„Akmenà“, „Lašmuõ“ ir kiti panašios darybos upėvardžiai

L I E T U V I Ų K A L B O T Y R O S K L A U S I M A I, IV L I E T U V O S T S R M O K S L Ų A K A D E M I J A AKMENA, LAŠMUO, AND OTHER RIVER NAMES OF SIMILAR FORMATION A. VANAGAS At present, we know eighteen river names whose formation is similar to that of the river name Akmenas, and seven similar to Lašmuo. Most of them are in one way or another associated with the consonantal stem -men-. Their formation, the origin of their roots, and their semantics have not yet been properly elucidated. Attempts to address etymological, stratigraphic, and more complex word-formation problems now, while Lithuanian hydronymy remains little studied, are unlikely to yield more precise conclusions. For this reason, these problems are not explored in greater detail here; instead, with a few comments, the river names of the Akmena and Lašmenė types known at present are presented. Akmenà ³ᵇ (in the Kretinga, Kupiškis, Panevėžys, and other districts, about 15 in all), Ašmenà (Byelorussian SSR, flowing into the Neris from the right bank). Regarding Akmen-, Ašmen-, cf. Lithuanian place names Akmenà lake (Vilnius), Akmėnis lake (Obeliai), Latvian place names Akmenene river, Akmenija river, and many others (see En LV 14—15), Lithuanian personal names Akmėnis, Ašmenà, Latvian personal names Akmenis, Asmens. The Lithuanian hydronyms Akmenà and Ašmenà are related to the common nouns akmuõ, ašmuõ, genitive akmenis, ašmenis. For further discussion of Akmenà || Ašmenà, see Топ Зам R Кр 264. Armenà ³ᵇ (Veliuona, flowing into the Nemunas from the right). In the same area, Armeniūkas (into the Armena). Perhaps the same root is also found in Armėlis, lake (Degučiai), Armušnà, river (Kavarskas), and Armatà (a place in Lake Plateliai). The river name Armenà is related to the common noun armenà ‘depth, abyss, quagmire’, armuõ ‘same’. For the suffix, see Sk ŽD 232; for the root, see also Bg RR II 402; Sav EžV LKK III 297. Bramenà ³ᵇ (Šilalė, flowing into the Akmena from the right). This river name is entirely unique in the Lithuanian name inventory. Deimenà || Deimė. This river flows in Kaliningrad Oblast and empties into the Curonian Lagoon near Polessk (formerly Labguva). It is the so-called “arm of the Pregolya.” Today, the river name Deimenà || Deimė is rarely encountered in vernacular speech. I have heard local people from the villages of Lankupiai, Minija, and Svencelė call this river Deimė. The river name Deimenà || Deimė entered the documents relatively early: Dein, Deyme — 1352 (SRP II 518), Deim — 1400, Deyme — 1450, Deheme — 1465 (Ger AO 26), Daimenà (Kl Gram 61 or PGram 457), Deimē,-ēs, Deimenà,-õs (Kur LDW 82. Here F. Kurschat notes that the form most commonly used is 227 Deimenà), Deimenà (Bg RR I 469; Bg Ž LXXXII), Deimenà,-õs, Deimeną (LŽTP 97. Same in Sk, ŽD 233; LKRŽ). J. Gerulis (Ger AO 27) derives the river name Deimeną from *Deiv-mena, cf. dièmedis < *dièv-medis, and compares *Deiv- with Old Prussian deywis ‘god’. Phonetically, the change of em to m is possible, but in this case it is impossible to know for certain whether the river name Deimenà originally contained v or not. (See also p. 229.) It seems to us that K. Būga (Bg Ž LXXXII) was probably more correct in deriving the river’s name Deimenà from the Latvian verb