Finno-Ugric Plant Names Containing Zoosemisms with the Meaning ‘Sheep’ (a Case Study of Finno-Permic Lexical Materials)

The paper examines virtually all Finno-Ugric plant names containing zoosemisms with the meaning ‘sheep’.
A vast majority of such phytonyms can be well found in the Baltic Finnic languages, while their share in other Finno-Permic languages is far less which is supposedly due to the fact patterns of Finnish and Estonian folk phynonymy had been decently collected (registered). The study revealed no similar plant names in the Mordvinic languages ― Erzya and Moksha ― nor were identified any in some other Baltic Finnic languages, such as Vepsian, Votian, and Livonian.
The article considers over 60 compound Finno-Ugric phytonyms containing zoosemisms with the meanings ‘sheep’ and ‘ram’. Still, only few of them can be found among somewhat common nominative patterns of certain languages. And the commonness of patterns by no means implies any commonness (ancientness) of phytonyms’ origins which could be suggested only in rare cases where there is at least fragmentary identity of components of compound names denoting the same plant.
The work concludes that all the plant names considered are essentially compound and consist of two or more components, and that there are no simple phytonyms containing the meaning ‘sheep’ ― except for the Karelian phytonym lampahaiset denoting Antennaria. No plant names to contain over three components have been discovered.
The study identifies two plants the names of which most frequently contain words with the meaning ‘sheep’ ― Plantago and Knautia ― though there is a total of over seventy such plants and mushrooms.
Sometimes zoosemisms with the meaning ‘sheep’ denote mushrooms, as is the case with Finnish, Ingrian, and Mari.
Such plant nominative patterns (models) can be common for a number of genetically related languages. The identified models are as follows: ‘sheep’ + ‘determinant’ or ‘sheep’ + ‘part of the body’. Other nominative models basically function only in one of the examined languages.
The word ‘ram’ acts as a component to the Finnish name of Geum rivale, the Livonian name of the blackberry species Rubus caesius, and the Mari name of Grifola frondosa.
Few plant nominative patterns to contain names of sheep can be discovered beyond the Baltic Finnic languages. In most Finno-Permic languages there are no phytonyms with the meaning ‘sheep’. In general, such ‘sheep’ nominative models within the considered languages are individual enough, and even some rare common models denote different plants, and thus none of them can be recognized as structurally ancient. The study suggests this results from the fact that historically sheep breeding was not widespread evenly among Finno-Ugric peoples, with due regard of certain economic peculiarities, but these issues are completely non-linguistic and cannot be an object of the current research.

1. Анненков 1878 ― Анненков Н. И. Ботанический словарь. СПб: Тип. Имп. Академии наук.1878. 647 с. [Annenkov N. I. Botanicheskiy slovar’ [A glossary of botanic terms]. St. Petersburg: Imperial Acad. of Sc., 1878. 647 p.].

2. Бродский 2012 ― Бродский И. В. Зоосемизмы ― названия коровы, быка, теленка в составе финно-пермских фитонимов // Севернорусские говоры. Вып. 12. СПб.: изд-во СПбГУ, 2012. С. 206–220. [Brodsky I. V. Zoosemisms meaning ‘cow’, ‘bull’, ‘calf’ in Finno-Permic plants names. Severnorusskie govory [North Russia dialects (languages)]. Iss. 12. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State Univ., 2012. Pp. 206–220].

3. Бродский 2017 ― Бродский И. В. Финно-угорские названия растений, содержащие зоосемизмы со значением ‛лошадь’ (на лексическом материале финно-пермских языков) // Вестник Костромского государственного университета. 2017. Т. 23. № 1. С. 152–158. [Brodsky I. V. Finno-Ugric plant names containing zoosemisms with the meaning ‘horse’ (a case study of Finno-Permic languages). Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2017. Vol. 23. No. 1. Pp. 152–158].

4. КЭСКЯ — Краткий этимологический словарь коми языка. М.: Наука, 1970. 388 с. [Kratkiy etimologicheskiy slovar’ komi yazyka [A brief etymology dictionary of the Komi language]. Moscow: Nauka, 1970. 388 p.].

5. SSAP ― Suomen sanojen alkuperä [The origin of Finnish words]. Vol. I–III. Vol. I. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS; Finnish Literary Society), 1992. 486 p.; Vol. II. Helsinki: SKS, National Languages Research Center, 1995. 470 p.; vol. III. Helsinki: SKS, Finnish Language Learning Center, 2000. 503 p.

6. Suhonen 1936 ― Suhonen P. Suomalaiset kasvinnimet [Finnish plant names]. Annales Botanici Societatis Zoologicae-Botanicae Fennicae Vanamo 7: 1. Helsinki, 1936. 465 p.

7. Vilbaste 1993 ― Vilbaste, G. Eesti taimenimetused [Estonian plant names]. Emakeele Seltsi Toimetised (Transactions of Mother Tongue Society). No. 20 (67). Tallinn, 1993. 708 p.