“Pedigree” of the oikonyms of Vedlozero area
Introduction: the process of forming the traditional settlement structure of South Karelia began no later than the end of the XV century and included different stages with their own set of oikonymic models characteristic to different types ofBulletin of Ugric Studies. Vol. 12, № 3(50). 2022.villages. The article presents the results of the study of the oikonymic material of the local territory of South Karelia using the method of tabular analysis, consisting in fixing the names of each village of the studied area, reflected in published and archival materials, statistical and cartographic sources in chronological order from the end of the XV century and up to the first quarter of the XX century.Objective: to determine the main stages of the formation of the network of rural settlements of the Vedlozero area and to identify a set of oikonymic models characteristic of each period.Research materials: a wide range of historical sources of the XVI-XIX centuries, statistical and cartographic materials, as well as field data from the Scientific Card Index of toponyms of Karelia and Adjacent Regions of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.Results and novelty of the research: the analysis made it possible to identify the main factors that influenced the choice of a place and name of a settlement and further transformations of oikonyms. We can identify natural - climatic, ethno - linguistic and economic oikonyms among them. In addition, the main stages of the formation of the network of rural settlements of the Vedlozero area were determined; a set of nominative models characteristic to each period was identified; structural features of oikonyms were considered. The scientific novelty of the research is in the correlation of official (written) and folk (oral, existing in the Karelian language) variants of names, which allowed us to offer an etymological interpretation for a number of Karelian oikonyms, as well as to identify the main ways of integrating Karelian names into the Russian system of official oikonymy.