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Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran
Toimituksia 230
Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne
230
Eino Koponen
Eteläviron murteen sanaston alkuperä:
Itämerensuomalaista etymologiaa
The Origin of Vocabulary in the South
Estonian Dialect. Finnic Etymology
The purpose of this research is to
provide an etymological inventory of the vocabulary
characteristic of the South Estonian dialect and to shed light
on the historical dialectological status of this Finnic
dialect. At the same time thought is given to basic issues of
Finnic etymology and word formation, especially the appearance
of new indigenous (basic) word stems.
The vocabulary collection of Estonian
dialects at the Estonian Language Institute has provided the
basic material for this study. Approximately 4.5 % of the
total basic computerized material was sifted out to create the
data base of 3,295 keywords used in this study. This data base
omits vocabulary elements particular to North Estonian or with
extremely limited distribution. With the aid of the formula
developed for this sifting it is possible to calculate the
geographical distribution of each keyword.
Subsequently, those words that are
derivatives or variants (either phonetically or semantically)
of Common Estonian were omitted. As a result of this
morphological analysis, a group of 567 basic word stems with a
Southern Estonian orientation was established. This study is
primarly concerned with the etymological analysis of these 567
basic word stems. The generation and
mutual relationships of indigenous basic word stems are
illustrated with the help of descriptive-onomatopoetic roots
and root series.
Of the basic word stems analyzed, 269 (approx.
47 %) have no equivalents in any other Finnic language. Basic
word stems that have equivalents in other Finnic languages are
seen as language-by-language areals in the light of theories
dealing with the birth of the modern Finnic languages and
their historical relationships. This work by itself can in no
way verify or refute any of these theories. |
