LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, III

LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA

ON THE ORIGIN OF SOME PLACE NAMES

V. GRINAVECKIS

Dievytis. In the Šilalė district there is a lake called Dývytis in the local dialect (the Samogitian dūnininkai dialect). A hill and a forest located by the lake bear the same name. The village by the lake is called Pãdyvytis, or Pãdyvytis, in the dialect. A collective farm established in 1940 was named after it. The place mentioned (the lake, hill, and forest) is also described in various works of fiction; for example, Maironis composed a ballad entitled Dyvitis¹. Vienuolis mentions this place in “Tales and Legends”², among other works.

In standard language, this place name is written in many different ways: the sign at the collective farm now reads Padevytis, Maironis’s ballad is called Dyvitis, and the “Lithuanian Spelling Dictionary” gives Dievietis³. How should this place name actually be pronounced and written in standard language? As mentioned, the local Samogitians pronounce it Dývytis. In that Samogitian (dūnininkai) dialect, the long y is pronounced where standard language has the diphthong ie, for example: dýna, pýva, týsus (day, meadow, straight). Thus, in the place name Dyvytis, the first y undoubtedly corresponds to the standard-language diphthong ie; therefore, in standard language the word should be pronounced and written Dievytis (with a falling-rising accent, not a rising-falling one, as it is given in some linguistic works⁴). The formation of this place name is most likely as follows: diev- is the root, related to the word dievas ‘god’, while -ytis is a suffix. Since in the local Samogitian dialect the standard-language long vowel y and diphthong ie are pronounced identically—as y—doubts may arise about the second part of this place name. Could the form here be not the suffix -ytis, but -ietis⁵? However, the suffix -ietis cannot occur here, since the Samogitians do not have this suffix at all; moreover, they sometimes use the suffix -ytis in place of -ietis, for example: vókytis ‘German’, šiaulýtis ‘a person from Šiauliai’ (Akmenė). More place names with the suffix -ytis are known in Samogitia, for example: Barsvýčiai ‘a village in the Rietavas district’, Laisvýtis ‘a river in the Raseiniai district’. Place names with the suffix -ytis also occur elsewhere in Lithuania, for example: Žalvytis ‘a lake in the Kapsukas district’, Viršýtis ‘a river in the Linkuva district’, Vižtyris ‘a lake in the Kybartai district’. Place names with the suffix -ietis also occur, for example: Kalniėčiai ‘a village in the Anykščiai district’, Gilbietis ‘a village in the Lazdijai district’.

¹ Maironis, Rinktiniai raštai, 1, 209, Vilnius, 1956.

² A. Vienuolis, Padavimai ir legendos, 45, Vilnius, 1947.

³ Lietuvių kalbos rašybos žodynas, 391, Kaunas, 1948.

⁴ P. Skardžius, Lietuvių kalbos žodžių daryba (toliau Lkžd), 360, Vilnius, 1943; Lietuvių kalbos rašybos žodynas, 391, Kaunas, 1948.

⁵ Lkžd, 360.

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One point that seems to contradict the view that the place name Dievytis contains the suffix -ytis is the location of its stress on the first syllable, since words with the suffix -ytis are now stressed on the suffix. If the word dievas ‘god’ had root stress, one might suppose that an ancient stress pattern had been preserved here (cf. vókytis), but that cannot be the case, since the word in question has ending stress (it now belongs to accentuation class four). Apparently, the stress of this place name is recent, since stress differences from common nouns of the same type often occur in proper names, especially place names and surnames. That this could be so is also indicated by another word of analogous formation, Deivelaitis ‘surname’; cf. also Pamedytis ‘surname’.

Finally, the Žemaitian dialect of the Rietavas area, which also knows this place, most clearly shows how this place name should be transposed into the literary language. Rietavas speakers pronounce the literary-language diphthong ie as the diphthong ei, e.g., deinà ‘day’, while they pronounce the literary-language vowel y just as it is pronounced in the literary language, e.g., yla. They pronounce the place name in question Dievytis. Thus the Rietavas Žemaitian dialect most clearly shows that this place name should be written and pronounced Dievytis in the literary language.

