Place names of Venezuela as a system of historical and social knowledge and ethnocultural experience

Abstract

The article undertakes a comprehensive linguistic description of place names of Venezuela as a system of historical and social knowledge and ethnocultural experience. The author makes an emphasis on the Spanish toponymic layer of the country and shows it as a means of reflecting and assessing the geographic relief, flora, fauna, religion, daily life and commemorative heritage of the country. More than 25,000 geographical units of Venezuela were analyzed, Hispanic and other geographical nominations were identified and calculated as a percentage, their classification is presented. When considering the identified names in the diachronic aspect, conclusions are drawn about the etymology of many units. Along with the commonly accepted one, an alternative variant of the country’s name origin is shown. The introduction of the term "adaptive aberrations" for toponyms containing lexicographic errors is proposed. Among the analyzed groups of toponyms, the author singles out religious, descriptive, emotionally colored toponyms, anthropotoponyms, zootonyms and phytotonyms, composite toponyms, migrant toponyms. A connection is made between the events associated with the struggle for the independence of Venezuela from the Spanish crown with the Hispanic toponymy of the state. Structural models of descriptive toponyms are derived from numerous and varied examples.