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Subject and content of toponymy

Toponymy is a science about geographical names: their origin, semantic value, changes (transformation), writing, pronunciation and transmission from one language to another.

Geographical names are special words which are called toponyms.

A set of geographical names of any territory (district, region, edge, country) is represented by the term toponymy or geographical nomenclature (latin nomenklatura - a list of names). A person studying geographical names is called a toponymist.

The subject of researches in toponymy is geographical names which true meaning still remains to be an unsolvable puzzle. The matter is that the number of toponyms on the planet reaches astronomical figure, and nobody yet has accurately defined their quantities. According to preliminary calculations, in the certain countries there are ten and even hundreds of millions of them. Only one modest atlas for the teacher of high school contains over 20 000 geographical names. The Big atlas of the world includes more than 100 000 names of large geographical objects. Due to the estimates of American toponymists, in only one State of California 150 000 names are recorded (without names of streets in the cities of the state).

Toponyms is a reflection of people’s attitudes, cultures, lives, customs, their daily environment, psychological state and communications. Toponyms are an integral part of modern civilization and without them our existence is impossible, as they represent a peculiar toponymic environment in which generations of people are brought up and live for centuries.

Designating a set of geographical names with the word toponymy, we can distinguish separate groups (classes) of toponyms, which have their own designations.

Oikonima (greek oikos - habitation, dwelling) - names of settlements (cities, villages, settlements).

Gidronima (greek hydor - water) - names of hydrographic objects (seas, lakes, rivers, gulfs, reservoirs)

Oronima (greek oros - mountain) - names of forms of relief (ridges, tops, hills, plains, lowlands).

Godonima (greek hodos - way, road, street) - names of streets.

Agoronima (greek agora - square) - names of squares: Agora – the square in Athens, Plasa-de-Armas - the name of squares in many cities of South America.

Dromonima (greek dromos - running, movement) - names of roads, means of communication.

Theonima (greek theos - God) - names of religious, cult and mythological appointment: Santiago (Chile), Easter Island (Oceania).

Gedonima (greek hedone - fun) - names of a harmonious pronunciation, beautiful sounding; Joy bay, gulf of Happiness, etc.

Ethnonyms (greek ethnos - people, tribe) - the names reflecting names of tribes, people, nations: Ethiopia, Caracas (Venezuela).

Astronima (greek astron - a star) - names of heavenly bodies: constellation Southern Cross, Sirius.

Microtoponyms -a set of local geographical names of small objects (streets, tracts, etc.).

Macrotoponyms - names of extensive physical and geographical objects (mountains, rivers or specially allocated political and administrative territories), often not having accurately outlined borders (northern, central, southern): North, South, East Africa; Western and East Antarctica.

Metonima (greek metonimia - renaming) - renamed geographical names.

Gomonima (greek homos - identical) the names making an identical etymological sense, but having different form and sounding in different languages: Zamosce (Belarusian), Zamosts (Russian), Cambridge (English), Pontuaz (French); the province Natal (Portug.) "Christmas" (Africa), island Christmas (Oceania).

Antonyms - couples of names having the opposite meaning (new - old; upper - lower, etc.).

Homonyms - the namesakes that have different meaning, but sounding equally ( rus. a braid - a ledge of land, a long bunch of hair; an agricultural tool).

Antroponima (greek antropos – person, human) - names which have names or surnames of people in its base: Adelie Land (Antarctica), Falkland Islands (South America).

Horonima - the name of any administrative and territorial unit having certain borders - states, edges, districts, etc. (greek hros - a boundary sign, boundary).

It is almost impossible to find on Earth toponymic systems where would be no national (local) geographical terms. Very often the term itself directly becomes a toponym: Arabic "bahr" (river, sea) - Bahr-el-Abyad (The white river, i.e. White Neil); micronesian palau (island) - the archipelago of Palau in Oceania; Indian "atakama" (desert) - the Atacama Desert in South America. There are a lot of similar examples in toponymy.

