Man gave names to cities and villages; he named mountains and rivers, seas and ridges on the planet. Moreover, people came up with names for planets and stars and "christened" the lifeless lunar landscape. And almost since the first time people began to give names to the rivers and mountains around them, the question arose: why is it so named? What does this or that name mean? Where did these names come from, why was it so called, what does the word Cupid mean? Or Altai? Or the city of Paris? Or the Ebro River in Spain?
The answer to this question is given by science - toponymy, which studies geographical names, their origin, meaning, correct spelling, studies thousands and hundreds of thousands of names in dozens and hundreds of different languages \u200b\u200bof the world. Geographic names are words; albeit with its own characteristics, albeit not carrying such a clear semantic load as ordinary words of the language. And the laws of formation and change of words are studied by linguistics.
But the study of geographical names is as much a "blood affair" of geographers as of linguists. Although words are the material, the "bricks" of names, these words carry a special service, their main purpose is to give a name to a geographical object, be it a mountain, a river, or a city. And therefore, with the help of linguistics alone, the problems of toponymy cannot be solved.
Very often both the river and the city on the river have the same name. The linguist cannot determine which name was the first: whether the city was named after the river, or the river - according to the city standing on it. A geographer can answer this question. As a rule, cities and villages are named after the rivers on the banks of which they are located, for example, Moscow, Voronezh, Omsk, Tomsk, Ufa, Volgograd. But in Central Asia, on the contrary, rivers are named after cities: the Amu-Darya river is named after the city of Amul; the Yarkand-Darya river through the city of Yarkand, etc.
But neither the linguist nor the geographer can explain why the former St. Petersburg became St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, and then Leningrad; then again St. Petersburg, why the area "Lonely grave" becomes the "Valley of Oil", why there was a village Siberia in the Smolensk province, why in the Middle Ages many names of cities and villages were born, formed from the words bridge (Zamosc, Mosty, Pontoise, Bruges, Osnabrück, Alcantar and a number of others), and in our time, when both bridges and new cities appear more often than in the Middle Ages, the names of cities with the base “bridge” do not appear, why the same river was called at different times Ra- Itil and Volga, why there is a village in faraway Canada called Cherry.
These and many other questions of toponymy can be answered not by geography or linguistics, but only by history - the history of society, archaeological excavations, archival materials, chronicles and scribes.
So, history, geography, linguistics - all of them are necessary for toponymy; geographic names cannot be studied without their help. But - only help. Toponymy is an independent scientific discipline, it has its own methods, its own object of study. In our century, the most interesting problems, the most fascinating branches of knowledge are born at the intersection of sciences. Cybernetics and the theory of signs, biochemistry and astrophysics, mathematical linguistics and geophysics, psychology and religion ... These complex sciences include the science of geographical names - toponymy - a mixture of geography, history and linguistics.
They lived on the territory of our country, about which historians told. Archaeologists have unearthed numerous Scythian burial mounds, thereby confirming the words of ancient scholars. But not only excavations speak of the Scythians. And to this day, traces of the Scythians have remained in our lives. These footprints are place names. Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniester - the names of these rivers go back to the language of the Scythians and mean "water" and "river".
Elbe - this is the name of one of the main German rivers. But the word Elba is not German, it is a converted Slavic Laba - this is how the ancient inhabitants of Northern Germany called the river - the Slavs. And in the mountains of the Czech Republic, where this river originates, it is still called by its original and ancient name - Laba.
The name of the capital of France, Paris, indicates that this place was a settlement of the Parisian tribe many centuries ago. The Ebro River in eastern Spain has brought to us the oldest name of the whole country - Iberia, formed on behalf of the indigenous people of the Iberian Peninsula, the Iberians.
The word Scotland is derived from the Scottish tribe. And the name of the tribe literally means “nomads”. The names "incomprehensible" for the Russian names of the tributaries of the Oka - Tsna and Smedva, the tributary of the Volga - Zhukon, the tributary of the Moskva River - Lusyanka indicate that the ancestors of modern Lithuanians once lived in these territories. The names of the city of Tomsk and the Tom River go back to the language of the Kets and confirm the assumption of scientists that the Kets, now living in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, lived earlier in the south of Western Siberia.
Geographical names not only impassively tell us about ancient times. The names can be blamed. The Slave Coast, the Slave River, the Slave Lake ... These names revive the terrible past of Africa, which the white colonialists turned into a "reserved field for hunting blacks." Rich Pier - Puerto Rico; Silver - Argentina. These names were given by the conquerors - conquistadors to the newly discovered lands of the New World ... And this is how the Indians had to pay for the wealth of their native land. In "wealthy" Costa Rica, they make up less than fifteen hundredths of a percent of the population. And on the island of Puerto Rico not a single Indian remained - already in the 16th century they were inhumanely exterminated by the Spanish colonialists.
The center of New York, the largest city in the world, is located on Manhattan Island. This word is translated "Where we were deceived", for the island was acquired for a pittance by Dutch businessmen from the leaders of the Iroquois.
Geographic names go back centuries and millennia. They experience those who first thought of them, they experience the language in which they were expressed. Majestic palaces and temples collapsed, peoples and languages, cities and states disappeared ... And only a fragile word, a weightless word remained to live, proving to be stronger than fortress walls and once mighty empires.
