Settlement Names in the Old Nurski District in Mazovia

Abstract

The paper analyses several aspects of the historic development of the local name system in the old Nurski district in the Nur Land of the old Duchy of Mazovia. The analysis of various sources clearly shows that the western part of the region is characterised almost exclusively by one-part names, while the eastern is dominated by binominal names. This tendency is motivated by extralinguistic factors, the most important of them being the old land-possession structure in the area. Both parts of the researched region show specific dynamics of the process of creating settlement names. The process was also influenced by Polish lesser nobility, i.e. continuous patterns in the naming of settlements, whereas many toponyms appearing in historical sources are today non-existent. The analysis also reveals the predominance of ancestral names as a separate part of binominal names, as well as the low productivity of patronymic names.