Mordovian Toponymy of Nizhny Novgorod Region — a layer of river, village, and urochishche names left behind by the Erzya and Moksha. It extends across the entire south of the region and along the right bank of the Volga, while certain names — Kudma, Kerzhenets, Kstovo, Arzamas, Sheloksha — survive even in places where the Mordovian tongue has not been heard for several centuries.[1][2] Names outlast the language: in Dalnekonstantinovsky District, the Erzya Language had died out by the twentieth century, yet local residents were still reciting urochishche names with Erzya roots as late as the end of the 1970s.[3]
Origins of this layer
The region's toponymy is thoroughly mixed: Russian names stand alongside Mordovian, Mari, Tatar, and Chuvash ones — a sign that the peoples here have long lived side by side and influenced one another.[1] In ancient times Mordva occupied the lands of what are now Nizhny Novgorod, Simbirsk, Saratov, and Penza Governorates and the north of Tambov Governorate, while its Nizhny Novgorod contingent — the northernmost group, the Teryukhane — lived in the upper reaches of the Seryozha and along the Ozyorka.[4]
The northern limit of Mordovian place names runs roughly through Kstovsky and Dalnekonstantinovsky Districts, and tracing it precisely was a task that onomasticians were already setting themselves in the 1970s: where Mordovian microtoponymy ends, the zone of unbroken Russian colonization begins.[3]
The south of the region is a different matter entirely: here Mordovian names are not isolated inclusions but a whole network. The regional tourism portal frankly warns the traveller that the place names of Dalnekonstantinovsky District — Simbileу, Sarley, Lazazey — are "rather unfamiliar to us," because the territory was originally Mordovian.[5]
Rivers
Rivers have preserved Mordva names better than anything else. The Kudma River, a right tributary of the Volga in Kstovsky and Bogorodsky Districts, is composed of two words — *kuda* "dwelling, home" and *ma* "land, region": "the land of homes, an inhabited country."[1] The Kerzhenets, despite its thoroughly Russian-looking suffix *-ets*, is not Russian either: in old songs it appears as "Leva Kerzhenka," and *kerzhen*, *kerdzen*, *kerzhi* in various Mordva dialects mean "left" — the Kerzhenets is indeed a left tributary of the Volga.[1]
Sheloksha (also Shiloksha and Shilikhsha) — three streams whose name is traced to the similar-sounding Mordva *shalnokshnoms* "to make noise, to be turbulent" and Mari *sholekshi* "to boil, to bubble": the streams rise from gushing springs, and nearby stand Russian place names of the same meaning — Gremyachka, Klyuchishchi, Gremyachevo, Rodnik.[1]
Other rivers have no single accepted interpretation. Pyana is said to have received its name from its winding course, "just like a tipsy woman"; Sura has been attributed both to the Turkic *su* "water" and to a Mordva origin.[1] The Oka and the The Yug River and its relatives Yugovets and Yuganets in Dzerzhinsky District are a Finno-Ugric inheritance from an earlier stratum, cognate with the Finnish *joki* "river."[1]
| Name | Interpretation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Kudma | ku "house" + ma "land" — "land of houses" | interpretation is well established |
| Kerzhenets | kerzhen, kerzhi "left" — left tributary of the Volga | there is also a Mari version: korzh "earring," referring to the winding course of the river |
| Kstovo | ksta "wild strawberry" | an explanation derived from the haulers' custom of crossing oneself also exists, but the village predates the hauling trade |
| Arzamas | erzya + mazyi "beautiful" — "the finest place of the Erzya tribe" | according to legend, from the names of two Mordva brothers, Erzyas and Misyas; the Erzya interpret the name as Erzya Mas, "land of the Erzya" |
| Sheloksha, Shiloksha, Shilikhsha | shalnokshnom "to make noise" / sholekshi "to boil" | the Mordva and Mari explanations converge in meaning |
| Sergach | from the name of a Mordva beekeeper, Sargas | a Turkic name for the town is also recorded |
| The suffix -ley (Sarley, Simbeley, Lazazey, Mochaley) | ley "stream, ravine" | the formant is widespread; in individual cases it is disputed with the Turkic suffix -ly |
Villages and Towns
Kstovo is mentioned from the 14th century as the village of Kstoskaya, and the toponymic dictionary traces the name to the Mordva word ksta, meaning "strawberry"; a local legend about barge haulers who crossed themselves here after towing their vessels upstream falls apart on the dates — the village is older than barge hauling.[1]
Arzamas, known since the 16th century as the Mordva Arzamasovo Gorodishche, is interpreted in two ways: from the Erzya words erza and maziy, meaning "red, beautiful" — "the finest place of the Erzya tribe" — or, according to legend, from the names of two Mordva brothers, Erzai and Misai, who served as guides for Ivan the Terrible during the Kazan campaign of 1552.[1] The Nizhny Novgorod Erzya themselves read the name differently — Erzya Mas, "land of the Erzya."[2]
