Baltiskie vietvārdu elementi

Abstract

After the differentiation of the Indo-European languages, Baltic languages continued to exist side by side and develop their common geographical lexis. In the Baltic common lexis, mainly hyponyms or specific object names have formed, mostly words of the Eastern Baltic (i. e. Latvian and Lithuanian) origin. The paper deals with the most widespread generic terms of Baltic – mostly Curonian or Lithuanian – origin in Latvian toponymy: kalva ‘hillock’, danga ‘uneven place’, banda ‘field given by an owner to a servant’, lanka ‘wet meadow’, dzira ‘forest’, cērps ‘mound’, krants ‘shore, bank’, lincis ‘bay’, puosums ‘clearance’, sāts ‘meadow; populated place’, viņģis ‘bay’, vanga ‘flood-land’. In most cases, they have very branched polysemy, for example, danga 1) ‘beaten track’, 2) ‘uneven place’, 3) ‘piece of land which is surrounded by swamp or water from three sides’, 4) ‘entry of a building or forest’, 5) ‘corner’, 6) ‘bank’, 7) ‘pot on the road’. It seems that the generic terms of Curonian origin have broadened their meaning in Latvian much more than Lithuanianisms. The analysis of the most widespread generic elements of Baltic origin shows that specific toponymic system has been developed in the Western part of Latvia. Mostly borrowings from Curonian (lanka, cērps, krants, lincis, puosums, sāts) and Lithuanian (kalva, danga, viņģis) languages make these differences more distinct. The generic element vanga that until now has been considered a Curonianism, probably is an appellative of Finno-Ugric origin.