On the Etymology of the Toponym Tiuri/Tiura
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8 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) On the etymology of the toponym Tiuri/Tiura Alexander Akulov independent scholar; Saint Petersburg, Russia; e-mail: [email protected] Abstract In the North-East part of the Karelian Isthmus not far from Priozersk there are ruins of a fortified Novgorodian settlement that existed in the 13th – 15th centuries. The site is known as Tiversk. The place name initially had the form of Tivra/Tiuri. In the Medieval epoch the site was located on an island near rapids. There are several naïve explanations of the etymology of the place name through Finnic languages. Really the toponym has originated from the language of Neolithic inhabitants of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region, i.e.: from the language of Paja Ul Deˀŋ. In the word of Tiuri/Tiura can be singled out the component ur that correlates with Proto-Yeniseian *xur1 “water” and with Hattic ur or uri “spring”/“source”. The component ti correlates with Proto-Yeniseian *tiʔŋ “to spin”, “to roll”. Thus, Tivra/Tiuri/Tiur means “rolling water” or “spinning water”. This name very well conveys the features of the place. Keywords: Leningrad region; Tiversk; Tiuri; Paja Ul Deˀŋ; substrate hydronyms 1. Introduction to the problem In the North-East part of the Karelian Isthmus not far from Priozersk (see fig. 3, fig. 4) can be seen ruins of a fortified Novgorodian settlement (fig. 1) that existed in the 13th – 15th centuries. The site is known as Tiversk (in Russian: Тиверск or Тиверский городок). Initially the site was located on an island of the River Vuoksi (see fig. 5) near the Tiuri rapids, and was an ideal place for controlling the trade route along Vuoksi. In 1857 a channel from Vuoksi river to Ladoga lake through lake Sukhodolskoe lake (fig. 4) was created, the level of water lowered, the island became a peninsula, and rapids disappeared (Lapshin 1995: 165 – 167). Besides the ruins of the fortified settlement on the site have been found cultural layers and items indicating that the settlement existed at least in 500 BC – 300 AD yet. And also on the site there are several sacral stones (fig. 2) that were worshipped by Karelian people. The practice of worshipping stones widely spread in the North West of Russia is supposed to have traced to the Neolithic population of the North West of Russia (Akulov 2020c)., i.e.: to the so-called Paja Ul Deˀŋ [padʒaul’deˀŋ] – “The People of Big Water” who spoke a language that was a juncture between Yeniseian on the one hand and Hattic and Caucasian on the other hand (for more details see Akulov 2020b). Paja Ul Deˀŋ – “The People of Big Water” is a conventional name of these Neolithic people in their hypothetical reconstructed language (for more details see: Akulov 2020a). Thus, it is possible to suppose that the site was used by the people in the Neolithic period yet. 9 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) Fig. 1. The ruins of Tiversk (image source – Тиверск) Fig. 2. Sacral stones (image source – Тиверск) 10 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) Fig. 3. General map of the considered region (drawn by the author) Fig. 4. The location of Tiversk (the map has been made after Google maps screenshot) 11 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) Fig. 5. Map of the site (drawn by the author) In the Census book of the Vodskaya pyatina1 that was compiled in 1500 the name of the place is written as Tivra (in Russian: Тивра) (see: Perepisnaya okladnaya kniga). In Finnish this place is named Tiurinlinna “the fortress of Tiuri”. Thus, it is possible to say that the initial form of the place name is Tivra/Tiuri. The etymology of this toponym is very dim, and so the current paper is aimed to clarify this question. 2. Interpreting the etymology of the toponym 2.1. A critical review of the existing etymologies There are several etymologies of the place name. The most realistic etymology of existing is the hypothesis saying that word Tiura/Tuiri originates from Karelian tiuri, tiveri that is supposed to mean “waterfall”, “rapids”. However, in Karelian and in Finnish language there are no words tiveri/tiuri with meanings “waterfall”/”rapids”. 1 Vodskaya pyatina was an administrative unit of Novgorod Land (see fig 6) in the Middle Ages. 12 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) In Karelian “waterfall”/”rapids” is koski or putous (see: English-Karelian dictionary. Rapids). In Finnish ”rapids” is koski and “waterfall” is vesiputous (see Suomienglantisanakirja Rapids and Warefall). In a Finnish map of 1923 the rapids near the site are named Tiurinkoski (fig. 7); if the word tiuri would mean “rapids”/ “waterfall” there would be no need to add the component of koski, so it means that the meaning of word tiuri is completely unclear and dim for Karelian/Finnish people. Fig. 6. Scheme representing the boundaries of Vodskaya pyatina (drawn by the author) 13 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) Fig. 