Geographical Terminology Research Articles

Oikonymy of Eastern Kazakhstan (Districts of Altai, Glubokoye, and Katonkaragay)

The article examines the oikonymy of East Kazakhstan, a region that has historically served as a hub for significant ethnocultural interactions, contacts, and conflicts. The study aims to identify the composition and systemic connections within the oikonymy of this region, focusing on the toponymic material from three administrative districts: Altai, Glubokoye, and Katonkaragay. The research draws on both contemporary and historical lists of settlements — published and archived — primarily concentrating on the names of non-urban settlements, which constitute the bulk of the region's toponymy. The oikonymy in the area under investigation is multilingual, featuring oikonyms of both Kazakh and Russian origin. Kazakh oikonymy is linked to the region’s historical nomadic, patronymic, socio-economic structure, while the emergence of Russian toponyms corresponds with various waves of migration into the region. These include oikonyms related to the initial migration wave in the 18th century, as well as those linked to subsequent migrations of Slavs during the late 19th and throughout the 20th centuries. It is crucial to distinguish whether the oikonyms belong to the earlier settlers (first wave) or later arrivals (second wave). To achieve this, the study employs chronological methods that, through a comparison of the modern characteristics of toponyms, help establish the time of their integration into the system. The authors conclude that the region’s oikonymic system reflects two opposing trends: the unification of oikonymy and geographical terminology on the one hand, and the preservation of traditional diversity on the other.

An Excerpt from the ‘Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of Beja: Natural Phenomena, Time and Geographical Terminology’

An Excerpt from the ‘Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of Beja: Natural Phenomena, Time and Geographical Terminology’

VOLYN FOLK GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS FOR DENOTING SWAMP: STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES

The article is devoted to the study of folk names of bogs in Volyn region. The folk names of bogs collected by the author and published in the dictionary reflect the attitudes and perceptions of the local population, and also contain important information about the characteristics and features of bogs. The study of such names can contribute to the preservation of the cultural heritage associated with natural objects, enrichment of scientific terminology, and understanding of lexical and semantic features of the linguistic worldview. These names may contain valuable information about local conditions, flora, geographical features and ecological status of the bogs, which contributes to deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural environment. In addition, the folk names of bogs can serve as additional sources of information for classifying and identifying different types of bogs in Volyn Polissia, as well as identifying local terminological variations and features. The linguistic approach helps to identify local terminological variations and features that are reflected in the lexical composition and semantics. The study is relevant for understanding the lexical fund, linguistic diversity and cultural heritage associated with the Volyn thelmography. The sphere of functioning, semantic shifts and peculiarities of the meaning of thelmographic terms influence the area of distribution of folk geographical terms. This lexical class is based on well-known terms, mainly of Proto-Slavic origin, which have wide semantic possibilities. In the studied area, folk geographical terms for swamps are represented by semantic, phonetic and grammatical variants and derivatives. The core of the analyzed lexical class is well-known terms, mostly of ProtoSlavic origin: брід, болoто, гать, гребля, трясовuнa, etc., which are characterized by wider semantic possibilities. In many subdialects, these lexemes are represented by dialectal phonetic variants: трасовuнa, трасовuско, грaбля, etc. Folk geographical terminology, in comparison with other language layers, is not characterized by imagery or emotionally expressive means. This folk geographical terminology, which partially leaves a trace in place names, is one of the oldest in origin. In addition to linguistic research, the study of folk geographical terminology can be useful for natural, historical, ethnological and other sciences.

Geography and Onomastics: Geographical Terminology in the Oronymy of the Balearic Islands

