Next we find what looks like three shoals called Oiusaar (meaning unclear: isle of ‘reason’ or ‘sense’?), Kõuesaar (thunder) and Ilosaar (beauty), the ‑saar ending indicates that they are islands. Yes, underwater islands. But next to a shipping lane or port that’s as good as... We can ignore the Central Tallinn coastline which, from a boulder nomenclature point of view, is extremely disappointing, and that’s it! We’ve done Tallinn. All that waffle for just five karis. Never mind, we carry on undaunted. Nearby locations will, I’m sure, provide the excitement we seek... On the other side of Pirita, on the west of Rohuneeme there are, in order, Rivikari (‘line’ or ‘row’? kari, poss. a shoal), Lõunatkari (‘south’ kari with an odd ‘t’, poss. typo) and Põhjakari (‘north’ kari, these 2 may be single erratics, felsenmeers or shoals), Mikumadal (short for Michael’s lowland? poss. a shoal and I include non-kari names when the geographical feature could, according to reason, be designated by kari), Porda kari (other than a computer port, the only word that starts with pord‑ is a dated term for prostitute, read into that what you will, but this may well be a local adaptation of international sailor-speak, poss. a felsenmeer), Virukari (see Viru, poss. ditto, vaguely), Pihlakakari (see Pihlaka, with a Rohuneeme in front to differentiate it from the Pihlakakari 500 m NW on Kräsuli) and lastly, before I get to Russia, Kabelikari (chapel or cemetery) on the E of Rohuneeme which could be a point, shoal, felsenmeer or who knows what, and Kure kari, both of the moderate protuberance species. Before we leave the mainland for the unbecoconutted isles of the Baltic, we take a quick look at the Suurupi poolsaar, in Harku maakond (county) with its fair suburban names of Oktett, Konstruktor, and Kratt‑3 and Kratt‑4 (Kratt‑1 was already taken by Haabersti, and Kratt on its own by Pirita, and is an interesting name in its own right: this vaguely golemesque creature was created by its owner out of wisps of hay, sauna whisks or random bits ’n’ bobs and brought to life by a contract with the devil and payment of 3 drops of blood [cheats used blackcurrant]; the creature’s main task was to nick things for the owner, grain, loose change, etc., zipping around on its own internal combustion system [but see November, film by Rainer Sarnet after book by Andrus Kivirähk], the trouble was, and there always is, that the Kratt had to keep on doing his master’s bidding or would start doing things against him, so it would be asked to do impossible tasks such as explain the Estonian saav kääne [translative case] to a duck and, inevitably failing, would burst into flames and self-destruct [see Komeedi], the same term is used as modern metaphor; essentially, if you have a problem, Kratt will resolve it and today’s Estonians define it as “an artificial intelligence system based on a software algorithm that is autonomous, learnable, and performs traditional human actions” [en.kratid.ee]; fine, but why not call it a pixelpixie? And, for anyone old enough to remember, a Womble is a prügikratt, or rubbishkratt. Sorry, I tend to wander off at times...) where there are not many names on the west or north, but moving south-eastwards there is a Tilgu kivikülv just south of Tilgi port which looks much the same as Suurehagi kari and that’s about it; likewise further east (OK, I will go a bit closer to Russia), the Rohuneeme poolsaar has a few more Pikakari-like features such as Vinnuniidi kari (rough, lumpy thread kari?), and Mätta kari (mattock kari), which looks like an island and so, yes, let’s look at the islands: starting with Aegna, there’s Peldikukari (privy, outhouse, bogs kari), Kodukari Ots (home kari point) which looks very similar to the Tagaheinamaa Ots (back meadow point) nearby or the Karnapi Nukk (ledge) in the south (same shape, same shoreline, same boulderization), followed by Kalavälja kari, (see Kalavälja), Punakari, Sitakari and Kliuhkakari (see Kurikneeme), all 3 minor-bulge-like with few boulders, then Vahekivi (in-between rock), perhaps a shoal, and Luhekari/Lõhekari (low-lying?, perhaps a localization of its other name, salmon kari), where all the kari placenames seem to indicate moderate protuberances, as do 4 on Kräsuli: Sadamakari (harbor kari, similar shape to Pikakari), Numme kari (term unidentified, suspiciously similar enough to 2 other names on the island, Nõmme and Nurme, to suggest some form of historical error or variant), the above-mentioned Pihlakakari and Pendikse kari (musty? kari) while the solitary Angerjakari (see Angerja) a quarter of a kilometer SW of the island looks like a shoal. To the west, Naissaar, despite its strong Swedish influence, there are plenty of kari placenames (and I will spare you all the translations): Flensborgi kari, Krivasohnakari, Kassarmukari, Kesksilla kari (with solitary boulders Lestakivi