Bit by bit, scientists collect this priceless material, carefully analyzing it, looking for traces of the distant past in geographical names. And it is sometimes even more difficult to resurrect it than to decipher the most complex letter: after all, sometimes geographical names do not at all form a coherent text. And yet researchers are steadily and patiently doing their job, restoring events and deeds of bygone days by geographical names.
P. S. Ancient chronicles tell: And sometimes, in order to penetrate into the history of some geographical names in the East, especially in its Muslim part, it is even necessary to study the Arabic language, which for a long time was the international language of the whole East (as now English is international for the whole world). But do not be afraid of the difficulties associated with its study, because there is an excellent school of oriental languages \u200b\u200bshid.com.ua, come and study.
Afghanistan - possibly from "Upa-Ghana-Stan" (in Sanskrit "land of united tribes").
Albania - the land of the highlanders. The root "Alb" means "white" or "mountain". The hill tribes from present-day Kosovo are believed to have brought their mountain ethnonym to the narrow coastal plain. The name Shqiperia used domestically means "land of the eagle". Perhaps the eagle was the tribe's totem.
Algeria - from the name of the capital Algeria (Algiers), which in French is Alger, in Arabic - Al Jazair (island).
Andorra - the origin is unknown. Possibly Iberian or Basque.
Angola - from ngola, a title used by the monarch in the pre-colonial kingdom of Ndongo.
Argentina - from the Latin "Argentum" (silver). Merchants used the Argentine Rio de la Plata (Silver River) to transport silver and other treasures from Peru. The land was downstream and became known as Argentina (Land of Silver).
Australia - from "unknown southern land" (lat. terra australis incognita). The area was named by early European explorers, who believed that the Australian mainland was much larger than they had so far discovered. The traveler Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), who first explored and mapped the Australian coast, used the term "Australia" in his work.
Austria - "Eastern kingdom", for example, compare with modern German: Osterreich. In the 9th century, Austria was the extreme eastern territory of the Frankish Empire, as well as the border zone of Germanic settlements with the Slavic land. Charlemagne named the country Ostmark ("Eastern Border Territory"). In the 11th century, the term Ostarrichi first appeared.
Azerbaijan - "land of fire" (from fires on the surface of ancient oil pools) The ancient name Atropatene in Arabic began to be pronounced as Azerbaijan.
Bahamas - from the Spanish "Baja Mar" ("shallow sea"). The Spanish conquistadors named the islands in this way according to the characteristics of the water that surrounds them.
Bahrain - from the Arabic "two seas". Only about which seas it speaks is still under discussion. Bahrain is located in a bay surrounded by Arab land and the Qatari Peninsula, and some people believe that the "two seas" are the waters of the bay on both sides of the island. Others believe that in this case there is a reference to the position of the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, separated by "two seas" from the Arab coast in the south and Iran in the north.
Bangladesh - from Sanskrit / Bengali. Bangla means Bengali speakers and Desh means "country", thus Bangladesh means "Country of Bengali speakers (Bengalis)". The country was formerly part of India and Bengali culture covers a vast area of \u200b\u200bIndia and Bangladesh.
Barbados - was named by the Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos "Los Barbados", which means "bearded". This was said about the appearance of the island's fig trees.
Belarus - "White Russia", in the past Belarus, "white Russia". The name was changed after the collapse of the USSR to emphasize that Belarus and Russia were and remain separate countries. It is assumed that the new name has an independent root rus from Ruthenia (to be honest, I could not find an analogue of this name in books on the history of Russia, if anyone comments, I’ll only be glad). Although in fact Ruthenia and Russia originated from the same root "rus", which came to us from the Vikings. Thus, the Ukrainian region of Ruthenia can be found in old sources as "Red Russia" (perhaps, here we mean Kievan Rus), where the term does not refer to all of Ukraine or the USSR.
Belgium - from the name of the Celtic tribe, Belgae. Perhaps later the name came from "Bolg" (Proto-Indo-European language group), meaning a bag or a womb.
Belize - from the distorted Spanish pronunciation of "Peter Wallis" - the pirate who established the first settlement in Belize in 1638.
Benin - named after the old African empire of the same name, on whose territory modern Benin is located. The state of Benin was previously called Dahomey from the largest ethnic group.
Butane - the land of Bhotia. The people of Tibet or Bhotia migrated from Tibet to Bhutan in the 10th century. The common root is "bod", the ancient name for Tibet. The second unofficial name is Druk-Yul, which means "land of the thunder dragon", "land of thunder" or "land of the dragon".
Brazil - from the tree of the same name, which, in turn, was named because of the reddish color of the wood, reminiscent of the color of hot coals (brasil in Portuguese).
Britannia - "painted", a reference to the original settlers of the islands who used paint and tattoos to decorate their bodies; may also be derived from the Celtic goddess Brigid.
Bolivia - in honor of Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), a military leader who fought against the Spaniards, and the first president of the republic (after the recognition of independence in 1824).
Bosnia and Herzegovina - earlier the country consisted of two separate territories: the large northern part was named after the Bosna River, the smaller southern one took its name from the German noble title "duke". This title was awarded to the Supreme Voivode of the Territory Stefan Vikcic (if not so pronounced, sorry) by Emperor Frederick 4 in 1448.