Another argument in favor of the correctness of this place name’s formation is that the ancient Prussians also had place names formed in the same way. This is shown by the Prussian place names, albeit recorded in distorted forms, Dewitte, Dewythen⁶.

There are also other place names with the root diev- in the Lithuanian-speaking area, e.g., Diẽminas ‘a hill in Jaškūnai village, Vỹjos district, BTSR’ (from *Dievminas, with the labial v lost before the labial m through dissimilation; cf. diemedis < diovmedis, Šeimena < Šeivmena⁷), Deimenà ‘a river in the Kaliningrad region’ (from *Deivmena).

In the Šilalė Žemaitian dialect, the suffix -ytis has a diminutive, derogatory meaning, e.g., šunỹtis ‘a puny, mangy little dog’, kačiū̃tis ‘a puny, scruffy kitten’, mažỹtis ‘small, poor’, ežerỹtis ‘a small, none-too-good lake’. The place name Dievytis is most likely connected with ancient Lithuanian mythology: apparently, the lake was regarded as a minor or inferior god. This seems to be indicated by the great many legends and tales that have survived to this day and are also mentioned by Maironis in his ballad. The connection of the places mentioned with ancient Lithuanian religion is also indicated by another place name, Šventupis ‘a stream flowing into Lake Dievytis’⁸.

Keklys. The name of the old northwestern Žemaitian region is recorded in the sources in two forms: Ceclis or Cecklis⁹. It remains unclear whether the inhabitants pronounced the first sound in their region’s name as c or k. The spelling with c tells us almost nothing, since in those same sources c is also used in cases where only k could have been pronounced, e.g., Curtine ‘Kartena’, Curonia¹⁰ ‘Kursas’. The use of c to represent the sound k allows us to suppose that the first sound of the region’s name may have been pronounced k, since c historically

⁶ G. Gerullis, Die altpreussischen Ortsnamen (hereafter ON), 28, Leipzig, 1922.

⁷ Lkžd, 233.

⁸ The place name Lampėdis ‘a lake in Kaunas district’ (from *Laumpėdis; a lake formed in the footprint of a laumė [mythical being]) is probably also connected with ancient Lithuanian mythology. For ease of pronunciation, its three-vowel sequence am will have been shortened; cf. sukvalt ~ sukvailti, smalgalis ~ smailgalis; see E. Grinaveckienė, Mituvos upyno tarmės fonetika. — Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai, 1, 147, Vilnius, 1957.

⁹ Dr. A. Bielenstein, Die Grenzen des lettischen Volksstammes und der lettischen Sprache in der Gegenwart und im 13. Jahrhundert, 234, Peterburg, 1892.

¹⁰ K. Būga, Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, 1, XCI, Kaunas, 1924.

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In sources, it is marked tz, e.g.: Letzime, Rutzowe¹¹. This view is also supported by place names and common words still in use in Lithuania today: in the Jiesia basin there is a river called Keklys, whose name may be identical to that of the aforementioned region. Besides the Kėklys, another river in the same Jiesia basin is called Keklaitis. Although A. Salys states that the etymology of Kėklys is unclear¹², it seems that this word is formed from the root kek- (cf. kekė ‘cluster’) and the suffix -lja-; compare also kėkulas ‘clot, lump’: kėkė + -ulas; kekta ‘group, crowd, cluster’; kėkutas ‘group, crowd’; keketė ‘group, crowd, cluster’¹³; kekinda ‘group, crowd’¹⁴. Kėkė has words with the same root in other Indo-European languages as well: Latvian kekars ‘bush’; cekuls ‘tuft’; cekūna ‘topknot’; Prussian kechrs ‘pea’; Russian xoxon ‘bush, topknot’¹⁵. Since all the Indo-European examples available to us that are related to kėkė have a collective meaning, one may suppose that the word Keklys, too, had a collective meaning; most likely it denoted a group that in a primitive community could have corresponded to a kin group. Later, when this kin group—the Keklys—began to lead a settled life, its name must have persisted¹⁶—the name came to designate the territory where the tribe or kin group bearing it settled. The Curonians, who bordered the Keklys region or lived in its northwestern part, may also have pronounced the place name with c at the beginning, Ceklis, just as Latvians now pronounce Lithuanian place names according to their own phonetic rules, e.g.: Sventāja ‘Šventoji’, Laukzeme ‘Laukžemė’ (Digu village, Liepāja District); Sakine ‘Šakyna’, Zagare ‘Žagarė’.

