Table Of ContentCONTACTS BETWEEN THE BALTIC
AND FINNIC LANGUAGES
Uralica7
Helsingiensia
Contacts between the Baltic
and Finnic languages
EDITED BY
SANTERI JUNTTILA
HELSINKI 2015
Contents
Santeri Junttila (ed.):
Contacts between the Baltic and Finnic languages.
Uralica Helsingiensia 7.
Santeri Junttila
Layout, cover Katriina Ketola, Anna Kurvinen Introduction 6
Translations of summaries Simonas Noreikis, Anete Kona, Santeri Junttila
Language editor: Uldis Balodis Santeri Junttila
Proto-Finnic loanwords in the Baltic languages?
ISBN 978-952-5667-67-7 An old hypothesis revisited 12
ISSN 1797-3945 Orders • Tilaukset
Petri Kallio
Tiedekirja <www.tiedekirja.fi>
Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy The Baltic and Finnic Names of the River Gauja 38
Snellmaninkatu 13 <[email protected]>
Sastamala 2015
FI-00170 Helsinki Laimute Balode
Criteria for Identifying Possible Finnicisms
in Latvian Toponymy 49
Uralica Helsingiensia
Pauls Balodis
Uralica Helsingiensia is a series published jointly by the University of Helsinki Finno-Ugric Surnames of Finnic Origin in Latvia 74
Language Section and the Finno-Ugrian Society. It features monographs and thematic col-
lections of articles with a research focus on Uralic languages, and it also covers the linguistic Riho Grünthal
and cultural aspects of Estonian, Hungarian and Saami studies at the University of Helsinki.
Livonian at the crossroads of language contacts 97
The series has a peer review system, i.e. the manuscripts of all articles and monographs
submitted for publication will be refereed by two anonymous reviewers before binding
Jan Henrik Holst
decisions are made concerning the publication of the material.
On the theory of a Uralic substratum in Baltic 151
Uralica Helsingiensia on Helsingin yliopiston suomalais-ugrilaiset kielet ja kulttuurit -oppi-
aineryhmän yhdessä Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran kanssa julkaisema sarja, jossa ilmestyy
Marja Leinonen
monografioita ja temaattisia artikkelikokoelmia. Niiden aihepiiri liittyy uralilaisten kielten tut-
kimukseen ja kattaa myös Helsingin yliopistossa tehtävän Viron kielen ja kulttuurin, Unkarin Lithuanian partitive genitive and Finnish partitive
kielen ja kulttuurin sekä saamentutkimuksen. in existential sentences 174
Sarjassa noudatetaan refereekäytäntöä, eli julkaistavaksi esitettävien tutkimusten
käsikirjoitus annetaan kahden nimettömän asiantuntijan arvioitavaksi ennen kuin lopullinen Maija Tervola
julkaisupäätös tehdään.
Comparing object case alternation in Finnish and Lithuanian 205
Publishers • Julkaisijat
University of Helsinki: Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies • Merlijn De Smit
Helsingin yliopisto: Suomen kielen, suomalais-ugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja Agented participles in Baltic and Finnic 246
kirjallisuuksien laitos
Finno-Ugrian Society • Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura Outi Duvallon & Hélène de Penanros
Editors • Päätoimittajat Schematic Form as a theoretical tool for the analysis
Ulla-Maija Forsberg, Riho Grünthal
of prepositions, verbal prefixes and cases in Finnish and
Editorial board • Toimitusneuvosto
in Lithuanian 272
Márta Csepregi, Cornelius Hasselblatt, Magdolna Kovács, Johanna Laakso, Helle Mets-
lang, Matti Miestamo, Irma Mullonen, Karl Paju salu, Janne Saari kivi, Anneli Sarhimaa,
Elena Skribnik
<www.sgr.fi/uh>
List of Contributors 300
The publications are indexed in ARTO data base with the index Urbis.
