Liivinmaan nimi

• Mauno Koski

Avainsanat: asutushistoria, etnonyymit, liivi, liiviläiset, Liivinmaa, nimistöntutkimus, paikannimet, viro

Abstrakti

The name and location of Livonia (englanti)

4/2001 (105)

Mauno Koski THE NAME AND LOCATION OF LIVONIA

The article examines the naming of different territorial areas at different times as Livland (Livonia) and its equivalents (e.g. the Finnish Liivinmaa) or other renderings (e.g. Marienland and Ostseeprovinzen in German, Baltiska provinserna in Swedish, Vidzeme in Latvian, Riiamaa in Estonian and Viro in Finnish). Livland has been the name given to: (1) the Livonian territory on the east coast of the Gulf of Riga; (2) the Livonian and Lettish lands invaded by Germanic conquerors (todays Vidzeme); (3) the region joined to the Holy Roman Empire (todays Latvia plus Estonia, Old Livonia); (4) the Estonian-Lettish region extending from the Gulf of Finland to the Daugava river (the Western Dvina); (5) the duchy beyond the Daugava river; (6) the province of Livland (southern Estonia plus Vidzeme); and (7) the province of Vidzeme. The earliest occurrence of the name is in the eleventh-century Swedish runic inscription a Liflanti (in Livland).

When Livland changed from the name of an ethnic tribal land to the name of Old Livonia, the change was both spatial (Daugava river to Salaca (Salis) Memel to Narva) and categorical (tribal land German confederation). The name was no longer at the same level as the names of Lettland (Latgale), Courland, Zemgale and Estland, but had become a hyperonym whose hyponyms were the names of Estland, Lettland and Courland. When Saaremaa was linked to Livonia, the name Livland retained both its categorical status (as the name of a province) and its spatial status (as the antithesis of Estland). As the previous usage remained alongside the newer usage, a polysemous relationship was formed (e.g. in the seventeenth century Livland referred to the territory of Old Livonia as well as the then province).

The Finns had used the name Viroi(nmaa) to refer to the neighbouring land south across the water, whereas to the Estonians the same Viru(maa) was the name of a tribal province. The name may initially have referred to a tribal province in Finnish too, but its semantic meaning was land on the other side of the Gulf of Finland. With the events described above, the land on the opposite shore was now Livonia. The names remained unchanged, however, as is typical with country names, and thus the Finnish Viroi(nmaa) became equivalent to Livland, at least in physical terms. The equivalence remained when the province of Livland was designated, and thus the area to which the Finnish word Viroi(nmaa) referred excluded the Virumaa region. The original justification for the name, its transparency, thus lost its relevance, which was also the case with Livonia, as this no longer meant the tribal area. The Estonian Viru(maa) could not have acquired the function of the name Livland because it was the name of a region and therefore in opposition to names at the same level in the hierarchy (e.g. Harju, Jrva).

When a name is no longer used in its proper function within a language community it becomes forgotten and a semantic vacuum is formed which must be filled. This occurred with the Estonian name Liivlandi and originally with the quasi-name Maarjamaa: the word is formally the same but no longer a proper noun.

Kielenainekset

liiva (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 535)
Liivimaa (kieli: viro, sivulla: 549)
Liivinmaa (kieli: suomi, sivulla: 530)
Maarjamaa (kieli: viro, sivulla: 542)