By Staffan Fridell
In: Ortnamnssällskapets i Uppsala årsskrift 2019
Summary
In the parish of Rättvik in Dalarna, on the edge of an area once colonised by Finnish settlers, there are three small lakes with names ending in -lassen: Avlassen, Mulassen and Tjällassen. Harry Ståhl argues that the final element here is a reduced form of *Ladhusio ‘barn lake’. He bases his interpretation of the names on forms recorded on maps from the late 17th century. There are a number of 18th-century records which Ståhl seems unaware of, however, attesting name forms ending instead in -laxen or -lax. The author therefore suggests that the final element in fact represents the Finnish word laks ‘inlet’.