Clarifying knowledge about early contacts of native speakers of the Proto-Finno-Volgaic language using neural networks

Yu. V. Normanskaja^ab, O. V. Goncharova<sup>a

a</sup> Ivannikov Institute for System Programming of the RAS
^b Institute of Linguistics

Abstract: The article explores the potential of artificial intelligence for discovering new etymologies. It consists of two parts: the first describes the structure of the neural network, while the second provides examples of new types of etymologies, including Erzya additions to existing well-known etymologies, separate Finnic-Erzya parallels, and new hypotheses regarding borrowings from Baltic and Germanic languages. The purpose is to demonstrate the kinds of new etymologies that can be proposed within a relatively short time frame for languages with an established etymological tradition through the use of a neural network. The study utilizes a Finnish-Russian dictionary containing 17,212 lexemes and an Erzya-Russian dictionary comprising 8,512 lexemes, both hosted on the LingvoDoc platform. A neural network capable of proposing new etymologies for dictionaries on the lingvodoc.ispras.ru platform has been developed. Using this tool, Finnish and Erzya dictionaries were processed, resulting in the identification of over 100 new etymologies. Among these, 16 etymologies are discussed in the article, pertaining both to native Finno-Ugric vocabulary and borrowings.

Keywords: neural network, Finnish language, Erzya language

Language: English

DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2025-37(6)-42