Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of Ancient Thinking

Zinaida Pakholok. Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of ancient Thinking (to Statement of the Problem) 199 ZINAIDA PAKHOLOK Lutsk Human Development institute of the open international university “ukraine” oRciD id: orcid.org/0000-0002-8911-5909 FieLDs oF ReseaRcH: general linguistics, psycholinguistics, regional studies, cultural studies, Lithuanian studies. Doi: doi.org/10.35321/bkalba.2023.96.10 toPonyms WitH RePetition oF a WoRD-FoRmation eLement as RuDiments oF ancient tHinking (to statement oF tHe PRobLem) KEYWORDS: onym, toponym, reduplication, syllable, root morpheme, affix, word, word formation model, etymological analysis, repeatability, ancient thinking. abstRact the article deals with toponyms with the repetition of a word-formation element. etymological analysis allows us to establish the repetition of a syllable, a root morpheme, a word in aboriginal and standardized toponyms. the main classification word-formation models based on the properties of the toponymic material are determined. attention is focused on the basic structure of appellatives, which were a reflection of ancient thinking and the basis for the emergence of onyms in the process of nominating natural objects. the geography of the given examples covers different continents. anotacija straipsnyje analizuojami vietovardžiai su pasikartojančiu žodžių darybos elementu. etimologinė analizė suteikia galimybę nustatyti senuosiuose ir norminiuose vietovardžiuose pasikartojantį skiemenį, šaknies morfemą, žodį. Remiantis vietovardžių duomenų ypatybėmis, nustatomi pagrindinės klasifikacijos žodžių darybos modeliai. Daugiausia dėmesio skiriama pagrindinei senąją mąstyseną atspindinčių bendrinių daiktavardžių, kurių pagrindu, įvardijant gamtos objektus, atsirado onimai, struktūrai. Pateiktų pavyzdžių geografija apima skirtingus žemynus. 200 benDRinė kaLba | 96 intRoDuction geographical names are the most important element of the spiritual life of civilization; they have scientific, historical, and cultural value. Research on them takes place in three aspects: geographical with spatial reference, historical with the situation of education and linguistic with the understanding of the nomination. the proper name of a geographical object, used to recognize it and establish its difference from other objects, is usually called the term “toponym”, first introduced in 1899 in english linguistics and then used in parallel with the already existing “place name”. in linguistics, the form of a toponym, the process of wordformation and semantics are studied. among the theoretical issues of modern toponymy, the study of the method of nomination, which is understood as “the formation paths, types, and means of naming an object, united according to certain structural characteristics” remains relevant (Luchyk 2011: 22). the sources for their studying are geographical maps and atlases; toponymic, etymological and explanatory dictionaries; geographical, historical, and linguistic research; books by travellers that will not allow the author to follow the wrong path of naive etymologies. Repetitions are left behind the attention of linguists, despite the fact that they permeate our entire lives. the lack of consolidated works on repetitions in toponymy leads to the need to propose, as a propaedeutical study, a description of them as a separate structural type in languages with different structures. based on this understanding of the problem stated in the title of the article, the object of study is the structure of nominations of geographical objects, and the subject is toponyms with repetition of the word-formation element. the purpose of this article is to identify traces of ancient thinking in toponyms with repetitions in languages of different structures and describe them as a separate structural type, offering a vision of fragments of the complex process of formation and development of toponymic space. For this purpose, it is necessary to solve the following problems: to distinguish aboriginal toponyms from standardized ones; to determine the structural elements of toponyms with repetitions by reconstructing the corresponding ancestral forms; to explain the derivational meaning reflecting the motivational feature characteristic at the time of the onym nomination; to determine word-formation models and types of toponyms; to carry out Zinaida Pakholok. Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of ancient Thinking (to Statement of the Problem) 201 a synthesis of scientific arguments, comprehend existing versions, offering their own comments on those geographical names that remain unexplained. the methodology of the research lies in the fact that a structural principle is chosen as the main one for the study of toponyms, and a complete understanding is achieved by using different methods of analysis and synthesis of toponyms of a certain area: belonging to a particular language; object of nomination; the history of its appearance; etymology, sphere of use (colloquial or literary speech). 