Päivitetty 1.1.2002  –  Palautteet

Virittäjä-lehti  >  Hakemistot  >  Kirjoitukset ja tiivistelmät: 3/1997 (101)

Silva Kiuru (Department of Finnish (University of Helsinki); silva.kiuru@helsinki.fi)

AGRICOLA'S PECULIAR ORIENTAPPURAT ('THORNS')

The article attempts to show that the plant name orjantappura ('thorn') is not the original form of the word but has developed from the word orientappura or orjentappura. Occurrences of orientappura have been found from texts of early written Finnish by two different writers: Michael Agricola (15 occurrences) and Paulus Juusten (3 occurrences).

While orjantappura could not have changed into the form orientappura, the reverse is possible. Orjantappura could be a folk etymological formation whose establishment in religious language has been precipitated by the affectivity of the word orja ('slave'). The differences found between Agricola's various texts, however, indicate a conscious change. In his works, orientappura is the variant being displaced: by the time the later part of the New Testament and the Psalter and the book named Weisut ('Songs') are published, orientappura has been superseded by oriantappura; by contrast, in the Finnish translation of the gospel texts of the New Testament both variants are present, which is explained by the fact that the translation was made over a long period.

The key question in the article, namely what form of which word is orien, is left without a clear answer. The question is considered from the following viewpoints.

• Orjen could in theory be the singular of the genitive or instructive case of the word *orki. There is, however, no knowledge of the word *orki. In Estonian, though, there is a word of wide distribution (h)ork 'spike', but its genitive form is (h)orgi, and so it does not support the assumption of a potential south-western Finnish dialect word *ork(i) : orjen.

• The Estonian (h)ork 'spike' has been viewed (Koponen 1993) with doubt as belonging to the same family as the Estonian word ora 'spike, bodkin'. (h)ork 'spike' might possibly belong to the same family as hork (: horgu) 'lockere, undichte Lage, gespreitze Stellung' (Wiedemann). This family could also include the modifier of orientappura; evidence to support a connection has not, however, been found.

• The third explanation is as follows: orien could be the genitive singular form of the word ori ('stallion'). The genitive of an animal name as a modifier for a plant name is plausible. The original vowel e of the *orihe- stem (*orihentappura) is assumed to be preserved in the orientappura variant (pro orijntappura or orihintappura) of Agricola's biblical translation language. Ori(h)entappura was an important word of religious language before Agricola's time; it had been needed as early as the Middle Ages, and in its Finnish form. The fact that it is a modifier in a compound name may have delayed the change in this modifier.