deju, diêt ‘to dance, to run in leaps’, and comparing it, among other things, with Old Prussian *Deim-laukis > German Deimlacken K. In his manuscript material, K. Būga compared the root Deim- of the river name Deimenà in this way as well: Greek δ-εμχ ‘I hurry’ < *διέω-, δέω alongside διέω δινέω ‘I turn’: Latvian diêt. J. Endzelīns (LVV I) gives these meanings for the Latvian word diêt: ‘to hop, dance, also sing’, and compares Latvian diêt with Old Indic diyati ‘flies, rushes’, Old Irish dian ‘fast’, Greek δ-νως ‘whirlpool, eddy’, δνέω ‘I turn, drehen’. The river name Deimenà may perhaps be related to the place names Diemenai village (Anykščiai), Diẽminas (or Diẽmenas) village (Jaskūnai, Jūrotiškiai district, Byelorussian SSR), Diemė (or Demė?) river (Švenčionys). For more, see Bg Ž LXXXII. Dusmenà 3b (Daugai, flowing into the Varėnė from the right bank), cf. Dùsmenys village near the Dusmena, Dusmenėliai village. For the suffix in Dusmenõs, see Sk ŽD 233. We also find the root Dus- in: Dus-à river (Pumpėnai), Dus-ėlė river (Alytus), Dus-ýnas lake (Vyžuonos), Dus-jà lake (Alytus), Dùs-ėtos town. Gamenà 3b (Molėtai, flowing into the Siesartis). For Gam-, cf. Gãm-ė river (Papilė, flowing into the Venta), Gam-antà river (Žasliai, flowing into the Laukysta). Graumenà 3b (Kvėdarna, flowing into the Šalpė from the right bank). In 1384 SRP (II 667) records this river’s name as Graumanape. Cf. Graumenėlė forest (Seda), Graumùo river (see p. 230). For the suffix, see Sk ŽD 233. Juodmenà 3b (Jonava, flowing into the Varnakė). For the suffix, see Sk ŽD 233. The root Juod- is very common in Lithuanian names; cf. Júod-a river (Panevėžys), Júod-ė river (1. Alsėdžiai; 2. Debeikiai; 3. Joniškėlis), Juod-ėlė river (Pūsalotas), Juod-ỹs lake (Kuktiškės). For Juod-, cf. juód-as. Kaimenà 3b (Musninkai, flowing into the Musia=Musė from the right-bank tributary). Cf. Old Prussian Caymen-ape, Kaymen-ap, a river in 1331 (Ger AO 33), and Lithuanian Kiẽmen-tà river (Žiežmariai). Kamenà 3b (Šalčininkai). For Kam-, cf. Kãm-ė river (Jurbarkas, flowing into the Mituva from the right-bank tributary). Kulmenà ³b ‖ Kuĩmė ‖ Kuĩmenas (Pagėgiai, flowing into the Vilkas ‖ Vilkė from a right-bank tributary). For Kul-, cf. Kul-ė river (Dusetos), Kul-ėnė stream (Skuodas), Kul-ėinis lake (Merkinė), Kul-ỹs ravine (Panemunėlis), a depression (Antalieptė), a corner of a meadow (Degučiai), a boggy meadow (Dusetos). Lomenà 3a (Kaišiadorys, flowing into the Neris from the right bank). Polish historical geography writes this name as Łomiana (III 594 et al., see Bg RR I 454), SRP as Lamen (II 692), while K. Būga (RR I 454) compares Lamenà ir Lam- with Lamėstas lake, Lomõkai village, Latvian Lamiņi, Old Prussian Lamen lake, Lamgarbe or Lan-garbe. Nowadays local inhabitants pronounce the river’s name with o in the root: Lomenà; there also occur the meadow name Lomenà, Pa-lómenis, and a small town and village. For Lom-, cf. Lomà meadow (Butrimonys), and the common noun lomuo ‘valley’. (Cf. Ger AO 81.) Rudmenà 4 (Pažaislis, flowing into the Nemunas from the right bank). For the suffix, see Sk ŽD 233. The root Rud- is also found in: Rùd-ė river (1. Garliava; 2. Simnas), Rudėlė river (Alytus), Rùd-upė river (Panoteriai). The root Rud- in these river names is probably related to rùd-as. 228 Šemenà 3a (Aukšt. Panemunė, into