ORIGINS OF HORONYMS USED TO NAME THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

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ORIGINS OF HORONYMS USED TO NAME THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

Journal Title: Слов’янський збірник - Year 2014, Vol 0, Issue 18

Abstract

For many centuries there were different civilizations and state formations in the Crimea, there took place active ethnic contacts and migrations, which left traces in local toponymy. Partly these processes were reflected in the inner form of proper names of the peninsula or its parts, among which the most famous are Cimmeria, Tauris (Tavrika), Hersonissos (ancient Korsun) and modern Crimea. Each of these horonyms has already attracted researchers’ attention, but in the systemic interconnection they have not been considered yet. In this article such interconnection has been realized through the etymology explanation of the historical and modern names in their chronological sequence confirming the involvement of the Crimea to ancient and medieval civilizations of the Black Sea Coast. On the territory of the Northern Crimea and near the Kerch Strait the oldest known ethnolingual community is Cimmeria, which was settled by the ancient Indo-European Cimmerian tribes, whose name derives from the Thracian *kira(s) -mar-io „Black Sea”, where *kir(s) – „black” and *mar - / *mor- „sea”. From the 5th century BC Tavrika, name of Greek origin, was used for the southern part of the Crimean peninsula. It was deduced by Herodotus from the ethnonym Taurus derived from the Indo-European *tauros, which reveals extensive Indo-European relations through „buffalo, something big, rise, mount” (the original meaning „mountains, Highlanders”). At the end of the 18th century, driven by the government vogue for the ancient names, the horonym was restored in the form Taurida to designate the whole peninsula. In ancient times, the Crimean peninsula had even the ancient Greek name – Chersonesos (Tauride), literally „peninsula”, the base of which was reflected in two transformed oykonyms of the South Ukraine: Kherson – from the ancient Chersonesos (Tauride) and Korsun – as the Ancient Rus name of the destroyed settlement on the site of modern Sevastopol. The modern horonym Crimea was first mentioned as part of parallelly existing name of the town Salhat Old Crimea (Turk. Eski Qerim) in the 13th century, when the peninsula was dominated by the Mongol-Tatars and Turks. Through time the component Crimea of the composite oykonym has spread to the whole Crimean peninsula and became its primary name. The most likely source of the toponym is an oriental language. Obviously, the generating word was Turk. kyrym „moat, shaft”, which has Mongolian equivalent herem „castle wall, shaft” (compare with the adjacent Perekopsky Isthmus) or Turkish and the Crimean Tatar „merciful”. Thus, the etymology of several geographical names used to describe the Crimean peninsula shows its ancient settling by various ethnic groups, which have replaced one another at various times.

Authors and Affiliations

V. V. Luchyk

Keywords

etymology proper names toponyms horonyms Crimea cultural and historical

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EP ID EP637465
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