The name(s) Kuningamäe

Tiina Laansalu; Peeter Päll

doi:https://doi.org/10.54013/kk804a3

Keywords: linguistics, Estonian, place names, foreign names, name planning, socio-onomastics

This article examines Estonian place names containing the term kuningas ‘king’. The earliest records of Kuninga-names date back to the 16^th century. The Place Names Archive of the Institute of the Estonian Language lists more than 200 place names beginning with Kuning(a)-. By comparison, terms denoting other noble ranks are significantly less common: there are 86 names starting with krahv ‘count’, 43 with parun ‘baron’, 29 each with keiser ‘emperor’ and prints ‘prince’, four with vürst ‘prince’ (from the German Würst), and one with hertsog ‘duke’.

Kuningamäe is a typical Estonian compound place name, composed of kuningas : kuninga ‘king’ + mägi : mäe ‘hill, mountain’. One instance of Kuningamäe is a translation of the German Königsberg, referring to a village near Põltsamaa. Notably, the renowned Königsberg of East Prussia was not translated into Estonian; the German name was retained instead. When Poland reverted the name Kaliningrad to its historical Polish equivalent Królewiec, a parallel debate arose in Estonia. However, Estonia lacks a formal mechanism for standardizing foreign names. Instead, the writing of foreign place names in Estonian is largely guided by the dictionary of standard Estonian.

The act of naming is often more than linguistic; it can reflect political, cultural, historical, and societal considerations. This interplay makes it a rich area of study within socio-onomastics.

Tiina Laansalu (b. 1982), PhD, Institute of the Estonian Language, Head of the Department of Language History, Dialects, and Finno-Ugric Languages (Roosikrantsi 6, 10119 Tallinn), tiina.laansalu@eki.ee

Peeter Päll (b. 1961), PhD, Institute of the Estonian Language, Chief Language Planning Expert (Roosikrantsi 6, 10119 Tallinn), peeter.pall@eki.ee

The name(s) Kuningamäe

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