BILINGUALISM IS AS THE TYPICAL PHENOMENON IN TOPONYMY OF RUSSIAN NORTH

Introduction

Bilingualism, phenomenon characteristic for regions with a mixed composition of population, is widespread everywhere on territories of Karelia. Research of bilingualism was conducted on the territory of Republic of Karelia: in North-Western Priladozhye, including islands of Valaam archipelago, in Karelian Pomorye and also on the Solovetsky archipelago islands, entering in the formation of Russian North region.

As I.E. Abramova marks, when the degree of prevalence and use of the second language takes up the criterion of selection, then differentiate individual (when two languages are owned by individuals), collective or mass bilingualism (when two languages are owned by all people or its part), and also regional and national types of bilingualism [1, P. 15]. B.A. Bulgarova, M.A. Bragina, N.V. Novoselova, E.A. Zolotykh’s study of contemporary achievements in the sphere of bilingualism deepens the understanding of such phenomena as diglossia and language interference. According to the authors, bilingualism (as a phenomenon) has a number of common and specific features depending on many social indexes [2, P. 391].

N.A. Sverdlova researches the formation of communicative competence in bilinguals in the process of acquiring professional knowledge. She paid particular attention to sociolinguistic competence, based on knowledge and understanding of the nationalcultural features of communication. In her opinion, in addition to the knowledge of the language system, a person has to develop two of the main types of speech activities, namely productive and receptive skills. Thus, communicative competence is a prerequisite for communication in all areas of bilingual activity [17, P. 122]. O.V. Nagel, I.G. Temnikova discuss the conditions ensuring language system stability and defining the laws of language interactions. They consider that close economic and cultural connections of Russia with territorial neighbours during all history of its existence defined the terms of contact of Russian with other languages, that abandoned imprints in language of each of parties of cooperation [11, P. 214].

Research actuality is related to the necessity of renewal of the historically folded layers of cultural landscape, containing such elements as toponyms. The aim of work is the determination of objects with double names. To the tasks of the research behave: study of objects on locality, exposure of toponyms from archival and other sources. In the article the double names of different objects are investigated: urbanonyms, hydronyms, landscape toponyms, microtoponyms. The research result is classification of the names of objects, their description, drafting of maps and card index of toponyms.

Research methods

For determination of objects with the double names the methods of supervision, collection of information, linguistic analysis, comparison, classification, mapping are used. Basis of work is made by the field materials, archival and other sources.

Research results are reflected partly in scientific publications, monographs: “Valaam: City of the Earth – City of Heaven” [8], “The Transfiguration of the Russian North” [10] and in maps [7]. The map “Valaam = Valamo = Valaam” of publishing house “Petropress” [9] is included in the “Cartographic chronicle of Russian Federation” [4, P. 8]. It has binominal objects: on the Finnish and Russian languages.

Discussion

The basic population of modern Karelia, descendants of the Baltic-Finnish and Slavic tribes, talks on Russian, Karelian, Ves and Finnish languages. And it is the main reason of appearance here objects with the double names. So, for example: the name of republic “Republic of Karelia” has the second Finnish name “Karjalan Tašavalta” (see Figure 1.) [16].

Figure 1 – Double names of Republic of Karelia [16]

As a result of the research four basic groups of objects with the double name are determined by the authors: urbanonyms, hydronyms, landscape toponyms, microtoponyms.

Urbanonyms. To this group behave the names of a few biggest towns of Republic of Karelia. The capital of Republic of Karelia is Petrozavodsk. It is spread out along the bank of Lake Onega. The city was founded in 1703 by tsar Peter the Great. It is well-known now as Petrozavodsk (“Petr” it is Peter, “zavod” it is “work”) and it has the second Finnish name “Petroskoi” (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Map of Republic of Karelia in Finnish [18, P. 23]

Karelia was in the past an Olonets province. From the 17^th century the town Olonets became the administrative center. It was originally a boundary fortress, then a large trade center with the Baltic-Finnish name: Aunus (Finnish name), Aunus (Karelian name).

There are a few versions which confirm the ancient origin of toponym Olonets. G. Kert, N. Mamontova consider that convincing is a hypothesis, which finds this word productive from Vepsen alanukse “low place, lowland”, through the chain of phonetic transitions: alanukse → alanus → aunus. The geographical location of Olonets testifies in behalf on this hypothesis [5, P. 71].

In our opinion, the name of city Olonets resulted from the name of the river Olonkа, that is situated on its riverside. “Ala” means the “lower” both in the Karelian and in Finnish languages, “alanko” is in translation from Finnish “low ground”. Maybe, the name of the river Alankojoki (Finnish joki is the “river”) was primary, word for word it is “The low ground river”. At borrowing by Russian, the second part of the name “joki” (“river”) is not used, there are also phonetic changes of “a” in “o”: Alanko → Olanka → Olonka.

The center of North-Western Priladozhye is the town Sortavala. It was founded on the bank of gulf of Lake Ladoga. However, we can see in many sources the second name of the town Serdobol. M. Fasmer explains the origin of toponym Serdobol from an adjective tender-hearted [15, P. 605]. N.Ja. Ozeretskovsky wrote, that the town Serdobol is named in Finnish language as Sordavala [12, P. 74].

It is known that there are two types of writing of the second name of town Sortavala: Serdobol and Serdovol. In opinion of E.A. Levashov, passing of toponym Serdovol to Serdobol happened in XVII^th century, when North Priladozhye entered in the formation of Sweden. He marks that name Serdovola (Serdovol) is written in the Swedish certificate of XVII^th century as Sordevalla [6, P. 75].

