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On Some Words Erroneously Labelled as Latvian Loanwords

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with a dozen South-Estonian words which Kalev Kalkun (2012) has taken for Latvian loanwords. Actually, most of them are of a different origin. The lexemes kostum(m)a ’to thaw up; to soften’, klympama ’to limp’, mäürämmä ’to growl’ and, maybe also räüs ’hail’ and räütmä ’to trample down; to tousle’ are genuine. It is likely that some of the words, especially klympama and mäürämmä are expressive. The general form of klympama is (k)lVmp(s)V, cf. klimpama, limpama, lompama, lumpama ’to limp’ etc. A borrowing from Germanic languages is not excluded either, cf. the English „limp”. The word räüstämä ’to plunder; to devastate’ can be either a Latvian loanword (cf. raustªıt ’to tear, to drag; to twitch; to quarrel’) or a genuine expressive word (Estonian rüüstama ’to plunder; to devastate’, Finnish ryöstää ’to rob; to plunder’, raastaa ’to tear up; to grate; to drag’ etc.). The South-Estonian salitsa(m)ma ~ salitsõmma ’to string’ is probably indeed a Latvian loanword, cf. Latvian salicinºat, salikt ’to put together’. The association of South-Estonian virges ’furrow’ with Baltic languages looks likely, but has hitherto not been convincingly motivated, cf. Latvian virkne ’row, line’, verdze (< *verge) ’big heap; long row’.

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