The option when the term forms a synonym with definition isn't less widespread. For example, Portuguese "serra" (mountain, ridge) - Serra Gilthead ("gold mountains"); Indian "para" (water, river) - the river Parana ("the big river"); Hawaiian "mauna" (mountain) - Mauna Kea ("white mountain").

Existence of a bright sign in a surrounding landscape is the basis for many toponyms: Maseru (the capital of Lesotho - "the place of red sandstones"; Mount Kenya - "the white mountain”, the river Riu-Negru - "the black river"; the mountain Neblina - "foggy".

Very often the river and the city built on the river have the same name: the river Nairobi - the city of Nairobi; river Lilongwe - the city of Lilongwe; estuariya La Plata - the city of La Plata. What name was the first - whether a city is called after a river or a river was named after a city? It is difficult to answer this question, however geographers know that the settlements, as a rule, receive their names after the names of rivers on which coast they are located.

The geographer can explain such fact as changes of names of the large rivers throughout the flow. As a rule, the "multiplicity of names" of big direct water flows is explained by purely geographical reasons - change of the direction and character of a flow after an exit from mountains to the plain, resettlement of a large number of people replacing each other throughout all length of the river. For example, Neil receives the name of Bahr al Jabal ("mountain river") when it literally breaks on a flat East Sudanese hollow from the mountain plateau, and the huge number of the ethnic groups living on a coast of the great river has caused an existence of a set of names in different languages: Arabic El-Bahr; Coptic Earo, in language of a bugand - Cypru; in the Bari language - Tkutsiri, etc.

People always strove for clear names, conformable to their native language. Substantially reconsideration is a classical example of folk toponymy art. So, ancient Greeks rethought the Berber term "adrar" - the mountain in the Atlas (Greek "bearing"), having connected it with their mythology.

There is a set of examples when toponymy research of the geographical name helped greatly to archeologists or historians. The famous archeologist Heinrich Shliman in search of the place where had to be the legendary Troy described by Homer in his immortal "Illiad", paid his attention to the natural boundary located in the northwest of the peninsula Asia Minor, under the name Gissarlyk - in Turkish it is something like "the place of ruins", something close to Russian "ancient settlement". This place represented desert hills among the plain. Appearance promised not much. But the name which is often mentioned by locals gave an idea to Shliman that the mystery of Troy can be hidden there. Besides, he read "Illiad" very attentively, having traced the whole route of heroes of the Trojan war, and decided to begin excavation here. And the outstanding archeologist was not mistaken. After a while he made great discovery, and ancient Troy appeared before people after a two-thousand-year of non-existence. The reality of existence of the legendary city was proved to the world thanks to a very attentive attitude of the scientist to the true value of geographical name. It is one of the examples how toponymy helped to make the discovery of the century.

As a result it is possible to draw to a conclusion: toponymy - the scientific discipline developing on a joint of three sciences - linguistics, history and geography, using their methods in a complex.

At the lessons of geography it is necessary to use bright short stories about some toponyms. I will try to show this thought some examples of several names mentioned in the beginning of this section.

For example, Kilimanjaro - the volcanic massif of East Africa, the highest point of the continent. In language of Suahili the name Kilimanjaro consists of two words: Kilima (that means the mountain), "njaro" ("the deity of cold"). Therefore, Kilimanjaro means "the mountain of god of cold" or "the sparkling, shining mountain of god of cold".

Such name is bound to the fact that the top of Mount Kilimanjaro is covered with eternal ice. For inhabitants of the warm African continent the mountain top directed to heaven and covered with the sparkling snow blanket is always attractive and inaccessible, long since reckoned as the white mysterious deity dominating over open spaces of the African savanna with abundance of herbs and trees, ancient exotic animals and birds. It, certainly, made magic impact on the people living there, which served as the prime cause of such name.

After similar explanation of this unfamiliar word-name its sense becomes clear and comprehensible. In this case I confirm this thought with existence of several more mountain tops in the territory of the southern continents which make similar etymological sense. It is a volcano of Cotopaxi in the north of the Andes (though "shine" is bound to volcanic activity here) and a volcano of Mauna Kea (Hawaiian Islands) which name means the "sparkling mountain" or "the shining mountain (top)".