Botswana - named after the country's predominant ethnic group, Tswana. The past name - Bechuanaland - comes from Bechuan, another spelling "Botswana".
Bulgaria - "the country of a tribe formed from many tribes". "Bulg" comes from the Turkish root meaning "mixed".
Burkina Faso - "the land of honest people". Previously, the country was called "Upper Volta" from the names of the two main rivers - White and Black Volt - originating in Burkina Faso.
Burundi - the land of the Rundi speakers.
Vanuatu- from "forever in our land" in the Bislama language. The country was formerly known as the New Hebrides Islands after the islands in Scotland.
Vatican - from lat. vaticinari "to prophesy", from the name of the hill "Mons Vaticanus", on which the Vatican is located. The street at the foot of this hill was used by fortune tellers and fortune tellers in Roman times.
Hungary - "people of ten copies". In other words, "the union of the ten tribes".
Venezuela - "little Venice", from the diminutive form "Venice". European explorers were struck by the stilt houses built by the aborigines on Lake Maracaibo and decided to name the country after Venice.
Vietnam - "southern land". The original layer of Vietnamese civilization was actually much north of modern Vietnam.
Gabon - from the Portuguese name for the Mbé river: "Gabao" (hooded coat) from the specific shape of the river mouth.
Haiti -In the language of the Indians, Taino means "high mountain", Columbus gave the name "Hispaniola" ("little Spain"), but before him the region was called Haiti.
Guyana - perhaps from the local "Guainazes" - "people worthy of respect."
Ghana - in honor of the eponymous ancient West African kingdom. However, the modern territory of Ghana has never been a part of it.
Germany - "land of spearmen" from the Germanic "gar" ("spear") and the Latin and Germanic "man" - man. In Latin, "Germany" means: Allemagne - "land of all people", i.e. "our many peoples"; Deutschland - "land of people"; Nemetsy (Polish: Niemcy; Romanian: Nemti; Czech: Nemecko; Hungarian: Nemet (orszag)) - "land of the dumb", where "dumb" is a metaphor for "those who do not speak our language." The Hungarian name is borrowed from the Slavic languages.
Honduras - from the Spanish for "depth", refers to the deep waters off the northern coast.
Grenada - from the southern Spanish city (province) of the same name.
Greece - from lat. Grecus (Greeks), Aristotle assumed that this name referred to the indigenous peoples of Epirus (a mountainous coastal region surrounded by Macedonia and Thessaly); Hellas is the "land of light" (a dubious assumption, since there are no words in Greek like "light" and "earth" in Hellas).
Denmark - dhen (Proto-Indo-European language group) means "low" or "flat" and in Germanic "mark" means "border land" and / or "border forest". The name was used by the ancient Goths to describe the forest that separated Gothland (I'm afraid to translate it wrongly) from Scania.
Djibouti - named after the lowest point of the Gulf of Aden of the Indian Ocean. Perhaps it comes from the word "gabouti" (in Afar) - a rug under the door made of palm fiber. Dominican Republic - from lat. "Dies Dominica" (Sunday), the day of the week that Christopher Columbus first landed on the island.
- "temple of the soul of the god Ptah".
Zambia- from the Zambezi River.
Zimbabwe - "stone houses" in Shona, referring to the stone-built capital of the ancient trading empire of Great Zimbabwe.
Israel - an alternative name for the biblical hero Jacob, literally "fighting with God."
India - in honor of the Indus River (in Hindi). It is often believed that "Bharat", the proper name of the inhabitants for India, came from the name of the ancient king "Jada Bharatha", but this name could also have come from another king Bharata, the son of the legendary king Dushyanta (sorry, I am not familiar with the history of India. How , however, with the history of many other countries ...).
Indonesia - "Indian Islands". From the Greek word nesos, "island" added to the name of the country India.
Iraq - from the Hebrew "Uruk" ("between the rivers"), which is a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Iran - "land of the Aryans" or "land of the free". The term "Arya" comes from a proto-Indo-European group of languages \u200b\u200band usually means "noble" or "free", akin to the Greek word "aristocrat". Persia (past name of Iran): from lat. "Persais", from the ancient Persian "Paarsa", the central region in the country, modern Fars. Persia is often associated with Greek mythology - "the land of Perseus".
Ireland - from Eire from pre-Celtic Iweriu - "fertile place" or "place of Eire", the Celtic goddess of fertility. It is often mistakenly believed that it came from the "land of iron" (in English. "Land of iron").
Iceland - "land of ice" (Island in Icelandic). Named to dissuade foreigners from trying to settle in what was actually fertile land.
Italy - "son of the bull-god" or "calf-god", the name usually refers only to a small area on the southern tip of modern Italy.
Yemen - the origin of the name is being debated. Some sources claim that it comes from the Arabic yamin meaning "on the right hand" (a reference to Yemen's position from the point of view of an observer looking from Mecca), others suggest that the name comes from yumn meaning "happiness", "blessing" ... The name (for the classical world - "Arabia Felix" (again lack of knowledge of history)) usually referred to the entire southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
Cape Verde - from the Portuguese Cabo Verde ("green cape"), named by Portuguese sailors who traveled along the Sahara Desert before seeing the relatively green islands.
