2026, Volume 23, Issue 2
|
Anna Andreevna Bakhtereva Mikhail Olegovich Bakhterev METHODS OF GEOSPATIAL REFERENCING OF TOPONYMIC DATA AND RESULTS OF THEIR APPLICATION
For citation Received on 10 June 2026 Abstract: The article examines methods of geospatial referencing of toponymic data. The history of collecting, storing, and processing toponymic data at Ural University is reviewed. The structure of the existing toponymic database is discussed, along with the specifics of documenting field materials and subsequently correlating them with geographical coordinates. The article then considers two methods of geospatial referencing of linguistic data: manual referencing, illustrated by the GIS Toponymy of Karelia, which has been successfully implemented at the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and automatic referencing, developed for databases of the toponymy of Belozerye and the Kostroma Region at Ural Federal University. The main advantage of the proposed automatic geospatial referencing method is its ability to process large volumes of data (tens of thousands of toponyms), which can subsequently be visualized using QGIS-based solutions, allowing researchers to quickly assess the presence or absence of areal patterns. Using this method, 46,000 records were successfully georeferenced. The method makes it possible to reconstruct the spatial distribution of linguistic data, but not the precise locations of individual objects, which may sometimes be important for the study of toponymic patterns. Another limitation is that the method requires manual preliminary cleaning of the collected field data; in particular, the removal of duplicate records is essential. The application of Natural Language Processing tools to the automatic processing of geographical references expressed in natural language may improve the proposed geospatial referencing method. The use of such tools could reduce the labor costs of data preprocessing and narrow the gap between automatic and manual referencing. Further improvements may include the development of additional scenarios for working with linear objects (primarily rivers and roads) and areal objects (large swamps and lakes) on the map. Keywords: toponymy; toponymic databases; areal linguistic; mapping; Belozerye; Kostroma Region; Sverdlovsk Region Acknowledgements References Berezovich, E. L., Makarova, A. A., & Mullonen, I. I. (2015). “Demonologicheskie” nazvaniia v russkoi i substratnoi toponimii Russkogo Severa i Karelii (na materiale osnov chert- i hiisi-) [“Demonological” Root čert- and hiisi- in Russian Toponymy of the Russian North and the Republic of Karelia]. Linguistica, 55(1), 187–205. https://doi.org/10.4312/ linguistica.55.1.187-205 Makarova, A. A. (2017). K voprosu o kartografirovanii etnolokalnykh grupp Belozeria po onomasticheskim dannym [On the Mapping of Local Ethnic Groups in Belozerye with Reference to Onomastic Data]. Izvestiya Uralskogo federalnogo universiteta. Ser. 2 : Gumanitarnye nauki, 19(4), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.15826/izv2.2017.19.4.064 Matveyev, A. K. (2001–2015). Substratnaia toponimiia Russkogo Severa [The Substrate Toponymy of the Russian North] (Pts. 1–4). Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press. Mishchenko, O. V. (2011). Elektronnaia baza dannykh “Toponimiia Kostromskoi oblasti”: obrabotka i sistematizatsiia polevogo materiala [Kostroma Region Toponymy, an Electronic Database: Field Material Processing and Systematization]. Voprosy onomastiki, 2(11), 89–104. Mullonen, I. I. (2012). Prirodnye i kul’turnye faktory formirovaniia vepsskoi etnicheskoi territorii [Natural and Cultural Factors behind the Formation of the Vepsian Ethnic Area]. Trudy KarNTs RAN. Seriia Gumanitarnye issledovaniia, Iss. 3, No. 4, 13–24. Mullonen, I. I. (2025). Kartografirovanie kak instrument issledovaniia lokalnoi toponimicheskoi sistemy [Mapping as a Tool for Investigating a Local Toponymic System]. Finno-Ugric World, 17(4), 430–441. https://doi.org/10.15507/2076-2577.017.2025.04.430-441 Mullonen, I. I., & Lyallya, E. V. (2005). Geoinformatsionnaia analiticheskaia sistema “Toponimiia Zaonezhia” [Geographical Information and Analytical System “Toponymy of Zaonezhje”]. Voprosy onomastiki, 2, 86–96. Nikolaeva, E. S. (2000). Elektronnaia kartoteka toponimii Russkogo Severa: problemy i perspektivy [An Electronic Card Index of the Toponymy of the Russian North: Problems and Prospects]. In A. K. Matveyev (Ed.), Finno-ugorskoe nasledie v russkom iazyke [Finno-Ugric Heritage in the Russian Language] (Iss. 1, pp. 143–154). Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press. Zaitseva, N. G., & Mullonen, I. I. (2018). Formirovanie dialektnoi karty vepsskogo iazyka (na materiale “Lingvisticheskogo atlasa vepsskogo iazyka”) [Formation of a Dialect Map of the eps Language (Based on the “Linguistic Atlas of the Veps Language”)]. Voprosy jazykoznanija, 6, 85–103. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0373658X0002021-2 Zakharova, E. V. (2022). Razrabotka geoinformatsionnogo resursa po toponimii Karelii: istoriko-kulturnyi aspekt [Development of a Geographic Information System for Toponyms of Karelia: Historical and Cultural Aspect]. Finno-Ugric World, 14(4), 463–473. https:// doi.org/10.15507/2076-2577.014.2022.04.463-473 Zakharova, E. V., Kuzmin, D. V., Mullonen, I. I., & Shibanova, N. L. (2018). Toponimnye modeli Karelii v prostranstvenno-vremennom kontekste [Toponymic Models of Karelia in the Spatio-Temporal Context]. Moscow: Izd. dom YaSK.
|
 |