Let's give some more examples. The name of the capital of Tanzania Dar es Salaam consists of two Arabic words - "dar" (means house) and "salaam" (peace, rest). Therefore, in translation from Arabic this name means "the house of peace", "the house of rest" meaning peaceful place, point, the city where safety was promised under the law to all merchants from different countries who flocked off for trade to the east coast of Africa in those times.

Or one more example. It was in the year 1520. The Spanish expedition headed by Ferdinand Magellan floated along coast of South America, unsuccessfully searching for the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Southern sea (which is nowadays called the Pacific Ocean). During this swimming seafarers saw on the bank the Indians put in high leather boots, which are called "pato" in Spanish. That’s how the residents of this area got their name - Patagonians (people in high boots). Subsequently all territory of South Argentina received the name Patagonia.

The history of an origin of the name of Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, that in translation from Spanish means "world" is very interesting. At the time of Spanish conquista, during internecine war, that lasted several years in these places, thousands of Spanish people died. Two famous Spaniards Gonsalo Pissaro and Fernando Garcia could not divide between them the power over this earth. Royal troops had to interfere. And only in 1548 this distemper came to an end with G. Pissarro's execution. Right after in the place of the last battle there was founded a city which was named La Paz. The initial name of the city was rather long: Nuestra - Senior-de - La Paz which meant "Our Mother of God of the world". La Paz - the most mountainous capital of the world (3700 m). The capital of Ecuador Quito and the capital of Colombia Bogota are located highly in mountains.

Let's take the name of a volcano of Cotopaxi in the Andes. The name is Indian where coto means a pile, an eminence, a mountain, and paxi (it is read in the separate word "paksi") means "gloss", "shine", "sparkle". Having connected two concepts and having generalized them, we will receive etymological sense of the name Cotopaxi "shining" or "the sparkling mountain".

As a result of the historical use many toponyms were transformed (changed) therefore their initial sense is transformed beyond recognition. In this case, in order that this process was clear to children, it is possible to tell about transformation of some names of the cities and the capital of our state. Minsk (Menesk-Mensk-Minsk; Polotesk-Polotsek-Polotsk; Klechesk-Klectsk-Kletsk). A bright example of transformation is the name Gibraltar. In 711 the commander El-Tariq at the head of nine-thousand Berber army (Africa) crossed the passage Pillars of Hercules and landed at a foot of the mountain top in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. After that in commemoration of a feat of El-Tariq, Dzhebel-el-Tarik (Tarik's mountain) became the name of the mountain. The Arabic term "dzhebel" means the mountain. Subsequently the name was footheld also to the passage instead of old name the Pillars of Hercules. The centuries passed by, and the new name constantly changed: Dzhebel-el-Tarik, Dzhebel-Tar, Dzhiblartar (Gibraltar - the Russian form of this name). Or one more example. The old name of Egypt was Gaka-Pta (house of god Pta). Later Romans transformed this name to Egiptos. In this form of writing and pronunciation the name was included into all European and world languages (Egypt - Russian form).

It is necessary to be careful with "naive etymology", i.e. explanations outwardly reasonable, but in the attentive scientific analysis appearing wrong. For example, during an explanation of the name of the river Uruguay, state of Uruguay it is necessary to remember that according to one of versions the name of the state came from the name of the river which guarani Indians called Uru-guay where “ur” - species of wild birds, "guay" - a tail, i.e. "a bird's tail" or "the river of wild birds".

The etymology of the term "gaucho" (shepherds of plains in the South America) is very interesting. It means "the stylish guy" or "cavalier". Gauchos are very often compared with cowboys - shepherds of North America prairies. But gauchos are far more poetical, more romantic than cowboys. They love guitars, singing and improvisations. They never leave "style" - the handle of this cold weapon which sheath is fastened to a belt, any minute can appear in strong man’s hand. The gaucho treats his weapon respectfully as the Japanese Samurai treat their swords. And just in case, he also carries the revolver with him. An obligatory part of an attire of the gaucho – a long scarf which is wound around neck and even head. Another scarf - "chiripu" is wound around waist. Then a wide belt from soft leather is put on which is decorated with coins and a big silver buckle.

