Naujas toponimų žodynas

Baltists may be a little sorry that M. Rudzyté wrote not a study of Latvian dialectology, but a textbook of dialectology for students. Didactical objectives forced her to teach some elementary subjects of dialectology, and in addition, the profile of the textbook as if coated the author’s thoughts, restricting her independence. She seems to have deliberately avoided more complex questions of dialectology history, mostly contenting herself with references to the works of her great teacher, academician J. Endzelynas. In this way, the author, not wanting to hurt her students, sometimes slightly “hurt” the scholars of Baltic languages. But everyone will understand that it is extremely difficult to please both in the same book. In any case, M. Rudzytė’s work is a significant step in Latvian dialectology because of its extensive, very systematically arranged material (here it really goes far beyond the boundaries of a textbook), and its author deserves the sincere thanks of all Baltists. I would also like to draw attention to a couple of details that came to my attention while scrolling through the pages of this work. The author has given a fairly detailed description of the literature available on each of the questions, but when speaking about the Curonian problem (cf. pp. 32, 64), she has for some reason not mentioned the most extensive work devoted to this problem — V. "Kiparski's "Kurenfrage" (Helsinki, 1939)". It also, perhaps unnecessarily, puts the Kurians in the same rank as the Prussians (cf. p. 20), as if separating them from such white tribes as the Seeli or the Zimgali. The term crossroads in the sense used by M. Rudzytė (cf. p. 34) is not quite appropriate, because it has been used in linguistics with a slightly different meaning*. A. Sabaliauskas NEW DICTIONARY OF TOPONIMS B. A. Huxouos, Kparkni Tononamuueckui caosapb, Mocksa, 1966, 510 p. There have also been those who, according to their profile, can be considered precursors of the reviewed work.' However, most of them clearly no longer meet the requirements of our country and the world toponymy, although some of them came out relatively recently. Therefore, the preparation of a new dictionary, which is the foundation of today's toponymy science, was very relevant. The recently published “Brief dictionary of toponyms” by V. Nikonov includes about four thousand names of inhabited places, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, countries, nationalities and other names of the whole globe. It is easy to imagine the enormous work the author has done in selecting, and sometimes interpreting, place names in dozens of languages. The literature on toponymics is very abundant, but its quality is not uniform. Therefore, the difficulties of “disassociation” and evaluation of literature are practically difficult to overcome. These reasons undoubtedly led to the fact that not everything in V. Nikonov's dictionary is perfect, not all is correct. O. C. Axmanosa, CjioBnapb JiKHTBHCTHUEeCKHX TepMHHOB, Mocksa, 1966, p. 417. and M. H. Measxees, T'eorpagduueckue umena. TonokumMuueckuiėt cJioBapb, Mocksa, 1961; M. C. Boanapckuii, Crosaps reorpaduuecknx Haspauuii, Haj. 2-oe, Mocksa, 1958; A. A. UsanoBckHu it, leorpaduueckne umena, Mocksa, 1914 and others. Also pg. J. Haliczer, Geographical Dictionary. Origin and Meaning of Geographical Names, Tarnopol, 1935. 198 si works in that field used, some interpreto ations of the origin of toponyms are doubtful ar and unfounded. But the volume of the dictionarir y, the nature of the fact that in our country it almost did not have the necessary scientific level of origins, allows more indulgent ir — į inaccuracies and shortcomings in it. Without evaluating the entire vocabulary, I would like to say a few words about the interpretations of Baltic pronouns. jų First of all, the fact that the dictionary explains į the Baltic place names much better than in previous works of this kind is striking. This can be seen in iš the following examples: Liet. Shame. M. Bodnarski- 's opinion? (which was later literally repeated by M. Melchejevas*), the name of the city is derived from the mythological iš Lithuanian goddess of love The name of Milda's son. J. "Hall of Famer Katy Perry's iš House". kaunas (should tų be kaūnis or kaiiné, kaunia® ‘kova’). However, well before the appearance