the Nemunas from the right), cf. sėmenà ‘small fallow plot’, sėmuõ ‘flaxseed’. Šeimenà 3b (Vilkaviškis, flowing into the Širvinta from the right bank). The traditional etymology of this river name is as follows: Šeimenà < *Šeiv-mena (Ger AO 251; Sk ŽD 233). The reconstruction of Šeimenà as *Šeiv-mena (as also Deimenà — as *Deiv-mena, see p. 227) is very tempting, since we have szeimedis = szievmedis (Lesk Bild 418; Ger AO 180), diẽmedis < *dievmedis (Ger AO 27). Thus, deriving Šeimenà from *Šeiv-mena and Deimenà — from *Deiv-mena is supported by the similarity to the emergence of the appellative šeimedis from šeivmedis and of diẽmedis from *dieumedis. It is possible to derive the common nouns diẽmedis and šeimedis confidently from *dieumedis and šeivmedis because living speech also knows dievãmedis (Plungė) and šeivãmedis (DLKŽ); however, reconstructing the river names Šeimenà and Deimenà as *Šeiv-mena and *Deiv-mena relies not on the formation of these hydronyms themselves, but only on the analogy of a pair of compound common nouns. We have seen that in the river name Deimenà K. Būga does not even look for the root *Deiv- (see p. 228). It seems to us that in the river name Šeimenà too there is no need to look for an unknown *Šeiv-; instead, the river name Šeimenà should be compared, as is customary in such cases, with other place names of this root that occur in the Lithuanian onomasticon: Šiemė (or Šeimė) river (Batakiai, flowing into the Tríšiūkštė from the right bank), Šeimatis village (Utena district), Šiemetis lake (Vievis), Šiemetiūkas (or Šiemedūkas) lake, in the same place. Cf. Szemen lake, 1520 (Ger AO 180). Titmenà (Plaskūnai area, Jieznas District; rises in the Šnipeliai forests and flows into the Virkė). Local people now pronounce this river name Cicmenà (Cicmenõs, Cìcmeną) || Cýcmena (Cýcmenos, Cýcmeną). The stream flows where the dzūkavimas dialect boundary lies; the area is called a transition zone. One may suppose that formerly this area was inhabited entirely by Dzūkai. People there now pronounce cicnagas and titnagas, and say dzienà and dienà. As is known, Dzūkai pronounce the word titnagas as cicnagas, which means that titnagas has been shortened from *titinagas, and in Dzūkian > *cicinagas > becomes cicnagas. Otherwise the second t would not turn into c. Exactly the same must have happened with the river name Titmenà: today’s Cicmenà can only have arisen from *Titimenà > *Cicimena > Cicmenà. Cf. Titnas > Cìtnas, a lake (Rudnia). The root Tit-, Tyt- also occurs fairly often in the Lithuanian name inventory: Tit-upis, a river (Paežerėliai, flowing into the Nemunas); Tit-valka, a river (Kėdainiai); Tit-kalnis, a hill (Užventis); Tit-žmbalė, a village (Kupiškis); Týt-lankės, a meadow (Krakės); Týt-uva, a river (Bg RR I 46); Týt-uvėnai, a small town (see also Bg RR I 530). Žeimenà 3b (Pabradė, into the Neris from the right), cf. Žeimenys, a lake (Švenčionėliai). For Žeim-, cf. Žeim-ėlis, a small town; Žeim-iai, a village (Lazdijai District); žiema ‘winter’. For žiema, see further Труб СлЭ ВСЯ 29. The river name Lakmenia (Šimonys, flowing into the Pelyša) differs from the other hydronyms in this group in that it has a different stem. It is associated with lakmenà || lakmenà ‘a muddy, deep pond’, Lakmenė, a forest (Juodupė); Lekmėnė, a river (Kaltinėnai); Lekmėnės, a meadow (Kaltinėnai); lekmėnė ‘bottomless pit, opening, hollow, pool’. Besides the river names mentioned above, many of which are related to appellatives with a consonant-stem -men- (Akmenà — akmuõ, Armenà — armuõ, Ašmenà — ašmuõ, Lomenà — lomuõ, Šemenà — sėmuõ; cf. Akmenas, a lake — almuõ ‘pus’, see Bg Ž 62; Sav EžV LKK III 294; Dėmenas, a lake — dėmuõ), or with other hydronyms having a consonant-stem -men- (Graumenà, a river — Graumuo, a river; cf. Linkmenas = Lėnk-menas Bg RR II 281, a lake — Linkmuõ, a lake; Šelmenas, a lake — Šelmuõ, a river), there are several river names that are nominative singular forms with a consonant-stem -men-: 229 Graumuo (Ž. Naumiestis; one branch flows into the Tenė, the other into the Šustis). For Graum-, cf. Graumeną (see p. 228), Pa-griam-ėlė, a river (Obeliai). The river name Graumuo may perhaps be compared with the common noun graumuo ‘depth of a forest, dense thicket’ (Stulgiai, Skaudvilė District), ‘a deep, dark, boggy place’ (Šiauliai). Jiešmuo (Krinčinas, into the Miša from the left), cf. Jiešmenėlis, a river (Krinčinas, flowing into the Jiešmenis from the left); in the same locality, Pa-jiešmėnai, two villages and a small settlement. Jiešm- < *Iešm- may perhaps be associated with Lithuanian jiešmas = iešmas, Latvian iesmenis, iesms, Prussian aismis. Lašmuo 3b (Pakruojis, into the Mūša from the left). Cf. Lašmuo, a village (Rozalimas). The root Laš- occurs more frequently in place names: Laš-upis (Skuodas); Laš-ūbala, a village (Šeta); Laš-apėžis, a meadow, settlement (Rokiškis); Laš-ėnė, a meadow (Pilviškiai); Laš-nės, a village (Panemunis). The river name Lašmuo is associated with the common noun lašmuo ‘a place in a river that does not freeze in winter; the place where a river begins; its source’; ‘the place where a river flows into a lake’ (Kaltanėnai, Linkmenys); in winter, where the river’s lašmuo is, one cannot drive across the little lake (Švenčionys); lašmena ‘an ice hole, a spring, an unfrozen spot in a lake’; Latvian lasmenis ‘an unfrozen spot in a river’. Odmuo 3b (Vainutas, into the Jūra from the right). There seem to be no other hydronyms with this root in the Lithuanian name inventory. Cf. Odmenžis, a village and small settlement; the common noun odmenis (Geit LSt 99; Lesk Bild 417) ‘river mouth’, odmenia ‘river mouth’ (ŽK). Šelmuo 3b (Ž. Naumiestis, into the Šustis from the right). Cf. Šelmenėtas, a lake (Žagariškės, formerly Suwałki Governorate); Šelmen-ta = Šelmen-tkà, a river (Liubavas, flowing into the Šešupė); šelmuo ‘ridge’, Russian гребень. For šelmuo, see Bg RR II 553; Wl VW II 503; Lesk Bild 418. Viešmuo 3b (Joniškėlis; dries up in summer). K. Būga (Bg RR I 335) compares the river name Viešmuo with Vieš-inta, a river (Subačius, flowing into the Lėvuo); Vieš-eta, a river (Tirkšliai); Vieš-tovė, a river (Kulai). For Vieš-, cf. also Vieš-à, a river (Utena); Vieš-iu (Pažaislis); Vieš-ys, a lake (Utena). For the etymology of the root Vieš-, see Bg RR I 335. Vaidmuo 3b (Mažeikiai, into the Ašva from the left). For Vaid-, cf. Vaid-aĩ, a village (Joniškėlis), bushes (Baisogala), a forest (Lygumai); Vaid-balė, a meadow (Svėdasai); Vaid-ė, a meadow (Leliūnai); Vaid-ėnis, a river (Seda). Abbreviations apyl. — environs. ar. — ploughed field, soil. b. — bog. Bg RR — K. Būga, Selected Works, I, Vilnius, 1958; II, Vilnius, 1959. buv. — former. DLKŽ — Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, Vilnius, 1954. dš. — right. dv. — (former) manor. En LV — Academician J. Endzelīns, Place Names of the Latvian SSR, Part I, Volume 1, Riga, 1956. ež. — lake. Fr LEW — Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch von Prof. Dr. Ernst Fraenkel, Heidelberg-Göttingen (since 1955). 