ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Kamill P. Volskiy
Severoonezhsk, Plesetsky District, Archangelsk Region, Russia

On the Hydronym Kenozero

Citation information: Voprosy onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics). 2011. № 2 (11). P. 105–106 (in Russian)

Abstract:  The article puts forward a new etymological interpretation of the Kenozero toponym, functioning as a unifying name for a number of lakes in the Russian North, Karelia and Leningrad Region. With reference to some typological and physicogeographic data, the author points to a flaw in the etymological reconstruction made by Khelimsky, who ascribes the etymon Ken(o)- to the substrate heritage of the Western Finno-Ugric languages (*kеnо ~ Finn. kеnо ‘arched, curved’). According to the author’s hypothesis, the hydronym’s stem is more likely related to Baltic-Finnish appellatives käännе, käännös, kеännös kään, käänе ‘turn, curve’, reflecting the curving shoreline of the Kenozero water bodies.

Key words: Finno-Ugric languages, substrate toponymy, Russian North, Kenozero Lake

References

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