Benita Laumane. „Zeme, jūra, zvejvietas. Zvejniecības leksika Latvijas piekrastē“

or does the concept unmotivated nicknames contradict the notion of a nickname? After all, if the motives for choosing personal names such as Bebras, Erkė, Kreidaklynis (p. 119) and others were not recorded, this does not indicate that they arose in some way other than all Lithuanian nicknames—that is, that they are unmotivated. In assessing “Lithuanian Nicknames,” the main aim was first of all to draw readers’ attention to the merits of this new work in Lithuanian anthroponymy. The polemical remarks presented here, or views on some issues that differ from the author’s, may perhaps prove useful for further research into this unique stratum of Lithuanian personal names. Vitalija Maciejauskienė Benita Laumane. Zeme, jūra, zvejvietas. Zvejniecības leksika Latvijas piekrastē. Riga, 1996: Zinātne, 397 pp.: ill., [8] pp. of color ill. In the past few years, a considerable number of significant works on Baltic onomastics have appeared. Undoubtedly, one of these is the book published in 1996 by the Latvian linguist B. Laumane, devoted to the study of fishing vocabulary in the Latvian territory around the Baltic Sea1. This work synthesizes and supplements the author’s earlier studies2. It should be noted that this is the first work of its kind in Baltic onomastics (and linguistics in general): it examines in a very comprehensive and detailed manner the appellative and onymic vocabulary of a rather specific area—the coastal region. True, some writing has also been done on the place names of the Baltic coast in Lithuanian territory3, but this amounts more to an introduction to the toponymy than to a thorough analysis of it. B. Laumane’s book consists of a “Foreword,” an “Introduction,” and three large chapters: “Names of Fishing Settlements and Landing Places” (“Zvejniekciemu un valgumu nosaukumi”), “Relief Names” (“Reljefa apzīmējumi”), and “Names of Fishing Grounds” (“Zvejvietu nosaukumi”). These chapters are made up of several more detailed subsections. The Introduction (pp. 5–16) provides a multifaceted account of the Baltic Sea coastal region: it surveys the history of the emergence of fishing settlements, the development of the fishing industry, and the ethnic composition of the population and its changes. Data from historical sources— 1 The book undoubtedly deserves a comprehensive review or detailed discussion. For now, however, only a brief introduction to it is offered. 2 Plg. Л а у м а н е Б. Семантика и структура названий тоней побережья Латвийской ССР. – Baltu valodas senāk un tagad, Rīga: Zinātne, 1985, 115–127; Laumane B. Zvejvietu nosaukumi Latvijas PSR piekrastē, Rīga: Zinātne, 1987 ir kt. 3 See Гуделис В. Список географических названий залива Куршю марес и прилегающей к нему территории. – Куршю марес, Вильнюс, 1959, 541–546; Vanagas A. Mūsų pajūrio vandenvardžiai. – Baltija, Vilnius: Mintis, 1984, 72–77; Razmukaitė M. Kuršių nerijos ir Kuršių marių vietų vardai. – Kalbos kultūra 69, 1997, 74–81. 241 Along the Baltic Sea in various places in the present-day territory of Latvia, not only Balts (Latvians, Curonians), i.e. Indo-Europeans, but also Finns (Livonians, Estonians) have lived; consequently, each of these peoples’ languages has left traces in both appellative and onymic vocabulary. The first chapter (pp. 17–111) analyzes common names for landing places (physiographic terms), as well as the names of fishing settlements and their inhabitants. It is interesting that all the Latvian words used to name fishermen’s landing places are loanwords: the most widespread term vālgums derives from Livonian (cf. Liv. vālga-mõ, vālġam ‘Ladungsplatz’, Est. valgma ‘a place on the shore where boats are hauled ashore’, etc. – p. 20); the terms sędums, sadums used in Kurzeme are likewise borrowed from the Baltic Finnic languages (cf. Liv. sadām, sada-mõ ‘in the harbor’, Est. sadam ‘waterfall, rapid; landing place, loading place; in the harbor’, sadam(us) ‘river mouth’, etc. – p. 21); prīcala, prīcāls, which appeared during the Soviet era, is a loan from Russian (cf. Rus. причал – p. 22). The analysis of the names of fishing settlements is highly valuable. Their origins are explained on the basis of abundant data from historical sources, and the development of these toponyms is also surveyed. In addition, the analysis covers not only place names still current in living Latvian, but also