History and riddles of place names

Everyone knows: streets, houses, towns and villages, as well as various natural objects have their names. However, not everyone knows that such discipline as toponymy deals with their research. It is a science that studies geographical names with all their features.

Subject of study

The range of interests of this field of knowledge includes such aspects as the history of origin and transformation, the reasons for the change, the variants of writing, translation and pronunciation, myths and legends associated with this or that "name". Toponymy seems a secondary science only at first glance. Many historical data on the various peoples and tribes that originally inhabited a particular territory, become clear after the study of the names they left. However, this process is two-sided: some riddles of toponymy can not be understood without studying the history and culture associated with them and often determining the specific features of the names of particular objects.

Value

The importance of toponymic objects and their study is easy to understand if you look at the maps. Without geographical names, they become useless. Without them, it is also very difficult to navigate the terrain, especially on an unfamiliar territory. Phrase: "Go to the gray house, turn left and walk another five meters to the north" - many can cause bewilderment. And according to the names of the streets, almost everyone is accustomed to navigate. The world without toponyms (as the objects of this science are designated) would be quite different, as well as without their study.

This is well illustrated by one historical legend. Henry Schliemann, one of the founders of field archeology, set himself the task of finding the ruins of ancient Troy, the city described by Homer, and thereby prove its existence. During the search for a suitable place for excavation, he drew attention to the Gissarlik hill, located in Turkey. Its name is roughly translated as "a place of ruins". This prompted the archaeologist to begin his search here. As is known, Schliemann was not mistaken: under the thick layer of earth the ruins were found.

At the junction

Toponymy is a science that studies geographical names from all sides. Of course, she uses data from a wide variety of disciplines. Understanding the origin, meaning of the word, its meaning for the indigenous population, as well as the events behind it, arises from the synthesis of historical, geographic and linguistic data. If we return to the example with Schliemann, all these aspects are perfectly illustrated in it. Historical "reference" and data on the geographical location were taken by an archaeologist from Homer and from other sources. The translation of the name of the hill (the contribution of linguistics) also played a prominent role in the search.

Many riddles of toponymy can be explained on condition of understanding the general principles of constructing a name. Let's consider some of them.

The simplest version

Historical toponymy knows a lot of cases, when the name of the locality used the term denoting its geographical features. There are many similar examples on the map. This is the archipelago of Palau in Oceania ("Palau" in the translation from Micronesian means "islands"), and the South American desert of Atacama ("desert" in translation from the Indian). Often, the name of the object is formed by attaching to a similar term of some epithet. There are also many examples: the Serra Dorada mountains in Portugal (the "golden mountain"), the Parana river in India (the "big river"), Mauna Kea in Hawaii ("white mountain") and so on.

Some toponyms are transferred from one object to another. A common example of this is the names of cities and rivers. In many cases it is difficult to understand which object is the source of the "name". Nairobi, Moscow, Lilongwe, La Plata - all these are simultaneously the names of rivers and cities.

Changeable

The history of toponymy is full and examples where the names changed over time. Quite often this was the result of the arrival of new tribes, conquerors or internally displaced persons on the terrain. Human consciousness is arranged in such a way that it tries to make everything unfamiliar more clear to itself. This also happens with foreign-language toponyms. New residents take a geographical name, which they often encounter, and transform in their own way. Thus, the ancient Greeks rethought Berber "adrar", which means "mountain", in Atlas (translated from Greek as "bearer"). The new toponym has organically entered the mythological system of Antiquity.

It happens that the name of an extended geographical object is not the same in different parts of it. It is not uncommon for rivers. Such riddles of toponymy are easily explained: the main reason for changing the river name, as a rule, lies in the transformation of the nature of its flow. Bahr el-Jebel ("river of mountains") is the name of the Nile in the place where it thunderously rushes from the mountain peaks to the East Sudan plain.

In addition, different peoples living on the banks of one river give it their names. For the Nile, it is El-Bahr, given by the Arabs, the Coptic of Earo, Cyprus and Tkutsiri - in the language of Bunaga and Bari, respectively.

Memory of the past

The toponymy of a word often encounters an incorrect interpretation of certain names associated with the lack of certain knowledge in the field of their etymology (origin). This process is similar to the reinterpretation by foreign settlers of foreign-language terms, which was mentioned above. Vrazhsky lane in Moscow, according to many, witnessed some clashes with the enemy. The name is associated with the word "enemy". However, this assumption is erroneous: "vrazhsky" means "ravine". It was this meaning that bore this word until the 18th century.

There are also many examples when toponyms told historians about the past. Names often reflect the way of life and the characteristics of the population. According to them, one can judge the prevailing type of activity in a particular territory or its belonging, for example, to the lands of princes or landlords. Sometimes the designations of the area are associated with the natural and climatic features that were characteristic of it some time ago. Riddles of toponyms often arise when there is no information about the past of the place and it is difficult to compare the "name" and the territory designated by it.