Koponen Eino. Eteläviron murteen sanaston alkuperä: Itämerensuomalaista etymologiaa

Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1998. — 296 s. — (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 230).The Origin of Vocabulary in the South Estonian Dialect. Finnic EtymologyThe purpose of this research is to provide an etymological inventory of the vocabulary characteristic of the South Estonian dialect and to shed light on the historical dialectological status of this Finnic dialect. At the same time thought is given to basic issues of Finnic etymology and word formation, especially the appearance of new indigenous (basic) word stems.
The vocabulary collection of Estonian dialects at the Estonian Language Institute has provided the basic material for this study. Approximately 4.5 % of the total basic computerized material was sifted out to create the data base of 3,295 keywords used in this study. This data base omits vocabulary elements particular to North Estonian or with extremely limited distribution. With the aid of the formula developed for this sifting it is possible to calculate the geographical distribution of each keyword.
Subsequently, those words that are derivatives or variants (either phonetically or semantically) of Common Estonian were omitted. As a result of this morphological analysis, a group of 567 basic word stems with a Southern Estonian orientation was established. This study is primarly concerned with the etymological analysis of these 567 basic word stems. The generation and mutual relationships of indigenous basic word stems are illustrated with the help of descriptive-onomatopoetic roots and root series.
Of the basic word stems analyzed, 269 (approx. 47 %) have no equivalents in any other Finnic language. Basic word stems that have equivalents in other Finnic languages are seen as language-by-language areals in the light of theories dealing with the birth of the modern Finnic languages and their historical relationships. This work by itself can in no way verify or refute any of these theories.