Finnicisms in the Place-Names of Ērģeme Parish (Latvia)
Finnicisms in the Place-Names of Ērģeme Parish (Latvia)

Summary/Abstract: Ērģeme Parish covers an area where, as late as the mid-Iron Age most of the inhabitants were Finnic people. Today the northern boundary of the parish coincides with a part of the Latvian-Estonian border. The history of the area has left Finnic traces in many local names of inhabited places. This is the reason for the very name Ērģeme (Ermis) given to a castle and manor, which today is the name of a parish. This is also the case for the following manor house names: Kārķi (Karkell), Pedele (Pedeln), Turna (Turnenhof). It has been hypothesized that the name Omuļi (Homeln) has Finnic parallels. Comparison of the names of houses in Ērģeme Parish recorded in the 17th-19th centuries shows few parallels with names used in the Estonian language.

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