Ладога

Russian

Крепость в Старой Ладоге

Etymology

Inherited from Old East Slavic Ладога (Ladoga), through liquid metathesis probably from Old Norse *Aldoga (variant Aldeigja), of uncertain origin. Theories include:

Theories

• borrowing from Finnish *aaldokas (modern Finnish aallokas, compare Karelian aaltokas), from aalto (“wave”). The lake is known for storms.
• if Old Norse Aldeigja is original, from Finnish *Alodejoki, meaning "lower river"; this would require the name to have originally referred to the river.
• from Old Norse *Aldauga, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“old”) + *augô (“eye”), thus "old source/spring" (as the word for "eye" is used to mean "water source" or "water spring" in e.g. some Icelandic and Estonian words).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɫadəɡə]

Proper noun

Ла́дога • (Ládoga) f inan (genitive Ла́доги, nominative plural Ла́доги, genitive plural Ла́дог, relational adjective ла́дожский)

1. Ladoga (a lake in Russia, east of St. Petersburg). The largest freshwater lake in Europe.
2. Staraya Ladoga (a rural locality and former town in Volkhovsky district, Leningrad Oblast, Russia)

Declension

Declension of Ла́дога (inan fem-form velar-stem accent-a) 

	singular	plural
nominative	Ла́дога Ládoga	Ла́доги Ládogi
genitive	Ла́доги Ládogi	Ла́дог Ládog
dative	Ла́доге Ládoge	Ла́догам Ládogam
accusative	Ла́догу Ládogu	Ла́доги Ládogi
instrumental	Ла́догой, Ла́догою Ládogoj, Ládogoju	Ла́догами Ládogami
prepositional	Ла́доге Ládoge	Ла́догах Ládogax

Synonyms

• Ла́дожское о́зеро (Ládožskoje ózero)
• Ста́рая Ла́дога (Stáraja Ládoga)

References

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “Ладога”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress