Liet. „salà“, la. „sala“ „kaimas“

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXXI (1994) QUESTIONS OF LANGUAGE NORMALIZATION GRAŽINA SMALINSKIENĖ LITH. SALÀ, LATV. SALA ‘VILLAGE’ Dialect words Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘village’ form homonym pairs with the common East Baltic geographical term Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘island’. Some etymologists compare Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘village’ with Slavic *selo ‘field, soil’, Old High German sal ‘dwelling; hall’ (Būga I 333; Trautmann 248; Pokorny 898). All these words are associated with the Indo-European root *sel- ‘dwelling place’ (Pokorny 898). In the monograph “Lexikalische Sonderübereinstimmungen zwischen dem Slawischen, Baltischen und Germanischen” by the Norwegian Balticist and Slavist Chr. Stang, the correspondence Slavic *selo, Old High German sal, Lith. salà, Latv. sala is presented tentatively, especially because of the parallel between the Baltic and Germanic lexemes (Stang 46–7). This isogloss cannot be considered fully reliable until the etymology of Slavic *selo is established. The origin of the Baltic words is also disputed. We will try to analyze this problem in greater detail. The Baltic-language lexemes under discussion must be examined in conjunction with the homonymous words Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘an area of land surrounded by water on all sides’. It is possible that these words and Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘village’ are etymologically related. The origin of Lith. salà, Latv. sala ‘an area of land surrounded by water on all sides’ is clear. These words, as well as Lith. àtsala ‘an indentation of a river into the bank’, are associated with Lith. šálti ‘to flow’, selėti ‘to lurk, creep’, Prussian salus ‘brook (from rain)’ (Būga II 305). The latter words derive from the Indo-European root *sel- ‘to jump; split’, cf. Greek ἅλλομαι ‘I jump, split’ (*seli̯ō), Latin saliō, -īre, -uī (-iī), -tum ‘to jump; split’ (Pokorny 899). Other meanings of these homonymous words are also attested in dialects: Lith. salà ‘a slightly elevated, dry patch of land in a bog or marsh; a field plot; a small patch of arable land or soil among meadows; a clearing in a forest; a small meadow in the middle of a summer-crop or rye field; a patch or clump of one kind of grass or other plants’ (eastern Aukštaitians of the Utena and Vilnius areas and southern Aukštaitians — LKŽ XII 59); Latv. sala ‘a slightly elevated, dry patch of land in a bog; forest land, woodland edge, a field plot far from home, an outlying field; a small spruce or pine grove, a clump of different trees in a forest; soil, field plot’ (Aukštaitians — ME III 664; EH II 423). In noting that Lith. salà and Latv. sala are geographical terms, we must take into account the typological regularities characteristic of the development of the semantic structure of such terms. According to L. Nevskaya, a researcher of Baltic geographical terms, words denoting elevated terrain (a rise), including Lith. salà and Latv. sala, often acquire the meanings ‘meadow; field’. This happens when the feature that the author provisionally calls 12. Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai, XXXI 177 “in an agricultural sense.” Lithuanian salà, Latvian sala, whose invariant feature is “a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides,” has acquired the following modifications: “a field plot,” “a small plot of arable land, a patch of soil among meadows,” “a clearing in the forest,” “a small meadow in the middle of a summer crop or rye field,” “a patch of plants of one kind” (Невская 155). Cf. the sememes of Slavic dialect остров, ostrów, which have lost the feature “surrounded by water”: “a place overgrown with forest in a swamp,” “a forest plot in open space,” “a field plot among meadows” (Толстой 51). On the basis of this semantic transition, “upland surrounded by water” → “field plot, arable land” → “meadow” → “forest,” the emergence of the homonyms Lithuanian salà, Latvian sala “village” can readily be inferred. The specific pattern of peasant settlement formation should be noted: villages were usually established beside rivers and lakes, and were situated amid their own lands—arable fields, meadows, forests, and swamps; cf. Latvian sala “village (in the middle of a swamp),” attested in Taurkalne (Брейдак 17). What does the distribution of the homonyms