Geographical Terms in the Oikonyms of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-2-62-72
The article examines oikonyms containing geographical terms. This type of toponym represents a significant portion of Yakutia’s oikonymy but has not been thoroughly analyzed by regional toponymists. The authors studied oikonyms formed from appellatives related to geographical terms, considering both linguistic and cultural-landscape aspects. A total of 683 oikonyms were identified through a continuous sample from regional toponymic dictionaries, compiled using data from the State Gazetteer register. These oikonyms are based on geographical appellative vocabulary and include names in Russian, Yakut, Evenki, Even, and other languages spoken by peoples living in the region. Settlement names were found to contain geographical terms denoting various types of landscape terrain: water bodies, hills, forests, mountains, coasts, valleys, islands, and more. A classification into thematic groups was compiled using these geographical terms. The classification included nine thematic groups, each described and analyzed. The largest groups include oikonyms with the appellatives “lake, river,” “mountain,” and “valley,” while the smallest groups include oikonyms with the terms “island,” “ravines, pits,” and “permafrost, ice.” Analysis using the cultural-landscape approach showed that, in addition to directly referencing a particular geographical object in the settlement name and anchoring its location in the linguistic worldview of the peoples inhabiting the territory, culturally significant meanings are also present in the analyzed lexemes. These reflect characteristics such as the suitability of a particular geographical object for human habitation, its usefulness for economic activity related to lifestyle (sedentary or nomadic), and the occupation of the population. Additionally, names of populated areas were identified whose formation is not directly linked to geographical terms but is related to geography and landscape, such as those indicating the administrative-territorial status of a populated area (village) and the lexeme “road.”
Keywords: oikonyms, geographical terms, regional toponymic system, oikonymicon of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), appellatives “lake”, “river”, “mountain”, “valley”, cultural-landscape aspect
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Issue: 2, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 62 — 72
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