Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/soomi

Etymology
From earlier ; cognate with 🇨🇬. Further etymology. Several theories have been proposed (mostly incompatible with the currently accepted proto-form *sämä), but none have been accepted.

One theory, proposed by Koivulehto among others, stated that the word originated from *šāma-, via Pre-Proto-Finnic  from, from ; the vowel correspondences being explained by reborrowing back and forth, possibly with a late Proto-Germanic borrowing. The progress would have roughly been >  &rarr; Pre-Proto-Finnic  (>, ) &rarr;  (or *sāma-, in view of ,  and dialectal , unless the Lithuanian word is a borrowing from Latvian) &rarr; (through Proto-Germanic?). Koivulehto originally proposed that would have been borrowed through Proto-Samic specifically. However, this theory assumes an improbable back-and-forth chain of borrowings, relying on too many unconfirmed assumptions, and thus has to be rejected (especially in light of current information).

Another theory proposed an origin from an earlier supposed, either borrowed from or from pre-. With the new information that the earlier form is actually, these too have to be rejected.

Antique ad-hoc proposals that the word is derived from or, or from  have long been considered untenable.

Noun

 * 1) person from Southwest Finland
 * 2)  ? Finn in  general