Toponymy and, more specifically, toponymic generics constitute an important source of geographical terminology, which is a valuable object of study in both linguistics and cultural geography. Based on this, the authors compiled, analysed and classified the oronymic generics of the Balearic Islands (Spain) from the largest toponymic collection of the archipelago, made up of some 50,000 place names gathered for the Balearic Topographical Map at a scale of 1:5,000. A considerable part of toponyms was obtained from field work, which consisted of hundreds of interviews with informants previously selected for their special knowledge of the territory they live in. Field work allowed to obtain popular (“folk,” “unofficial”) toponyms that contain specific generics used in the function of geographical terms, often based on metaphor or another type of semantic shift. This work made it possible to bring together the terms that, in the Catalan language of the Balearic Islands, identify the diverse inland orographic morphologies of each of the islands that form the archipelago (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera). The corpus of terminology relating to the names of the relief of the Balearic Islands is formed by 120 oronymic generics. All the terms are classified into three groups distinguishing between terms related to positive relief features (macro, meso- and micro-relief), negative relief features (elongated, rounded, and elevated depressions), and neutral relief that brings together and differentiates forms of vertical, horizontal, inclined and stepped relief. Quantitative observations made by the author show the relatively wider diversity of terminology used in the names of positive relief features, in which macro-relief features are predominant. In the negative relief group, the most varied subgroup of term relates to longitudinal depressions, while in the neutral relief the biggest part of terms specifically designates sloped landforms.

Vidapellative microtoponyms of Zhytomyr region: history of formation and semantics

The ethno-cultural region of Polissia is located on the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus. As a result of wet, woody and marshy terrain which is caused by the phisico-geographical properties of the territory, the population density is low. Consequently, the array of traditional intangible culture, which is reflected in microtoponyms, has been well preserved due to the peculiarities of their creation and functioning. Taking this into consideration, their fixation and research is an important task for modern onomastics, linguistics and many other scientific areas. This article is dedicated to the research of Zhytomyr Polissia’s microtoponyms, originating from geographical terms (e.g. Vidʹma, Hvizdʹ, Vyla, Sazhavka, Hrebinetsʹ, Topylo, etc.). The comparison of the studied names with the similar onyms of other Ukrainian regions, has made it possible to observe the difference in the meaning of the appellative, which has formed the basis of microtoponyms in different territories (e. g. Topilʹnia, Hrebinetsʹ). Microtoponyms with the same meaning, but different pronunciation (e. g. Sazhalka — Sadzhalka — Sazhavka) are representative as well. The study of some names has been required a detailed examination of the adjacent object’s names. Let us examine it with the geographical term “hvizdʹ”, which has become a word-formation for the similary named microtoponym. This lexeme has been regarded unknown to the Eastern Slavs for a long time. The overwhelming amount of the natural boundaries’ proper names, formed by the forest trees’ names (e. g. Hnylyi Dub, Velykyi Lis, Zaberezzia, Lypnyk, etc.), confirmes that the appellative “hvizdʹ” has remained the meaning of the word ‘wood’ on the reaserched area. Therefore, the microtoponyms of Zhytomyr Polissia’s research demonstrates: a strong correlation between geographical terminology based on the proper names and the studied area’s natural features; the difference in pronunciation and semantics of word-building lexemes, depending on the region’s dialect characteristics; the historical context’s influence on the name forming process. Keywords: microtoponym, geographical term, Polissia, influence of natural features on onimization.

Comprehensive study of the toponymic landscape of the local territory: the area of the Ryazan villages of Dyadkovo and Vyshgorod

The subject of the study is the toponymy of the Ryazan district of the Ryazan region, which belongs to one of the concentration zones of the Old Russian toponymy of the region. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive survey of the toponymic landscape of the Ryazan villages of Dyadkovo – Vyshgorod with the identification of the most ancient layer of local names, their linguistic and chronological attribution. The sources of the material are Russian chronicles, scribal books, historical and modern topographic maps, as well as data from the author's toponymic expedition of 2021. In the analysis of the material, etymological, structural-semantic, formant, areal methods, the method of comparing linguistic, archaeological, geographical and historical data are used. The novelty of the research lies in the collection and systematization of the modern toponymy of the studied area, a comprehensive description of the Old Russian group of toponyms, identification of links with the territories of earlier Slavic settlement. It is established that the toponymy of this area does not reveal traces of a toponymic substrate, which indicates that the territory was fully developed in the past by the ancient Russian population. The etymology of the names is related to the traditional Slavic geographical terminology (city ‘fortified settlement’, Vyshegorod ‘fortified settlement on a hill’ or ‘city laid upstream from another city’, bystrets ‘small river with a fast current’, raka ‘river with a narrow channel and high steep banks'), Slavic terms kinship or Old Russian namesake (uncle "father's or mother's brother", personal name Uncle). The existing etymologies of names that go back to geographical terms are confirmed by the geographical realities of the area. The appellatives of Ryazan toponyms reveal areal connections with the territories of the basins of the Dnieper, Dniester, Desna, the Carpathian zone, and toponyms – with the Kiev toponymy. The study confirms the importance of conducting toponymic expeditions in the comprehensive study of the toponymic landscape of local territories, even taking into account temporary changes in relief, fauna and hydrographic network. The results of the study are of interest for historical lexicography, regional and interregional toponymy, toponymic cartography.

GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION IN UKRAINE: QUO VADIS?

The purpose of this study is based on many years of experience in secondary and higher education to analyze the main problems that arise in the teaching of geographical disciplines in Ukraine, taking into account global trends in modern education and science. The materials of this article were obtained on the basis of a combination of the results of many years of field research of Ukrainian landscapes and empirical experience of teaching geography in leading secondary and higher education institutions of Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy regions. Identifying the main problems of teaching geography for schoolchildren and students is based on general scientific systematic, systematic and model paradigms. The main theoretical methods were traditional: analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparison. Among the main problems that hinder the effective teaching of geographical disciplines, the following are highlighted: the dialectic nature of classical concepts in geography, contradictory geographical terminology, disordered and outdated toponymy, onesided coverage of the differentiation of the earth's surface on a geographical map, the incorrectness of «geographical records», coverage of regional studies in Ukraine, excessive digitization of the educational process etc. The novelty of the study is that a comprehensive analysis of the main problems that arise in the teaching of geography in high school and in higher education. The practical value of the obtained results is that the ideas presented by the authors can be useful for representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and stakeholdersof educational programs to optimize the geographical education of Ukraine.

Semantic Place Prediction With User Attribute in Social Media

In our daily life, we prefer to describe the location of a person with semantic words such as “travel,” “cinema” rather than geographic terminology such as GPS coordinates ($32^{\circ }24^{^{\prime }}12^{^{\prime \prime }}$32∘24'12''N, $2^{\circ }90^{^{\prime }}26.5^{^{\prime \prime }}$2∘90'26.5''E). This is because semantic places are easier to understand compared with precise geographic location. Existing methods only take text-image pairs into consideration, neglecting the user attribute, which is essential in semantic place prediction. In this work, we explore the impact of user attribute and propose user attribute included multimodal fusion models for semantic place prediction. Specifically, due to the complementarity of different modalities, multimodal fusion networks can adaptively learn the relationship between different modalities to fully use representational information from each modality. Besides, we propose a multi-image processing module to solve the scenario that a piece of Microblog text is attached to multiple images. Extensive experiments on our collected dataset verified the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

TO THE ORIGIN OF THE GRIVNA

The article is devoted to the problems of the Old Slavonic grivna. The word is present in all Slavonic languages and associates with decoration, weight and monetary unit. Many researchers link word a grivna as derived from animal mane. Study of the Persian, Caucasian and some other East writings and archeological sources of the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD (T. Nцldeke, H. Hьbscmann, J. Harmatta, A. Manandyan, W. Hinz, A. Bivar, H. Martirosyan and other) has allowed to select many variant off this word, how corn measure and land measure. This measure is fixed in Old Persian, Middle Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Parthian, Arabic and other languages (grb, grbn, grϊβa, griv, grїw, garib, jarib and other). Grb (graβi, basket) is present in Aramaic-Egyptian document and is dated near 310 BC. How corn measure, the word was wide-spread in the Achemenid and Sasanian Empire. Attested as Armenian corn measure in the Anania Sirakaci, 7th century (9.782 kg, 1.5 modius, a unit of measurement), links with garw-o-y, barley. However, in Greek version inscription of Љāpur I (240—271), the word can be correspond to 9.32 litres (A. Bivar). Griv as corn measure is fixed on Caucasus in the end of the 1st millennium — beginning of 2st millennium AD. Special attention is spared to geographical terminology, in East Europe word griva are spread for mountain territory and area of land. Obviously, griv-modius how a corn measure preceded to grivna-decoration, to grivna-weight and to grivna-monetary unit in the Slavonic territories. The Eastern Europe in the end of 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD was a territory of agrarian economy, and corn measure defined all others: capacity, length and square, weight measures and monetary units.