and Aulikivi ±150 m N & S), one Toominganukk, Sinkarka kari, Hülkari (aka Hülgekari & Hylkari), Köstrikari, Veskikari, Sitakari (again!), Kiinikari (see Kiini, aka Kinkarel), Vallikari (aka Vallkarel, where karel contains a suggestion of roughness) and Kabelikari all 3 of which have a corresponding kivi a couple of hundred meters distal from the point, then Vanapõllukari (not a very pronounced spit), Õunakari (not a spit at all), Mädasadama kari, Akseli kari, Klausi kari, Akerskarel (Pöllukari), clear translation here in the first part: åker (Sw.) = põld:põllu (Est.) = field, but perhaps just an alternative pronunciation for the second), Saunakari, Jänkesekari (aka Haraudden [udde, Sw. headland; udden, Sw. the headland]), Arvõrgukari. Kihnu, another Swedish-influenced island, has Uusrava, Suurõkivirava ots, Leibrä rava where rava means a rocky low-lying part of the sea, but there are 2 areas further offshore, Mägedeliiva rava and Isärava, while most of the spits/headlands ending in ‑nina look the same as those in ‑kali on Naissaar and Rohuneeme, the same applies to those on the west coast ending in ‑siär, ‑kiär, and ‑ssuar, all of which are possible contenders for an Estonian pronunciation of Swedish skär, skerry or islet. The islands of Vörmsi, Hiiumaa, Muhu and Saaremaa to the west of Estonia offer little help, the place-names there are too Nordic. I will close with one final example, Gretagrund, a shoal, fully underwater, a few km SE of Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga, which, according to some, is a kari. One of the reasons I have lingered so long on this essentially trivial word is the way it reveals language change, and change is the very essence of language. Linguists use concepts such as Swadesh lists (i.e. lists of ‘universal’ basic vocabulary [I, you, woman, eat, fish...] in discussions of language stability. Basically, the more fundamental a word, the more likely it is to resist change: it’s used all the time. Words like ema, mother, kivi, stone and vesi, water, etc. share the same root and have closely-related cognates in nigh-on all Finnic languages, while words entering the vocabulary at a later stage, e.g. tänav, street, maps to tanhua, cowpen or cowpath in Finnish, tanvas or tanhava, roofed-over stock-rearing barn or stable in Ingrian (aka Izhorian), and tannaz, barn or cattleyard in Veps (see Tanuma). Simply, words kept apart will diverge, all the more so when irregularly used. So, to conclude, what is a kari? First of all, let’s look at what it’s not:

1. Skerry: a small, rocky island – linguistically closest to the term and derived from Old Norse *skari, cf. Sw. skär, but kari’s frequent association with erratic boulders suggests the presence of these rather than a rocky, extension-of-the-mainland substrate
2. Islet: a little island – ditto
3. Promontory: a high point of land projecting into the sea – it’s not necessarily high
4. Mull: Scottish synonym of promontory – нет
5. Naze: English synonym of promontory – nein
6. Ness: Scottish synonym of promontory – non
7. Reef: a chain or range of rocks, sand, etc. at or near the water surface – a reef suggests more a notion of length than, a kari doesn’t
8. Shelf: a reef, shoal or sandbar – ditto, generally too wide to match, except the acception of shoal
9. Stack: a large vertical column of rock in the sea – wrong type of geological formation: a stack is of the same rock as the mainland it once was part of
10. Foreland: a headland or “zone adjacent to a mountain chain where material eroded from it is deposited” – not adjacent, and as to mountain chains in Estonia, see Mäe

While EES gives vee alune või pisut üle veepinna ulatuv kivine kõrgendik meres or “rocky plateau in the sea below or slightly above the water”, which is all very nice but doesn’t give us a name, EKSS throws a spanner in the works with its example of Plaan, abielu jooksis karile ülek, or “the plan / marriage ran aground” or “the plan / marriage was on the rocks”, and Saagpakk translates karil as ‘on the rocks’. However, the relatively recent website https://sonaveeb.ee/ notes among its various definitions that it’s ebamäärane, korratu hulk inimesi vm olendeid (a vague, disorderly group of people or other creatures), the essence of which being the ‘vague, disorderly group’. A kari is thus, in order: 1) a small extension of the coastline into the sea, generally associated with erratic boulders; 2) a blockfield in the sea, what I call a felsenmeer, at a depth shallow enough to be completely or partially visible and hazardous to shipping; 3) a shoal. I therefore suggest a new, definitive translation of the term: kari in Estonian is kari in English, and let the bastards sort it out themselves. And for those, incidentally, with really nothing better to do, kari is a semordnilap for Irak... For other erratic-themed locations, see Rändrahnu and Kivi.