jo of the dictionary about Two much more reliable hypotheses* have been published on the origin of the price, which, unfortunately, J. Halychery, than later M. Bodnarskis su M. Melchior has not been used. V. Nikonovas refers to most of the placename Prices of origin interpretair tions of the most important literature on the subject, ir including the most recent. It is true that V. Nikonov can be blamed for selecting previous opinions, sometimes without even saying which one is the most be reliable. jų Of course, ne this is always clear, but in this case it could have been added that Kaiino siejimas su rus. KOBaTb (allegedly, "blacksmith's place") is non-artistic. Ir in general, it would have been best not to mention clearly non-scientific interpretations in a work of this kind. Liet. Nemunas. M. Bodnarskis" ir M. Melcheyev® (the latter is based on A. Ivanovsky- ®) repeats at the end of the last century A. Kochubinsky's published naive Nothing to lose. iš house: this existing "our, Lithuanian river"? ?. Even more unfortunate, it can be said, curious is Žučkevičius V. Interpretation of the origin of Nemunas, presented 1961 m. in the past work ,,Origin of the name "Belarusian toponymy". Pagal ji ,,Nemunas in the lower part of the river, perhaps, came from iš Lithuanian root, o upstream — ir iš of the Slavic root nem, which gave rise to many words (‘,HeMOK”, “HeMen”) with the su common lexical meaning “silence, incomprehensible sound, incomprehensible language” ". An analogous example would be if we claimed that the name of a river Moscow is of Finnish origin in the upper part o and Slavic in — the lower part. V. Nikonov managed to resist the routine of these unscientific interpretations ir presented almost all 2 M. C. Boaunapckui, op. cit., p. 153. * M. H. Measbxees, op. cit., p. 44. 1 J. Haliczer, op. cit., p. 142. * Zr. Dictionary of the English V, Language, 1959, p. 436. € See. A. Senn, "The ir word of the people", III, 1925, p. 510; D. Studerus, Zum Names of cities Kaunas “Indo-European - Researches“, XLVII, 1929, p. 350—356. ? M. C. Bonnapekrai, op. cit., p. 224. 5 M. H. 10, op. cit., p. 62. * A. A. UbanoBckuii, op. cit., p. 75. » A. A. Kouy6uuckuii, Teppuropus toucroprueckoit Jlurabi, XMHIT, ) siHBaps, 1897, p. 81. "B. A. )Kyukesnu, ITpoucxoxenne reorpadHyeckux Ha3BaHui (TOMOHHMHKA Beaopyccum), Munck, 1961, p. 13. , 199° more reliable hypotheses of the origin of the Nemunas (except, admittedly, — K. "Hypothesis!!- ". Another positive feature of the dictionary is that it consistently follows the toponymic ir approach to place names. į V. Nikonov, unlike earlier authors of toponymic dictionaries, for example, the name of the city Vilnius correctly derives simply ne from the iš appellative vilnis, o iš river name (see section 4.4). below), Pum (Rome) — iš river name Ruma, o ne iš an adjective meaning ir tekéjimal®, etc. Prie Zodyyra no added all the most necessary attachments — introduction, literature, terms and abbreviations list. Be Therefore, only the ne etymology of the most important geographical objects is du given, but some ir historical, geographical other knowledge ar about the objects themselves. Nors V. Nikonov, explaining the origin of Baltic place names, has advanced further than previous authors of už similar works (A. Ivanovsky, M. Bodnarsky, M. Melcheeva, ir etc.), but ir jo In this respect, the “Short Dictionary of Placenames” still has shortcomings. First of all, there are inaccuracies in the etymology of Baltic place names, which mainly arose because V. Nikonov always ne made use of works on the toponymy of the Balts published much earlier. The second thing that decreases the value of the dictionary is the occurrence of quite precise reports of the opinions of other ne scientists or insufficiently precise presentation of the material in general. For example, in explaining About the origin of Kaunas, the author writes: "Other etymologies: Baltic iš languages “such a sword (naJiam)”, in the figurative sense, “a sword-cutter, a sword-cutter (weapon), peštukas’, even “shame”; iš got. trees ‘Low’ orbs ‘landed’. This interpretation can be understood as follows: lit. The castle was built ne only in iš stone. of the word meaning “such a sword; kirtėjas, kirtikas’, even "shame", but ir iš got. hauns. Iš indeed, Cain is only associated with su lat. shame ‘shame’, o the word