Julkaisut luetteloidaan ja indeksoidaan ARTO-tietokantaan tunnuksella Urbis.
INTRODUCTION
SANTERI JUNT TILA Proto-Indo-European period. The oldest Finnic loanword strata were
Helsinki actively studied by the generations following Thomsen, but unlike his-
torical linguistics in more general terms, no breakthrough was made
during the Neogrammarian era.
The first significant methodological innovation in linguistics af-
Introduction
ter the Neogrammarian method was the introduction of phonemics
and morphophonology by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, whose ideas
were developed further by the Prague school between the World Wars.
However, these structuralist ideas did not influence the research of
Do we know anything Thomsen did not? Finnic loanwords before 1970. This delay may be due to the lack of
interest in diachronic studies by the pioneers of structuralism. Finally,
Systematic study of early language contacts between the Baltic and when the late Professor of Germanic philology Jorma Koivulehto in-
Finnic languages was introduced by the famous Danish linguist Vil- troduced these ideas they caused a revolution in the research of pre-
helm Thomsen in 1869. He was the first scholar of Finno-Ugrian historic language contacts of the Finnic languages. Koivulehto proved
languages to reconstruct a chronological succession of language con- convincingly that the contacts between the Finnic and Germanic lan-
tacts based on the phonetic properties and distribution of borrowings. guages began at least as early as the Finnic-Baltic ones, and both of
Thomsen’s novel method applied the Neogrammarian requirement and them were preceded by an even older layer, a West Indo-European
relied exclusively on regular sound correspondences. Looking back at stratum of borrowings to early Proto-Finnic or, alternatively, Western
his scholarly contribution, he both initiated the systematic research of Proto-Finno-Ugrian.
loanword layers in Finnic and introduced the diachronic dimension to Many of Thomsen’s main conclusions are still valid. Compared
Finno-Ugrian studies in general. to that which was available during his era, modern linguists have much
Thomsen pointed out that there are two different layers of Baltic larger collections of lexical material of not only Finnic and Baltic but
loanwords in the Finnic languages. On one hand, there are numerous especially of the Sámi, Mordvin, and Mari languages at their disposal.
Latvian borrowings in Livonian resulting from several centuries of Still, the amount of plausible Baltic etymologies in Proto-Finnic has
coexistence. On the other hand, there is a prehistoric Baltic stratum not even doubled since 1890. Thomsen’s argument that there are no
covering the Finnic branch as a whole. This earlier layer testifies to a Proto-Finnic traces in the Baltic lexicon has an even more permanent
prehistoric change in the geographical distribution of Finnic after this value, since, so far, no such traces have been plausibly demonstrated;
Baltic contact. Thomsen assumed in his magnum opus (1890) that the although some have been proposed by several scholars. These pro-
contact between the Finnic and Baltic languages took place before posals are examined in more detail in Santeri Junttila’s paper Proto-
contact between Finnic and Germanic occurred but later than the con- Finnic loanwords in the Baltic languages? An old hypothesis revisited.
tacts between the Indo-Aryan and Finno-Ugrian languages. The lack of early Finnic loanwords in Proto-Baltic is not a methdologi-
After Thomsen, researchers have gradually refined the overall cally biased statement, because the phonological structure of the Baltic
understanding of Baltic loanwords. Today we know that borrowings borrowings in Finnic reveal a source language other than Lithuanian,
from Latvian are wide-spread in Estonian and South Estonian as well, Latvian, or Proto-Baltic. This prehistoric language with its possible
although in much smaller quantities than in Livonian. Furthermore, as Finnic borrowings seems to have disappeared without descendants.
has been recently argued, the older stratum has a considerably longer A Baltic origin has been proposed for several place names in
history than Thomsen assumed and extends back to the Pre-Baltic the Finnic-speaking area since Eemil Aukusti Tunkelo did so in 1899.
