Linguocultural characteristics of toponyms of the Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido

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The article attempts to reveal the linguocultural characteristic of toponyms of the Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. In the theoretical part the authors review the scientific apparatus on the problem of toponyms in general linguistics, cite the existing classifications of toponyms by such researchers as A. V. Superanskaya, E. M. Chernyakhovskaya, N. V. Podolskaya and others. Of particular interest is the practical part of the study, where the authors analyse the toponyms of Hokkaido prefecture from the point of view of the relationship between language and culture. The material for the practical part was the names of toponyms from the Google maps service, as well as information from the official website of Hokkaido Prefecture. The authors, referring to the classification of N. V. Podolskaya, divided 100 toponyms into their types: insulonyms, hydronyms, oikonyms, oronyms, carried out their linguocultural analysis, revealed 16 toponyms of Japanese origin and 84 toponyms of Ainu origin, which indicates that the Japanese during the development of Hokkaido tried to preserve the original names of geographical objects. As a result of the analysis of toponymic nominations of Hokkaido prefecture, the authors come to the conclusion that different toponymic layers and types of geographical names, which emerged at different times, have physical and geographical features and a number of other factors, still have similar features in the names of heterogeneous languages. The main one is the formation of toponyms from the physical and geographical features of the place of residence, flora and fauna. In addition, another characteristic of the toponyms of Hokkaido Prefecture is the distortion of indigenous place names when fixed by Japanese pioneers, so when adapting Ainu toponyms, the original name is changed.