got is used to clarify the meaning of the latter. trees "low, demiitig"! *., In other words, here The word "Kaunas" is not iš derived from the Belarusian word ir meaning "shame" iš or "got". hauns, based o, on these words, was only an attempt to reconstruct the ikitoponymic meaning of the appellative from which iš the said toponym might have derived. Or again, explaining Klaipėda origin, Nikonov V. of many iš opinions has indicated only G. Gerulio. Be of this, the latter's opinion is also conveyed ne quite accurately: according to G. A good name Klaipėda is derived from some real or generic word iš klaipėda? *, so do not say that the second component of the toponym Klaipėda is pėda ka iš ‘territory’. In addition to the more general observations, the origin of some place names is interpreted too impartially. "A short dictionary of toponyms", no doubt, is intended for both specialists and the broad masses of readers, so it should be not be only an objective ne provider of knowledge, but a guide. ne ir It is good when the reader finds out ir the author's ir opinion, the real situation. However, there are cases where the dictionary's no opinion is not visible, the reader o is left to choose which '* For Origin of Nemunas K. Booga has published two hypotheses; For the first, see jų K. Būga, Selected Writings, I, Vilnius, 1958, p. 466; for the second — there, II, Vilnius, 1959, p. 214,280— 284; III, Vilnius, Lithuania 1961, p. 534, 875. V. Nikonov in his dictionary refers only to the first K. The Bougainvillean Hypothesis. iš M. H. Measxees, op. cit., p. 71. 14 G. Studerus, op. cit., p. 350—356. 18 Zr. ,,Archive Philologicum", I, p. 208; E. Fraenkel, Litauisches etymologisches Wort- "Srbuch, the hypothesis 1, p. 263. 200 iš of the mentioned ar opinions is more correct. But how many readers will be able to do it without mistake? For example, in explaining The origin of the LithuaniV. an name, Nikonov po sets out one another J. Otrembskium ir K. Kuzavinis'® opinions, but - does not say which one is more jų acceptable, although in this case it should be clear to the toponymy specialist that "last word" is K. Interpretation of Kuzavin. Be that, in one other instance, when it is difficult to decide which of the many iš interpretations to give preference, the author uses the word ‘majority’ (,,GoJikmuncerBo“). That word (the “majority”) sometimes goes a peculiar argument, although the abundance of supporters of one opinion does not mean that because of to ir the very opinion is the most reliable. For example, when speaking about European river name The origin of the Danube, it is said that "most scholars are Celtic" už The origin of the Danube. However, despite this "majority", the most acceptable at the moment is V. Georgiev's hypothesis, according to which Danutė (low part of the ir mid-river) is a Dacian-Mizian name, because it successfully explains the origin of the name itself, the ji relationship between ir ir *Danubi(s) ir of Romania Dundre and Slavic Dunajo ir "Danube". Further, we would like to draw attention to į specific inaccuracies that occur in Baltic place names (total in dictionajų ry iš The former Baltic ir territories of Lithuania and Latvia are given in explanations. 45) Cna (Ilna). The eighth number marked Cna is localized as follows: Right tributary of the Uša In Lithuania. However, neither Ear, nei Cna per Lithuania is losing. This is a clear localization flaw. The walls of Kūršiai. This placename is spelled Kypexruii 3anue ir next to given option Kypuickui sanus. The placename iš derives from ethnonym Kyp. Form KypcKuū 3aaus, which is used quite often in Russian writings recently, is incorrect. The name of the village is of ethnonymic origin. — iš balts tribe name kuršiai (lat. kursi®). Therefore, the Russian The name of the Curonian Lagoon can only be: Kypuckui samus. It is also known in Russian as "Кузнецов". Ši sex, apparently, taken from iš old German or Latin documents, where the Kurians are called Cori, Curones, Kuren, Curi pan. ir However, the document be notations of the consonant š (or s) po r are of secondary origin, taken iš from the Lviv Curonian name *corn(s) or *dog(s)*. The Livonian name in turn is derived from the older iš gender *kurha<kurša(s)*?. Be of this, it is not fitting to say that up to 1946 m. The Curonian Spit was called only ,,Kypuw-eah (nem.)