Cameroon - from the Portuguese Rio de Camaroes ("shrimp river"), the name given to the Vuri river by Portuguese travelers in the 15th century.
Canada - "small settlement" or "village" in Algonquian (one of the languages \u200b\u200bof the indigenous people of North America). This name referred to Stacadone, a settlement near present-day Quebec.
Kenya - in honor of Mount Kenya, in the Kikuyu language the mountain is called Kere-Nyaga ("mountain of whiteness").
Cyprus - named after the copper mines located on its territory.
Kiribati - a distorted "Gilbert", from the European name for Gilbert Island. By the way, they are called that in Russian.
China (pronounced "Chyna" in English) - named after the Chin dynasty in Sanskrit.
Colombia - in honor of Christopher Columbus.
Comoros - in Arabic "Djazair al Kamar" ("island of the moon").
Korea - in honor of the Goryeo Dynasty (again I'm afraid to be mistaken), the first Korean dynasty, in which people from the west visited the country. The internal name Hangeuk in ancient Joseon means "country of morning calm".
Costa Rica - "rich coast" in Spanish.
Cuba - "Cubanacan" ("centerpiece") in the language of the Taino Indians.
Kuwait - from the Arabic "Kut" meaning "fortress".
Lebanon (Lebanon) - from the Jewish "white mountains".
Lesotho - in honor of the people of Sotho.
Liberia - from lat. liber, "free". Named because the nation was created as a homeland for freed American slaves.
Liechtenstein - "light stone". The country was named after the Liechtenstein dynasty, which bought and united the territories of Schellenburg and Vaduz. The Roman Emperor will allow the family to rename their new property.
Luxembourg - (Celtic "Lucilem" - "small", Germanic "burg" - "castle") "small castle".
Mauritius - named after the Dutch ruler Prince Mauritius (Maurice) of Orange.
Malawi - from the local "flaming water", possibly referring to Lake Malawi.
Malaysia - the land of the people of Malay.
Maldives - in Sanskrit mahal ("palace"), diva ("island"). On the main island was the palace of the local sultan.
Malta - from the Phoenician "refuge". The name is most likely preserved in circulation due to the existence of the Greek and Latin word melitta ("honey"), the name of the island in ancient times, and the main export product at that time.
Morocco - from the city of Marrakesh. The local name "Al Maghreb al Aqsa" means "the far West".
Marshall Islands - named after British Captain John Marshall, who first documented the island's existence in 1788.
Mexico - in honor of the branch of the same name of the Aztecs.
Micronesia - from the Greek. "small islands".
Moldova - from the Moldova River in Romania. The river was named so because of the quarrying of minerals, for which its waters were used. Molde is the German term for this type of mining.
Monaco - "alone and by itself", a reference to the Greek hero Hercules.
Namibia - from the Namib Desert. "Namib" means "a place where there is nothing" in the Nama language.
Nepal - "wool market".
Nigeria - from the local African language "Ni Gir", "Gir River" (Niger).
Netherlands - Germanic "low lands". Holland (part of the Netherlands; the name is often used in relation to the country as a whole) - Germanic "holt land", i.e. wooded land (very often mistakenly assumed to mean "hollow land"). Batavia - "arable land" (derived from Betuwe, opposing the local name "Veluwe" - "uncultivated land").
New Zealand - from the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands.
Norway - from Old Norse northr and veg ("northern route"). The Norwegian name Norge comes from the roots northr and rike (kingdom of the north).
Oman - controversial origin. In some sources, the name comes from the Arabic term "sedentary" (as opposed to nomads), or from other Arabic words meaning "peace" and "trust". Others argue that the country was named after a historical figure, possibly Oman bin Ibrahim al-Khalil, Oman bin Siba "bin Yaghthan bin Ibrahim, Oman bin Qahtan, or Oman bin Loot (the Arabic name for the biblical character Lot). The name has existed for a while and mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy (85-165 AD)
Pakistan - acronym (provinces: Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Iran, Sindh, Tokharistan). It also means "the land of the pure, flawless", because "pak" means pure.
Palestine - from the Roman name of the country, literally "land of invaders" ("Philistines" from the Hebrew root meaning "invader").
Panama - in honor of a previously existing village near the modern capital. In the language of the Indians, Cueva means "a place where there is a lot of fish", possibly from the Caribbean "abundance of butterflies" or from another local name related to the tree of the same name.
Papua - "Papua" means "land of people with curly hair." Named so by neighboring Malays, whose hair is mostly straight.
Peru - possibly from the Biru River in present-day Ecuador.
Poland - from the Germanic polen, "field".
Portugal - from lat. portus, "port" and the name of the Roman port of Gaya, which later became Calais. A derivative name belonged to the small town of Portucale, now Porto.
Russia - from the ancient group of Vikings, known as Russia, and from the kingdom they created on the territory of modern Ukraine.
Romania - "the country of the Romans", because the local "romanized" population called themselves Rumani or Romani.
Salvador - "salvation" in Spanish, named after Jesus Christ.
Samoa - "Sanctuary of the Sacred Moa", from the moa, a native chicken-like poultry. According to legend, the site for the sacred chicken "Sa-moa" was fenced off by order of King Lu (Lu). After battles to defend this area, he named his son Samoa. Later, Samoa became the progenitor of the Moa clan, which stood at the head of the island of Manua and then all the islands of Samoa.
