The Čuhti

{{Artikkeli |sivun nimi=The Čuhti |kieli=englanti |id=1070

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Corresponding forms for the legendary name for foemen čuđit are found in all Saami languages. Apart from North Saami, the singular form is invariably *čuđđi. It is likely, if not absolutely certain, that this word is in some way or another related to the (Old) Russian tšud*, which was used to refer to some Baltic-Finnish people (or to Baltic-Finns generally). This would appear to be a word that has passed between languages, but its origin and the direction of borrowing have sharply divided scholars.

According to one explanation, čuhti, čuđđi is of Saami origin and can be related to the Lule Saami word tjåhte tension wedge (the corresponding form in North Saami would be *čohti). The word has the same wedge reference as in the Baltic-Finnic tribal name represented by the Finnish vatjalainen Votic (derived from the word *vakja wedge). This explanation also connects it with the Finnish word suude tension wedge, the phonetic form of which may have been influenced by confusion with derivatives of the word family suu mouth. The use of the word for a wedge in tribal names may be based on the settlement of such a tribe or tribes in the wedge-shaped end of the Gulf of Finland and/or the delta of the River Neva. In view of the fact that the Estonian equivalent of the word suude also has the meaning of mouth of a river, and the Finnish words suu mouth and suukko kiss have equivalents in Karelian that begin with the sound t, it is by no means impossible that the word čuđđi was borrowed into Saami and Russian from the original name of the Tšuudi people (originally *tšūda(lainen) inhabitant of the Gulf of Finland or the mouth of the Neva.

According to another explanation, the word is of (Old) Russian origin and can be connected with the Russian word čužoj strange. In other words, it is the name of a people whom the Russian regarded as strangers. Previously it was widely thought that the (Old) Russian čud was a loan word from Gothic Þiuda people, i.e. a word meaning the Goths or some other Germanic tribe (and that čužoj was an adjective derived from it), but this is unlikely in the light of the latest research. For reasons of phonetic correspondence, it is also unlikely that the Saami čuhti (*čuđđi) is cognate with the Finnish sota war. A corresponding related form of this word may however be Tziåd war, which appears in [[Schefferus, Johannes|Schefferus} work Lapponia (1674). This word, which has since disappeared and is not found in Modern Saami, may have been confused with čuhti (*čuđđi) and affected its pronunciation or meaning. This is possibly indicated by the Inari Saami tjudålmai soldier, which appears in J. Fellmann's nineteenth century notes; the initial element tjud(e) would appear to correspond phonetically with the modern Inari Saami word čuđe enemy but to be semantically connected to suàti war, which like the North Saami soahti is a loan word from the Finnish sota.

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