The Morphology of Lithuanian Toponyms – Differences and Parallels of Different Classes of Names

  • Harald Bichlmeier
Keywords: potamonyms/river-names, limnonyms/lake-names, morphology of onyms, syntactical structure of onyms, western south aukštaitian/dzukian toponomastics

Abstract

    The participation in the project “Vakarinių pietų aukštaičių vietovardžių integravimas į Lietuvos vietovardžių geoinformacinę duomenų bazę ir jų kilmės bei motyvacijos tyrimai” [The integration of Western South Aukštaitian toponyms into the Lituanian geoinformational database and studies on their origin and motivation] led to two interesting results: 1) It seems necessary to refine (Lithuanian) terminology and 2) there can be found remarkable differences in the percentage of the morphological (and syntactical) structures used to build names for flowing bodies of water (potamonyms) and names for standing bodies of water (limnonyms). It turns out that in the researched area in limnonyms the percentage of derivational formations is significantly higher and that of compound names significantly lower than in potamonyms. More research needs to be done to find out, whether this is a characteristic of the researched area or a general tendency all over Lithuania.

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