San marino - in honor of Saint Marino, who, according to legend, founded San Marino in 301
Sao Tome and Principe - Portuguese: Saint Thomas and Prince Islands.
Seychelles - named after Jean Moreau de Sechelles, Minister of Finance of King Louis XV of France.
Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia - unknown, possibly Sarmatian in origin; The "mountain ash" (Sorbs) in modern Germany has the same origin, the Serbs migrated to the Balkans from the region in Germany known as Lusatia, where mountain ash is still found today.
Montenegro - Called montenegro by the Venetian conquerors, "Black Mountain" because of the appearance of Mount Lovcen or, more likely, because of its dark coniferous forests. Crna Gora, the modern local name for the country, is a literal translation of Montenegro. (approx. "mountain" in Serbian means "forest on the mountains", so the name of the country rather means "black forest"). Formerly the country was known as Zeta, Dioclea, in Serbo-Croatian Duklia and Doclea. Doclea - the name of the area in the early period of the Roman Empire, was given to an ancient tribe. In the following centuries, the Romans transported Doclea to Dioclea, mistakenly believing that I was lost due to the peculiarities of speech. The early Slavic name Zeta comes from the name of a river in Montenegro, which in turn comes from a root meaning "harvest" or "grain". (Contrary to popular belief: Montenegro - did not come from Italian, because "black mountain" in Italian is monte nero without g.)
Singapore - the city was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 and he borrowed the name Singapore from the Malay language. Sinhapura was also an early name for the island. Sinhapura, in turn, comes from Sanskrit (Simhapura), which means "city of lions".
Slovakia - from the Slavic "glory" or "word".
Slovenia - similar to Slovakia.
United States of America - in honor of the explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci, who wrote his name on the maps of the New World. Buyers mistakenly believed that the name did not belong to the cartographer, but to the new land.
Sudan - from the Arabic Bilad as-Sudan, "the land of the blacks".
Suriname - in honor of the Surinen people, local American settlers.
Sierra Leone - adapted from either the Spanish version of Sierra Leon, or the Portuguese Serra-Leoa ("lion's mountains").
Tajikistan - from the Türkic root tasi, meaning "Muslim".
Thailand - from the Thai "land of the free". The country was previously known as Siam. Siam - the name was given to the ancient Thais by their neighbors and possibly comes from the Pali toponym "Suvarnabhuma" ("Land of Gold"), another root "sama" means different shades of colors, mostly brown or yellow, but sometimes green or black (approx. in Sanskrit Siam means "beautiful").
Taiwan - "bay with terraces" in Chinese. Rice fields make up the typical landscape of Taiwan.
Tanzania - a combination of the names of two states that make up this country - Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Timor - from the Malay word timur, meaning "east". In its official Tetun language, East Timor is known as Timor Lorosae. In neighboring Indonesia, it is known as Timor Timur, "east east".
Togo - from the settlement of Togo. In the language of the local people, Ewe "to" - "water" and "go" - shore.
Tonga - from the local "south", "southern". The islands are named so by James Cook. In the 19th century they were known as the "Islands of Friendship".
Trinidad and Tobago - "Trinidad" in honor of three protruding mountain peaks and the Christian trinity (trinidad is a trinity or trio in Spanish). "Tobago" - in honor of the tobacco smoked by the locals.
Tuvalu - from the local "eight islands" or "eight standing together". The early name Niulakita, which was banned, was the name of the first atoll.
Uganda - from the early "Buganda", "land of people", the ethnonym of the people dominating in this area.
Ukraine - from the Slavic "border area".
Fiji - from the Tonganese name of the islands "Viti".
Philippines - "the land of King Philip" (Spanish monarch in the 16th century).
Finland - from the Germanic Fennland, possibly from the root meaning "wanderers". Suomi, the name used by the indigenous people, may come from the Baltic word for "land".
France - "land of the Franks", literally "land of free people". The country was formerly known as Gaul from a Celtic tribe.
Croatia- it is unknown, it is usually believed that it came from the Sarmatian language.
Chile - unknown. Possibly from the Aracaunian (settlers' language) name for "depth", which is a reference to the fact that the Andes looms over a narrow coastal plain. Also, the possible origin of "Chile" could be "end of the world" ("end of the world") in the language of the Qechua people.
Switzerland- from the canton of Schwyz, perhaps earlier this name came from the German "Schweitz", "swamp".
Sweden - "people of Svea". The exact development of the ethnonym is unknown, but at least it is known that it descended from the Old Norse "Svithjoth", the origin of "Svi", "thjoth" from the Germanic "people" ("people") is unknown. The term Svithjoth was originally used to refer to various localities found in Scandinavian mythology, including areas in Scandinavia and / or modern Russia. The obscure manner of use of this place name suggests that it was used for areas generally unknown, but precisely on the other side to the north or west of what the Goths, the most frequent users of the term, considered a zone of civilization. The derivative name "Svear rike" ("Kingdom of the Swee") seems to have come about after the northern Heruli people were driven out of the Gothic kingdom into southern Scandinavia. It would be logical to believe that the Heruli, driven out of the northern borders of the Gothic kingdom, could have taken the traditional name "Swee". In the end, they captured the Goths, and from that moment on, modern scientists can talk about the existence of Sweden, and not one of its constituent territories.