Contacts between the Baltic and Finnic languages. 6–11. 7
Uralica Helsingiensia 7. Helsinki 2015.
SANTERI JUNTTILA INTRODUCTION
However, none of these etymologies is convincing, with just one ex- shared syntactic phenomena were pointed out by Jooseppi Julius Mik-
ception. The river name Koiva, Latvian Gauja, seems to belong to the kola (1930). Both of them assumed a Finnic origin for the Baltic traits,
ancient Baltic loanword layer of Finnic as proposed by Petri Kallio whereas Lauri Posti (1953) suggested Baltic and Germanic superstrate
under the title The Baltic and Finnic names of the River Gauja. This influence behind the main phonological changes in Proto-Finnic. How-
etymology is a remarkable breakthrough, because Gauja is situated at ever, since then assumptions of Finnic substrate phenomena in Baltic
the old frontier zone between the Finnic and Baltic areas, flowing on have been at least as popular as vice versa. Jan Henrik Holst exam-
both sides of the present border of Estonia and Latvia. ines some of the most frequently proposed Finnic substrate features in
Toponymic borrowings in the opposite direction have been quite Baltic phonology, morphology, and syntax. His paper On the theory
actively studied during the last decades. The Finnic place names in of a Uralic substratum in Baltic scrutinizes ten assumed substrate
northern and central Latvia are of a relatively recent origin, though features proposed by Witold Mańczak (1990) who has defended the
mostly somewhat older than the major part of Latvian loanwords in hypothesis of Finnic influence behind the split of Proto-Balto-Slavic
Livonian. Consequently, they should be connected to the Southern into Baltic and Slavic. After Holst’s critical assessment, none of these
Finnic loanword layer in Latvian discovered by Thomsen. This topic features can be considered as convincing.
was later revisited by Valdis Zeps (1961). All hypotheses concerning During the last quarter of the 20th century, studies on seman-
early Finnic traces in the toponymy of Lithuania, East Prussia, and tic contact phenomena between the Baltic and Finnic languages have
Poland proposed by several Indo-Europeanists are extremely dubious. gained more popularity, perhaps even more than loanword studies.
Contemporary methods of place name studies have been developed Research into language typology based on extensive samples from
later than most of the studies of the subject. An updated review of the languages around the world have made it possible to critically meas-
material is needed. Considering this problem, Laimute Balode sug- ure the likeliness of contact influence versus coincidence as reasons
gests a set of systematic Criteria for identifying possible Finnicisms in behind several syntactic similarities between languages. In principle,
Latvian toponymy in her paper. it would be logical that there is Baltic syntactic influence in Finnic,
Anthroponymy is a field of study not yet much frequented in because an intensive language contact tends to affect more than just
research concerning Finnic-Baltic contacts. Pauls Balodis presents an one subsystem of a given language. “A language is much more likely
overview of Surnames of Finnic origin in Latvia. He shows that an- to have undergone either a whole range of contact-induced typologi-
throponymy can reveal interesting facts about ethnic contacts during cal changes in its various subsystems or none” (Thomason 2001: 5).
the latest centuries. Likewise, there is most likely Finnic syntactic influence in Latvian but
In Thomsen’s days, research into contact linguistics was exclu- not in Lithuanian.
sively concentrated on loanwords. This has changed rather slowly. Some of the most noticeable syntactic similarities between Baltic
Phonetic, morphological, and syntactic contact-induced phenomena and Finnic, especially between Lithuanian and Finnish, are seen in the
still are more difficult to identify in comparison with loanwords, and use of grammatical cases. Since Karl Kont (1963) these similarities
the results still emphasize the lexical data. This is well reflected in have been considered a probable result of Baltic influence on Finnic.
