ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Julia A. Krivoshchapova
Ural Federal University
Ekaterinburg, Russia

Stone Names: A Linguocultural Symbol of the Urals

Voprosy onomastiki, 2020, Volume 17, Issue 3, pp. 241–262 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2020.17.3.042

Received on 14 August 2020

Abstract: The paper examines the names of ornamental stones (gemmonyms) in terms of linguocultural branding of the Ural region. The analysis focuses on mineralogical vocabulary outside the official nomenclature, for the most part, these are gemmonyms containing toponymy-derived adjectives (Gumshevsky malachite, Urazov jasper, Sedelnikovsky orlets). Another objective relates to studying the axiological contexts of usage of such names. The author deals with the three most recognizable Ural ornamental stones: malachite, rhodonite (orlets) and jasper. It turns out that the linguocultural symbols (regional micro-brands) behind these minerals are geographically distributed across the Urals. Uralsky rodonit (Ural rhodonite) mostly associates with Ekaterinburg, and Tagil malachite refers to Nizhny Tagil. Jasper does not seem to have a particular reference point due to its wide geographical distribution, but typically it stands for local South Ural brands. For instance, it is believed that orskaya yashma ‘Orsk jasper’ (< Orsk) is a brand of the Orenburg region. The names of stones with the element uralsky constitute a specific group of names which, according to the author, works as a well-settled cultural macro-brand. Primarily, this refers to the uralskiye samotsvety ‘Ural gems’ collocation which has become a proper name of a lapidary factory in Ekaterinburg, as well as uralskiye kamni ‘Ural stones,’ a set phrase long included in dictionaries of standard Russian. A special class of Ural gemmonyms is represented by commercial names created artificially to make the product more saleable (cf. uralsky izumrud ‘Ural emerald’ as a trade designation of demantoid). It is noted that such names of stones are aimed at foreign customers, for whom the Ural stone is a Russian trademark and a quality assurance. At the same time, the attribute uralsky can ironically indicate that the stone only resembles a similar more expensive mineral, which, in fact, it is not (cf. uralsky almaz ‘Ural diamond’ that stands for ʻphenakiteʼ).

Keywords: Urals, territorial brand, linguo-cultural symbol, gemmonyms, derivatives of place names, motivational analysis, semantic pattern.

Funding
The study was carried out in the framework of the project “Regional Identity of Russia: Comparative Historical and Philological Studies” funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia (project number FEUZ-2020-0056).

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