Ko par Latvijas dienvidaustrumu pierobežas vietvārdiem stāsta 1542. gada Livonijas–Lietuvas dižkunigaitijas robežu apraksts

ENThe 1542 description of the Livonian-Grand Duchy of Lithuania boundaries refers to the area of the present-day Latvian-Lithuanian border to the east of Kurcums, as well as the entire Latvia-Belarus border. The document contains a wealth of toponymical material together with geographical descriptions, which help to identify the place names mentioned in the book on a modern map. A significant part of the document is taken by descriptions of various local border conflicts of the first half of the 16th century with a large number of personal names, which show not only the tradition of using personal names of their time, but also demonstrate how a personal name becomes a place name. Most of the lake names mentioned in the description (over 50 in total) have changed little to the present day; the names of the rivers are mostly derived from the names of the lakes or are even identical to them. Thanks to these well-recognisable place names, the route description gives a clue to the other hydronyms and their localisation. Of particular note is lake Kurcum, from which the border description starts, which is not the present lake Kurcuma ezers in Medumi municipality, but lake Kalinaukas in Lithuania, 1 km from the Latvian border. The current lake Grendzes ezers is called Arkležers in the description, Zemgales ezers – Guļbina, Kočerginas ezers – Petriņa lake, etc. Confirmation of these names can also be found in 19th–20th century sources; however, they have not either lasted until today, or only a few remember them. In cases where a modern hydronym is an obvious innovation, but the older one has not yet been completely forgotten, the possibility of restoring it could be considered. It was also suggested that attempts should be made to revive the old names of objects whose names have been lost today.The article analyses the place names of 1542 mainly from a geographical point of view, focusing on the localisation of the objects. However, the forms of recording ancient names may also be of interest to linguists studying the etymology of place names. The aim of this article is therefore not only to show how old many place names in the south-eastern Latvian border area are, but also to encourage more in-depth and multifaceted research into this source. Keywords: South-Eastern border of Latvia, place names, description of the 1542 boundaries, Kurcuma ezers. [From the publication]

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