West and East in Ashkenaz in the Time of Judah he-\u1e24asid

The present study interprets and frames a long-standing question concerning Judah he-Ḥasid’s motivations in migrating to Regensburg against the social and geographical contexts of the Jews of Ashkenaz. By examining the use of Hebrew geographic terminology during the High Middle Ages (Loter, Ashkenaz, Ashkelonia), the article demonstrates that twelfth-century Jews perceived and were engaged in contemporary political and territorial processes of the surrounding kingdom. The Hebrew terms describe the cultural tripartite division of the German kingdom (Regnum Teutonicum) in Lotharingia, the five duchies of the earlier tribes (Saxony, Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, and Bavaria), and the still Slavic territories of the East. These imperial territories were settled and Christianized by mostly German migrants from the west of the kingdom from the eleventh century onwards. Comparable developments are evident in the movement and expansion of Jewish settlement in the German Kingdom. After many Jewish communities were founded in the Ashkenazic heartlands, beginning in cities on the Rhine, Main, and the Danube, i.e., in the territories of the five duchies (Ashkenaz), Jewish settlers founded new communities and settlements in the still Slavic areas (Ashkelonia), beyond the Elbe and Saale rivers, as part of the German settlement movement. Judah he-Ḥasid’s family’s migration is part of this development. With his relocation to Regensburg, he lived on the border of the Ashkenazic heartland (Old/West Ashkenaz) and the new Ashkenazic settlement areas in Ashkelonia (New/Eastern Ashkenaz). In Regensburg he became one of the central spiritual and halakhic authorities for the communities of the eastern neighboring territories. Through his work Judah he-Ḥasid opened the way to an “Ashkenazation” of the Jewish communities in eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

English

English

Geographical lexicon of the konovalovsky dialect of the Erzya-Mordovian language

The article introduces into scientific circulation and analyzes the geographical lexicon of the Erzya-Mordovian dialect of the village of Konovalovka in the Borsky district of the Samara region. The content of this lexical cluster of the konovalovsky dialect is compared with the lexemes of the respective clusters of other Mordovian dialects of the Samara region and other territories. The analysis is carried out taking into account the Zavolzhsky period of the history of speakers of this dialect of the Erzya-Mordovian language, the natural and geographical conditions of their residence, and the ethno-linguistic environment. The study revealed a number of common isoglosses of the geographical terminology of the konovalovsky dialect with the corresponding terminology of other Mordovian dialects of the region, primarily those that are related to villages founded before the beginning of the XVIII century. The composition of geographical vocabulary of konovalovsky dialect of the Erzya-Mordovian language, in general, is typical of Erzya Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region — it retains Erzya-Mordovian terms for the designation of forests, ravines, mountains, fields, occurring also in the vast majority of Erzya dialects, as in the Samara Volga region and beyond. A number of geographical terms that exist in the konovalovsky dialect are unique for the Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region and are not found anywhere else in the region, in any of the meanings. The work is based on the author’s materials obtained during field research in 2015–2019.

Топонимическое пространство эрзя-мордовского села Шилан Самарской области

Introduction: the article presents the analysis of the toponymic nomenclature of the Erzya-Mordovian village of Shilan of Krasnoyarsk District of Samara Oblast and its environs, as well as considers the geographical vocabulary of the Shilan dialect and toponymic legends that exist among the Erzya population of Shilan. Objective: to identify and analyze the toponymic nomenclature of one of the Mordovian dialects within the boundaries of the village of Shilan of Samara Oblast. Research materials: materials collected and processed by the author during the field seasons of 2017 and 2020 in the village of Shilan; the materials of field seasons of 2015–2020 in other Erzya-Mordovian villages of the Zavolzhye were used for comparative analysis. Results and novelty of the research: the result of the study was a comprehensive (lexical-semantic, comparative and etymological) analysis of toponymic vocabulary of the Erzya-Mordovian village of Shilan, geographical names of the village and its environs. As a result, 20 toponymic units of geographical terminology of the Shilan dialect of the Erzya language were introduced into scientific use. The scientific novelty of the study is that such an analysis of the toponymic space of the village of Shilan was performed for the first time; new scientific data, interesting for researchers of Mordovian toponymy, Mordovian languages and for specialists in other Finno-Ugric languages, were introduced into scientific circulation.