We also find more place names and surnames with the root kek-: Kekiai ‘part of Pajuodupis village, Klaipėda District’, Kekys ‘surname, Skuodas District’, Kekinė ‘forest, Seda District’, Kėkiškės ‘hill, Šilalė District’, Kėkulės ‘field, Skaudvilė District’, Kekirtė ‘marsh, Ramygala District’, Kekersai (singular genitive Kekėrsus) ‘village, Klaipėda District’¹⁷; Kekirtinių hill (Dusetos District), Kekalaiškiai village (Klaipėda District).

In exactly the same way, names of other Baltic lands are found in present-day place names, e.g.: Bārta ‘name of a Prussian land’: Bārtuva ‘river name’, Bārtupė ‘river in Kapsukas District’; Bārtas ‘personal name’; Nōtanga ‘name of a Prussian land’: Notā (3) ‘river in Kretinga District’, Nōtė (2) and Nōtija ‘river in Kretinga District’, Nōtera ‘river in Ukmergė District’; Pamedė ‘name of a Prussian land’: Pomiedzia¹⁸ ‘village’; Skalvà ‘name of a land of the western Lithuanians’: Skalvys ‘river (Pakruojis District)’¹⁹, wojtowstwo skolowienskie (the Skalvians’ district)¹⁸; Skalvė, Paskalviai ‘places between Ragnit and Tilsit’¹⁹. Sūduva: Sūduonia ‘river in Kapsukas District’; Vārmė ‘name of a Prussian land’: Vārmė ‘river in Užventis District’, Varmikė ‘river in Užventis District’; Kniūva ‘ancient Samogitian region’: Kniūoja ‘river in Užventis District’.

¹¹ K. Būga, op. cit., p. CXXV.

¹² A. Salys, Die žemaitischen Mundarten, 1, 14, Kaunas, 1930.

¹³ Lkžd, 184.

¹⁴ Lkžd, 102.

¹⁵ Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch von Prof. Dr. Ernst Fraenkel, Lief. 3, 234–235, Heidelberg.

¹⁶ Cases in which a tribe’s name becomes the name of a region are known from history; for example, the history of the name Rus’ is explained in this way. See History of the USSR, 1, 62, Vilnius, 1959.

¹⁷ Lkžd, 314.

¹⁸ Disputes of Lithuanian Peasants and Townspeople with Estate Owners, 1, 81, Vilnius, 1959; Sources of the History of the Lithuanian SSR, 1, 198, Vilnius, 1955.

¹⁹ ON, 159.

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ON THE ORIGIN OF SOME TOPONYMS

В. З. ГРИНАВЕЦКИС

Abstract

The name of the lake Dievytis (Šilalė District) derives from the word dievas “god” with the suffix -ytja-; cf. Deimenė (a river name) < *Deivmena, Dieminas (a hill in the Byelorussian SSR, Grodno Region, Iwye District, in the village of Yaskovichi — Jaskūnai).

The ancient name of the northwestern region of the Samogitian land, Cecklis (= Keklys), is similar to the name of the river Keklys (a tributary of the river Jiesia—Jiesia), which has the root kek- (kekė, kek-utas, kek-ulas, kek-ta, and others) and the suffix -ja-.