Summary

Names of water bodies in Gražiškiai area

The water body names used in Gražiškiai area of the Vilkaviškis County and recorded in the interwar questionnaires (Lietuvos Žemės Vardynas, 1935 /Place-names of the Land of Lithuania) and in the so-called PKK catalogue are discussed in terms of formation and origin of the hydronyms. Hence, 37 names (including their variants) have been discussed, i.e. 28 names of rivers and streams, 7 names of lakes and 2 part names (a river and a lake).

As a result, the majority, i.e. 32 ones (~86 per cent), have been found to be of secondary type in terms of the formation of hydronyms in Gražiškiai area. Very few, i.e. 4 ones (~11%) of the hydronyms in the area studied, are to be considered as primary. Of the secondary hydronyms, a similar number is found in of the suffixal derivatives (10), as well as composite (10) and compound (8) water body names. Only 3 prefixal and 1 affixal derivatives have been found. 

From the point of view of origin, the water body names of Gražiškiai area are distributed as follows: 15 (~40 per cent) hydronyms of appellative origin, 14 (~38 per cent) place-based ones and only 3 (~8 per cent) hydronyms of personal origin. The origin of the water body names of a small part (8 ones) is not entirely clear.

Most of the origin of the names of the water bodies studied in the article is based on the data of the Lithuanian language; they are attributed to the late layer of Lithuanian hydronyms. Such water body names as Dótamas, Dotamà River, Lake Talaikė and Brook Vilija seem to belong to the General Baltic or even the older – Indo-European – layer of hydronyms.

The conducted study also made it possible to supplement and revise the existing hydronymy data.