Comprehensive study of the toponymic landscape of the local territory: the area of the Ryazan villages of Dyadkovo and Vyshgorod

A comprehensive study of individual areas has been and remains an important part of onomastic research. It is such studies that allow us to most accurately recreate the picture of the formation of the toponymy of a given area, to discover the connections that have developed between the names in the process of formation and development of this onomastic landscape, and also help to assess the possibilities of its further functioning, taking into account the inevitable changes within the toponymic complex, including phonetic, morphological, orthographic restructuring of well-known names, the disappearance of a number of old and the emergence of new ones. geographical names. The study of the toponymy of individual districts will not lose its relevance for a long time, and since the territory of the Russian Federation is huge, this topic will remain on the current research agenda of Russian onomasts for a long time.

V. I. Suprun, S. A. Myznikov, I. I. Mullonen, L. A. Klimkova, G. F. Kovalev, V. L. Vasiliev have done a lot to study the toponymy of local territories. A number of works by S. A. Popov, A. A. Herzen, Yu. N. Isaev, and I. A. Dambuyev are devoted to a comprehensive survey of individual districts. In particular, S. A. Popov notes that "the study of the onomastic space of the Voronezh region" is one of the main directions of the Voronezh Onomastic School ^{[7, p. 71]}.

In the course of studying the toponymy of the Ryazan region from a historical perspective, including names from the historical toponymic fund of the region, we were able to identify a number of areas of concentration of Old Russian toponyms, which, of course, reflect those areas that were, on the one hand, attractive to different peoples in different historical epochs, on the other – attractive to Slavic the population who came to the Middle Oka from other regions and by different routes (from the north, northwest, southwest) ^{[2, p. 351]}.

Among the established zones, several are located in close proximity to modern Ryazan, historical Pereyaslavl Ryazan:

1) the district of the district of the city of Pereyaslavl(hydronymsDanube, Kalyna, Lybed, Trubezh,Panic, Plava (modern Pavlovka),an oikonymPereyaslavl);

2) Vyshgorod district (hydronymsCancer, Larch (modern Listyanka), Gorodnya,Lubavka, oikonymsVyshgorod, Palnoye, Polovskoye);

3) the area of the villages of Alekanovo – Dubrovichi (there was a large group of rural settlements of ancient Russian time, from the preserved oikonyms: Dubrovichi, Murmino; hydronyms:Velje (lake),Brusna) ^{[2, p. 351]}.

Among the listed zones is the area, conditionally named by us "Vyshgorod district". It is located in the south-east direction from modern Ryazan (historical Pereyaslavl Ryazan), on the right bank of the Oka River and covers the adjacent territory of the Oka River approximately from the border of modern Ryazan to Vyshgorod. However, more detailed studies have shown that this zone includes several local subdistricts that are confined to the settlements of Dyadkovo, Lgovo, Glebovo, Vyshgorod, each of which originated in ancient Russian times.

This work is devoted to the study of the toponymy of the area of the villages of Dyadkovo and Vyshgorod. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive survey of the toponymic landscape of this territory as an area of concentration of Old Russian toponymy. The objectives of the study are: 1) collection and systematization of the toponymy of this area; 2) identification of Old Russian toponyms and their derivatives; 3) establishment of the etymology of names, comparison of the proposed etymologies with the topographical features of the area identified during the toponymic expedition to the area under study; 4) establishment of links of Ryazan toponyms with the toponymy of earlier areas of Slavic settlement, as well as with the toponymy of other regions of modern Russia; 5) fixing changes in the form of ancient toponyms.

The study presents the results of a toponymic and topographic survey of the area obtained during an expedition to the area of the villages of Dyadkovo, Vyshgorod, Ryazan region in July 2021.

1. Collection and systematization of toponyms of the district.

The centers of toponymic microsystems are oikonymsVyshgorod, Dykovo, it was around them that the entire toponymy of the district was historically formed.

The hydronymic network of the studied territory is represented by the names of tributaries of the Oka, mainly of the first and second order:Quick,Guzhovka, Gusevka, Berezovka, Larch (modern Listyanka), Cancer,Gorodnya,Lubavka, lakesOtoka. The rivers are small, several kilometers long, many of them are streams today.