1. aboRiginaL toPonyms WitH RePetitions the names of geographical objects arose spontaneously, since any innovation appears first in individual speech and later becomes an objective social phenomenon. During the nomination process, a human identified and recorded the most important things. For thousands of years, people did not distinguish between proper and common names. the first proper names were ordinary common words: water, mountain, forest, desert, field, river. Later, when people began to develop large areas, it became necessary to distinguish between the same mountains, forests, deserts, etc. For this, humans used different definitions that characterized these objects by colour, size, shape, purpose, etc. Depending on the source of creation, areas of use, and distribution, we distinguish two types of toponyms: aboriginal and standardized. aboriginal toponyms (Podolskaya 1988: 119) are toponyms created by indigenous people to name a local geographical object; they are used only in a given territory and are common in colloquial speech. interest in this type is due to the fact that toponyms have traces of folk art, expressiveness, and information potential that reflects the specifics of natural conditions. 2. WoRD-FoRmation moDeL FRom aPPeLLative to onym geographical names were formed according to certain formulas, called word-formation models in toponymy. the simplest one is the direct transition of a common noun, or appellative, into a proper name, or onym. a linguist pays attention to the form of a geographical name and its semantics, since a toponym is a two-sided unit that has a plane of expression and a plane of meaning. in this case, it is necessary to take into account that 202 benDRinė kaLba | 96 “in addition to the main meaning, the proper name, there is also another, pre-toponymic meaning” (zhuchkevich 1974: 48). Here is an example confirming the expressed idea. in the australian state of Queensland, on the barron River, there is the barron Falls of the same name; in the aboriginal language, it was called Din Din, by a word symbolizing drops of falling water. the hydronym arose in honour of thomas Henry bowman barron, chief of police in brisbane in the 1860s, and gave its name to barron gorge national Park, but in parallel, the popular geographical name Din Din national Park is also used (carmody, Prideaux 2011: 1). in the nomination of a geographical object, there may be a connotation, as in the interior part of the australian continent, desert never-never. traveller L. Wolanowski, explaining the name, refers to aeneas gunn (2008), who wrote in her autobiographical story of 1908: “these lands are called never-never because those who lived there and loved them will never leave them voluntarily. and others – those who could not stand it – will tell you that this name comes from the fact that the one who managed to escape from there swears never, never to return” (Wolanowski 1976: 56). in the family saga of colleen mccullough, published in 1977, we read: “<...> spread over two thousand miles of desolation, the waterless desert “never-never”, where it never rains” (mccullough 1988: 96). the meanings recorded in fiction testify to the stability of the onym b for seven generations of australians of the 20th century. the analysed examples of aboriginal toponyms with figurative and expressive connotations are a consequence of the repetition of the same word-formation element. in linguistics, this method of forming new words is called reduplication. the differences lie in the structure of the toponyms and allow us to judge the earlier time of the appearance of the onym, which is based on an appellative with a monosyllabic repetition. the first geographical object is characterized by the presence of two parallel toponyms: aboriginal and standardized, while for the second there is only one. 3. stanDaRDizeD toPonyms WitH RePetitions standardized toponyms (Podolskaya 1988: 131) are the normative form of toponyms, adopted in official documents within the country and in international practice. Zinaida Pakholok. Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of ancient Thinking (to Statement of the Problem) 203 the creators of standardized toponyms were ordinary people, travellers, discoverers who gave names to continents, islands, mountain peaks, etc. Following this, geographers and linguists collected geographical names, carried out their systematization, mapping, and lexicographic codification. standardized toponyms are phenomena of social life, subordinate to historical patterns; they are commonly used and international. 