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- Title
LÄÄNEMERESOOMLASTE KEELE- JA KULTUURIKONTAKTIDEST LAENSÕNADE LEVIKU PÕHJAL.
- Authors
Oja, Vilja
- Abstract
Two linguistic atlases - the Atlas Linguarum Fennicarum (ALFE) and the Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE), enable us to follow the post-formational contacts of all Finnic languages. The causes and trajectories of lexical innovation are, in most cases, to be found in extralinguistic factors. New words are usually adopted together with cultural innovations. Close contacts with several Indo-European languages are written into the geographical position of the Finnic languages: East-Slavic languages are spoken in the East, Baltic in the South, Germanic in the North and West. The centres and trajectories of linguistic innovations have a great deal to do with trade. During the Middle Ages the eastern centres of the Hanseatic transit trade between Russia and Western Europe were situated in Estonia and Livonia, and these also became centres of cultural and linguistic innovation. An important trade and communication centre of the Ladogan area was Korela, situated on the Karelian Isthmus. Many Scandinavian loanwords have travelled to Finnish across the Gulf of Bothnia, to spread on along the river Oulu, in some cases up to the southeastern dialects of Finnish. The historical wars waged by the big neighbouring powers of the Finnic territories have resulted in the division of the Finnic area into spheres of Western and Eastern influence. Finnish has acquired most of its Indo-European loanwords via Swedish, while for Estonian and Livonian the main source has been German or Low German. In Karelian and Vepsian we encounter Russian loans above all. The contact zone of East and West is revealed in many maps of ALE and ALFE, while south of the Gulf of Finland we find a relatively large number of Russian loans besides the German ones. The source language depends, of course, on the concept as well as on the time of borrowing. Comparison of linguistic maps and analysis of the areal distribution of words may often explain linguistic phenomena and help to specify the origin of words.
- Subjects
FINLAND; AREAL linguistics; LOANWORDS; LEXICON; FINNIC languages
- Publication
Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat, 2011, Vol 7, p129
- ISSN
1736-2563
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5128/ERYa7.08