Keyword: «balto-fennic languages»

There are some interesting parallels and convergences in the early toponymy of Belarus and Northwestern Russia. However, most of the parallels established to date are unreliable, since they are based primarily on the external similarity of toponyms, without taking into account linguistic history, the history of contact relations in toponymy, and the specifics of nominative models at different times and in different territories, in different languages. At the same time, the same topographical bases in different territories can be filled with completely different meanings (for example, Turya). Nevertheless, connections in early toponymy are visible. In particular, in archaic Slavic hydronymy (Dvina) and oikonymy (-ichi). In the northwestern part of Belarus, bordering the Pskov region and Latvia one can find some rudiments of Baltic-Finnish toponymy, including ancient ones. Apparently, there are some place names of Balto-Fennic origin in the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland. However, you should not compare them directly with Veps or Finnish data.