Folklore narratives on the toponymy of the Russian Far North (Based on the Yukaghir, Even, and Yakut languages)

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examine the historical toponymic system of the Russian Far North in the context of folklore traditions of Indigenous peoples of the North. Our methodology is narrative analysis, aimed at identifying the semantic features of toponyms, whose origins lie in traditional legends and tales. We treat toponyms as geocultural codes, which provide not only ethnocultural data but also geographic and spatial information. We present shared patterns in the naming practices of geo-objects among the Yukaghirs, Evens, and Yakuts (Sakha), and the ways that these practices are rooted in folklore. We also examine ethno-cultural differences in toponym naming among these three groups. We identify four broad strategies in the naming of geo-objects in northern regions: anthroponymic, commemoration of events, after sacred concepts, and after common household objects and concepts. In addition to linguistic information encoded by toponyms, it is also possible to establish extralinguistic information about the historical settlement of different peoples, contact among them, and their societal values. Such anthropological studies are relevant for onomastics and linguistic typology. Through the present study, we are able to gain a better understanding of Indigenous cultural development in the Russian Far North and the nature of inter-ethnic relations before written history.