230 Geit LSt — Lithuanian studies. Selections from the oldest monuments, dialect examples, lexical and linguistic contributions by Dr. Leopold Geitler, Prague, 1875. Ger AO — The Old Prussian place names, collected and linguistically analyzed by Dr. Georg Gerullis, Berlin and Leipzig, 1922. gr. — Greek. it. — flows into. k. — village. Kl Gram — M. Danielis Kleinii, Gramatica Litvanica, 1653. kln. — mountain. kr. — left. Kur LDW — Lithuanian-German dictionary by Fridrich Kurschat, Halle, 1883. KV — Latvian Encyclopedic Dictionary, I—XXI, Riga, 1927—1940. Lesk Bild — The formation of nouns in Lithuanian by August Leskien, Leipzig, 1891. liet. — Lithuanian. LKK — Questions of Lithuanian Linguistics, Vilnius (since 1957). LKRŽ — Lithuanian Spelling Dictionary, Vilnius, 1948. LKŽ — Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, I—V, Vilnius, 1941—1959. lot. — Latin. LVV — K. Mühlenbach’s Latvian Language Dictionary. Edited, supplemented, and continued by J. Endzelīns, I—IV, Riga, 1923—1932. LŽTP — Lithuanian Fishermen’s Dialect in Prussia. Collected by J. Gerulis and Chr. Stang'as, Kaunas, 1933. mš. — forest. mstl. — small town. PGram — The First Grammar of the Lithuanian Language, Vilnius, 1957. pv. — meadow. r. — marsh. RKr — Rakštų krājums veltījums akadēmikim profesoram Dr. Jānim Endzeliņam viņa 85 dzīves un 65 darba gadu atcerei, Rīgā, 1959. rus. — Russian. Sav EŽV — B. Savukynas, Lake Names. — “Questions of Lithuanian Linguistics,” III, Vilnius, 1960. sen. — old. SkŽD — Pr. Skardžius, Lietuvių kalbos žodžių daryba, Vilnius, 1941. si. — Slavic. Słow geogr — Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, I—XIV, Warsaw, 1880—1895. SRP — Scriptores rerum Prussicarum, Leipzig, I—V, 1861—1874. t. p. — the same meaning. Топ Зам — V. N. Toporov, Two Notes on Baltic Toponymy. — “Collection of Papers Dedicated to Academician Professor Dr. Jānis Endzelīns in Commemoration of the 85th Anniversary of His Life and the 65th Anniversary of His Work,” Riga, 1959. Труб СлЭ — O. N. Trubachev, Slavic Etymologies, 1—7 — “Questions of Slavic Linguistics,” issue 2, Moscow, 1957. WI VW — Alois Walde, Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-European Languages, edited and revised by Julius Pokorny, Berlin and Leipzig, 1927—1932. ВСЯ — Questions of Slavic Linguistics, issue 2, Moscow, 1957. ŽK — The card index of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language of the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences of the LSSR. 231 RIVER NAMES OF THE AKMENA AND LAŠMUO TYPE A. P. VANAGAS Summary The article gives a brief overview of river names, most of which are associated with a consonant stem in -men-. A structural relationship is noted between hydronyms of the Akmenā, Lomenā, Graumenā type and appellatives or other hydronyms of the akmuõ, lomuõ, Graumuõ type, cf. Ašmenā — ašmuõ, Armenā — armuõ, Graumenā—Graumuõ, Linkmenas — Linkmuõ. 232