7. A fragment of a Finnish map (image source – Vasi’evo) Also there are some very naïve and odd versions of etymologies. According to one version the name Tiura/Tiuri could have originated from Sami tiwre that is supposed to mean “springtail (Hypogastrura nivicola)” or “insect”. This version looks very odd. I am not going to discuss here whether in Sami really exists word tiwre with such meaning, but the very assumption that ancient people could give the name to a place after a pretty rare and useless insect speaks of a complete misunderstanding of how the names of certain places were created. Another version says that the toponym originates from the name of Varangian chief Dir who was Kievan knyaz in 864 – 882. This version doesn’t explain why the name of one of the central persons of Kievan Rus’ was given to a pretty small and peripheral fortified settlement. According to another version the place name originates from the name of a Karelian kin/clan that probably dwelled in this area. This version is also pretty odd since in ancient times people usually gave names to a kin/clan after a place, but not vice-versa. Thus, all the existing versions of the etymology of the toponym Tiuri/Tivra are very naïve and odd and don’t take into account the specifics of the ancient way of naming different places. 2.2. Paja Ul Deˀŋ etymology of Tivra/Tiuri First of all, should be given up an obsessive desire to explain all unclear place names of Russian North-West from Finnic languages. Linguists and historians usually suppose that Finno-Ugric people have lived upon the East European plain from the Mesozoic Mesolithic period. Actually, Finno-Ugric people were not the earliest modern-type inhabitants of the East European plain. It is possible to speak about Finno-Ugric people on the East-European plain only after the 14 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) decay of Proto-Uralic that took place about 3000 BCE (Janhunen 2009), the Pit-Comb ware had already existed for a long time before the decay of the Proto-Uralic language (it existed in 6th – 2nd millennia BCE). Of course, in the region there are many place names of Finnic origin, but there also can be place names originating from the language of Paja Ul Deˀŋ. In the word of Tiuri/Tiura can be undoubtedly singled out the component ur that correlates well with Proto-Yeniseian *xur1 “water” and with Hattic ur or uri “spring”/ “source” (Soysal 2004: 319). This component is often used in hydronyms (Akulov, Efimova 2019). It is possible to state that the initial form of the place name was Tiur. The rest part of the word, i.e: ti correlates with Proto-Yeniseian *tiʔŋ “to spin”, “to roll”. And thus, Tivra/Tiuri/Tiur means “rolling water” or “spinning water”. This name very well conveys the features of the place. References Akulov A. 2020a. Paja ul deˀŋ. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics, Vol. 6, N 2; pp.: 17 – 29 Akulov A. 2020b. Substrate lexis of Kildin Sami interpreted through languages belonging to the Western branch of the Ainu-Minoan stock: some notes on the language of Paja ul deˀŋ. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics, Vol. 6, N 3; pp.: 1 – 7 Akulov A. 2020c. What we know about beliefs of Paja ul deˀŋ? Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics, Vol. 6, N 3; pp.: 8 – 15 Akulov A., Efimova N. 2019. Hydronymy of Yeniseian origin in the basin of Oka river. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics, Vol. 5, № 4; pp: 56 – 64 English-Karelian dictionary. Rapids https://en.glosbe.com/en/krl/rapids Janhunen J. 2009. Proto-Uralic – what, where, and when? Mémoires de la Société Finno- Ougrienne 258; pp.: 57 – 78 Lapshin V. A. 1995. Arkheologicheskaya karta Leningradskoi oblasti. Chast’ 2. Vostochnye I severnye raiony. (Archaeological map of Leningrad region. Part 2. Eastern and Northern districts), Saint Petersburg State Univresity Publishing, Saint Petersburg Perepisnaya okladnaya kniga Vodskoi pyatiny 1500 goda (Census book of Vodskaya pyatina of 1500) https://www.aroundspb.ru/perepisnaya-kniga-pages/2030.html – accessed May 2021 Тиверск (Tiversk) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Тиверск – accessed May 2021 Soysal O. 2004. Hattischer Wortschatz in hethitischer Textüberlieferung. Brill, Leiden – Boston Suomienglantisanakirja https://www.suomienglantisanakirja.fi/rapids – accessed May 2021 15 CAES Vol. 7, № 2 (May 2021) Suomienglantisanakirja https://www.suomienglantisanakirja.fi/waterfall – accessed May 2021 Vasil’evo https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Васильево_(Мельниковское_сельское_поселение) – accessed May 2021 Yeniseian etymology “water” https://starling.rinet.ru/cgi- bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=%2fdata%2fyenisey%2fyenet&text_number=+776&root =config – accessed May 2021 Yeniseian etymology “to spin” https://starling.rinet.ru/cgi- bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=%2fdata%2fyenisey%2fyenet&text_number=+699&root =config – accessed May 2021 .