ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Oleg V. Smirnov
Ural Federal University
Ekaterinburg, Russia

The “Mari” Hypothesis in the Study of the Toponymy of the Oka and Unzha Rivers and the Western Borders of the Old Mari Toponymic Area

Voprosy onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics), 2015, Issue 2, pp. 7–61 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2015.2.001

Received 28 March 2015

Abstract: Referring to toponymic data, the article aims to verify the hypothesis of the western origin of the Mari people who, presumably, migrated to their present-day settlement area from the territory of Kostroma Region and the Oka River basin. The author critically examines the possibility of Mari origin of some place names in the territory in question, namely, of hydronyms ending in -ingir'. To verify the “Mari” hypothesis, the author uses the method of ethnic modelling which consists in the isolation of typical toponymic stems in present-day Mari toponymy and searching for their traces in the substrate toponymy of the studied area. The analysis leads to conclude that it is unlikely that the toponymy of the western part of Kostroma Region and the Oka River basin could be of Mari origin. The area of distribution of typical Mari place names does not display any evidence of Mari substrate or superstrate to the west of the Kerzhanets River basin. On the Western bank of the Volga, some traces of substratal Mari toponymy can be found along the banks of the Sura River as far as the city of Alatyr, however, no Mari “residue” can be found west of the Sura. The absence of Mari substrate in the toponymy of the Oka and Unzha Rivers area makes it possible to refute the hypothesis of the western origin of the Mari and their migration from the area of Gorodets and Dyakovo archaeological cultures. At the same time, the study of phonetic correspondences reflected in place names reveals evidence of close kinship of the substratal dialects of Western Kostroma Region, the low Oka and Klyazma Rivers area with the Mari (Proto-Mari) language.

Key words: Finno-Ugric languages, Volga Finnic languages, Mari language, Mari substrate toponymy, Kostroma Region, Volga-Oka interfluve area, etymology, ethnogenesis of the Mari, Merya, Gorodets culture, Dyakovo culture

References

Bereczki, G. (2013). Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Tscheremissischen (Mari). Der einheimische Wortschatz [An Etymological Dictionary of the Mari Language. The Inherited Lexicon]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Bubrikh, D. V. (Ed.). (1949). Erziansko-russkii slovar' [The Erzya-Russian Dictionary]. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo inostrannykh i natsional'nykh slovarei.

Dal, V. I. (1989). Tolkovyi slovar' zhivogo velikorusskogo iazyka [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language]. (Vols. 1–4). Moscow: Russkii iazyk.

Fasmer, M. (1986–1987). Etimologicheskii slovar' russkogo iazyka [The Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language]. (Vols. I–IV). Moscow: Progress.

Fedotov, M. R. (1970). Zametki o finno-ugorskikh elementakh v nekotorykh geograficheskikh nazvaniiakh Chuvashii [Notes on Finno-Ugric Elements in Some Geographical Names of the Chuvashia]. In Sovetskoe finno-ugrovedenie, 2, 131–134.

Galkin, I. S. (Ed.). Slovar' mariiskogo iazyka [A Dictionary of the Mari Language]. (1990–2005). (Vols. 1–10). Yoshkar-Ola: Mariiskoe kn. izd-vo.

Gordeyev, F. I. (1979–1983). Etimologicheskii slovar' mariiskogo iazyka [An Etymological Dictionary of the Mari Language]. (Vols. 1–2). Yoshkar-Ola: Mariiskoe kn. izd-vo.

Gruzov, L. P. (1969). Istoricheskaia grammatika mariiskogo iazyka. Vvedenie i fonetika [Historical Grammar of the Mari Language. Introduction and Phonetics]. Yoshkar-Ola: Mariiskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo.

Ivanova, A. S. (2005). Tipologiia chuvashskikh gidronimov [Typology of Chuvash Hydronyms] (Doctoral dissertation). Cheboksary: Chuvash State University.

Kazantsev, D. E. (1985). Formirovanie dialektov mariiskogo iazyka (v sviazi s proiskhozhdeniem mariitsev) [The Formation of the Mari Dialects and the Ethnogenesis of the Mari]. Yoshkar-Ola: Mariiskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo.

Keresztes, L. (1986). Geschichte des mordwinischen Konsonantismus [The History of Mordvinian Consonantism] (Vol. 2). Szeged: Universitas Szegediensis de Attila Jósef Nominata.

