Anthropozoonymics in multi-ethnic area of Karelia in XV-XVII centuries

Karelia is a complicated ethnic zone and, therefore, the Slavic, Baltic-Finnish, and Lappish anhtropozoonymics, an important unit of onomastics of the pre-national period, are revealed in multiple documents of the XV-XVII centuries written in Russian and Swedish. The hierarchy of animals (domestic and wild) that reflects their importance in the world picture of ancient times is presented in the zoonimic “paradigm”. Congruent elements - the evidence of onomastic and cultural universals - are revealed by comparison of the naming systems in multilingual onomastics. Thus, the Slavic onomastics reflects most fully the interference processes on onomastic and appellative levels, and gives an idea of the features charactering relationships of the Russians and the Baltic-Finns on the territory of Karelia. The influence of scribes (copyists), as the bearers of Christian believes, is shown through correct reflection of this phenomenon. The studied period in onomastic system is the time of development and establishment of new orientations of choosing motives for naming. It is necessary to foresee the expansion of motivational ranks in Slavic and Baltic-Finnish anthropozoonymics: from the most ancient, reflecting mythological consciousness that ranks anthroponyms with the non-calendar personal names, to figurative, giving assessment to the denotat and transferring naming into the onomastic category of nicknames. Thus, anhtropozoo-nymic onomastics reflects ethno-linguistic processes in the regional picture of the world and dynamics of motivation paradigm.