The Ethnonymy of Sakhalin Oroks in the Writings of Researchers (Second Half of the XIX - Early XXI centuries)

Abstract

Many Russian and researchers from Japan, Finland, Poland and other states dealt with the problems of ethnonymy and ethnic history of Sakhalin’s oroks. More than twenty ethnic names are noted in their works: Orochon, Olcha, Ulcha, Ulta, Uilta and others. Russian researchers of oroks believe that the etymology of these names is reflected in the words of the oron and ula, meaning “home deer”, and the ethnic names of the oroks are translated In Russian as “reindeer herders”. In addition, modern Russian ethnographers, not taking into account the theory of the ethnic group, explaining that each nation, in addition to the main name of the endoethnonym, may have several more territorial names characteristic of different ethnographic groups. However, post -Soviet researchers began to equate the numerous orki names with one word. In the studies of the post -Soviet period, the ethnonyms of Ulta ~ Uilta ~ Ujlta began to unite Tilda, while the name of the Ujlta, as the original ethnonym of Sakhalin’s orcs, was preferred. The author of this article adheres to a concept, according to which the numerous names of the oroks of Sakhalin in the form of Ulta, Uilta, Ujlta cannot be reduced to one name, since these are different names of ethnographic groups indicating the territory that previouslythe ancestors of the oroks lived. The article critically comprehends the position of researchers who continue to use the term Ujlta instead of the true name of Uilta. Obviously, the current problem of using the ethnonyms of Sakhalin’s oroks can get its final solution only in the works of the new generation of Russian researchers.