Onomasticon of Levänluhta and Käldamäki region

• Published in: Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja
• Main Author: Rahkonen, Pauli
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura 2017
• Subjects: saami
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/susa/article/view/70231; https://doi.org/10.33340/susa.70231

The water burials in the Levänluhta (the Isokyrö parish) and Käldamäki (the former Vöyri parish) sites in Ostrobothnia have been a great mystery for the scholars because of their unique character. The dating of the burials is 5th–8th centuries AD. Similar burials are not known elsewhere in Finland or in its neighbouring areas. The results of an onomastic study show that the earliest Finnish maritime toponyms appeared in the 9th century and the earliest Swedish toponyms in the late 13th century. This means that the burials most probably were not conducted by Finnish or Swedish speaking populations. In Vöyri, no obvious Saami toponyms are found, but in Isokyrö, a few Saami names can be recognized. Baltic toponyms are completely unknown. The words behind the names of the largest local rivers could possibly be derived from Proto-Finno-Permian, but alternatively it is possible that they represent obscure names of Paleo-European origin. Thus, the most probable linguistic groups behind the water burials might be speakers of the West Uralic x-language or Paleo-European.