Sri Lanka - "shining island" in Sanskrit. Serendip is an ancient name derived from Sinhala-dweepa in Sanskrit meaning either "land of the lions" or "land of the Sinhala people", sinha means "lion" in Sanskrit, Sinhala - the early settlers of this area.
Ceylon (Ceylon - English, Cilan - Portuguese, Seilan) - the previous names of the country, also meaning "land of the lions".
Ecuador - "equator" in Spanish.
Equatorial Guinea - "equatorial" - from the geographical position, "Guinea", - possibly from the word "aguinaoui" in the Berber language, which means "black".
Eritrea - named by the Italian colonialists, from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea "Erythrea Thalassa".
Estonia - from the Germanic "eastern route". It is commonly mistakenly believed that the name originated from Aestia in ancient Greek sources, but in fact Aestia is modern Masuria in Poland and the name may have come from a Baltic root meaning "variegated" as this land is dotted with lakes.
Ethiopia - from lat. "Aethiopia" meaning "land of the blacks." The root word in Greek comes from aithein "to burn" and ops "face". The old name of Abyssinia comes from the Arabic "mixed", a reflection of the many peoples inhabiting the country.
Jamaica - in the language of the Indians "Hamaica" means the land of wood and water, or, possibly, the land of springs.
Japan - "ribenguo" in Chinese or "land of the rising sun", which marks the fact that Japan lies east of China (where the sun rises). Japanese scholars borrowed the term, simplifying Nippon-gu to Nihon-gu to simply Nihon or Nippon ("origin of the sun").
Do you like the news? Share with your friends....... ..
"DIVO" Russian book of records and achievements
HUMAN ACTIVITIES: Language, literature, printing: Geographic names
GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
SHORTEST NAMES
In our country, there are a number of geographical names consisting of just one letter. For example, small rivers in the Ob basin are called Yu and Ya.
There are more than 100 two-letter river names. Some of them are: Wow, Iya, Eun, Yaya and others.
Many settlements have names consisting of two letters: Ai (Sakhalin region), Ii (Tuva region), Osh (Kyrgyzstan), Uk (Irkutsk region), Chu (Kazakhstan), South (Perm region), Yar (Udmurtia, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions), Yaya (Kemerovo region).
"RELATIVES" ON THE MAP
The Mama River is a tributary of the Vitim (length 406 kilometers), partly navigable.
The Doch River is a tributary of the Desna.
Sister - rivers in the Moscow and Leningrad regions.
Tyatya is a volcano in the Kuril Islands.
ISLANDS ... WITH THE NAME OF THE NEWSPAPER
The only islands in the world named after the newspaper are the islands of Komsomolskaya Pravda. This is a group of 9 islands in the southwestern part of the Laptev Sea. The largest of them are Bolshoi and Samuil, up to 68 meters high. Tundra prevails.
VALLEY OF GHOST
Such a mysterious name of one of the valleys in the Crimea is explained by the fact that it is all covered with stone statues resembling bizarre figures of people and animals.
NOT COUNTING NAMES
An extraordinary record was set ... by the Kuban River, the Azov and Black Seas. Chairman of the Krasnodar Department of the Geographical Society, candidate of geographical sciences G.A. Galkin, having analyzed several thousand archival, literary, cartographic and epigraphic sources, compiled a unique collection of ancient and medieval names of the Kuban River (296 names and their variants, including discrepancies, distortions, errors of the authors , scribes and translators). The Black Sea has 269 names, and the Azov Sea has 240.
NO VISA NEEDED TO CALIFORNIA
At any time and without any visa, a Soviet person can visit California today. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to go overseas, since California is located in the south of the Gorky region, five kilometers from the border with Chuvashia. The village of Kaniforovka was renamed California, most likely in the second half of the last century. At that time, there was only talk among the peasants about the sale of lands by Russia to the American colonists, literally stuffed with gold. Apparently, then, half in jest, half seriously, the poor Nizhny Novgorod settlement was named a beautiful overseas name.
According to another version, in about the same years, some families from here had a chance to move to America, and later return to their native lands and "bring" with them the new name of the village. Anyway, they never looked for gold here ...
NAMES OF RED SQUARE
The main square of Moscow was formed at the end of the 15th century. This place near the Kremlin wall was then called the Fire - due to the frequent fires of shops or Torg - according to the main trading row of the city. Since the second half of the 17th century it has been called Red Square, that is, "beautiful".
MOSCOW CALLED KUCHKOVO
The oldest mention of Moscow was found on one of the birch bark letters found in Novgorod. The first known mention of Moscow, dating back to 1147, was found in the Ipatiev manuscript. But the manuscript itself, telling about the events of the 12th century, was written in the 15th century. The Novgorod birch bark letter dates from the middle of the XII century, that is, approximately 1160 - 1170 years. The author writes that he intends to visit a settlement on the Moskva River, which later became the capital of the Russian state: According to the head of the Novgorod archaeological expedition, Academician V. Yanin, Moscow was then called Kuchkovo.
