Eesti liitsõnalised kalanimetused
Compound Estonian Names for Fishes

Summary/Abstract: The Estonian list of vernacular names for fishes includes nearly 2000 items. The present study is focused on compound names found in the lexical files of the dialect archives kept at the Institute of the Estonian Language. Presented are also names from some other languages. Notably, name-givers of different countries seem to have been motivated by similar principles. Those principles have enabled us to divide the names into six groups motivated, respectively, by: 1) the habitat of the fish, e.g. järvekurat 'miller's thumb, bullhead, lit. devil of the lake'; 2) the bottom of the waterbody (sandy, muddy, stony), e.g. mudanina 'brook lamprey, lit. mudnose'; kivikala 'loach; gudgeon; minnow; miller's thumb, bullhead; lit. stonefish'. (Stone is the favourite first component in the compound Estonian dialect names for fishes.) 3) best time for spawning or fishing (warm or cold season, phenological signals); 4) fishing gear (mõrralest 'lit. weel sole') or bait (ogarulliangerjas 'lit. eel baited with stickleback'); 5) some characteristics of the caught fish (size, shape, colour, even smell or sound emitted); 6) euphemisms. All this demonstrates what caught the attention of the people of old and how it has enriched our language.

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