Arealogy, Stratigraphy and Oikonymic Landscape: Intersection Points

Abstract

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 15^th century ending in *-j- to 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 15^th century ending in *-j- has 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 15^th century ending in *-j-) visualized on the map-chart, which records spreading of the phenomenon (the areal of oikonyms (place names) of the 15^th century ending in *-j-) in diachrony (or at some chronological stage – the 15^th century (stratigraphy) on the territory of Ukraine; partial landscape, as names ending in *-j- are 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).