The oikonymy of this district includes the names of rural settlements (villages and villages): Dyadkovo, Novoselki, Rubtsovo, Vishnevka, Luzhki, Dmitrievka, Glebovo, Dudkino, Korablino, Vyshgorod, etc.

Microtoponymy (including wikonymy) is represented by the names of tracts (Sergievskoe), ponds (Barsky pond), horticultural associations (Newcomer, Rooks, Furniture maker, Spring-2, Vegetable grower), rural streets (Barsky Pond, Yushin Lane,Rooks, Central, Spring, New, Lenposelok, Sadovaya, 1st Gazetny Lane, 2nd Gazetny Lane, Rainbow Lane, Jubilee, Raspberry, River, Neck and Ankle).

Ecclesionymy includes the names of churches: in honor ofElijah the Prophet (Dyadkovo),The Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (Vyshgorod).

2. The oldest toponymy of the district

The oldest toponymy of the studied area is the basis of the modern toponymic landscape. It was the nature of the oldest names that predetermined to a certain extent the direction and content of the toponymic process in this territory. It is important that the oldest toponymy of the area is Old Russian in origin. It does not contain elements of a toponymic substratum, that is, any linguistic traces of pre-Slavic peoples. It is also significant that the area of the Oka right bank considered by us is in no way connected with the toponymy of the opposite bank of the Oka (p.Brusna, oz.Velje, S. Dubrovichi, Alekanovo, Murmino): we do not see any repetitions of toponymic models, nor any overlap in the appellative or toponymic vocabulary of the right and left banks of the river. The reason for this, apparently, is that the Oka riverbed in this place is so wide that the toponymy of the opposite banks was formed autonomously, independently of each other and, most likely, by different groups of the Slavic population.

The oldest group of toponyms of the right bank includes the namesBystrets, Raka, Vyshgorod, Dyadkov. Along with toponymsPereyaslavl, Trubezh, Lybed and pod., they form a layer of the so-called transferred toponyms of the Ryazan land, since similar toponymic formations are known in the territories of the primary or earlier Slavic settlement.  If we are dealing with the commonality and common usage of Slavic vocabulary and, as a consequence, the commonality of the appellative base, toponymicons and toponymic models, then these names can be attributed to the group of common, traditional Slavic (Old Russian) toponymy.

Bystrets River, the settlement of Dyadkovsky zaton, is shown on maps in 2020 as a stream ^[9]. Originates in the territory of the Sovr. Ryazan, near Kasimovsky highway (the historical territory of the village of Kalnaya), flows into the Dyadkovsky zaton near the village of Dyadkovo. The pre–understanding semantics of the Ryazan hydronym is ‘a small river with a fast current'. Obviously, the name should be considered in connection with another hydronym of Pereyaslavl Ryazan –Bystritsa, the name of the part of the flow of the right tributary of the Oka, from the source to the site from where it is already calledTrubezh.  Both hydronyms go back to Slavic geographical terms with the root bystr- with variants of the feminine and masculine gender: bystrik, bystret, bystrica and pod. with the general meaning of ‘fast flow’ ^{[10, p. 44]}. The names associated with these appellatives are known in the basins of the Dnieper, Dniester, Desna, in particular in the Carpathian zone:Bystret (Ukrainian Bistret) (bass. R. Cherny Cheremosh), p.Bystrets (Ivano-Frankivsk region), p.Bystritsa, in Bulgaria: R. Bystritsa (3) (bass. R. Struma) ^{[10, p. 44]}.

Within the borders of the Carpathian area, the semantics of geographical terms apparently reflect the mountainous terrain, but on the Russian plain, in the absence of a mountainous terrain, we observe the leveling of the original semantics of appellatives while maintaining the general meaning associated with the rapid flow of the river, but not associated with a large relief difference. We see a similar leveling of meaning in other Slavic terms associated with the Carpathian area and known on the Russian plain, in particular, brusna, Danube: "As a result of semantic adaptation in lowland zones, in particular in the Pooch, the names of the typeBrusna, Brusena have already been used for the nomination of water bodies not with rocky, but with high steep banks or simply with limestone deposits along river banks (this is often duplicated by the names of neighboring rivers of the typeHeater). Similar semantic changes were made by the appellatives of the Danube group, which had the meanings 'river', 'stream' in conditions of high water, and in conditions of flat terrain and calm shallow rivers - 'flood, dampness', 'tributary, stream'" ^{[2, p.166]}.

