Vadja väliskohanimedest 1: Eesti, Soome Ja Venemaa
Votian exotoponyms 1: Estonia, Finland and Russia

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the toponymy used in the Votic language denoting 62 places within the borders of modern Estonia, Finland and Russia (except the historical Ingria). A total of 83 exotoponym attribute stems or elliptical names have been stored. Some of them are derived from the Finnic languages and some from the Russian language.The aim of the article is to present as many exotoponyms possible by Votic villages with variants and to analyze their characteristics comparatively. The research material consists of published Votic dictionaries and texts starting from the first half of the 19th century up to the beginning of this millennium, and three manuscript collections (EKI, ES and VE). Examples of Votic folk songs from literature are also cited.The Votic names denoting Estonia, Finland and Russia (Viro, Soomi, Venäi) are of Finnic origin. Places closer to the Votic area were mainly associated with economic activities, while those further away were associated with seafaring or deportation. Many place names have been stored from the Kattila (Russian: Kotly) and Jõgõperä (Krakolie) dialects, less from Kukkuzi (Kurovitsy) and in a few cases from the Kabrio (Koporie) dialect area.A total of 35 Votic toponym stems or elliptical names for 29 objects in Estonia have been registered. Most of them come from Northeast Estonia (Narva, Pakari, etc.), which, in the sense of ancient history, was a part of Votic area. In Estonia, there are considerably more Estonian or Votic names of different places registered than Russian names (a ratio of 2.5 : 1 in favor of the former). The Narva River is represented by the names Jugaa jõči and the Narvasuu jõči in only one folksong. Apart from them and Narva, the hydronym Naroova, mediated through the Russian language, was in use. Jõgõsuu, which denotes Narva-Jõesuu, is probably the ancient name in the Votic languages. Among Estonian place names, Hiitasaari ~ Iidamaa ʼHiiumaa’, Juuvõli ʼJoala’, Pakari ʼNarva-Jõesuu’ and Rakkavoori ʼRakvere’ stand out as curious. Pühtittsä ʼKuremäe’ is somewhat mysterious.Finland has been a relatively little-known country for Votians. A total of 15 Votic place names for 13 objects have been recorded. From there, mainly places along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland can be found (Olanti ʼÅland’, Elsinki ʼHelsinki’, Hamina, etc.). Of the 15 stored place name roots or elliptical names, only two are of Russian origin (a ratio of 6 to 1 in favor of Finnic toponyms), namely Fridrihsgami- ʼHamina’ and Finski zalif ʼGulf of Finland’.A total of 31 objects in Russia (except Ingria) are represented by Votic 33 toponyms. About a third of them are of Baltic origin (Moskov, Ouduva- ʼGdov’, Viipuri ʼVyborg’, etc.; ratio 1 : 3). Besides Moscow and Novgorod, the Votians were known by some names denoting the Karelian Isthmus, the western part of the Pskov region and other places (Koivisto, Novgoroda-, Vopskova ʼPskovʼ, etc.). The latter is based on the colloquial Russian name. Siberia and the Far East are only mentioned as a region. Russian toponyms imitate Russian pronunciation in varying degrees. When using Russian place names, occasional switching to the source language can be observed, especially recently.

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