Paikannimistön muuttuminen

• Terhi Ainiala

Abstrakti

Change in place names (englanti)

3/2000 (104)

Terhi Ainiala ([e-mail])

CHANGE IN PLACE NAMES

Change in Place Names is the name of a joint project of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and the Finnish language departments of the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere. The project was set up to study the change in Finnish place names used in rural areas between the time the Name Archives were established in the 1960s and 70s and the present day. The article presents the results of the research. A study of nine villages investigated how, why and the extent to which the place names in each area have changed. The villages are located in various parts of Finland and differ in their recent development. Fairly large differences were observed in the changes that had occurred in their place names. On average, about half of each villages place names had disappeared, though the range was from about one third to two thirds. Marked differences were also found when examining the types of place name that had disappeared.

The disappearance of place names is often due to the reduced need to identify the places. However, even where there is an identification need, names have sometimes disappeared and been replaced by another name. The reason for a change of name may be a need for the name to be more than an identifier, to include a descriptive element or an indication of an event that has occurred there.

Changes in place names can be studied only by comparing earlier collections of names with the present-day situation. The article also discusses the type of 1960s name data included in the research material.