Riho Grünthal’s extensive article Livonian at the crossroads of lan- In the present volume, there are two contributions covering most as-
guage contacts. Grünthal presents all known contact strata of Livo- pects of this question. The case choice of the existential clause subject
nian, suggesting that only the very intensive Latvian language contact is studied in Marja Leinonen’s paper Lithuanian partitive genitive
has left noticeable traces beyond the lexical level. and Finnish partitive in existential sentences. Maija Tervola, in turn,
Morphological similarities between the Baltic and Finnic lan- discusses the direct object in her paper titled Comparing object case
guages were initially noticed by Antoine Meillet (1925: 100–01) and alternation in Finnish and Lithuanian. Both studies concentrate on
8 9
SANTERI JUNTTILA INTRODUCTION
comparisons between the contemporary Finnish and Lithuanian liter- References
ary languages, but manage to achieve diachronic results. Interestingly,
both subsystems are developing in opposite directions in Finnic and Koivulehto, Jorma 1983: Seit wann leben die Urfinnen im Ostseeraum? Zur
Lithuanian, which increases the differences between these languages. relativen und absoluten Chronologie der alten idg. Lehnwortschichten
im Ostseefinnischen. – Juha Janhunen, Anneli Peräniitty & Seppo
Merlijn De Smit discusses another intriguing syntactic issue,
Suhonen (eds), Symposium saeculare Societatis Fenno-Ugricae.
the use of participles in Agented participles in Baltic and Finnic.
MSFOu 185. Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne. 135–57.
He suggests that the Finnic passive participle suffix -ttU could arise
Kont, Karl 1963: Käändsõnaline object läänemeresoome keeltes. Keele ja
under the influence of the similar development of Baltic passive
kir janduse instituuti uurimused, 9. Tal linn: Eesti NSV Teaduste Aka-
participles characterized by the ending *-to-. He claims that the
deemia.
latter form increases the use of ttU-participles in agented passive
Mańczak, Witold 1990: La communauté balto-slave a-t-elle existé? – Bal-
constructions instead of -mA-participles and that this might be tistica 26: 29–38.
connected with a similar functional division between Baltic *-to- and Meillet, Antoine 1925: La méthode comparative en linguistique historique.
*-mo-participles. The obvious similarity of these suffixes has yielded Oslo: C. Aschehoug & Co.
a question of potential morphological borrowing between Baltic and Mikkola, Jooseppi Julius 1930 = Mikola, Joz: Vecākie sakari somu un baltu
Finnic. However, the resemblance is probably coincidental, as De valodu starpā. – Izglītības Ministrijas Mēnesraksts 1930. g. 436–46.
Smit concludes, though it may have stimulated the parallel semantic Posti, Lauri 1953–54: From Pre-Finnic to Late Proto-Finnic. – FUF 31: 1–91.
Thomason, Sarah 2001: Contact-induced typological change. – Martin
developments in both language families.
Haspelmath & Ekkehard König & Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang
The last paper of this volume is a theoretical contribution on
Raible (eds), Language typology and language universals / Sprach-
possibilities in comparing synchronically unrelated languages, such
typologie und sprachliche Universalien: An international handbook.
as Finnish and Lithuanian. Hélène de Penanros and Outi Duvallon
Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter. 1640–1648.
present Schematic Form as a theoretical tool for the analysis of prepo-
Thomsen, Vilhelm 1869: Den gotiske sprogklasses indflydelse på den fin-
sitions, verbal prefixes and cases in Finnish and in Lithuanian.
ske. En sproghistorisk undersøgelse. København: Den Gyldendalske
As an answer to the initial question we may sum up that we cer- boghandel.
tainly know more than Vilhelm Thomsen did. However, we also have Thomsen, Vilhelm 1890: Beröringer mellem de finske og de baltiske
more unsolved questions to bequeath to future researchers than he (litauisk-lettiske) sprog: en sproghistorisk undersøgelse. København:
ever had. Blanco Lunos.
Tunkelo, Eemil Aukusti 1899: Mistä nimi Häme? – Virittäjä 3: 97–107.