Khalikov, A. Kh. (2011). Osnovy etnogeneza narodov Srednego Povolzh'ia i Priural'ia [Basics of the Ethnogenesis of the Peoples of the Middle Volga Region and the Western Urals]. Kazan: Institut istorii im. Sh. Mardzhani AN RT, Foliant.

Lehtiranta, J. (1989). Yhteissaamelainen sanasto [The Common Sami Dictionary]. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.

Leontyev, A. E. (1996). Arkheologiia meri. K predystorii Severo-Vostochnoi Rusi [The Archaeological Study of the Merya. On the Pre-Histori of North-Eastern Russia]. Moscow: Geoeko.

Matveyev, A. K. (2000). Kongora i Iangora [Kongora and Yangora]. In A. K. Matveev (Ed.), Finnougorskoe nasledie v russkom iazyke: sb. nauch. tr. [Finno-Ugric Legacy in the Russian Language. A Collection of Articles]. (Vol. 1, pp. 156–158). Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo Ural. un-ta.

Matveyev, A. K. (2001). Merianskaia problema i lingvisticheskoe kartografirovanie [The Merya Problem and Linguistic Mapping]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya, 5, 32–59.

Matveyev, A. K. (2006). Onomatologiia [Onomatology]. Moscow: Nauka.

Matveyev, A. K. (2007). Substratnaia toponimiia Russkogo Severa [Substrate Toponymy of Russian North] (Vol. 3). Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo Ural. un-ta.

Matveyev, A. K. (2010). Merianskie dendrotoponimy kak lingvoetnicheskii indicator [Merya Dendrotoponyms as a Linguistic Indicator]. In V. Ju. Gusev & A. Widmer (Eds.), Finnisch-ugrische Mitteilungen (pp. 437–445). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.

Napolskikh, V. V. (1997). Vvedenie v istoricheskuiu uralistiku [An Introduction to the Historical Uralic Studies]. Izhevsk: Udmurtskii institut istorii, iazyka i literatury UrO RAN.

Popov, A. I. (1948). K voprosu o mordovskoi toponimike [On Mordvinian Toponymy]. In D. V. Bubrikh (Ed.), Sovetskoe finno-ugrovedenie. Filologicheskie doklady [Soviet Finno-Ugric Studies. Philological Investigations] (Vol. 2, pp. 203–230). Saransk: Mordovskoe kn. izd-vo.

Rahkonen, P. (2012). Granitsy rasprostraneniia meriansko-muromskikh i drevnemordovskikh gidronimov v verkhov'iakh Volgi i basseine reki Oki [Merya-Muromian and Old Mordvin Hydronyms Boundaries in the Upper Volga and Oka Regions]. Voprosy onomastiki, 1 (12), 5–42.

Rédei, K. (1986–1991). Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [The Uralic Etymological Dictionary]. (Vols. 1–2). Budapest.

Savatkova, A. A. (2008). Slovar' gornomariiskogo iazyka [A Dictionary of the Hill Mari Language] (2^nd ed.). Yoshkar-Ola: Mariiskoe kn. izd-vo.

Serebrennikov, B. A., Feoktistov, A. P., & Poliakov, O. E. (Eds.). (1998). Mokshansko-russkii slovar' [The Moksha-Russian Dictionary]. Moscow: Russkii iazyk, Digora.

Smirnov, O. V. (2013). K voprosu o permskom toponimicheskom substrate na territorii Marii El i v basseine srednego techeniia Viatki (v svete interpretatsii arkheologicheskikh kul'tur). 1 [On the Permic Toponymic Substrate in Mari El and in the Middle Course of the Vyatka River (In the Light of the Ethnic Interpretation of Archaeological Cultures). 1]. Voprosy onomastiki, 2 (15), 7–59.

Smirnov, O. V. (2014). K voprosu o permskom toponimicheskom substrate na territorii Marii El i v basseine srednego techeniia Viatki (v svete interpretatsii arkheologicheskikh kul'tur). 2 [On the Permic Toponymic Substrate in Mari El and in the Middle Course of the Vyatka River (In the Light of the Ethnic Interpretation of Archaeological Cultures). 2]. Voprosy onomastiki, 1 (16), 7–33.

Smolitskaya, G. P. (1976). Gidronimiia basseina Oki [Hydronymy of the Oka River Basin]. Moscow: Nauka.

Vorontsova, O. P., & Galkin, I. S. (2002). Toponimika Respubliki Marii El: istoriko-etimologicheskii analiz [The Toponymy of Mari El: A Historical and Etymological Analysis]. Yoshkar-Ola: Izdatel'stvo Mariiskogo poligrafkombinata.