On Toponymic Isoglosses between the Russian Northwest and Slovenia

Abstract

This article consists of two parts. Part one discusses specific aspects of toponymic parallels throughout the Slavic languages in general, and between Slovenia and East Slavic territory in particular. It is determined that many place names connect Slovenia with the Russian northwest (the Novgorod and Pskov regions). These distant regions share some similarity from the point of view of early Slavic colonization. Their dialects contain many archaic features because they lie on language peripheries. The second part of the article contains a detailed etymological analysis of place names in the Russian northwest, derived from the old Slavic appellative stems *bьrd-, *dъ(b)n-, *kad-/*kadьn-, *kamьn-, *pak-/*pač-, and *rak-/*rač-. All of the names analyzed are also characteristic of Slovenia and of the South Slavic languages as a whole.