“, because a ir year ago the 1946 Lithuanian name was commonly used Mary's Church. Kurzeme. Ethnologiš ue Xylocopa. As has already been said above, ethnonym is ne KYpol, o Kypiuu (lit. 100, lat. course). Latvia. The origins of the ethnic group are unclear. However, the į dictionary includes many even less clear place names than Latvia, ir hypotheses on origin jų (for example, Moscow, Nemunas, ir Volga, etc.). Therefore, in this case it was necessary to indicate a fairly reliable K. "The Origin of the Hydronym Latvia" (PDF). '* K. The name of Kuzavičius is written very distorted: K. Kuraviniy. 7 - Three. 'eoprues, Aynat, Jynas, Dunare, „Studia linguistica in honorem Thaddaei Teaching Splawinski“, Warsaw, 1963, p. 87 tt. 18 K. 10, op. cit., III, p. 246. 19 K. 10, op. cit., 1II, p. 249. * Widely these forms are explained by K. Būga — op. cit., III, p. 249 tt. #1 K. 10, op. cit., III, p. 530, 629. 201 Lyda. The name of the town is considered to come from the common word, meaning,,harvesting, cutting"*- ?. In fact, the name of the city comes from the name of the river Lyda®. It has already been mentioned that, explaining the origin of this name, only one of the two etymologies of K. Būga is indicated, namely the first, which K. Būga himself has rejected- **. This is particularly disturbing, because some other researchers forget the second opinion of K. Buga**, according to which Nemunas is to be divided into the root nem (e.g. némuogė, nem-uné, Latin nemus, birZtva, alkas, miškelis, Greek vėuos „pasture, forest” etc.**) and the suffix -unas (e.g. some Žemaičių Nemunas). Riga. The name of the city is derived not simply from the appellative (lit. ringē), but from the name of the river *Riga (<*Ringa), cf. documents of 1297, 1304, where it is written: Riga flumen?*". ; Šiauliai. V. Nikonov repeats the unfounded hypothesis of R. Šmitlein about the origin of the city name Šiauliai from the Germanic personal name Saul or Savilis. The falsehood of R. Schmitlein's opinion has already been pointed out in the press®. Šiauliai is a place name of relatively clear origin: it is derived from the plural of the personal name Šiaulys (or the adjective Siauljs). The Baltic origin of this place name has been explained extensively several times by K. Būga? ?, but neither R. Šmitlein nor V. Nikonov relies on these interpretations. Sale. The author gives several explanations of the origin of this name, but perhaps the most important —K. The latter is not mentioned. In the beginning, the name of the river was associated with the name of the river. vefo-„,big- “*?, later gave up this opinion and Venta derived from the Baltic root vent-„bend: bend“, cf. vénteris®. Vilnius. It is correctly considered to be a place name of hydronymic origin, but it probably does not come from the name of the river Vilija (Neris), as stated in the dictionary, but from Vilnia (left tributary of the Neris). The older (or neighbouring) gender of the city name Vilnius, apparently, was feminine: Vilnia. This is how some residents of Panevėžys, Šeduva, Ukmergė, Gervėčiai- *?, Zietela®® still call Vilnius today. ? * Perhaps, it is meant lit. accompanied by “cut off a place in the forest, harvesting, cutting down; cultivated field in the place of the cut-off forest’. | * K. Būga, op. cit., III, pp. 492, 787. 74 K. Būga, op. cit., III, p. 875. #5 For example, M. Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Worterbuch, II, Heidelberg, 1955, p. 21 l. * K. Būga, op. cit., II, p. 280—284; III, p. 534, 875. 27 See. A. Bielenstein, The Borders of the Latvian Tribe and the Latvian Language in the Present and in the 13th Century. Century. St. Petersburg, 1892, p. 37, 38. In addition to A. Bylenštein, K. Būga also believed that the name of the city Riga derived from the name of the river (see K. Būga, op. cit., III, p. 515). 28 See A. Vanagas. On the etymologies of some Lithuanian town names,,,- Lietuviy kalbotyros klausimai“, VI, Vilnius, 1963, p. 333. ? ** K. Būga, op. cit., II, pp. 98, 349, 588. % K. Būga, op. cit., I, pp. 490, 519 et seq. ; III, p. 546. 31 K, Būga, op. cit., III, pp. 243, 244, # See A. Baabuukonuc, Ha3BaHHA JIMTOBCKHX HACEJEHHBIX NYHKTOB, 06pa30BaHHbie OT KHa3BaHHl pex H osep,, Lingua Posnaniensis“, VII, p. 241. ** A, Vidugiris, The Lithuanian dialect of Zietela (Ph.D. dissertation, typography), Vilnius, 1961, p. 469, 471. 202