When studying geographical names their correct pronunciation is very important. There is one of the principles of transferring place names – and it is a local official form. According to this principle pronunciation and writing which is accepted in a state language of this country strictly remains. Let's give a number of examples: city of Siʹdney, but not Sidneʹy, state of Peru′, but not Peʹru, peninsula Floʹrida, but not Floriʹda, city of Anaʹdyr, but not Anadyʹr, lake Baʹlaton, but not Balatoʹn, city of Poʹtsdam, but not Potsdaʹm.

The local official form is inherently ideal, but is in practice unrealizable owing to the fact that there are hundreds of millions of names on Earth and their correct pronunciation is possible only for the computer. The official form of the capitals of some states of South America is too bulky in writing. Their full official form is used only in exceptional cases - diplomatic correspondence, during the filling of passports, delivery of credentials, etc.

Therefore for writing such multilayered names there is a principle of reduction. The capital of Argentina Buenos Aires is the reduced version. The full name of this city is Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Nuestra Señora de Santa María de los Buenos Aires. The full name of the city of Rio de Janeiro - San Sebastian Rio de Janeiro. The name of the capital of Bolivia La Paz is the simplified version too. The full name Pueblo - Nuestra Señora de La Paz. But splendor and verboseness of the name of the city of Bangkok, capital of Thailand is incomparable (Asia): Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit , which approximately means "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest". However even this is not the full name of the city. The full name of the city, according to dictionaries, consists of 346 letters.

There is one more group of geographical names, sounding and written differently in various languages, but identical in their semantic value. These are so-called gomonima. It would be always useful for school teachers to have the prepared list of names-gomonima (Greek homos - identical): Zamosce (belar.), Zamostye (russian), Cambridge (English), Pontuaz (french).A sense of all these names is only one - the city behind the bridge.

Or another example: Andes mountains (indian.) - means ledges, terraces, the mountain Gkhata (India) - ledges, terraces, the term shelf (English) - ledges, terraces. The well-known terms "lianos", "pampa", "savanna" bear a uniform value too - "open space" or "I see far".

In order these concepts were teachable to children, best of all is to give them a number of names of Slavic origin, close in sounding, pronunciation and etymological sense: Novgorod (Russian), Navagrudak (Belarus), Novigrad (Croatian).

There is a group of names having funny stories which have arisen under very unusual circumstances, at a meeting of Europeans with the indigenous population of different areas of Earth.

Let's give several examples. Having landed on east coast of Australia, the English traveler James Cook has been struck with a strange species of the surprising animal having paws of different length and jumping while moving. He has asked the natives what is the name of this animal. Natives have answered: "kangaroo". Under such name it has entered the world of scientific literature. Because of abundance of these animals on one of the islands to the South from Australia the British have given them a name - the Kangaroo. Subsequently it has become clear that the word "kangaroo" in the language of Australian natives means "I don't understand".

Or one more example. The names "Manaf" are typical for the former colonies of Africa that in Arabic means "I don't know, I don't understand" - aboriginals of North Africa answered French topographers like this.

In the archipelago Tierra Del Fuego on all world maps the largest gulf is called Tekenika. When the natives from the tribe Yagan at the time of F. Drake's swimmings (16th century) were asked about it’s name, yaganets answered: "tekenik" which meant "I don't understand". Attractive sounding of this word today is considered paradoxical. Along the gulf city settlements that have many restaurants, streets, shops, travel companies, rest houses carry the name "Tekenika" which seems a bit ridiculous.

In the south of Africa there are several city settlements called Nooitgedacht. This word is originally Dutch, and means “didn't expect", “didn't think", “didn't suspect". The Boer which have lodged here wanted to tell that they have found in these desert something unexpected, what they didn't think of. It was the exact place where they have found springs with cold and tasty water.

Such funny names can be found in North America (peninsula Yucatán), in Asia (Bylbapyn) and in other areas of Earth.