The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies
The paper focuses on some earlier and new etymologies of the mysterious toponym Urdoma which nowadays refers to a village located on the left bank of the river Vychegda in Lensky district, Arkhangelsk region. Studying historical records and materials related to local history, the authors conclude th...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Russian |
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Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Вопросы ономастики |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2021-volume-18-issue-3-1 |
| _version_ | 1828430283933745152 |
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| author | Nadezhda V. Kabinina Ekaterina D. Kornienko |
| author_facet | Nadezhda V. Kabinina Ekaterina D. Kornienko |
| author_sort | Nadezhda V. Kabinina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper focuses on some earlier and new etymologies of the mysterious toponym Urdoma which nowadays refers to a village located on the left bank of the river Vychegda in Lensky district, Arkhangelsk region. Studying historical records and materials related to local history, the authors conclude that this place name was originally attributed to a stream (the right feeder of the Vychegda) nearby the settlement Urdoma and the volost of the same name. The first part of the paper reviews the earlier etymologies of the name and comments on their validity and reliability. The authors reject the hypothesis of Sanskrit ūrdhva (‘high’) as the origin for Urdoma; the interpretation of the place name as Komi-Zyryan ur ‘squirrel’ + Russian doma ‘houses’ is considered a folk etymology; the authors also note the weaknesses of some other hypotheses which trace the origin of the name from Finnic *Urto/maa ‘the woodland for hunting,’ or from Komi *(V)urd/vom < ‘tamias’ + ‘river mouth,’ or from Permic *Ur/ton ‘without squirrels.’ The second part of the paper suggests two new etymological hypotheses. According to the first one, the hydronym Urdoma originates not from the Komi-Zyryan language directly but from an earlier Proto-Permic root *ɨrd- which had a basic meaning of ‘put upright’ (> ‘obstruct’). Within this hypothesis, the meaning of ‘obstructedness’ conveys the river’s suitability for setting fishing weirs, or the presence of obstructions of natural origin such as deadfall piles, or (considering metonymy) the existence of a fortress near the river in the past. According to the second hypothesis, the hydronym Urdoma relates to the place names which include the term -dom widely spread in historical Meryan lands and on the northern Finnish territories. In that case, considering denotative toponymic meaning of the term -dom, the final component of the toponym Urdoma can be interpreted as ‘mountain; raised riverbank’. The first component of the place name (which possibly has been deformed) can be associated with Sami urd ‘large plateau or highland’. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T17:46:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1dd18097dc2041fe9c71e2eefc667d92 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1994-2400 1994-2451 |
| language | Russian |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T17:46:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Вопросы ономастики |
| spelling | doaj.art-1dd18097dc2041fe9c71e2eefc667d922022-12-22T01:39:13ZrusIzdatelstvo Uralskogo UniversitetaВопросы ономастики1994-24001994-24512021-12-01183416510.15826/vopr_onom.2021.18.3.032The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New EtymologiesNadezhda V. Kabinina0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8855-4507Ekaterina D. Kornienko1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7227-1403Ural Federal UniversityUral Federal UniversityThe paper focuses on some earlier and new etymologies of the mysterious toponym Urdoma which nowadays refers to a village located on the left bank of the river Vychegda in Lensky district, Arkhangelsk region. Studying historical records and materials related to local history, the authors conclude that this place name was originally attributed to a stream (the right feeder of the Vychegda) nearby the settlement Urdoma and the volost of the same name. The first part of the paper reviews the earlier etymologies of the name and comments on their validity and reliability. The authors reject the hypothesis of Sanskrit ūrdhva (‘high’) as the origin for Urdoma; the interpretation of the place name as Komi-Zyryan ur ‘squirrel’ + Russian doma ‘houses’ is considered a folk etymology; the authors also note the weaknesses of some other hypotheses which trace the origin of the name from Finnic *Urto/maa ‘the woodland for hunting,’ or from Komi *(V)urd/vom < ‘tamias’ + ‘river mouth,’ or from Permic *Ur/ton ‘without squirrels.’ The second part of the paper suggests two new etymological hypotheses. According to the first one, the hydronym Urdoma originates not from the Komi-Zyryan language directly but from an earlier Proto-Permic root *ɨrd- which had a basic meaning of ‘put upright’ (> ‘obstruct’). Within this hypothesis, the meaning of ‘obstructedness’ conveys the river’s suitability for setting fishing weirs, or the presence of obstructions of natural origin such as deadfall piles, or (considering metonymy) the existence of a fortress near the river in the past. According to the second hypothesis, the hydronym Urdoma relates to the place names which include the term -dom widely spread in historical Meryan lands and on the northern Finnish territories. In that case, considering denotative toponymic meaning of the term -dom, the final component of the toponym Urdoma can be interpreted as ‘mountain; raised riverbank’. The first component of the place name (which possibly has been deformed) can be associated with Sami urd ‘large plateau or highland’.http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2021-volume-18-issue-3-1arkhangelsk regionetymologyfinno-ugric languagespermic languagessubstrate toponymythe european north of russiaurdoma |
| spellingShingle | Nadezhda V. Kabinina Ekaterina D. Kornienko The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies Вопросы ономастики arkhangelsk region etymology finno-ugric languages permic languages substrate toponymy the european north of russia urdoma |
| title | The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies |
| title_full | The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies |
| title_fullStr | The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies |
| title_short | The Nothern Russian Toponym Urdoma: Old and New Etymologies |
| title_sort | nothern russian toponym urdoma old and new etymologies |
| topic | arkhangelsk region etymology finno-ugric languages permic languages substrate toponymy the european north of russia urdoma |
| url | http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2021-volume-18-issue-3-1 |
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