those attested solely in historical documents. Detailed explanations of origins draw on a very extensive body of literature and present various proposals by other authors for the origins of particular place names or groups of names sharing a given root. A considerable number of original etymologies are also offered. To be sure, in some cases—especially when one account regards a place name as Baltic, or Indo-European, while another considers it Finnic—the author’s own view could be stated more emphatically and supported with fuller argumentation. This may be lacking, for example, in the discussion of the origin of the place name Corkas (the toponym is compared with Lith. surname Čūrkus, Bel. Чурко, or Est. tsorg ‘tributary, brook, inlet’ – p. 38). The etymologies are valuable also because in some cases they prompt consideration of a possible origin for a given place name other than the one proposed in the book. For example, the farmstead name Stiebri is derived directly from the appellative stiebrs4 ‘stalk’ (p. 38). From the point of view of motivation (semantics), however, directly linking the toponym to the common noun raises certain doubts. Perhaps in this case an anthroponymic origin is more convincing, especially since the surname Stiebrs5 has survived in Latvian to this day. The farmstead name Vārzas is associated first and foremost with Liv. vārẓ ‘mare’ (p. 38), but the association with Est. varz ‘stalks, bushes’, presented only afterward, seems more plausible, particularly on semantic grounds. The author’s proposed explanation of the origins of the place names Abragciems, Ābragciems, Ābragi, Ābraglikums also gives rise to some questions. On the basis that the place name Abraks is recorded in a nineteenth-century historical source, the scholar regards the Latvian toponyms in question as borrowings from the Baltic Finnic languages, associating them with 4 The author does not state the meaning of this word in Latvian. 5 Žr. Сталтане В. Э. Латышская антропонимия. Фамилии, Москва: Наука, 1981, 199. 242 Est. Abrok, gen. Abroku, as well as Est. Abrog, Abruka saar (p. 63). While acknowledging this possible origin, one might perhaps also consider a different explanation. The author herself cites V. Veldre’s thought: “Vai Abragiems ir abu ragu ciems?” It seems that there may be some reason to this suggestion. By adding to the Latvian place names the name Ábragas, recorded for cultivated land in Lithuania, in the vicinity of Akmenė, one can hypothesize that the stem abrag- in all these toponyms may contain the Curonian prefix ab-, ‘around’ (cf. the Curonian-origin word cited by K. Būga, ab-lingà, ablinga ‘surroundings’⁶), and the common Baltic root rag-, cf. Lith. rãgas ‘a pointed stretch of land projecting into the sea, a lake, or a forest, a peninsula’⁷, Latv. rags ‘promontory, cape’⁸, Pruss. ragis ‘horn’⁹. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the Latvian and Lithuanian place names alike are situated in the former Curonian territory. Incidentally, the toponyms with abrag- are not mentioned in a study by another Latvian toponymist, K. Boiko, devoted to the analysis of Baltic Sea Finnic geographical appellatives and their relics in Latvian place names¹⁰. The second chapter (pp. 112–220) analyzes the names of coastal and marine relief features. It distinguishes physiographic terms describing land relief (shores; dunes, beaches, peninsulas, islands, capes, river mouths, harbors) and marine relief (sea, bays, coves, open sea, straits, depths, shallows, stony seabed, sandy seabed). The terms are analyzed in equally great detail and comprehensively: their meanings and distribution are given, their use in historical sources is documented, and their origins are explained. The analysis of an individual physiographic term also discusses place names that contain it. Considerable attention is devoted to the semantics of some terms; for example, the spread of the semantic field of mute, the word used for a river mouth, is explained not only in the context of the Indo-European languages but also of the Finno-Ugric languages (pp. 158–160). The third chapter (pp. 221–320) examines the vocabulary of fishing grounds from the same perspectives. The introduction to this chapter is devoted more to the analysis of physiographic terms, while the remaining sections investigate the names of fishing grounds. In the section on word formation, after briefly discussing