3.1. Word-formation model of transition of appelative with repetition into onym 3.1.1. Repetition of syllable as our materials testify, the most ancient word-formation model is the model of the transition of an appellative with the repetition of a syllable into an onym. it is impossible to describe the process as “each individual sound is formed in relation to other sounds, just as necessary as this sound itself for the smooth construction of speech” (Humboldt 2000: 86), but the clarity of motivation and the everyday conditionality of the nomination of objects attracts attention. the natural environment was the source of human being, as it provided people with housing, food, and clothing, so the question of “what is important to reflect in the name was decided on the basis of human practical activity” (khvesko 2009: 112). in the nomination of geographical objects, a transition of the appellative with the repetition of the syllable into an onym took place. in the slavic toponym baba, the cult value of a female pagan deity, identifying life, fertility, and health, was realized. numerous examples confirm this situation, including oeconyms: Baba (ukr. Баба) – a village of the sumy oblast in ukraine; Baba (ukr. Баба) was also the name of the village Pokrovske in the chernihiv oblast in ukraine until 1941; hydronym Baba (ukr. Баба) is the name of a river in the kharkiv oblast in ukraine; oronyms Baba (ukr. Баба) is a mountain in the ivano-Frankivsk oblast in ukraine; Baba (bulg. Baba) is a mountain in the sofia province in bulgaria; Baba (maced. Baba) is a mountain range on the border between north macedonia and greece; Baba (serb. Baba) is a mountain in bosnia and Herzegovina on the territory of Republika srpska. an example of an astyonym formed with the repetition of a syllable exists in the west of switzerland, in the French-speaking canton of vaud. there, on the bank of Lake geneva, the city of vevey is located. Vevey < French 204 benDRinė kaLba | 96 Vevê. Lev uspensky considered its name to be the end result of centuries-old changes in the Latin word Viviscus (uspensky 1973: 91). the existence of toponyms formed by the repetition of a syllable can be attributed to zipf’s law (zipf 1949), which established that in different languages of the world, the most frequent words are shorter, since the principle of least effort is universal for the speaker and listener in all cultures. there is no doubt that at the stage of primary nomination for the ancient human with mythological thinking, which turned out to be “something like intellectual bricolage” (Lévi-strauss 1994: 126), an undeveloped larynx, the way of speech production syllabification was the main way of forming new words. it arose on the basis of the phonetic assimilation of non-speech sound complexes; not by chance, the most ancient layer of vocabulary is onomatopoeia. the toponyms of this model belong to the primary, oldest of names (Podolskaya 1988: 105), since they arose from the onym, based on an appellative with a monosyllabic repetition, and have a form identical to it. 3.1.2. Repeatition of a syllable and adding an affix topoformant, a word-formation element that is not used independently in the language and is an addition to the base in the formation of a geographical name, has an important value in toponymy. in the anthroponym Dedelishki (Lith. Dėdeliškės), recorded in 1860 on the map in the trakai district of vilnius county of Lithuania (shubert 1860), the topoformant is the suffix -ishki (-iškės). in the indicated region, there are Kadrishki (Lith. Kadriškės), Kariotishki (Lith. Kariotiškės), Karpishki (Lith. Karpiškės), Kiemelishki (Lith. Kiemeliškės), Kulokishki (Lith. Kulokiškės). there are also Eishishki (Lith. Eišiškės), Grigishki (Lith. Grigiškės) from the name grigas, Rudishki (Lith. Rūdiškės). according to the authoritative researchers nikolay biryla and aleksandras vanagas, such a formant denotes “names of the area by the surname or name of the owner or person who lived in this place” (biryla, vanagas 1968: 12). We assume that the topographical base has an archaic nature since it was formed by the repetition of sound combinations in children’s speech dė-de. in modern Lithuanian language dėdė – ʻuncleʼ. the most ancient layer of vocabulary is onomatopoeic words, which make up the core of the dictionary. the emergence of a large number of sound-imitating words at an early stage of the social life of people was doomed by a close connection with nature, the importance of conveying Zinaida Pakholok. Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of ancient Thinking (to Statement of the Problem) 205 sound and external manifestations of movement when naming phenomena, the tendency to “establish a certain connection between objects of nature and give the language a direct character” (Rosetti 1962: 91). From the point of view of the creator of the toponymic school of belarus vadim a. zhuchkevich, the potamonim Tsetyarovka (bel. Цецяровка), a tributary of the svisloch, and the common names Tsetseravets (bel. Цецеравец), Tsetyarovintsy, (bel. Цецяровинцы), Tsyateryn (bel. Цяцерын), are patronymic, derived from the surnames Tsetyaruk (bel. Цецярук), Tsyateryn (bel. Цяцерын) (zhuchkevich 1974:: 373–374). they were formed from the onomatopoeic name of the bird tsetyaruk (bel. Цецярук), in which the full or variant repetition of the syllable tse- (це-) is traced. similarly, the repetition of the syllable teand the suffix -row formed the oiconym Teterow in the land of mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, germany to denote the settlement of grouses. it appeared no later than the 8th century, since this territory was the center of the medieval West slavic tribe (basik 2008: 102). it should be assumed that the potamonim Cucuteni (Rum. Cucuteni) in the region of Western moldavia in Romania for the designation of the right tributary of the river bahlueț (Rum. Bahluieț) in the Danube basin consists of the onomatopoeic root Cucu- (in Romanian cuckoo is cuc) and the toponymic formant -teni – ʻsettlementʼ by analogy with zaboloteni (Ștefănescu 2018: 74–75), Drăgoteni (Petrovich 1968: 15), Broşteni, Moşteni. Later, the oiconym Cucuteni – ‘settlement of cuckoosʼ appeared. the described toponyms belong to non-primary names (Podolskaya 1988: 86), since they were formed from other onyms. 3.1.3. Repetition of syllable and addition of word more recent formations include the nomination of geographical objects, when a word was added to the repetition of a syllable, i.e., a new toponym was formed by the morphological method of addition. For example, the oronym Vovokvabiti is the name of a volcano in central africa. the etymology of the word, starting with the repetition of the syllable vo-, means ʻwater of the pygmy bitiʼ, who was allegedly found dead on the lake shore near the mountain (uspensky 1973: 194). the primitive man had a small vocabulary, and toponymy was rudimentary, so one term combined many different concepts related to a common origin. in this regard, the example of the limnonym Titicaca (span. Titicaca, Quech. Titiqaqa), which is the largest freshwater lake in south america on 206 benDRinė kaLba | 96 the border of Peru and bolivia, is interesting. the name came from the repetition of syllables of two words in the language of the indians: Quechua qaqa – ʽstone, mountainʼ, titi – ʽleadʼ and originally the insulonym Titicaca referred only to the island of the lake Isla-del-Sol (span. Isla del Sol) (cano 1952: 14–15), later, it spread to the lake itself (Pospelov 2002: 417). From the appellative baba, toponyms can be formed not only as a result of onymization but also with the addition of a word. For example, the oiconym Baba Bakala (Hindi Bāba Bakāla) is the name of a holy place of sikhism, a village in the indian state of Punjab. the historian of geographical science e. m. murzaev, referring to the kazakh toponymist gali k. konkashpaev (1948), gave examples of the productivity of toponyms on -ata, among which the medieval settlement Baba-ata (murzaev 1974: 228). according to the kazakh encyclopedia, Baba, Ata-baba is “1) ancestor, founder of the clan; 2) part of a complex word, denoting: origin, elder (for example, Anet-baba)” (kne 2004: 324), ata is also a polysemantic word, relative to our research, we consider only the first two meanings: “1) grandfather, grandfather; ancestor; 2) patron in the composition of proper mythological names” (kne 2004: 278). thus, in the kazakh toponym Baba-ata there is a structural repetition of the syllable baand a semantic repetition of the meaning of the word “ancestor”. With the turkic word dağ – ʽmountainʼ oronyms are formed in the gubin district of azerbaijan Babadağ and in the province of mugla in the southwest of turkey Babadağ; astionym Babadag in the județ of tulcea Romania appeared as a result of turkish influence. the slavic and non-slavic examples with the appellative baba (бабa) are united by belonging to the original form *bābā or *bhābhā – an ancient word from children’s speech, formed by repeating the same syllable (Luchyk 2014: 27). Differences are observed in semantics, since the slavic baba comes from the feminine nomen, while the turkic and iranian ones come from the masculine. the stress in slavic languages is on the first syllable (бáба), while in eastern languages it is on the second (babá). Regarding such examples, Wilhelm von Humboldt noted correctly: “all languages apparently contain words that have completely different meanings with completely identical sounds, and thus these words can be understood ambiguously” (Humboldt 2000: 275). numerous examples with the toponym babá/бaбá are a manifestation of toponymic homonymy, representing consonant geographical terms that coincide