Lithuanian salà, Latvian sala “village” show? The areas where Lithuanian salà is used are as follows: 1) outside the territory of Lithuania—in the vicinity of Daugavpils and Kraslava, in Breslauja, Apsas, and Lazūnai (in the Lithuanian dialects of the latter Lithuanian-Belarusian border areas, the Slavicism selà is also found, LKA I 46; this seems to indicate that Lithuanian salà may likewise be a loan, since here, except in Lazūnai, the consonant s before the vowel e¹ is consistently hardened. In the Lazūnai dialect, as shown by LKA I 46 (map no. 9), the village name ūlyčia, ūlyčia² is more widespread); 2) also in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area, within Lithuania—in Rimšė, Tverėčius, Dysna, Mielagėnai, Paringys, Adutiškis, and Švenčionys (the Slavicism ūlyčia, ūlyčia, ūlyčia is also used in these places) (LKŽ XII 59; LKA I 46 (map no. 9)). Latvian sala (sola) is known in the Upper Latvian dialect (Višķi, Auleja, Skaista, Izvalta, Pilda, Zvirgzdene, Varakļāni, Barkava, Tilžė—ME III 664; EH II 423; ADT I 76). Latvian sala reached the eastern part of the Vidzeme subdialect (Taurkalne) from the Upper Latvian dialect (Брейдак 17). As can be seen, these distribution data do not contradict the hypothesis that separate sememes of the homonyms Lithuanian salà, Latvian sala “a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides” gave rise to the homonyms Lithuanian salà, Latvian sala “village,” geographically. In explaining the emergence of Latvian sala “village,” J. Endzelin also drew on a member of the other homonym pair, namely, meanings such as “forest land, woodland edge, a field plot far from home, a remote field; a small spruce or pine grove, a clump of different trees in a forest.” Sala is known in Latvian not only as an appellative but also as a place name; cf. Salas peasant homestead (Metriena, Jaunruoze, Zasa), Salas forest (Zasa). The place name Mēlnā-sala, a peasant homestead (Lubana), is difficult to distinguish from Mēlnā-sala, a forest (Liauduona); there are also Mēlnā-sala, a village (Silajāņi), an estate (Rugāji), a peasant homestead (Atašiene, Balva), and Mēlnā-sala, a forest (Aknīsta, Dignāja, Prauliena) (LV II 413). In Endzelin’s view, the name of homesteads or villages Liep(u) sala(s) probably originated from a lime grove in which the settlement was established (cf. Liepu-sala, a populated place (Barkava), a peasant homestead (Baltinava, Mar- 1 The word selà is also included in M. Niedermann’s dictionary (III 633). 2 In the dialects, these words refer only to street-village type settlements. This is not recorded in LKA. 178 (hill), Liepu-salas a peasant homestead in the forest (Malupė) LV II 366). From proper names of this kind, in Endzelin’s view, the appellative sala “village” was abstracted (EM III 664). There are also many such place names in the Lithuanian onomasticon, especially in the eastern and southern parts of Lithuania; cf. Salà village (Smalvos, Daugai, Igliauka ASŽ II 270, Lazūnai VK); Salà single-homestead settlement (Antazavė VK); Salà forest (Rodūnia, Suginčiai, Anturkė, Leliūnai, Kuktiškės, Gelvonai, Degučiai, Kriaunos VK); Salà field (Smalvos, Rodūnia, Labanoras VK); Salà arable land (Antazavė, Čiobiškis, Joniškis (Molėtai) VK); Salėlė village (Ceikiniai ASŽ II 270); Sàlos village (Linkmenys, Lazdijai, Rokiškis ASŽ II 271); Sàlos town (Rokiškis, Belarus, Smurgainiai VK); Sàlos single-homestead settlement (Alanta, Obeliai, Sudeikiai ASŽ II 271), Sàlos field (Dubičiai, Šalčininkai, Breslauja, Rimšė VK); Sàlos arable land (Rimšė VK); Sàlos meadow (Breslauja VK); Sàlos forest (Dūkštas VK); Liepsalos single-homestead settlement (Papilys ASŽ II 161). Most of these Latvian and Lithuanian toponyms are located in the area where the words Lithuanian salà and Latvian salà meaning “village” are widespread. The naming of such places is usually motivated by the geographical position of the feature they designate, for example, Sàlos is a village in the Ignalina district, in the Linkmenys local area, situated between three lakes; the manor of the Riga district, Salas, which arose in the late 17th century, consisted of several villages separated from one another by infertile sand dunes and marshes, bushes, and coniferous forests (Липения 137). It seems reasonable to conclude that the homonyms discussed here should indeed be regarded as having the same etymology, that is, as semantic homonyms. V. Urbutis also assigned these words to this type of homonym (Urbutis 