Lestijärvi on pieni, noin 800 asukkaan kunta Keski-Pohjanmaalla Lestijoen latvoilla. Pitäjälle nimen antanut Lestijärvi, jonka rantamille nykyinen kuntakeskus on aikojen saatossa kehittynyt, sijaitsee lähellä Keski-Pohjanmaan, Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ja Keski-Suomen rajaa. Järvestä saa alkunsa Lestijoki, joka Toholammin ja Kannuksen kautta virrattuaan laskee Perämereen entisen Himangan kunnan alueella. Nykyisen Lestijärven alue on koko historiansa ajan ollut harvaan asuttua seutua, joka muodostuu suurelta osin autioista suo- ja metsämaista. Asutus on keskittynyt etupäässä Lestijärven rantamille.1 Lestijärven asutushistorian yleislinjoja on käsitellyt aiemmin Armas Luukko Suur-Lohtajan historian ensimmäisessä osassa. Vaikka Lestijärven osuus tässä laajempaa aluekokonaisuutta käsittelevässä teoksessa jää ymmärrettävästi varsin pieneksi, ovat monet Luukon havainnot ja päätelmät alueen keskiajan ja 1500-luvun ilmiöistä edelleen paikkaansa pitäviä. Luukko sivuaa teoksessa usein myös alueen nimistöä, mutta hänen tutkimusmetodinsa eivät vastaa enää nykyajan vaatimuksia.2 Koska muunkaan Keski-Pohjanmaan paikannimistöä ei ole tieteellisesti tutkittu, avaa Lestijärven nimistön tutkiminen uusia näkymiä myös koko maakunnan asutushistoriaan.%The small municipality of Lestijärvi, with around 800 inhabitants, is situated at the headwaters of Lestijoki River in Central Ostrobothnia. The first documents on the region's inhabitants date back to the 1560s, but very little is known about settlement or travellers in the region before that. However, it is possible to glean new information about medieval Lestijärvi from place names. The main principle of onomastics in the history of settlement is that people who come to a region also bring with them new names from their place of origin. If similarities are detected in the place names of two regions, it is probable that there has been some kind of interconnection between their inhabitants. Spreading of place names does not necessarily require migration; names may appear and remain as a result of regular visits, such as hunting and fishing expeditions. In addition to similarities between names, foreign place names-e.g., Swedish or Sami-may provide clues about earlier inhabitants. By comparing locations of names it is possible to estimate their relative age or sometimes even their actual age. Lestijärvi's oldest stratum of names and oldest settlement is Sämi, since the names of the region's most significant bodies of water are based on the Sami language. Examples include at least the lakes Lestijärvi (< Proto-Sämic leste 'leaf') and Vuohtajärvi (< Proto-Sämic vuocco, Northern Samic vuohccu 'narrow, watery bog'). The fact that the first inhabitants of Lestijärvi mentioned in official papers were Lauri and Heikki Lappalainen also points to a Sämi population. The next oldest stratum is Häme. Based on its spreading, the name Kannusjoki River-an old parallel name for Lestijoki River-is rooted in Häme. By the same token, place names appearing in Lestijärvi like Paljakonkangas, Koukoräme and Sääksjärvi also originate in Häme. Häme hunters' expeditions to Lestijärvi are also documented; they are mentioned in Jämsä's wilderness catalogue in the 1500s. The third stratum of names in Lestijärvi originates in Varsinaissuomi or Alasatakunta. This stratum includes names such as Pauhakoski, Ruonanen and Haukirauma. These names may have spread to this region along with Finnish inhabitants from the coast of Central Ostrobothnia when they made fishing expeditions to the headwaters of Lestijoki River. There are no names of Swedish origin in Lestijärvi. Many different layers can be detected in Lestijärvi's place names, which together depict the sequences of development in the region's history of settlement prior to the oldest documented data. Essentially, this development appears to have progressed in the same way as in other parishes at the headwaters of Ostrobothnia's rivers. Most of Lestijärvi's early settlers mentioned in official documents in the 1560s were from Eastern Finland, Savo or Karelia, but the region's place names indicate that people had lived and travelled in the region already long before them.
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