Võimalikke protoeuroopa substraadi jälgi eesti keele dendronüümides
Possible traces of a Proto-European substrate in Estonian dendronyms

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses possible traces of the hypothetical substrate language spoken on the territory of present-day Estonia before the arrival of Finno-Ugric speaking tribes. It is shown that, taking into consideration the four phonotactical features of the substrate lexicon described by Enn Ernits and the criteria for determination of substrate vocabulary of an unknown source language described by Ante Aikio, there are at least five word stems among Estonian dendronyms that do not have a trustworthy etymology outside the Finnic group. These stems show phonotactical features described by Ernits and meet the criteria described by Aikio.We can conclude that the Estonian dendronyms pärn, kuker-, paats-, hala-, and lõhmus are probable Proto-European substrate words.

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