176). In this case, Lithuanian salà and Latvian salà “village” is a lexeme characteristic only of the East Baltic languages. ABBREVIATIONS ADT — Augšzemnieku dialekta teksti: Latgaliskas izloksnes. Rīga, 1983. ASŽ — Lietuvos TSR administracinio-teritorinio suskirstymo žinynas. V., 1976. D. 2. Būga — Būga K. Selected Writings. V., 1958—1961. Vols. 1—3. EH — Endzelīns J., Hauzenberga E. Papildinājumi un labojumi K. Mīlenbacha Latviešu valodas vārdnīcai. Rīga, 1946. S. 2. LKA — Lietuvių kalbos atlasas. V., 1977. T. 1. LKŽ — Lietuvių kalbos žodynas. V., 1981. T. 12. LV — Endzelīns J. Latvijas PSR vietvārdi. Rīga, 1961. D. 1. S. 2. ME — K. Mūlenbacha Latviešu valodas vārdnīca / Rediģējis, papildinājis, turpinājis J. Endzelīns. Rīga, 1927—1929. S. 3. Pokorny — Pokorny J. Indo-European Etymological Dictionary. Bern and Munich, 1959. Stang — Stang Chr. S. Lexical Special Correspondences between Slavic, Baltic and Germanic. Oslo—Berlin—Tromsø, 1972. Trautmann — Trautmann R. Baltisch—Slavisches Wörterbuch. Göttingen, 1923. Urbutis — Urbutis V. Methods of formation of homonyms in the Lithuanian lexicon: Candidate of Philological Sciences dissertation. V., 1955. VK — The onomastic card index of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. 12* 179 Breydak — Breydak A. Dialectal vocabulary of the Latgalian dialects of the Upper Latvian dialect and its historical connections: Abstract of dissertation... Candidate of Philological Sciences. Riga, 1969. Lieninia — Lieninia Dz. On the types of settlements of Latvian peasants in the 12th century. // Rural Settlements of the Baltic Region, 13th–20th Centuries. Moscow, 1971. P. 123–141. Невская — Невская Л. Г. Балтийская географическая терминология. М., 1977. Tolstoy — Tolstoy N. I. On the problem of studying Slavic local terms // Local Geographical Terms. Questions of Geography. Collection 81. Moscow, 1970. P. 46–53. OTHER ABBREVIATIONS Gr. — Greek IE — Indo-European Latv. — Latvian Lith. — Lithuanian Lat. — Latin cf. — compare Pr. — Prussian Sl. — Slavic OHG — Old High German LIT. SALĀ, LETT. SALA „DORF“ Summary This article seeks to demonstrate that Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘village’ should not be compared with Sl. *selo ‘field, arable land’ or OHG sal ‘house, hall’; the latter are to be connected with the Indo-European root *sel- ‘dwelling’. They have the same etymology as the homonymous words Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘island’. We must emphasize that these words are geographical terms and take into account the typological regularities characteristic of the development of the semantic structure of such terms. L. Nevskaja argues that words denoting elevated terrain often acquire the meanings ‘meadow; field’. Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘island’ undergo the following semantic modifications: ‘arable land’, ‘field surrounded by meadows’, ‘forest clearing’, ‘meadow in a summer-crop or rye field’, ‘a patch of plants of the same kind’. Given this semantic transition from ‘elevation in a marsh’ → ‘arable land, field’ → ‘meadow’ → ‘forest’, it is easy to infer the emergence of the homonyms Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘village’. The particular circumstances in which peasant settlements arose should also be mentioned: villages were usually established by rivers and lakes, and lay among fields, meadows, forests, and marshes; compare Latv. sala ‘village (in a marsh)’ (Taurkalnē). The distribution of the individual sememes of Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘island’, from which the homonyms Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘village’ could have arisen, is not at odds with the distribution of these homonyms. J. Endzelin based his explanation of the origin of Latv. sala ‘village’ on place names, e.g. Salas ‘farmstead’, Salas ‘forest’, Mēlnā-sala ‘farmstead’, Mēlnā-sala ‘forest’. There are many such place names in the Lithuanian collection of names. Most of these place names are found in areas where the words Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘village’ are common. The naming of these places is largely determined by the geographical location of the features they denote. In our opinion, all this allows us to conclude that the homonyms under discussion are etymologically related, i.e. they are semantic homonyms. In this case, Lith. salā, Latv. sala ‘village’ is a lexeme characteristic only of the East Baltic languages. 180