ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Igor A. Dambuev
Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the RAS
Ulan-Ude, Russia

Capital and Lowercase Letters in the Official Toponymy of Russia

Voprosy onomastiki, 2020, Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 278–302 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2020.17.2.028

Received on 27 April 2019

Abstract: The paper explores the use of capital and lowercase letters in the official toponymy of Russia based on the material of the State Catalogue of Geographical Names, legal documents, and topographic maps. The most typical cases of variable case spelling in one-word and multiword toponyms are identified and described in the context of orthographic rules. One-word toponyms show the variation of capital and lowercase letters in the initial elements of a toponym abbreviation as well as in the initials of abridgments and compounds. Multiword toponyms display the variation of capital and lowercase letters in "false" geographical terms, in the names of economic sites, in the first word of a compound, in postponed complements, in the word imeni ‘named after’ as part of the toponym; it also occurs after ordinal numbers and in hyphenised words. The paper presents existing standardization solutions for each similar case of variation usage, although these can be contradictory in different regions. Quantitative data presented in table form showcase the prevalence of a particular norm. It is established that the variation of capital and lowercase letters in toponyms is mainly caused by codification gaps and the lack of illustrative examples in orthographic rules. The main issue is the spelling of multiword toponyms formed from the names of economic sites, commonly written in lowercase. To regulate the use of capital and lowercase letters in the names of geographical objects, the author proposes the concept of quasi-toponyms, which shall be written as transition-type names while retaining toponymic functions.

Keywords: geographical name, toponymy of Russia, capital letter, standardization, spelling variation, spelling rules.

Acknowledgements

The research was carried out within the state assignment (project XII.193.1.5 “Mentality of the Mongolian Peoples in the Mirror of Language,” AAAA-A17-117021310266-8).

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