Ethnographic development of Kazakh toponymy

Abstract

The earth’s surface is, as it is said, the witness to historical events. Some toponyms names came into being in the depths of antiquity, when written culture did not yet exist. They are closely linked to the people and they were basically created by the people themselves, created in the bosom of nature, and not created in scholars’ studies. This is why toponymic names, like the language of the earth, are very concrete and convincing, they clearly describe certain features of local nature and are distinguished by exceptional accuracy and expressiveness. The study of historical toponymy makes it possible to define the ethnic composition of a particular area, what peoples lived there, and what language was spoken in ancient times by the original inhabitants who gave these names. The purpose of the present work is to elucidate the etymology of certain toponyms according to ethnomarked toponymic structures. In it, we shall acquaint the reader with names which arose in the depths of antiquity, the etymology of which contains important information about the distant past of the Kazakh people. In relation to some of these names, also, there have been very serious errors, which it is becoming very necessary to eliminate.