Arealogy, Stratigraphy and Oikonymic Landscape: Intersection Points

The purpose of the article is to reveal the interconnection of the three close linguistic concepts: arealogy, stratigraphy and the oikonymic landscape. The tasks, due to the purpose, were as follows: 1) to describe the theoretical background of arealogy, stratigraphy, and the oikonymic landscape; 2) to analyze oikonyms (place names) of the 15th century ending in *-jto illustrate theoretical points. The reference base for the analysis is the diachronic oikonymic material of Ukraine. In the article, the empirical and descriptive methods have been used, which means referring to the little-known oikonymic reference material – the historical-comparative method of onyms analysis. The stratigraphic method involves quantitative characteristics, space localization of geographical names, determining the chronology of oikonyms. By means of the cartographic method the areal of oikonyms of the 15th century ending in *-jhas been studied. So, arealogy, stratigraphy and the oikonymic landscape are connected by one concept – space, i.e. spreading of some phenomenon (in our research these are names of the 15th century ending in *-j-) visualized on the map chart, which records spreading of the phenomenon (the areal of oikonyms (place names) of the 15th century ending in *-j-) in diachrony (or at some chronological stage – the 15th century (stratigraphy) on the territory of Ukraine; partial landscape, as names ending in *-jare only a small part of the general oikonymic landscape). It is the map-chart that confirms the areal of oikonyms at one of the chronological stages of stratigraphy within territorial boundaries of the oikonymic landscapes (see the map chart).

There may be reversible and irreversible changes in the oikonymic landscape. It is caused by the stability threshold of every landscape, that is, by the ability to preserve its qualitative and quantitative parameters under the influence of linguistic, natural, and anthropogenic factors.
Due to irreversible (qualitative) changes in the configuration and content of the landscape, the restructuring, in other words, development or evolution of the structure, takes place.
Onymic landscapes may be systematized and classified according to different parameters, namely, their origin, structure, dynamics, types of names, their derivational base, etc.
In modern linguistics, temporal and territorial characteristics of linguistic phenomena are widely used, especially in onomastics, and oikonymics, in particular. Such interest to chronological and areal dimensions is caused by the specificity of the object of research, as an oikonym (a place name) is the result of the long-lasting process of formation on a particular area and under particular social-historical and natural conditions, that is why oikonymics has to use the methods of research which are used not only in linguistics but in history and geography as well. Stratigraphy presupposes the analysis of oikonymic data in three aspects: areal, chronological, and statistical ones. The chronology of one separate place name or of a set of geographical names is a complex system, caused by numerous factors, namely, the history of formants forming, beginning with the appellative level; the structure and semantic content of the derivational base of geographical names; extra lingual factors that greatly influence emergence of the respective sets of oikonyms that depend on historical and social processes (Kupchynsʹka, 2016, p. 3).
The onymic areal is a part of the oikonymic landscape and it may represent various features of proper names: their models (types) according to certain characteristics (for example, word-formation), and the derivational base of proper nouns according to their origin, structure, etc. In terms of synchrony, the areal visualizes modern processes of a certain onymic phenomenon. Concerning diachrony, it intersects with stratigraphy, which provides a diachronic realization of the geography of specific processes in proper names. Areas of some phenomenon, which has been represented for ten centuries, make it possible to retrace its evolution.
Oikonymy is a specific set of vocabulary formed during a specific historical period on the respective territory. An oikonym as a name of a geographical object has a territorial parameter in addition to linguistic and temporal ones. Therefore, toponymic research is impossible without cartography. Proper nouns of certain types embrace the respective territory forming areas (with the nucleus, periphery, isoglosses, etc.). Defining geographical names areas according to the formant principle makes it possible to identify and reconstruct not only the linguistic, but the historical phenomena as well. Oikonyms, selected from written records, have been localized and marked on the map chart. An oikonymic map chart represents separate phenomena, included in this class of proper nouns (map charts are made taking into account various parameters: formants of toponyms (-ичі, -иха, -ів and similar ones), the origin of the derivational base of proper nouns, semantics of the roots of oikonyms derivational base, etc.).
Oikonymy of respective types is analyzed according to chronology, borrowed from historical sources. Chronology of archaic types of geographical names contributes to the research of various historical phenomena. Isoglosses of oikonymic objects concentration points frequently overlap with areas of some archeological cultures and ethnic tribal groups. This overlapping on some territories tells about the historical unity of these facts tracing back to the early Slavonic community. If there is no overlapping like this, it may confirm an asynchrony of linguistic and ethnic phenomena, which appeared as the result of different historical epochs. According to temporal and spatial coordinates of the analyzed oikonyms, the respective grounds for the preliminary reconstruction of the main cluster of population, migration processes, ancient ways, etc. have been created.
Chronology of proper nouns, as well as their geography, is conventional as it is based on written sources only. Fixed names have been saved in different ways in different territories of Ukraine, in some periods and in some regions of Ukraine they do not exist, the attempts to find sources which contain the analyzed names have been unsuccessful for some territories. For the 20 th -21 st -centuries research, historical sources have been replaced by reference books.
Intersection points of arealogy, stratigraphy and the oikonymic landscape are, speaking figuratively, those points on the map which form the areal of a certain onymic phenomenon in diachrony.
To visualize it we will analyze oikonyms ending in *-j-at the level of the 15 th century, which are one of the oldest types of geographical names in the Slavonic territories. These archaic names have been the subject-matter of scientific research in Slavonic onomastics (Nieckula, 1965;Bezlaj, 1967;Zaimov, 1973;Rospond, 1983;Kupčinsʹkij, 2011;Zaliznâk, 2004;Radʹo, 2004;Kupchynsʹka, 2016), but still there exist many problems connected to chronology of oikonyms ending in *-j-in Ukrainian territory.
Geographical names ending in *-j-(derived from adjectives) inherited the possessive suffix *-jо-/ *-ĭjо-from the Indo-European language. This suffix used to be productive and gave the meaning of possession to the adjectives which corresponded to the Genitive case in the Greek language. It formed adjectives pointing at individual, not collective possession (Meje, 2001, pp. 286-287).
Scholars claim that geographical names ending in *-j-appeared due to various social-historical conditions, but, in fact, ancestral communities gave a boost to the development of collective ownership first and to private individual ownership later, which contributed to the more active formation of oikonyms of such type. As far as it is known, the Eastern Slavonic ancestral system came to an end during the first two centuries AD. In the 6 th century, feudal and class-based relations started to appear, therefore we may claim that the 4 th -6 th centuries were a favourable period for the active formation and functioning of geographical names ending in *-j-in terms of all social-historical parameters. Class-based relations promoted the development of private individual ownership which supported spreading of place names-possessives, that clearly pointed out who the land, the mansion or the village belonged to (Kupchynsʹka, 2016, p. 123).
The Ukrainian areal of possessive oikonymy ending in *-j-represents the fact that this type of names refers to Slavonic archaisms. The Ukrainian areal of oikonymy ending in *-j-is a part of all-Slavonic one. During the documented period, the Ukrainian zone of this total areal has not changed. Names ending in *-j-are common in western, north-western, northern, and north-eastern parts of Ukraine and these are the territories of the earliest Slavonic settlements. map Chart Source: Authors' own study.