completely or partially in the expression plan. thus, there was a Zinaida Pakholok. Toponyms with Repetition of a Word-Formation Element as Rudiments of ancient Thinking (to Statement of the Problem) 207 transfer of the onym from one object to another, adjacent to it in the name of the city, village, aul, river, mountain, mountain range in connection with its addition by various geographical terms that characterize the area. 3.2. Word-formation model of transition of appellative without repetition into onym the transition of an appellative into an onym can occur as a result of repeating a word that has a bilateral structure and visually demonstrates the philosophical law of the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones. in linguistics, it finds manifestation at the semantic level, as an element that is repeated twice or several times acquires a new meaning (Pakholok 2013: 73). Lexical repetition is the simplest in structure lexicalgrammatical way to intensify meaning. cataractonym Dzhur-Dzhur (ukr. Джур-Джур, crimean tatar Cür-Cür) is the name of a powerful waterfall located on the ulu-uzen River on the southern coast of crimea. it never runs dry, even during the driest time of the year. this characteristic is reflected in the semantics of its ancient name, which is derived from the repeated armenian word “dzhur” (armen. , literally ʻwater-waterʼ, meaning plenty of water), the etymology of this word, according to vasyl v. Luchyk following eduard m. murzaev, explains the meanings of “stream”, “river”, and “canal” in Persian and tajik languages (Luchyk 2014: 180). in our opinion, when trying to uncover the meaningful significance of place name, it is preferable to give preference to those versions that are closer to the nature and essence of the object. at the same time, the older the geographical name, the more likely it is to be connected to the named object. For example, the limnonym Loch Lochy in the name of a freshwater lake in scotland, originated from the duplication of a word that can be traced back to cognates: manx logh, old irish loch, Welsh llwch, meaning “body of water,” as well as Latin lacus meaning “lake” (Harper 2003). the suffix -y was added to the repeated word. the limnonym means “lake Lake”. a large and capacious part on the toponymy of australia is occupied by onyms denoting natural geographical conditions and climate features. thus, the cyclone in the northwestern part of the country is called “Willy Willy” (orlov 1978: 103). the anemonym Willy Willy arose from the repetition of the english word willy – insidious. 214 benDRinė kaLba | 96 senuosius vietovardžius vietiniai gyventojai kūrė, siekdami įvardyti vietos geografinį objektą, jie vartojami tik tam tikroje teritorijoje ir yra plačiai paplitę šnekamojoje kalboje. Domėjimąsi šio tipo vietovardžiais lemia tai, kad juose yra išlikę liaudies meno bruožų, išraiškingumo. jie gali teikti informaciją apie gamtinių sąlygų ypatybes. šiame straipsnyje analizuojami perkeltinių ir ekspresyvių konotacijų turinčių senųjų vietovardžių, susiformavusių bendriniam daiktavardžiui tiesiogiai virstant onimu, pavyzdžiai – plačiai paplitusio pasikartojimų vartojimo rezultatas. norminius vietovardžius kūrė skirtingų veiklų atstovai. jie vartojami tiek šalyje, tiek tarptautinėje erdvėje, fiksuojami literatūrinėje kalboje. šios rūšies vietovardžiams būdingi tokie žodžių darybos modeliai: bendrinio daiktavardžio vertimas onimu, pakartojant skiemenį arba pridedant afiksą, pakartojant skiemenį ir pridedant žodį, pakartojant žodį; bendrinio daiktavardžio vertimas onimu vietovardiniame žodžių junginyje, pakartojant šaknies morfemą ir pakartojant žodį. Žodžių darybos modelių panaudojimas priklauso nuo kai kurių bendrųjų regioninės vietovardžių sistemos klausimų ištirtumo laipsnio. to paties modelio vietovardžiai, naudoti skirtinguose žemynuose esantiems tos pačios rūšies geografiniams objektams įvardyti, rodo, kad toks įvardijimo būdas buvo gana įprastas. Pasitelkus etimologinę analizę nustatyta, kad vietovardžiuose pasikartojantys žodžių darybos elementai rodo senovinę žodžio kilmę, nes pasikartojimas atspindi objektyvią tikrovę, kurią asmuo nesąmoningai įsisavina, įgydamas praktinės patirties. vietovardžiai, kuriuose pasikartoja žodžių darybos elementas, kelia poreikį tyrinėti senąjį objektų įvardijimo skirtingos struktūros kalbomis metodą. sukūrus tose kabose vartojamų panašių vietovardžių registrą, atsirastų galimybė palyginti ir sugretinti gilias istorines šaknis turinčią jų onimiją. ESMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: onimas, vietovardis, pasikartojimas, skiemuo, šaknies morfema, afiksas, žodis, žodžių darybos modelis, etimologinė analizė, pakartojamumas, senovinė mąstysena. zinaiDa PakHoLok Lutsk Human Development institute of the open international university “ukraine” georgy gongadze st. 5 [email protected]