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Paldiski (?)
Town, port, and former Soviet nuclear submarine training center close to Tallinn, once entirely fenced off with barbed wire. Originally a Swedish settlement (many in Estonia at one time) called Rågervik (see below), the Russians adopted it as deep sea port and naval base in the 18th century, renaming it Балтийский Порт (Baltiyskiy, i.e. Baltic, Port) in 1762, which Estonians pronounced as Paldiski (see Pallasti and Hospidali), its official name since 1933. The original Swedish name, Estonianized to Rogerwiek, is probably derived from the nearby Suur- and Väike-Pakri islands’ earlier names of Stora Rågö and Lilla Rågö (multiple spellings), possibly (probably?) meaning (greater or smaller) rye island. Interestingly, where Estonians “couldn’t” pronounce German ‘b’, 16th-C Germans had a similar issue with French, also pronouncing ‘p’ instead of ‘b’. In Geoffroy Tory’s ground-breaking 1529 book Champfleury on the new art of typography, he said that instead of “Vela vne bien belle & bonne beste” (voilà une bien belle & bonne bête: now that’s a nice, good-looking animal), Germans said “Vela vne pien pelle & ponne peste” (peste, unfortunately, meaning ‘plague’).
Lennuse (Lennus)
Patagium. Yes, right... Lennus also means ‘in flight’ and, historically perhaps, absent or AWOL, so that’s not much help. What bothers me is that it seems as if they just bunged any ole thang that looks bird-like into the Lilleküla bird-name group and hoped for the best. See also Sule and Tiiva, they’re a bit iffy too. A patagium is the skin used as gliding-mechanism by bats, flying-squirrels and whatnot (maybe umbrellas too?). But, yes, let’s call it a bird. In the meantime, they don’t have a single street in Tallinn with the proper name of Estonia’s national bird, suitsupääsuke, the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica (see Pääsukese or Suitsupääsuse instead).