Geographic names toponyms, proper names of continents, oceans, seas, currents, rivers, lakes, islands, mountains, sands, swamps, tracts, countries, cities, villages, streets, farmsteads, and all other geographical objects on the surface of the Earth. G.'s amount (toponymy) forms a system or a set of features and characteristics that regularly recur in the process of toponymy formation and its current relatively stable state. Such a system in different countries of the world is always of different ages and multilingual, because reflects the historical conditions of countries and languages \u200b\u200bof the peoples inhabiting and inhabiting them. G. n. are often repeated, forming rows characteristic of a particular era. So, in the USSR, several cities and towns are called Komsomolsk, Pervomaisky, Oktyabrsky, etc. The following names can serve as examples of multilingual G. n., But possessing almost the same content: Russian Novgorod, Italian Naples, Tajik Novabad, English Newcastle, Turkic Dzhangy-Shaar, etc. Among G. n. hydronyms stand out - G. of n. rivers, lakes, oceans, etc., which in general form the most conservative group with the greatest stability; oronyms - the names of mountains, ridges, peaks, hills; oikonyms - names of settlements, etc. However, this classification is not yet generally accepted. It is unclear, for example, where to attribute the geological parts of ravines, gullies, sais, and other forms of erosional relief - to oronyms or hydronyms, as well as the names of bogs, etc. Microtoponyms are also distinguished, i.e. G. n. small objects: lands, natural boundaries, hayfields, pastures, dunes, logging areas, burnt areas, pastures, wells, springs, pools, rapids, etc. This group of G. n. it is diverse in composition, it is united by the limited and narrow local popularity of such names only among local residents. The original meaning of the toponym in some cases is revealed easily, in others it takes considerable effort to understand it, in the third, at the current level of knowledge, the origin of the toponym remains a mystery. G. n. are basically folk art. They reflect geographic conditions, history, economics, politics, languages, culture and civilization. Therefore, G.'s study of n. is of great interest to linguists, geographers, historians, ethnographers. For practice, the problem of stabilizing geosciences and the principles of transferring them from language to language is very important. Systematic study of toponymy in the 2nd half of the 20th century. was developed in many countries of the world. The branch of knowledge that studies G. n., Toponymy, has emerged. Lit .: Zhuchkevich V.A., General toponymy, 2nd ed., Minsk, 1968; Murzaev E.M., The origin of geographical names, in the book: Soviet geography. Results and tasks, M., 1960; Nikonov V. A., Introduction to toponymy, M., 1965; his, Brief toponymic dictionary, M., 1966; Pospelov E.M., Toponymy and cartography, M., 1971. E. M. Murzaev.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .
See what "Geographical names" are in other dictionaries:
place names on the map - geographic names Proper names of the objects shown on the map. cartography [GOST 21667 76] Subjects cartography General terms properties, map elements and methods of cartographic representation Synonyms geographical names ... ... Technical translator's guide
- ... Wikipedia
Applications - place names - 1. Names of cities expressed by a declined noun, as a rule, agree in the case with the word being defined, for example: in the city of Moscow, near the city of Smolensk, above the city of Saratov. The same with foreign names: in the city ... ... Spelling and Styling Reference
1) Department of the South American Republic of Uruguay, 5682 sq. km with 34,154 inhabitants, including many Europeans; main occupation: agriculture and animal husbandry. Part of it is very fertile and well cultivated soil. 2) C. del Sacramento chief ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Name Year of assignment Elisavetgrad 1784 Zinovievsk 1924 Kirov 1934 Kirovograd 1939 Throughout its history Kirovograd changed its name several times due to significant historical changes that took place on ... ... Wikipedia
Scientific reference publications containing a systematized body of geographical knowledge. G. e. give a description of objects of regional geography (continents, countries, regions, settlements, mountains, oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Spelling and Styling Reference
Geographical and administrative-territorial names - 1. Own geographic names are written with a capital letter, for example: Arctic, Europe, Finland, Moscow, Kremlin (area of \u200b\u200bthe city, but: in ancient Russian cities, the Kremlin was built - in the meaning of "fortress"). Also: anti France, etc. In ... Spelling and Styling Reference
Books
- Geographical names of the Chuvash Republic. Dictionary of local lore, Dubanov I .. Why is one of the lakes in the Krasnoarmeisky region called Pugachevo? Where did the names come from, which today have become objects of jokes, such as Algashi, Konary, Khachiki ... The banks of the Hirley Sirma river ...
