://vesture.dodies.lv/#m=14/57.15887/25.15848&l=O/KDW [accessed 2021–06–04].

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Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXV

Siens ‘hay’ in Latvian place names

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The Lexeme siens ‘hay’ in Latvian Placenames

S U M M A R Y

The current article is focused on at the distribution and vitality of those Latvian placenames that contain the lexeme siens ‘hay’, as well as the main tendencies underlying the motivation of these placenames. Usually this motivation is rather obvious – these names are given to meadows, marshlands or islands where hay is harvested, or to roads and bridges via which it is transported. Among the placenames containing the lexeme siens, the most widespread seems to be Siena purvs ‘hay swamp/marsh’. This name’s distribution area reflects the geographical features of Latvia’s agriculture – the toponym Siena purvs is mostly observed in Latgale and Eastern Vidzeme, but rarely in Zemgale which was a richer region and where it was no necessity to harvest hay in marshlands. The widespread tendency is to use the name Siena purvs for wet, low-quality meadows.

In terms of vitality, the placenames with the lexeme siens confirm a general tendency – very few meadow names and similar microtoponyms reach the age of 100 years, because meadows are not very stable objects. They can be turned into fields; they can overgrow with trees, or become flooded and turn into swamps; sometimes houses are built in former meadows. Meanwhile the actual swamps and marshes, even if they are not used for obtaining hay anymore, can retain the reference to hay in their names for more than a century, because a marshland is obviously a larger and more substantial geographic entity than a meadow. Its name is usually known not only by the inhabitants of the nearby farmhouses, but also in a larger area.

Submitted on 4 June 2021.

A N T A T R U M P A

Vilnius University, Institute of the Lithuanian Language Kalpaka bulvāris 4, LV–1050 Rīga, Latvia [email protected]

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