Etyma Slavica: Toponimia

The paper aims to address specific challenges in etymologisation of a group of Slavonic toponyms. The toponymy, introduced in the scientific use, is interesting because it preserves the lexical units lost in the appellative vocabulary and also archaic words, derived without appellative stage (the genuine formations), therefore their importance for Slavonic etymology and the reconstructed of Proto-Slavonic vocabulary can hardly be overestimated. Suggested paper sets the goal to give the etymological explanation of several Slavonic geographical names. Achieving this goal involves addressing four objectives: 1) to treat the historical morphology of the toponymic lexemes under consideration; 2) to characterize the toponymic lexemes in derivational terms; 3) to reconstruct the origin form and semantics of the words preserved in the toponymy; 4) to determine the internal Slavonic relations of the toponyms under analysis. The objects of proposed study are Slavonic onomastic (toponymic) lexemes with unclear inner form or not entirely clear word-forming structure. The subject — etymological, phonetic, morphological, lexico-semantic features and the area of historically attested words and prototypes reconstructed while the analysis. The results of the study: 1) the sum of ancient lexemes, which presumably belonged to Proto-Slavonic vocabulary, got the etymological interpretation (*bugarъ, *čьršakъ (= *čьrxjakъ), *malozda, *morozda, *myrorěnь, *strugarъ, *vodotyjь, *vьrzǫta); 2) it is clarified (expanded) geography of the reflexes of the prototype *molky, -ъve early restored in the special literature; the reflexes of other prototypes that are reconstructed in the study manifest the isoglosses of complex configuration. Conclusions summarize the results of the reconstruction of the Proto-Slavonic vocabulary elements, generalizing the achievements of the procedure of the reconstruction and the etymological interpretation of the material. Prospects for further research in the field of Slavonic etymology are obvious.