– It is not common that we create a new current name, ” says navnekonsulent Irene Andreassen.
But this time they got a challenge in the Norwegian language council, then they should recommend kven names on the massifs of the lyngsalps. Massifs of the lyngsalps is a newly name that does not exist from earlier times. Nor was it a kven name for the older name Lyngsfjellan. Therefore used it is not to use the usual methods with, among other things, to ask older. They had to make an exception, to create a new name.
– We have the from before “Yykeä” for the Loop and “Yykeänvuono” for the Lyngenfjord, and “kaisa” is used in the current names of the Counties, she says and refers to the Kven stedsnavnsdatabase.
It shows that there are names that Moskukaisa and Roijalonkaisa (Røyelkampen) mountains in North-Troms.
Andreassen says that “kaisa” comes from the sámi and means “the eaten mountain”, in contrast to the current word “vaara”, which is the common word for “mountain”. The word “kaisa” is not common in Finnmark. There are not so many pointy mountains.
Find more sources before the name is determined
Work to determine the current name is a thorough process. It is the Norwegian language council, through the Stedsnavntjenesten, which has the responsibility for giving advice on spelling and names when the new name is to be determined. When the current name should be taken in the use it is Kven stedsnavnstjeneste that takes effect.
They use multiple sources when they find the current names.
Among other things, there is a large archive with kven names that are gathered by the Finnish researchers and students in the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, ” says senior adviser Pål Kristian Eriksen of the Norwegian language council. This original material is now in Helsinki, in Centralen för de inhemska språken/Kotimaisten kielten centre.
Kven navnekonsulent Irene Andreassen has come up with suggestions on kven names on the massifs of the lyngsalps.
Photo: Arne Hauge / Ruijan Kaiku
However, they also take direct contact with the språkbrukere, older people who know the old names and how they were used.
Also Irene Andreassen has done a job before she came with the proposal “Yykeänkaisat”.
I do not have “snekra” on your own, ” she says.
She goes to these sources and other sources, f.ex. Just Qvigstad, to see if it has a name already.
– If it does not exist so I am trying to get hold of people who can speak kven, it is important to hear the pronunciation. And preferably so that they are “tricked” to come with a natural kasusform. But it is a bit more difficult to find informants with the years, ” she says.
In this case, she has had contact with, among others, the previous navnekonsulent Eira Söderholm, and Terje Aronsen who was employed at the Kven institute in the past.
And not least, I have had contact with navneansvarlig Aud Kirsti Pedersen at the Norwegian mapping authority, ” says Andreassen.
Read also: Over 50 kven names on the signs
There are also a number of Norwegian or sámi lånenavn. Sometimes it creates reactions, among other things, that if the English names are converted to current, which Skarberget which got the name “Skaarpärki”. This created reactions and Andreassen and Pål Kristian Eriksen as the need to explain in a speech which is published in the Ruijan Kaiku.
Not the usual to create new names
But it is not common to make new names, so they have done with the massifs of the lyngsalps, ” says Andreassen. She can only remember a time before when this was done. It was then that there appeared a new peak in the Øksfjordjøkelen glacier which was named Loppatind in English. It was then the current name Lappeanlaki, where Lappea is the old kven the name of the Flea, and laki means the top of a high mountain area. NRK made the time a naming contest on the Norwegian name at the top.
She didn’t feel it was problematic to create a new kven names on the massifs of the lyngsalps.
– When it can be allowed to create a new English names, and no one objects to it, does it feel okay to do it on the kven also, ” she says.
For the rest, had not the Finnish folkelivsgranskeren Samuli Paulaharju, who described the current life in North-Troms and Finnmark, a name on the Lyngsaplan.
Read also: – An important literary work for Troms and Finnmark Warned against the kven names
at the same time that the current name is suggested, are also a process to get a sami name on the massifs of the lyngsalps. The proposed name is Ittuvárit, a name that should have been used by reindeer farmers.
And then – when the massifs of the lyngsalps has received an approved kven names – will the next step be to give an official kven names also to the massifs of the lyngsalps protected landscape area which already has a sami name Ittugáissáid Suodjemeahcci.
Kolsevaara is one of the mountains in Lyngen that have the word “vaara” and not “kaisa”, which Konstanse Skogstad think should mean that you choose Yykeänvaarat instead of Yykeänkaisat.
Photo: Laila Lanes / NRK
the Establishment of a kven name began with that Konstanse Skogstad from Heather first sent an inquiry to the Climate and miljødirektoratet. She had noticed that there was only the Norwegian and the sami names of the massifs of the lyngsalps the north and called for a kven name.
the Request was forwarded to the Miljødirektoratet who then sent it to the board of directors for the reserve. Direktoratets answer was almost be regarded as a warning against giving the area a kven name.
They believe the many and long names of verneråder can be cumbersome and inconvenient and that it can provide extra.
This led to the Norwegian language council came with a harsh feedback. In a letter to the agency writing the Norwegian language council:that it is unfortunate that a statsorgan argue this about the use of a minoritetsspråklig name. They write:
“Signs and public use of place names in minority languages is one of the strongest markers that a language has won access to the public. To exclude minority languages from such contexts gives a signal effect that it is given minoritetsspråket isn’t good enough for public life, a stigma that minoritetsspråkbrukere have suffered under for generations, and that the Norwegian state shall do its best to counter.”
Norwegian language council refers to the law of the place names suggests that the kven place names to be used, and reject that it is a longer name on the body.
Proposes Yykeänvarrat
When it comes to the proposal on the kven names on the massifs of the lyngsalps are Skogstad not completely satisfied.
In an e-mail she writes: “Yykeänkaisat. Well, for me “kaisa” not known used and provides sámi associations. See it means a high and steep mountain and it is now the right. But when we have used the kven word for mountain, it has not been “kaisa”, but “vaara”. Ex: Kolsevaara. So I would prefer Yykeänvaarat.”
Andreassen says the word “vaara” is most likely also a loan from the sámi according to the Finnish etymological dictionaries. The word is only found in the north and east, in Finland, in Norway and Northern Sweden, i.e. in the area where it is also spoken the sami language.
– But the proposal to Skogstad’s okay, ” she says.
Skogstad will have the opportunity to speak his mind when navnesaken come out on hearing from the municipality. She has already sent a contribution to the Norwegian language council. Where she displays to several mountains in the Lyngen called “-vaara”, which Härkävaara, Kolsevaara and Jellivaara.
It is also possible to apply for money from the Norwegian language council in order to collect more names. This is something Konstanse Skogstad consider to help you get started.
also Read: Avinor must boast also in kven