The most productive Mordva formant in the region is -lei, the Erzya word for "stream, ravine": it is visible in the names of Sarley, Simbiley, Lazazey, Kazhleyka, and dozens of urochishches.[2][5] The Nizhny Novgorod Erzya recognize their homeland by it right from the road signs.[2]
Kerzhenets… appears at first glance to be entirely Russian. In reality this is not so at all… "kerzhen," "kerdzen," "kerzhi," and similar forms mean "left" in various Mordva dialects
A Dispute over Names
Toponymy rarely yields a single answer, and an honest analysis usually ends in a list of versions. Telling is the fate of the villages of Novomochaley and Staromochaley in Pilninskiy District: local etymology derives the name from the Russian word mochal (bast fiber), a version accepted by regional dictionaries as the most plausible in meaning; a second local version links it to a Mordva personal name or to the Erzya word moch, meaning "strength," combined with the formant -lei.[6]
Nizhny Novgorod researcher Aleksey Malyshev identified the weakness of both: the villages bearing this name were founded by Mishar Tatars, and the root moch does not appear in toponymy anywhere else. His own explanation is Turkic: mochar-ly, from the ancient ethnonym mochar (mishar), subsequently contracted to "Mochaly" and re-vocalized in the mouths of the surrounding Mordva.[6]
Hence the rule that toponymists apply constantly: similarity in sound is not the same as kinship. Before accepting an interpretation, one looks at who founded the settlement, who lived in it, and whether the root has parallels elsewhere; otherwise the result is "folk etymology," which is always more appealing and almost always wrong.[6]
Names That Outlived Their Language
The most vivid layer is the Teryukhan one. Between 1978 and 1980, the microtoponymy of twenty-eight settlements in Dalnekonstantinovsky District was recorded from dictation by local residents: parts of villages, streets, lanes, wells, streams, ravines, fields, and forests.[3] By then the spoken language there was entirely Russian — but the names were not.[3][4]
In Sarley, recorded names include Mordovskiye Kladbishchi (Mordva Cemeteries) hill and Molennaya Polyana (Prayer Glade), a part of the village called Mordovsky Poryadok and another called Yerzovka. Near Bolshoye Seskino and Maloye Seskino there is the river Kirmet, the forest of Kuzmery, the forest and ravine of Molby (Prayers), Mordovskoye Pole (Mordva Field), and a part of the village known as Kelyi (Cells). In Bolshoye Teryushevo stands a hill called "Korabl" (The Ship), remembered as the site of a Teryukhan sanctuary.[3]
Kirmet belongs to the same family as keremetʼ — a sacred grove or place of prayer; Molby and Molennaya Polyana speak for themselves.[3] The places themselves are discussed in the article on keremetʼ and sacred groves.[3]
The onomastic survey also recorded micro-ethnonyms — the collective nicknames that neighbors used for the inhabitants of a given village. In eight settlements of the area, residents were simply called "mordva": in Migalikha, Olgino, Siukha, Armenikha, Kuzhadon, Maloye Teryushevo, Makrasha, and Baksheevo — and this at a time when Mordva speech had not been heard there for half a century.[3]
Where this material was collected
There are three main compilations of Nizhny Novgorod place names. The "Concise Toponymic Dictionary" in geographer Lev Trube's book Geography of Gorky Region covers the rivers, towns, and villages of the region and remains the most accessible reference work.[1] The book by Nikolai Morokhin and Aleksey Arzamazov, Our Rivers, Towns and Villages, published in Nizhny Novgorod in 2014, brought together explanations covering the entire region and is cited by current researchers.[6][7]
The third compilation is not in print: the onomastic fieldwork of Ilya Mininzon in Bogorodsky and Dalnekonstantinovsky Districts, carried out between 1978 and 1980 and later published in full online. It is the only record of Teryukhan microtoponymy taken directly from the residents themselves.[3]
Sources
- nn-obl.ru — A concise toponymic dictionary from L. L. Trube's book "Geography of the Gorky Region" (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Land of the Erzya, June 2, 2016 (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Open Text — I. L. Mininzon. Onomastics of the Teryukhans (field collections of 1978–1980) (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Open Text — P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky. Essays on the Mordva, introduction ("Russkiy Vestnik", 1867) (archive)
- nn-tourist.ru — Tourist Portal of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Dalnee Konstantinovo (archive)
- malishev-history.ru — Purgasova Rus — A. Malyshev. On materials for a toponymic dictionary of Nizhny Novgorod Region (etymology of the toponym Mochaley)
- N. V. Morokhin, A. A. Arzamazov — Our Rivers, Towns, and Villages. N. Novgorod, 2014