Расселение и язык летописной мещеры по данным топонимии

Abstract

This article is an attempt to determine settlement boundaries of the Meshcherian people and to reconstruct its language elements preserved in toponymics. In view of the hypothesis of a close kinship between Meshcherian and Mordvinic, it is clear that the primary methodological reception of our research should be comparing substrate toponymical data of the Meshcherian region with words of the Mordvinic languages, that will make it possible to establish both similarities and differences between them, on the one hand, and the Meshcherian language, on the other. The author presents an etymological analysis of hydronyms in the basin of the Oka (outside the territory of historic residence of the Mordvins), correlated with Mordvinic lexemes. The results of the etymological analysis (the number and proximity of the correspondences) testify that the Meshcherian language was in a relationship of close kinship with the Mordvinic languages, especially with Erzya. But in spite of the proximity of Meshcherian to Mordvinic, hydronymics reveals it for a number of specific features (mostly in terms of phonetics and vocabulary) that distinguish it from the latter one and, consequently, establish the originality of the Meshcherian language.