Ethnolinguistic contacts as a factor in the formation of a human resource (on the example of a toponymic world picture of a multicultural region)

Abstract

While the studying of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea toponymy, different academic researchers state two groups of problems: on the one hand, historical and ethnographic in nature, and on the other hand, purely linguistic – the problem of translation. This article presents the author’s own approach to the study of toponymy of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea. The intensity of the settlement of the southern region made it attractive for the study of toponymic names. The departure or complete disappearance of ethnic groups was fixed in toponyms: the names either disappeared completely or were assimilated into the language of the conquering people. The conceptualization of reality, fixed in the language and transmitted from generation to generation, is reflected in the national picture of the world. If conceptualization occurs through toponymic material, it makes sense to talk about a toponymic picture of the world. Exploring the toponymic picture of the world, the author came to the conclusion that the toponymic world picture itself is a concept, and its plan of expression (signs) includes toponyms (toponymic concepts) that consolidate knowledge about the surrounding world in the minds of ethnic groups. The system of toponyms’ meanings itself is in direct interaction with the culture of the nominating people and the mentality of the people. In this particular article, the author sets the task of analyzing toponymic studies of a multicultural region. In order to implement the task, general scientific methods of linguistic analysis were used: descriptive and comparative.