Articles and materials about toponyms
The book "Toponymy of the Voronezh Region" was published
From this book you can learn about the administrative-territorial affiliation of all currently officially existing settlements of the Voronezh region, the time of their origin, former names, owners and first settlers, the time and reasons for the renaming, the etymology of names, the norm of their pronunciation. Such a peculiar genre of folklore as toponymic legend is also interesting. The second part of the book is devoted to this particular genre, often associated with the "folk etymology" of the origin of a number of Voronezh place names. -
The collection "Actual problems of toponymy" was published
The new issue of the series "Questions of Geography" is composed of articles on toponymy, as well as related sections of onomastics. It was prepared by the Toponymic Commission of the Moscow Geographical Society of the Russian Geographical Society (since 2009, the renewed series "Questions of Geography" became a publication of the Russian Geographical Society) and is dedicated to two significant dates - the 100th anniversary of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the 60th anniversary of the Toponymic Commission of the Moscow Geographical Society of the Russian Geographical Society. -
Chuk and Gek and other place names in Antarctica
Rosreestr (Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography) announced on its website about the creation of a register of names of Antarctic geographic objects that were discovered by Russian researchers in different years. The register contains information about 1,752 names of geographical objects of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation, as well as objects discovered or identified by Russian researchers within the open sea and Antarctica. -
Groups of urbanonyms with a common feature (for example, the city of Zwickau)
In the names of urbanonyms of cities, towns, villages (i.e., linear and nonlinear objects - streets, avenues, avenues, boulevards of squares, enterprises of various orientations, and other objects), one can find microgroups united by a common feature, a common theme. For example, in the city of Verny (the name of the city of Almaty in pre-Soviet times and in the first Soviet years), parallel streets ran in a row in its western part Sartovskaya, Kyrgyz Dunganskaya, then for Kashgar – Taranchinskaya. –
Attitude of Russians to the toponymic heritage of the USSR
The company "Institute of Public Opinion Questionnaire" conducted a study on the attitude of Russians to the issues of renaming and assignment of names. More than half of Russians (57%) believe that the expediency of changing Soviet toponyms to pre-revolutionary ones should be considered separately in each case. 29% were in favor of completely retaining the Soviet names of streets and squares, and 9% were in favor of returning the pre-revolutionary names. -
Gaiduk S. Toponyms of Petrozavodsk: streets and parks
The book "Toponyms of Petrozavodsk: streets and parks" was published. It tells about the history of the names of the streets and parks that ever existed in the city. -
Moiseev B.A.Toponymic sketches of the Orenburg region
In Orenburg on October 13, 2017, a solemn ceremony of awarding the winners of the Rychkov Regional Literary Prize was held. Boris Aleksandrovich Moiseev with his book "Toponymic Sketches of the Orenburg Region" became the winner in the third nomination "Fiction and Documentary Work". It fascinatingly and in detail reveals the world of geographical names of the Orenburg region: the names of rivers, mountains, settlements. The region's toponymy is considered in the broad context of historical events: the founding of the province, the resettlement of residents from other regions of the Russian Empire, the influence of the Turkic language and Cossack dialects on the names of objects. -
New version of the origin of the toponym Samara
One of the new hypotheses of the origin of the Russian toponym Samara has been developed for several years by the local historian from Samara Oleg Rakshin. In his opinion, the origin of the name of the Samara River and the name of the city of Samara are different.
From the history of the First World War: the war with place names
In all the belligerent countries, there was not only a patriotic upsurge, but also a surge of xenophobia, in each specific country aimed at a specific ethnic group. Xenophobia in those years took various forms, including such radical ones as pogroms. One of its specific forms is the replacement of toponyms of a certain linguistic origin.
Asian capitals names
We continue to get acquainted with the origin of the names of the capitals of the world. This page deals with the capitals of Asian states, as well as states partially located in Europe or Oceania, but mainly in Asia.
European capitals names
Acquaintance with the city begins with its name. The names of the capitals of European countries should be known to us from school. But few know about the origin of these names. 
The first chronicle evidence of Moscow is contained in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1147. The name of the city Moscow inextricably linked with the name of the river of the same name Moscow.
From observations of the microtoponymy of the river basin. Ural
At one time, when analyzing the names of geographical objects, “more attention was paid to the name itself, and the geographical term remained in the shadows, despite the well-known genetic links of toponyms with the term. The geographic term plays an important role in the fate of the toponym: it designates a geographic object.
Unsolved issues of onomastics in the Volga region
The 1st Volga Onomastic Conference has clearly shown that today in the Volga region from Gorky to Astrakhan, from Perm to Penza, there is not a single region and not a single ASSR not covered by onomastic research. Such a large scientific team is capable of tackling large and difficult problems. Now the question is not quantity, but quality.
Kazakh place names with the formants you and sy
Some of the original geographical names of Kazakhstan (occasionally Kyrgyzstan) exist in two versions: Arkarly and Arkarty, Almaly and Almaty, Arshaly and Arshaty, Buguls and Buguty, Karagayly and Karagayty, ӧlendi and ӧlenti, Tobylgyly and Tobylgyty, Yrgayly and Yrgites, other place names have only one variant: Zhideli, Zhosaly, Kargandy, Moildy, Mointy, Molaly, Sekseuldi, Kulandy, Shidepti.
Greetings from America
Recently "rummaged" in the home archive. And among the many postcards with the sights of the former GDR, I found one that had not attracted my attention before. The black and white postcard shows three photographs: a general view of the settlement, the station and the restaurant hall. And to all this, an intriguing inscription - Gruß aus Amerika (Greetings from America). 
The longest geographic name in the world is New Zealand. In Russian transcription, it has 82 letters. In English, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, there are 92 letters.
(on my other site) 
Acquaintance with the geographical names of the area visited by tourists occurs already at the stage of preparation for the trip - in the process of studying guidebooks, geographical maps, reports of other travelers. And if you compile a list of toponyms on the upcoming route in advance, then this can significantly help in passing the route, since often the etymology of toponyms reflects the physical and geographical characteristics of the named objects.
Place names of India (on my other site) 
A Brief Dictionary of Place Names in India.