TOPONYMS OF MONGOLIAN ORIGIN ON THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN AND NORTH KAZAKHSTAN BORDERLANDS

Abstract

The authors of this article have attempted to analyze the toponymic units of Kalmyk (Mongolian) origin of the territories of the Russian Federation adjacent to Kazakhstan, namely Omsk, Kurgan and Tyumen regions. The considered territory in the article is a zone of residence of many ethnic groups, therefore, the analysis of the geographical names objects will be interesting in terms of determining multilingual inclusions in the toponymic landscape. Naturally, the main layers of the onomastic vocabulary of the represented territories are Turkic and Slavic, but one cannot completely deny the presence of Mongol-Oirat elements in the toponymic landscape.

 The purpose of the article is to consider the Mongolian substrate elements, which are areas of geographical terminology or independent synonyms that have undergone phonetic and grammatical transformation over a long period. In the process of analyzing the toponyms of Mongolian origin of the territories under consideration, the most acceptable traditional techniques and methods (descriptive, historical, comparative, source and etymological, etc.) were used in the given article.

This observation determined the relevance of the study, which consists in identifying Kalmyk (Mongolian) elements in the toposystems of the Russian-Kazakh border area, since for any toponymic system with linguistic and cultural value, it is important to study the historical and cultural context of formation. Thus, the authors conclude that the preserved names of geographical objects of Mongolian origin indicate, first of all, the close contacts of the Kalmyks with neighboring Turkic tribes.

The research material has theoretical and practical significance. The study of Mongolian substrate elements will contribute to the understanding of ethnic migrations in the past and the processes of interaction between different ethnic groups living in border areas. The material presented in the article can be used in the compilation of onomastic information reference books and regional toponymic dictionaries. Moreover, the revealed materials and facts are of interest to linguists, historians, geographers, sociologists, ethnographers, local historians and educators.