Despite the relative transparency of the motivating basis, on the territory of Central Russia, names dating back to bystrets cannot be attributed to widespread, they are known in Ryazan (the name in question), Kursk (D. and, apparently, the riverBystrets, Swapa river basin), Nizhny Novgorod (streamsBystrets-Red, Bystrets-Black, d.Bystrets, bass. R. Lunda) regions. This gives some reason to associate, in particular, the Ryazan hydronym with the primary area of toponyms of the typeBystrets / Bystritsa (zone of the Carpathians) and attribute the appearance of the name in the Middle (Ryazan) Poochye to the period of the first waves of resettlement of the ancient Russian population here.

Modern derived toponyms: ul.Bystretskaya squareQuick.

Raka is the village of Oka, the source is located near the village of Malinishchi, the mouth is near the villages of Vyshgorod and Dudkino, the length of the river is 42 km, rich in fish. The toponym is based on other-Russian. cancer ‘casket, box’ ^{[8, p. 265]}, in relation to a water body, taking into account the geographical realities confirmed during the expedition, metaphorically, by external similarity with the designated objects – ‘a river with a very narrow channel and high steep banks’, this is the kind of river near the village of Vyshgorod, up to confluence with the Eye. It cannot be ruled out that in the past the river could have a sacred meaning, if one takes into account one of the ritual meanings of the common name cancer in the Old Russian language and Church Slavonic texts ^{[8, p. 265]}. 

Analogs of the toponym are found on the territory of the distribution of the western subgroup of the South Slavic languages. Raka is a settlement in eastern Slovenia, near the Orekhovec River, the Sava River basin, a tributary of the Danube, coordinates 45.928361, 15.382221 ^[9]. The toponym is associated with nar. raka ‘wooden lining of the river bank'.

Vyshgorod. The mention of the name of the Ryazan settlement in the Old Russian monuments of writing has not yet been found. However, archaeological data confirm its origin and functioning in the X-XIII centuries. The ancient Russian settlement, discovered near the confluence of the Raki River with the Oka, dates back to the X century or XI-XIII centuries ^{[1, p. 45-46]}. The settlement is located on a high (20 m from the floodplain level) bank of the river, geographical realities confirm the etymology of the toponym "fortified settlement located on a high place".

The Ryazan name finds analogues in the Kievan Old Russian toponymy. KievVyshgorod (other-Russian. Vyshegorod) is mentioned already in the Tale of Bygone Years under the year 980.: "... and he had 300 concubines in the city, and 300 in the city" ("About Vladimir Svyatoslavich") ^{[6, p. 80]}. KnownVyshgorod and in the Pereslavl-Zalessky land ^{[4, p. 54]}.

 If we rely on chronicle evidence and archaeological data, the difference between the mention of the southern Vyshgorod and the appearance of the Ryazan Vyshgorod is about two hundred years. "In the XII century. the mass flow of immigrants from Southern Russia brings with it the namesPereyaslavl, Trubezh, Lybed,Danube, Vyshgorod, recreating the toponymic landscape of southern Pereyaslavl" ^{[2, p. 327]}.

The toponym is constructed according to the model: the adjective higher (cf. degree to high) or the adverb higher (cf. degree to high) + the geographical term city; the name can be interpreted not only as a "fortified settlement on a hill", but also as "a city laid upstream from another city" ^{[3, p. 259]}, in this case, a comparison with ancient Ryazan is possible (the location of the modern village of Staraya Ryazan).

Archaeological siteThe Vyshgorodskoye settlement is synchronous in time of functioning with the Lubyanka, Zhokinsky, Rostislavl, Izheslavl settlements remaining on the site of the ancient cities of the Ryazan region. principalities; the names of some of these settlements are not known for certain ^[1].

Today the ancient Russian cityVyshgorod is a villageVyshgorodRyazan district, located 36 km from the regional center. The preservation of the original name in the event of the disappearance or change of the status of the settlement is one of the ancient and persistent traditions of Russian toponymy.

