Nivkh toponyms in the Amur-Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East

This paper offers a survey of the indigenous toponymy of a limited geographical region covering the lower course of the river Amur and the island of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. Place names of this region come from both indigenous and colonial languages and reveal several historical layers. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gruzdeva, Ekaterina, Temina, Marina
Other Authors: Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), General Linguistics, University Management, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: THE ALTAIC SOCIETY OF KOREA 2020
Subjects:
Languages
toponym
Nivkh
Amur
Sakhalin
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10138/318889
Description
Summary:This paper offers a survey of the indigenous toponymy of a limited geographical region covering the lower course of the river Amur and the island of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. Place names of this region come from both indigenous and colonial languages and reveal several historical layers. The paper focuses on the toponyms which originate from the genetically isolated Nivkh (Ghilyak) language and examines the structural and semantic patterns of their derivation. The analysis of the material confirms that toponymy encodes important information about the ways in which indigenous peoples conceptualize the world and perceive their immediate ecological environment. Peer reviewed

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