Baikal

[Sergey Karpukhin]

Dear Professor Dingley and List,

In addition to Vasmer's etymology: Some think that Baikal comes from the
Mongolian Baigal ("rich fire") or Baigal Dalay ("big sea"). 

It seems to me that both "голубое око Сибири" and "светлое око Сибири" are
occasional metaphors, rather than fixed phrases. I was born and lived for 22
years in Irkutsk, and I've heard Baikal referred to as "голубая жемчужина
Сибири" and "священное море" more often than "око." But again, these
appellations are used regionally, I'd expect a person from St Petersburg to
have some difficulty understanding what I mean.

Best,
Sergey Karpukhin
Charlottesville, VA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of John Dingley
> Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 10:00 AM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Baikal
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Lake Baikal (< Turkic bai = rich + kЖl = lake, according to Vasmer)
> is also known in Russian as 1) goluboe oko Sibiri, and
> 2) svetloe oko Sibiri. Typing those in Russian into Google, one gets
> 82 hits for goluboe and 101 for svetloe. Does anyone know which of
> these two appellations is used by people living in the vicinity of
> Lake Baikal?
> 
> John Dingley
> 
> ------------
> http://dlll.yorku.ca/jding.html
> 
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