In our opinion, names Sortavala, Serdobol have the Karelian origin. Both names were adapted by Russian and Swedish languages and acquired modern writing and sounding. If to suppose that originally a toponym had forms Šortuavaal (Karelian language), Sorduavaal (Karelian language), Sortuavaal (Finnish language), that change it took place as follows: Šortuavaal → Sortuavaal → Sortuavala → Sortavala.

Maybe, Swedish adopted the Karelian toponym Sorduavaal as Serdovola: Sorduavaal → Sorduavala → Sordovala → Sordevalla → Serdovola. The Swedish toponym Serdovola was perceived, obviously, by Russian as Serdovol. In course of time the toponym Serdovol was substituted for Serdobol, the name is more clear for the Russian-language population of Priladozhye: Serdovola → Serdovol → Serdobol.

Hydronyms. This group includes water bodies: rivers, lakes with double names: Vodlozero (lake) − Vodlajärvi (Finnish language), Muezero (lake) – Mujejärvi (Finnish language), Kojtajoki (river) – Koitajoki (Finnish language), Suoyoki (river) − Suojoki (Finnish language). The largest reservoirs in Karelia are Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega.

Lake Ladoga is the largest freshwater lake in Europe, with an area of almost 18 thousand km² and a maximum depth of 233 m. It is known, that Ladoga is the name also of the river and the town. T.N. Jackson considers that first appeared ancient Finnish name Alode-jogi (joki) “lower river”, after a name of city Aldeigja, that was adopted by the Slavic population and regenerated through metathesis of ald → lad in into the ancient Russian Ladoga [3, PP. 77–79].

Our research has shown that the first may be a Karelian name of the lake Aaltokas (Karelian language aalto “wave”; aaltokas “wavy”). This name could be borrowed by the Slavic population as Laatokas. So Laatokas → Latokas → Latoka → Ladoka → Ladoga (metathesis aalt → laat). Thus at first, in our opinion, was the name of the lake, then names of the river and the town.

The hydronym Ladoga is also adapted by the Karelian language as Luadogu (cf. Ladoga → Ladogu → Luadogu). On Finnish maps of the 19^th-20^th centuries the lake is called Laatokka (see Figure 2). The appearance of hydronyms: Alda, Aldagas, Aldoga in the XIII century apparently connected with the beginning of the Swedish expansion on the Karelian Isthmus and in the Northern Priladozhye (Karelian language Aaltokas → Aldagas → Alda; Russian Ladoga → Aldoga). In various sources, Lake Ladoga is also called Nevo. So, in the “Tale of Ancient Rus” of the XII century, it is written that along Lovoti you can enter Ilmen, from the same lake the Volkhov flows out and flows into the Great Nevo Lake [13, P. 25].

Lake Onega is the second largest (after Lake Ladoga) interior body of water in Europe. The area of its surface is approximately 10 thousand km². The second name of the lake is Finnish Ääninen. As G. Kert and N. Mamontova note, the name may have come from the Baltic-Finnish änine “big, significant” [5, P. 74].

Landscape toponyms. To this group belong toponyms with the double names, characterizing the geographical objects of Russian North: mountains, rocks, capes, bays, islands, and other. For example: Onezhsky (cape) has the Finnish name Äänisniemi (Finnish niemi “cape”), Bear (mountain) – Finnish name Karhumäki (Finnish karhu “bear”, mäki “mountain”) (see Figure 2).

If we look at the map of Valaam (see Figure 3), we will see that many objects located on the islands of Valaam archipelago, have the names both on Russian and on Finnish languages: Blacksmith's (islands) − Sepänsaaret (Finnish seppä “blacksmith”, saari “island”), White-fish (island) − Siikasaari (Finnish siika “white-fish”, saari “island”), Turnip (bay) − (Finnish nauris “turnip”, lahti “bay”), Peter (cape) − Petrovskinniemi (Finnish Petr “Peter”, niemi “cape”), Deer (cape) − Poroniemi (Finnish poro “deer”, niemi “cape”).

Figure 3 – Map of Valaam with double names in Russian and Finnish languages [9]

On the map of the Solovki archipelago we see that some objects have the double names in Russian language: Deep – Long (lip), Island – Loon (lake), Lopskije – Lobskije (lakes) and other (see Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Map of the Solovki archipelago with double names in Russian language [14]

Microtoponyms. The modern names that the locals give to the objects of certain district are included in this group. They contain typical for an object description: size, soil, color: Small Isainskoje – Small Peat (lake), Large Isainskoje – Large Peat (lake) (Large Solovki island) (see Figure 4). The local population of Valaam even now names Resurrection skete, Gethsemane skete, All Saints skete in color: Red, Yellow, White (see Figure 5, 6).

Figure 5 – Valaam monastery. Gethsemane skete (Yellow). XXI century

Figure 6 – Valaam monastery. All Saints skete (White). XXI century

Conclusion

Research of bilingualism on the basis of study of toponyms showed that this phenomenon is widespread in different districts of Russian North and is met both in the names of cities, lakes and rivers and in the names of different geographical objects that can be united in the group of landscape toponyms.

Microtoponyms are mostly the second name of object, because created by the local population for more comfortable use, they characterize a size, color and other properties of object, therefore easier memorized and simpler for communication. They are sometimes a riddle for an outsider and little secret is well-known only to the locals, therefore, uniting them.

The double names of objects confirm the fact of the protracted existence of Baltic-Finnish and Russian cultures in the region of Russian North and, on the example of adaptation of the names, their cooperation and interaction.