A New Study on Karelian Toponymy Review of: Afanasyeva, A. A. (2022). Toponimija Sjamozer’ja v areale karel’skogo dialektnogo pogranich’ja [Place Names of the Lake Syamozero in the Area of the Karelian Dialect Borderland] (Doctoral dissertation). Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of Karelian Research Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saransk. 235 p.

The review examines the PhD thesis Toponymy of the Syamozerye in the area of the Karelian dialect borderland by A. Afanasyeva, based on rich factual material collected by the author during field research. The studied area of Syamozerye is a unique point of contact of three dialects of the Karelian language: Livvik, Ludic, and Karelian. This borderline character and location at the intersection of migration routes have left their mark on the Syamozerye subdialect of the Livvik dialect of the Karelian language, which is also reflected in the toponymy of the studied territory. Apart from that, there are also Sami, Veps, and Russian elements. The reviewed thesis of five chapters is a comprehensive study of structural and semantic patterns of the toponymy of the Syamozerye region and their areal distribution. A detailed analysis of about 3,000 toponyms allowed the author to identify the principles and naming patterns common to Karelian toponymy, as well as Syamozerye innovations. About a dozen Livvik dialecticisms, calendar and non-calendar personal names preserved as structural elements in local toponyms have been reconstructed by etymological analysis of the toponymic data. These results are valuable for Karelian lexicography. The analysis of dialectal features in toponymy helped clarify the boundaries of the Livvik dialect area and the history of its formation and, thereby, specify the role of Syamozerye in the formation of the Karelian dialect map. The identification of oikonymic patterns based on chronological distribution provided an insight on the evolution of the Syamozerye oikonymic system.