Sugulussõnavara mitmekesisus ja levikumustrid eesti regilauludes

The diversity and distribution patterns of kinship vocabulary in Estonian runosongs This article examines the core kinship vocabulary found in Estonian runosongs, focusing on the distribution of stems and stem variants of four key kinship terms: mother, father, sister, and brother. The kinship vocabulary in Estonian runosongs displays remarkable diversity, particularly in the terms denoting female and male parents. Among the analyzed terms, those referring to mother are the most frequent. In contrast, terms for sister and brother exhibit limited variation, represented by only two or three distinct stems. The regional distribution pattern reveals clear differences between the North and South Estonian language areas. The coastal regions of western and northern Estonia stand out – the terms eit (mother) and taat (father) occur more frequently in runosongs from these areas. The analysis highlights a consistent differentiation between North and South Estonian across all the studied terms. However, in the case of eit/ema and taat/isa, this division does not align with the current main dialect boundary but lies further north. The distribution of õde/sõsar (sister) and vend/veli (brother), on the other hand, corresponds more closely to the historical North and South Estonian dialect boundary observed in contemporary dialects. Kinship terms with a broader Finnic distribution have been better preserved in South Estonian runosongs.