ВІДАПЕЛЯТИВНІ ОРОНІМИ ІСТОРИЧНОЇ УМАНЩИНИ АНТРОПОГЕННОГО ПОХОДЖЕННЯ

The aim of the article is to find out the motives for the nomination of some oronyms of the historical Uman region that covers certain districts of Cherkasy, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia regions and tends to belong to Uman. It is important to analyze the names in the diachronic aspect (their usage from the first mentions in written texts to the present day). The study of onym material involves the use of scientific cognition methods, including descriptive one for sorting out oronyms taken from written texts of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and documents from Ukrainian archival institutions, comparative-historical – to establish the reasons for the nomination of land forms recorded in Uman region in the seventeenth century, diachronic – as a means of studying names in historical development. For the first time the oronymic factual material of Uman region of the 17th–19th centuries was introduced into scientific circulation and its structural word-forming and lexical-semantic features in the diachronic aspect are investigated. Given that such objects were renamed, oronyms usually had several variants, and even within the same document, different models of the name of a particular object were recorded. The names associated with the relief elements reflect the landscape diversity of the historical Uman region. The location in Central Ukraine contributed to the creation of an original natural complex of the study area. In proper names, this is expressed primarily in the use of geographical terminology. For the historical Uman region, the terms that have become proper names are beam, valley, grotto, levada, grave, and ravine. The transformation and transition of geographical nouns into microtoponyms take place on the basis of fixing the singularity and individuality of reality itself. But along with the onymization of the toponymic appellation in the microtoponymformation complex constructions have been involved, in the attributive part of which there are lexemes expressed in landscape terminology: Deep Valley; Thunder, or Lion's Grotto; Bloody ravine; The field of the industrious Yurentokh Kushnir. Most names for landforms contain a description of the physical and geographical properties of natural realities. Microtoponyms characterize the objects by their size, shape, and length. The appellative derived names of the historical Uman region which reflect the relief and landscape features of the area are divided into two groups: 1. Microtoponyms of naturogenic origin (reflect lowland terrain, elevated terrain, plain terrain, physical and geographical properties of the object (shape, size and other features of the denotation), indicate the metaphor, flora and fauna of the region); 2. Microtoponyms of anthropogenic origin (related to human activity). It was found that the studied names associated with the elements of relief, reflect not only the diversity of the landscape of the historical Uman region, but also indicate the occupation of the population, ethnic composition; related to the names of structures, buildings, facilities, roads and certain events and occasions. Most of them exist today only in scientific works, having disappeared from the speech of the locals, and some onyms have undergone partial linguistic and component changes during the history of their usage.

Классификация географической терминологии (на материале сказки Р. Киплинга «Кот, который гулял где хотел» на русском и английском языках)

The article is devoted to the classification of geographical terminology in R. Kipling’s fairy-tale “The Cat That Walked by Himself” in Russian and English. The relevance of the given study is due to the productivity of vocabulary from many sciences in fiction in the framework of various linguistic studies. The authors of the article constructed tables and a diagram. The data obtained in the course of the study were systematized in Russian and English. The frequency of words and concepts was revealed and comments were given.

Geographical terms used in reference to the lakes in Moksha-Mordovian dialects of the Samara Bend

Introduction. The article considers geographic terms for lakes and ponds, which can be found in three Moksha-Mordovian dialects of Samara Bend: Tornovoye, Shelekhmet and Bakhilovo. Until now, the geographical vocabulary of these dialects has not been the subject of special study, nor has it been put into academic discourse. The purpose of this study was to describe and to conduct lexico-semantic and etymological analysis of geographical terms used to define ponds and lakes in these dialects. Materials and Methods. The general theoretical and methodological basis of the research consists of the works of national and international researchers. Their subject of research is the toponymy and geographical vocabulary of the Mordovian languages. In lexical terms the work is based on the materials of the author’s field studies conducted in the villages of Tornovoye and Shelekhmet of the Volga region and Bakhilovo of the Stavropol district of the Samara region during the field seasons in 2017 and 2018. When collecting and analyzing linguistic field material, descriptive and comparative methods of linguistic research were used. Results and Discussion. The results of the study showed that the geographical lexemes differ both from the corresponding literary-written Mordovian forms and from the majority of dialect variants. Each of the studied dialects uses its own unique term in these meanings. When comparing limnonymy terms of Moksha dialects of the Samara Bend, with an appropriate geographical terminology of other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region, only the term pandalu found in shelekhmetsky dialect shows full compatibility. The term bua found in tornovsky dialect cannot be found in other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region. Conclusion. The study made it possible to establish that the geographical terms of the Moksha-Mordovian dialects of Samara Bend, used to designate lakes and ponds, have significant differences from the composition of the corresponding terminology of the literary and written Mordovian languages and their dialects, and also significantly differ from dialect to dialect.

