Russian colonization as reflected in the language (to the 60th anniversary of M. Vasmer’s publication of the same name)
Abstract
The article is written on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the publication of one of the latest works of Max Vasmer, in which he summarized the results of his (and other scientists') research on onomastics and etymology in connection with the problems of the linguo-ethnic history of Russia. An attempt is made to answer the questions about how far our knowledge has advanced since 1960 on the problems that Vasmer outlined in his publication, and which of his discoveries still retain their significance. (1) The following topics (problems) are discussed in Vasmer's article: I. Iranian linguistic element in the South of Russia; II. Ural-speaking (Baltic- Finnish, Saami, Permic, Mordovian, Meryan) substratum and borrowed elements in Russian vocabulary and toponymy; III. Toponyms of Turkic origin in Russian; IV. The ancient habitats of the Eastern Slavs. Golyad' and the Baltic lexical heritage in the Russian language. Transfer of hydronyms and toponyms during the Slavic colonization of Eastern Europe; V. Lexical differences between East Slavic languages and between Russian dialects; VI. North Russian and Novgorod colonization of the North and Siberia. Finno-Ugric borrowings into Russian as indicators of Russian colonization; VII. Anthroponyms of Northern Russian origin in Siberia. Comments on the named topics (problems) are given in the present article with predominant attention to the literature of the “post-Vasmer” period. Summarizing these comments, one can say that despite the relative smallness of the material at his disposal, M. Vasmer outlined the right ways of research, and the specific etymological decisions that he made, as a rule, until now turn out to be reliable or at least competitive. I. O. N. Trubachev appreciated as “classical” M. Vasmer's statements on 8 hydronyms of Iranian origin in the Middle and Lower Dnieper. II.1- 2. In the study of the Finnish and Saami substratum, Vasmer improved the selection of topoformants, determining by their area the former dispersion of the Ural-speaking peoples. Currently, the prevailing tendency is to consider the substrate in the Russian North (at least, its oldest layers) not as Finnish and Saami, but as a more general “West Uralic” (Finnish-Saami- Mordovian). II.3. The fundamental consideration of M. Vasmer about the close relationship of the ethnonyms Mari (марийцы) and Merya (меря) remains valid. Developing the ideas of Vasmer, A. K. Matveev did not identify the Merya and the Mari (Cheremis), but saw in the Mari the Finno-Ugric ethnos closest to the Merya. III. The study of toponyms of Turkic origin (toponymic heritage of the Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, etc.) M. Vasmer regarded as a task that researchers will probably have to solve for a long period of time. In the “post-Vasmer” period many works appeared on separate areas of toponymy and the origin of toponymic Turkisms in East Slavic languages. IV.1. The locus of the earliest habitats of the Eastern Slavs was identified by M. Vasmer on the Middle Dnieper. Along the upper Dnieper and adjacent rivers of the basin of lake Ilmen, according to Vasmer, Slavs made their way to the lands where Novgorod later arose. Their path lay through the lands inhabited by the Balts. At the same time, the “post-Vasmer” studies significantly changed and clarified ideas about the original areas of the Balts and Slavs, changes in these areas, as well as the number, historical stratification and distribution of Balticisms in the Slavic languages. V. M. Vasmer's fair considerations on the lexical differences between East Slavic languages and dialects need serious corrections, taking into account the vast literature of recent decades, especially dialectal and etymological dictionaries and atlases. VI-VII. The validity of the considerations expressed by M. Vasmer that the study of Russian vocabulary and toponomastics can illuminate the course of the Russian colonization of the North and Siberia is obvious. It is important that he clearly distinguishes the Novgorod period of colonization. He points, in particular, to the designation of the Vyatka river as the “Novgorod river”, cf. Mari Naukrad Wyd and Tatar Naukrad Idyl. An example is very expressive with the word шел´онник (шал´оник, шол´оник, etc.), the name of the wind on the lake Ilmen in the western part of the Novgorod region, formed from the name of the river flowing into Ilmen from the southwest. This name, as a designation of the south and south-west wind, spread along with the Novgorod colonization up to the Arctic Ocean and in Siberia, where there are no rivers with the name Shelon. One cannot but agree with M. Vasmer’s assertion that borrowings into Russian from the Finno-Ugric (Uralic) languages are of great interest for studying the history of the Russian colonization. Vasmer defines the boundaries of different layers of borrowing: Baltic-Finnish, Saami and Permic. The appellatives borrowed from these languages spread far beyond the Urals. With the general correctness and perspective, the considerations set out in Vasmer’s article can be seriously adjusted. Among the most important historical and linguistic achievements in the study of the linguistic aspects of the Russian colonization of the North and Siberia after the Vasmer’s period, one should highlight the considerations of E. A. Khelimsky about three types of names of Russians in the languages of the Urals, Ural and Siberia and the routes to Siberia correlated with them.
In the topics related to Russian colonization, there are aspects that Vasmer did not touch on much, but which are essential. Vasmer considers borrowings in Russian (more often in Russian dialects) and Russian native vocabulary, but does not deal with borrowings from Russian into neighboring languages. In addition, he only takes account of the calques to some extent. (2) A good example of a Russism, illustrating the penetration of Russians into Eastern Siberia, may be the following: Yakut (Olekma, Suntar) māmȳt ‘memory game’, Dolgan pāmit, pāmīt, Yakut (Olenyok) māmȳt ‘bird collarbone’ < Russian dialectal память ‘sternum of a chicken, rooster’, literally ‘memory’. Significant additions to the above Russian-Yakut-Dolgan parallels are Selkup (Ket) pāmmät ‘collarbone’, Ket (= Yenisei-Ostyak) pāmə̑t. For the Selkup, the mediation of the Evenki *pāmet is possible. It is interesting that the geography of these words coincides with the main route of Russian penetration in the 17th century to the Middle Yenisei and Lena through the Makovsky fortress on the Ket river. (3) Regarding the topic of calques, the article presents a small etude dedicated to the rare Russian dialectism паэ and its Nenets sources against the background of data on the history of the oronyms Камень and Урал.
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