Dyadkovo. The history of the name is similar to the history of the toponym Vyshgorod. In the monuments of writing, the Ryazan oikonym as the name of the ancient city is not mentioned, although the presence of an ancient Russian settlement here is archaeologically confirmed. The settlement itself is located on the high bank of the old Oka riverbed (modern name Dyadkovsky zaton), with very steep slopes.

The toponym finds analogues in other Russian regions. Dyadkov (other-Russian. Dyadkov) is an ancient Russian city in the Bolokhovskaya land, mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle in 1241 ^{[4, p. 71]}, this is the territory of the upper reaches of the Southern Bug, the basins of the Goryn, Sluch and Teterev rivers, originally part of the Kiev lands. V. P. Neroznak believes that the oikonym goes back to the "brother of the father or mother" or the personal name Uncle (variants of the name Uncle, Uncle, Uncle are given by N. M. Tupikov in the "Dictionary of Old Russian personal proper names") ^{[4, pp. 71-72]}. The name of the ancient Ryazan city is already found in the derived toponym – D. Dyatkovskaya in the scribal books of the XVI century. during the inventory of the lands of the Suburban camp; it is noteworthy that during the fixation of the toponym, this is already the name of a wasteland on the site of an abandoned settlement ^{[5, p. 269]}. The modern form of the oikonym is consistent with the genus of the determinative – the village of Dyadkovo.

A derived toponym is Dyadkovsky Zaton, the name of the old Oka riverbed near the village. Close toponyms of other regions:Dyatkovo is a city in the Bryansk region, on the Oleshna River (a tributary of the Bolva River, the Desna basin); Dyadkovo village in the north of the Moscow region (in the district of Dmitrovo, near the village of Knyazhevo) ^[9].

The prospects for further research include the analysis of the toponymy of the district of the villages of Dyadkovo – Vyshgorod, which arose in the Middle Ages and in the XIX–XX centuries, the analysis of the districts of other villages of the studied territory.

Conclusions. A comprehensive survey of the toponymic landscape of the territory of the Ryazan villages of Dyadkovo – Vyshgorod showed that its basis is made up of hydronyms and oikonyms of Old Russian origin, and the later toponymic formations have a traditional character for Russian toponymy. The absence of traces of a linguistic substratum in the toponymic system of the studied area indicates the continuous development of this territory by the ancient Russian population and the complete displacement (or assimilation) of the peoples who lived here earlier. This fact can be considered a striking feature of the area, since usually the linguistic traces of the previous population in the lands of secondary (later) Slavic development when studying such toponymic microsystems reveal themselves in the names of local rivers or in the derived names of objects adjacent to rivers.

The etymology of the names considered is related to the traditional Slavic geographical terminology (city ‘fortified settlement', vyshegorod ‘fortified settlement on a hill’, according to another version, ‘a city laid upstream from another city’, bystrets ‘a small river with a fast current', cancer 'a river with a very narrow channel and high steep banks'), Slavic kinship terms or an old Russian namesake (uncle "father's or mother's brother", personal name Uncle). The existing etymologies of names dating back to geographical terms are confirmed by the geographical realities of the area: the settlement of Vyshgorod is really located on a hill, the Cancer River has a special form of riverbed. The results of archaeological excavations and explorations confirm the emergence of settlements with Old Russian names in the era of the existence of the Ryazan Principality on the Middle Oka (approximately ser. XII – beginning . XVI century.).

The appellatives underlying the Ryazan toponyms reveal areal connections with the territories of the basins of the Dnieper, Dniester, Desna, the Carpathian zone, and toponyms with the Kiev toponymy. Analogues of Ryazan toponyms in other regions of Russia are few, which allows us to speak of them as rare (Bystrets, Dyadkov, Vyshgorod) and even unique (Cancer) toponymic formations, according to which it is possible to trace the initial zones and directions of the spread of linguistic and toponymic phenomena.

The study confirms the necessity and importance of conducting toponymic expeditions in the comprehensive study of the toponymic landscape of local territories, since staying in the locations of toponyms allows you to see the geographical conditions of the formation of this landscape and discover the connection of names with the natural realities of the area, even taking into account temporary changes in relief, fauna and hydrographic network.