Names
Saiakang (0)
White bread passage / vaulted archway. First recorded in 1370 as iuxta forum prout itur ad sanctum Spiritum (next to the market/square, through which you go to the Holy Spirit) then 1430 gang van hilgen gheste to deme markede wart (passage from the Holy Ghost to the market [MLG wart = -wards in Eng.]). Over time, the passageway has run through a number of names reflecting its raison d’être: bread. Russian: Хлѣбный пер. (Khlebny per., bread lane, see Intro for old Rus. spelling), Булочный ряд (Bulochnyy ryad, Bakery row) and Бабий пер., putting various cats among pigeons where Бабий (Babiy) can be ‘just’ a familiar / dismissive term for women or ‘skirt’, or even designate a housewife’s workspace in front of the stove (cf. Härjapea). German: Der Gang (walk / passage) or Weckengang (20th C, Wecken = various types of currant bun), with des heiligen Geistes Gang (Holy Ghost passage) still used mid-19th C. Estonian: earliest name sai kang (1732), later losing its Germanic consonance and renamed Saia käik from 1950-1987. Shoulda kept it, sounds like ‘cake’.
Säina (Säinas)
Ide (from Swedish id < idh, gleaming, shimmering, etc.) or orfe (from German orvo from Latin orphus, sea fish [cf. Greek ὀρφώς], odd, it being freshwater), Leuciscus idus. Fish of the Year in Austria 2004. German, alongside its own Orfe, may well set the record for alternative names, with at least 46 ranging through Aland, Gängling, Gänzling, Göse, Häwt, Jesen, Juntling, Mähne, Münne, Nennen, Nerfling, Tapar, Topar and all the way to unechter Goldfisch, or unreal (OK, false) goldfish (although multiple local name variants is common to most plants and animals). Spawning occurs towards the end of Q1, with small eggs, ±2 mm, attached to gravel, weed and stones in shallow water. For ecological reasons, swimmers, therefore, beware the ides of March. Part of a fish group. See also Teivi.
Sakala (Sakala)
Former province in southern Estonia, dating back to 12th century. Title of Estonian language newspaper daily first published in Viljandi in 1878 by Jakobsoni C.R.. Street name replaced present-day Pärnu (formerly Väike-Pärnu maantee [1908-1936], and Veike-Pärnu uulits [1885]) in 1936, and flirted (1959-1960) with Ugandi, the name (oddly, never used before or since) of a one-time independent country in the region of present-day SE Estonia with the eminently unpronounceable MLG designation of Uggn. But then again its synonym Ugala was used elsewhere instead.
Saku (Sakk)
1) Tree stump (cf. Sagari); 2) Wisp of straw; 3) Bunch/Cluster of fruit or nuts; 4) Archaic term for bag [curiously, EKSS gives sakk:saki, and both this and its commoner word, kott:kotti, are loans from German: sac (sack, bag) from OHG (see Sulevimägi), and either kuđđan from OHG/OLG(?) or kǖdel (pouch) from MLG, leading to Eng. cod, i.e. scrotum (think ‘codpiece’), and kotti in certain dialects of Finland, land of gender equality: scrotum, uterus or placenta]; 5) More realistically: town close to Tallinn, its brewery and beer. One of the group of streets named for stations on the Tallinn-Türi Kitsarööpa line. See Kiisa.
Salaoja (Salaoja)
Sub-base layer, (lit. secret/hidden) stream. One of the various layers of highway construction allowing outflow of water from beneath the base layer and surface course. Another new (2023) and as yet unbuilt street. Unusual street-name, but kudos to engineers, who once taught us fire.
Salme (Salm)
Seemingly derived from a maritime term for a deep, narrow strait or sound between two islands (see also Väina). There is a Suur salm (great strait) in greater Tallinn between the islands of Aegna and Kräsuli (from Swedish Gräsö, grass island). And in Saaremaa, where Silm tends to occur more frequently than Salm, there is a Vahase silm, aka Vahase salm, aka Vahasuu (vaha = wax, suue:suudme = estuary, embouchure, muzzle of a gun, etc.) between Abruka and Vahase islands south of Kuressaare. Street formerly known as Militärstraße (1913) or Военная ул. (1907), both meaning military, then Sõja, war, till 1951. But also parallel to Linda and hence another Kalevipoeg character. Salme was a hen who incubated the grouse’s egg from which her ‘sister’ Linda hatched, then married the Youth of the Stars and disappeared from the story (related to Latvian goddess Saule, sun goddess and spinner of sunbeams?). However, hundreds of other Salme stories existed pre Kreutzwald. Saaremaa’s Salme is also location of what is so far the earliest evidence of vikings, two ships, built maybe 650-700, used for burial and dated to around 700-750. The kick-off for the viking age has generally been accepted as the attack on Lindisfarne in Northumbria, UK, in 793, but evidence from the ship burial puts this 50+ years earlier.
