The Linguistic Background of the West Uralic Limnonyms in Novgorod and Tver Oblasts

The present article is meant to describe the West Uralic linguistic situation before the final slavicization of the ancient Novgorodian pjatinas of Dereva and Bežeck which were located mainly in modern Novgorod and Tver oblasts. The method has been to analyse linguistically limnonyms (names of lakes) which contain shortened generics jädra > -dra,-dro and jär(i)/jer(i) > -er,-ar ‘lake’ and the topoformant -(V)mlja. Stems of the selected names have been compared with hydronyms, which are located in the ancient Meryan, Mordvin and Vepsian territories and with the modern Mordvin and Vepsian languages. In addition, relevant Russian dialectal words have been studied. As a main result can be presented that the area of Dereva pjatina was populated by so called West Čudes whose language had several features common with Mordvin. The territory of Bežeck pjatina was inhabited by so called East Čudes whose language has been linked at least to some extent to the Meryan language according to the hydronyms. Finally, a brief discussion of the possible influence of West Čudic on Finnic languages is presented. Both of those ancient West Uralic Čudic languages became extinct in the 16th century, at the latest.