On the history of Northern Russian павна (pavna) and the Baltic Finnic paun-
Abstract
The article is aimed at solving two main problems. First, an attempt is made to briefly outline the main milestones in the early history of the landscape term па́вна/па́уна (pavna/pauna) ‘swampy area covered with grass; low-lying hayfield; puddle; forest glade’, which is occasionally found in the dialects of the Russian North. It has long been known that the source of this word is the Baltic Finniс terminology with the stem paun-, which has approximately the same landscape meanings. The author comes to the conclusion that the Northern Russian па́вна/па́уна (pavna/pauna) was adopted by the Russian population during the period of Novgorod colonization of the Onega and Northern Dvina river basins. The chronology of the Russian assimilation of the term is no earlier than the 12th–13th centuries, when the lower reaches of these large rivers began to be populated by both medieval Novgorodians and North Karelians. The second part of the article is devoted to the origins of the appearance of borrowed landscape terminology paun- in the Baltic Finniс languages. The author argues against the version of its derivation from Russian багно́ (bagno) ‘swamp’ and puts forward the “Baltic” hypothesis, according to which the source for the Baltic Finniс paun- is Lithuanian piaunė̃ (piaunỹs) ‘a marshy swamp where water stands in spring and autumn; hayfield; hollow; a stream flowing through a meadow; etc.’. It is substantiated that the Baltic Finns adopted this Baltic term, probably on the territory of modern Latvia, no later than the middle of the 1st millennium AD. Subsequently, the Baltic term, adopted by the Baltic Finnic population in a modified form paun-, spread from the territory of Latvia and Estonia to the south of Finland, from where it penetrated further to the east — into the Karelian dialects, from which it was adopted by the Northern Russian population.
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