OBSERVATIONS ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOPONYMIC ENDINGS IN ESTONIA

The article looks at the geographical distribution of toponymic endings with the aim of discovering significant patterns. The corpus includes ca. 9,000 oikonyms, of which 24% are those that have the analysed endings. Endings are recognized if names have at least3 syllables or have 2 syllables and the Q3 degree of quantity; in thesecases the existence of a toponymic suffix is most likely. In the case of endings that have multiple origins there are seemingly no specific distribution patterns, with the exception of some borrowed endings (e.g.-na or -va). In the case of typical toponymic suffixes -la, -ste and -vereeach of these are often concentrated into certain areas based on whichthe whole are of Estonia might be divided into regions: -vere-region(northern Tartumaa and northern Viljandimaa), -ste-region (V rumaa,southern Tartumaa, southern Viljandimaa and southern P rnumaa),-la-region (Virumaa, J rvamaa, Harjumaa) and a mixed region(L nemaa, northern P rnumaa). The island of Saaremaa is dominated by -la-endings, Hiiumaa is either a mixed region or a -ste-region.