Modern Toponymy of the Verkh-Yazva Rural Settlement (Krasnovishersk District, Perm Region)

Abstract

The paper observes the current state of onomastics on the territorial residence of Komi-Yazvians, one of the disappearing small peoples of the Perm region. The authors intended to determine the degree of preservation of substrate proper names. The materials for this study were obtained during field expeditions of 2017–2018, undertaken to by teachers and students of the Perm State University to collect unique onomastic material in a small “pocket” of this people’s domicile — in the upper reaches of the Yazva (Verkh-Yazva rural settlement) in the Krasnovishersk district (Perm region). The first part of the article contains basic information on the ethnography and history of studying the language and culture of the Komi-Yazvian people. The factors that contributed to the formation of a unique culture, its preservation, and the formation of the ethnic identity of the Komi-Yazvian people are identified. The focus is on the current situation: the people are subject to strong assimilation processes, language and culture are rapidly fading and are on the verge of extinction. The authors emphasize that the Komi-Yazva onomastics have not received an in-depth study, and proper names still need to be collected and analyzed. The present study deals mainly with the toponymic part, describing the following classes of names: names of settlements of the Verkh-Yazva rural area, names of water bodies, mainly rivers, names of fields, meadows, pastures, and other microtoponymic objects. In total, this makes about 700 studied items. The following conclusions are made: 1) modern toponymy of the upper reaches of the Yazva river is a single and consistent onomastic space, 2) however, it also showcases structural changes due to a significant influence of the Russian toposystem; substrate onomastics, with the exception of hydronyms, is subject to active Russification and washing out of the active vocabulary, 3) the formation of the local toponymic space is influenced by historical and cultural processes, 4) the studied data indicate that macrotoponymy (mainly hydronymy) is more stable compared to the microtoponymy, which is more agile, more responsive to social, cultural, and linguistic processes, 5) it is necessary to immediately record the disappearing substrate names to subsequently consider the obtained data in line with modern theories of onomatology.