issues in the derivational analysis of place names, all the place names are first divided into one-component and multi-component forms; the former are then classified as primary or derived, and the latter as compounds (the most numerous group), prepositional constructions, or compound words. One or two points here may be open to discussion. The toponyms Irbīte and Ruoņītis may derive not only from the diminutives irbīte bei ruoņītis or the place names Irbes šaurums and Ruonu sala (pp. 236–237), but also from the unsuffixed appellatives irbe 6 Žr. Būga K. Rinktiniai raštai 3, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla, 1961, 171, 296; Klimavičius J. Ablinga. – Mūsų kalba 6, 1977, 10–16. 7 Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 11, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1978, 22, 24. 8 Balkevičius J., Kabelka J. Latvių-lietuvių kalbų žodynas, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1977, 548. 9 Mažiulis V. Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas 4, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 1997, 7. 10 Boiko K. Baltijas jūras somu geografiskie apelatīvi un to relikti Latvijas vietvārdos: Disertācija filoloģijas doktora grāda iegūšanai, Rīga, 1993. 243 and ruonis. On the other hand, if Irbės šaurums and Irbitė, as well as Ruonų sala and Ruonītis, designate features located close to one another, then Irbitė and Ruonītis should undoubtedly be regarded as suffixal derivatives of the corresponding compound place names. Semantically, all names of fishing locations are divided into those that 1) indicate landmarks (nosaukumi, kas norāda orientierus: Tūjas steķis, Baznīcas, Pret Vagariem, etc.) and those that 2) characterize the fishing location (nosaukumi, kas raksturo zvejvietu: Dzelme, Mikste, Ravas bedre, Aizkraukls, etc.). The selected classification criteria are sufficiently well-founded, although in some cases it is quite difficult to distinguish between them: for example, the place names Eļikšnūši (p. 262) and Puisīš (p. 264) are considered to indicate landmarks, while Akmeņija (p. 280) and Dārziņš (p. 285) are classified as characterizing the fishing location. Yet it would seem that the first two names may also serve to characterize a place (a place overgrown with alders; a place overgrown with pines). The final three subsections explain the origins of the names of certain fishing locations and identify several semantic parallels in Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Finnic languages (e.g., Latvian Akmīnaja, Akmenija: Lithuanian Akmenė, Akena: Polish Kamień, W Kamienia: Estonian Kivismaa ‘stony land’ – p. 307). The chronology of these place names is also discussed—their earliest attestations in historical sources and their subsequent development. The detailed indexes of common and proper nouns provided at the end of the book are very important, making this valuable work easier to use. In concluding this presentation of B. Laumane’s book, several further points of particular importance to Lithuanian onomastics should be emphasized. As noted, the book also draws on data from Lithuanian toponymy and anthroponymy, analyzing them in comparison with evidence from other Baltic languages and, in some cases, Finnic languages. On the other hand, the publication of this work now makes it possible, in studying Lithuanian place names, to consider the broader context of Latvian place names and personal names that have been comprehensively analyzed, as well as the physiographic terms associated with them. To sum up, it can confidently be asserted that this book makes a truly substantial contribution to the study of Baltic vocabulary (especially toponyms). It is a particularly valuable addition to the study of the etymologies of proper names and appellatives, both in the context of Baltic languages and of relations between Baltic and Finnic languages. Laimutis Bilkis Vilius Pėteraitis. Mažosios Lietuvos ir Tvankstos vietovardžiai. Vilnius: Mažosios Lietuvos fondas. Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 1997, 607 p. More than a year ago, another highly significant book, published on the initiative of the Mažosios Lietuvos fondas, appeared on bookstore shelves: a study by Vilius Pėteraitis, founder of the Mažosios Lietuvos fondas, Germanist, and lexicographer, entitled “Mažosios Lietuvos ir Tvankstos vietovardžiai” (subtitle: Their Origin and Meaning). This is already 244