Słownictwo geograficzne

The beginnings of the Polish geographical terminology are associated with the birth of modern science. Its further development is a response to the increasing communication needs in the fi eld of geography. In the initial phase, the fundamental base of geographical vocabulary is resources of the general language. The progressing specialisation of scientifi c research requires the application of an increasing number of precise terms. Geographical terms have been coined in accordance with the general rules characteristic of special lexis. The resource includes: foreign quotations, borrowings with various degrees of assimilation, new Polish words and multi-word units coined with the use of common nomination mechanisms. Geography is a fi eld that is closely related to other sciences, and hence it is characterised by a large number of terms that are common to fi elds such as astronomy and geology.

ЮКАГИРСКИЕ ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИЕ ТЕРМИНЫ В ТОПОНИМИИ БАССЕЙНА РЕКИ КОЛЫМА

The article continues the author's research on the toponymy of the North-East of the Sakha Republic, in particular the Kolyma river basin, in the aspect of the interaction of related and unrelated languages. The relevance of this work is defined in the description of local geographical terminology of Yukagir origin, as a valuable and important material in the further study of toponymy of the region. For the first time, the toponymy of the Kolyma river basin becomes the object of sampling and linguistic analysis of toponyms with local geographical terms of Yukagir origin in order to identify and analyze them linguistically. The research was carried out by comparative method, word formation, structural, lexical and semantic analysis. As a result of the research, phonetic and morphological features are revealed, the formation of local geographical terms and geographical names of Yukagir origin is outlined, and previously unrecorded semantic shifts and dialectisms are revealed. The most active in the formation of terms and toponyms is the geographical term iилil / eҕal 'coast‘, which is justified by the representation of the Yukagirs’ coast' home, housing

OIKONYMS AS A REFLECTION OF THE LOCATION OF THE UDMURT ETHNIC GROUP

The territory of Udmurtia is the main area of settlement of Udmurts. From the point of view of geography, this area is located in a wide area of contact of natural zones, so it can be considered as the "local development" of the Udmurt ethnic group. In addition, the territory of Udmurtia, despite its small size and flat terrain, is very diverse in landscape and resource terms. Therefore, the economy, culture and toponymy, in particular, oikonymy have a strong relationship. Taking into consideration the geographical place of people settlement, this work provides a linguistic analysis of language tools related to toponymy and geographical terminology.

Топонимическое пространство мокша-мордовского села Благодаровка Борского района Самарской области

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the toponymic area of the Moksha-Mordovian Blagodarovka village of the Borsky district of the Samara region. The aim of the article is an introduction into scientific discourse and the etymological analysis of toponymic vocabulary of the Blagodarovka village and its outskirts. The methods of the article are based on the principles of toponymic researches formulated in the works of leading Russian onomasticians. The article is based on the author's experience. As a result of the researches, the main characteristics and dialect belonging of the Blagodarovsky dialect of the Moksha-Mordovian language were determined, the geographical terminology existing in it was fixed, and the toponymic vocabulary was collected and analyzed. It is concluded that Blagodarovsky dialect of the Moksha-Mordovian language, despite a relatively short period of existence in the Russian environment with separation from other Mordovian language areas, is one of the most Russified Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region. A number of geographical names of the toponymic area of Blagodarovka find identical or close parallels in most other Moksha-Mordovian and Erzya-Mordovian toponymic areas of the region. The natural and geographical settlement conditions of native Blagodarovsky dialect speakers of the Moksha-Mordovian language as in the case of other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region had a significant impact on the composition and semantics of the geographical terminology that exists in it.