The Substrate Toponymy of the Mordovian Toponymic Spaces (by Example of Mordva in the Trans-Volga Region)
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-1-9-17
The article examines the issue of the substratum toponymy in the Mordovian toponymic spaces by example of geographical names for the surroundings of the Samara Volga region’s Moksha-Mordovian and ErzyaMordovian villages (and a number of adjacent territories) as well as some territories of the Ulyanovsk Volga region and Orenburg region, located on the left bank of the Volga. These regions are the territories of secondary settlement for Mordva, which occurred mainly during the 17–20th centuries. The main points of view and approaches to the study of the toponymic substrate among prominent onomasticians are given, and discussions on this issue in Russian toponymy are briefly described. The historical prerequisites for the formation of a toponymic substrate in the studied areas are considered, the main types of substrate toponymy in the Mordovian toponymic spaces are identified, and where possible, the etymology of substrate toponyms is proposed. The conducted research allowed us to identify four main layers of the substrate toponymy in the Mordovian toponymic spaces of the Trans-Volga region. In reverse chronological order, they are as follows: the substratum toponymy of the settled agricultural population that preceded the Mordovian region, mainly represented by Russian and Chuvash geographical names; TurkicKipchak toponymy; Bulgarian toponymy; reliably unethymologized archaic toponymy represented mainly by the names of large rivers and common to all modern peoples of the region. Examples of geographical names belonging to the first type in the Trans-Volga region are: Avral, Bezymyanka, Iriklau (Yerykla), Karmala, Sosnovka, Horoshenkaya. The second type includes: Yelgaley, Konduzla, Tallyelga, Tolkai, Tunguz, Yaik-latko. The third type comprises: Savrukha, Savrushka, Bolshoy, Maly and Sukhoi Surush, and Suruzha. The fourth type is represented by the following toponyms: Irgiz, Kinel, Kondurcha, Kutuluk, Samara, Sok, Surgut. It should be especially noted that in this paper we did not aim to cite and etymologize all the substrate names of the Mordovian toponymic spaces of the Trans-Volga region, we limited ourselves here to only the most striking examples. The article is based on the author's field materials obtained during the 2015-2024 field trips.
Keywords: toponymy, toponymic substrate, Mordva, Moksha-Mordovian language, Erzya-Mordovian language, Samara Trans-Volga region
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Issue: 1, 2026
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Rubric: LINGUISTICS
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