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Marja Kallasmaa. What to Do with vere-Final Names? |
2007, nr. 6 |
The article summarizes the available research
experience on the Estonian vere-final place names and represents
the material on vere-final settlement names found in the
place name files of the Institute of the Estonian Language as
supplemented by the KNAB database. A short reference is made to
the available theories, concentrating on the issue of -vere
< pere and -vere < veere and basing
on the model structure K1Nom/Gen + K2Nom/Gen of Estonian toponyms.
The possibility is considered that the alleged assart term –
ve(e)r(e) – if the assumptions
of V. Pall and P. Ariste are true, of course – could once
have also occurred in place names as the initial component, having
by now become indistinguishable from the genitive form of veri
'blood', e.g. in Verevainu, Veresell villa (from
the historical Land Registry of Läänemaa), the supposed
term name *Veer from South-Estonia, and the former *Veerküla.
Although nowadays homonymy makes it hard to distinguish among
the possible different origins of the -vere component in
Estonian place names (veri, veer, -u 'slope',
veer, -e 'bank, brink' and the supposed veer
'deciduous forest, forested hill') the latter could still be considered
for older Vere-initial names. The differences can hardly
be ascertained without using indirect methods such as studying
the dialectal distribution of the relevant common names, areal
distribution of the toponyms in question, models of place name
structure, and internal system pressure. In addition, the possible
influence of Latvian and Russian dialects should not be overlooked.
Keywords: Estonian language, place
names, models of place name structure, the topoformant -vere,
homonymy.
Marja Kallasmaa (b. 1950), PhD, senior reseacher,
Institute of the Estonian Language, Department of the Estonian
dialects and cognate languages
marja@eki.ee
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