Zeps, Valdis 1962: Latvian and Finnic linguistic convergences. Indiana
University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 9. The Hague:
Mouton & Co.
10 11
PROTO-FINNIC LOANWORDS IN THE BALTIC LANGUAGES?...
SANTERI JUNT TILA Rask (1818: 153) was the first to suggest mutual borrowings in
Helsinki which Finnic gained more than Baltic. Ahlqvist wrote a large study
(1875) on cultural borrowings, which, according to him, the Finns had
received not only from the west and east but also from their southern
neighbours. Ahlqvist’s insight was new and was fiercely opposed by
Proto-Finnic loanwords
Anderson, who was convinced of the cultural superiority of the Finns.
in the Baltic languages? According to Anderson (1879: 172–73), the fine metallurgy of the
Finns was praised in the Nordic sagas and “Finnic Bjarmaland” traded
successfully with the Bolgars in the Volga region and the Orient, ac-
An old hypothesis revisited
cumulating enormous treasures, whilst the Lithuanians still paid their
taxes to the Russian princes in lime tree bast and bath whisks!
Anderson (1879 and 1893) preferred all explanations to that of
In the Finnic languages there are at least 200–300 Baltic loanwords, Baltic loans in Finnic. The alternatives included loanwords in the op-
which were borrowed already at the Proto-Finnic stage. There are Bal- posite direction, parallel borrowings from a third source, and Indo-
tic loanwords in Mordvin and perhaps Mari as well but these were Uralic kinship. These options were also mentioned by his contem-
probably borrowed separately. Even the Saamic languages have old porary Jaunius (manuscript published and commented by Karaliūnas
Baltic borrowings, though the amount is about ten times smaller in 1972) who, nevertheless, thought that borrowing from Baltic to Finnic
comparison with Finnic. Prehistoric contact resulted in a relatively in- explained most cases. Diefenbach (1880: 237) considered borrowing
tensive lexical influence from Baltic to Finnic whereas no unambigu- from Baltic as the correct explanation as well but left the door open for
ous Finnic or Uralic loans of similar age have been traced in the Baltic Indo-Uralic kinship. Donner (1884) and Veske (1890) proposed both
languages. Tens of etymologies evidencing early Uralic influence on directions of borrowing.
Baltic have been proposed, but their status is disputed. The aim of this Thomsen (1890: 68–71) concluded on the basis of extensive and
article is to critically scrutinize the proposed etymologies in order to thorough etymological research that he could not find any Finnic in-
promote the discussion regarding early contacts between Finnic and fluence in Baltic,except recent Livonian and Estonian loanwords in
Baltic. Latvian of which a small amount had spread to Samogitian. An exam-
ple of this kind of a recent loan is Samog. rijė ~ rejė ~ reja “Scheune”
(Thomsen 1890: 276). Thus, Thomsen explained all lexemes shared
The beginning of the research by Baltic and Finnic as borrowings from the former to the latter, if
their zone of distribution includes Lithuanian and Prussian.
Numerous lexical similarities between the Baltic and Finnic languages This may seem like circular reasoning, but it is not. As a Neo-
were shown long before there were any serious means to track their grammarian, Thomsen was able to identify the main sound changes of
origin. The first scholars to describe these connections tended to con- Finnic and Baltic and notice the recent phonetic shape of the Finnic
sider Baltic to be on the receiving end of this influence. Thunmann loans in Latvian and Samogitian. As an Indo-Europeanist, he knew the
(1772) believed the Baltic languages were a mixture of Slavic, Goth- wider background of most Baltic stems he came across. Moreover, he
ic, and Finnic. Watson (1822) and Köppen (1829) supported similar realized the fallacy of Donner’s (1874–88) and Budenz’s (1873–79)
views. earlier attempts to explain most Finnic words and derivations from
indigenous roots.
Contacts between the Baltic and Finnic languages. 12–37. 13
Uralica Helsingiensia 7. Helsinki 2015.
