TOPONYMIC SPACE OF THE WRITTEN MONUMENT TRUE RECORDS OF THE MONGOLS OF THE QING EMPIRE

Abstract

The author considers the layer of the 17th — early 18th centuries Mongolian place names presented in the written monument Dayičing ulus-un mongyul-un mayad qauli (True Records of the Mongols of the Qing Empire), published in the old-written Mongolian language in six volumes in Hohhot (China) in 2013. The considered monument of written culture contains a colossal amount of information of various kinds and touches upon a wide range of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, political, social, and religious aspects of the life of the Mongols. The study of such works is valuable in that they represent ancient material reflecting the history, peculiarities of language and literary thought, and the mindset of the peoples of the past. The semantic study of the Mongolian place names attested in the studied document indicates that a developed system of geographic terms which has come down to our days, has already been present in the 17th — early 18th centuries. It was largely motivated by the physical and geographical characteristics of the area. A particular feature of the toponymy of that period is the absence of memorial names that appeared in Mongolia in the first half of the 20th century and reflect the trends of new views on public life. In terms of structure, these toponyms are notable for almost complete absence of verb stems, including iterative and Present-Past participle forms that serve as attributes in the modern Mongolian toponymy. Analyzing the ways of rendering Mongolian complex toponyms in Chinese, the author notes that the use of transcription shows the established character of the toponym, while the use of Manchu geographical terms testifies to its optional character. The system of place names the work contains, holds significant cultural meanings and associations that are characteristic of the national worldview