Abstract
The article comprises a linguistic and etymological analysis of the ethnonyms referring to the Saami / Lapps (represented by the Finnish exonym Lappi and endonym Saami). The ethnonyms have been presented in the light of ancient, medieval and renaissance historiography. The author discusses the dominant Western European and Russian hypotheses about the etymology of various names used to describe the Saami people both in the past and presently and shows their geographical coverage. The analysed material proves that at the pre-scientific stage certain semantic and word-formation motivations were ascribed to various ethnonyms, which had been determined by the specific vision of the world of the tribal communities. The search for verba primigenia does not lead to any clear conclusions. Itineraria, chronicles, maps and sagas served as sources for the study. The factual material (reproduced for centuries) contains ethnographic information about the peoples of Scandinavia.
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