Functioning of Toponymic Lexis in Turkic Epic Literature

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the role and functions of place names from a Kazakh and Tatar versions of the famous Turkic epic poem Edige. A total of 69 proper names denoting places such as settlements and localities, water objects and surface relief were analyzed qualitatively with the intensive topology approach. The findings show that toponymic lexemes perform five main functions in the epos: localizing, informative, accumulative, symbolic, and individualizing. In the Kazakh and Tatar versions of the epic poem Edige, toponyms can act as the main reference points in time and space, referring to some specific characteristics of the geographic objects, conveying the historical and cultural heritage of the Turkic peoples, and revealing connection to the religion of Islam. Moreover, in the national versions of the epos under analysis individual toponyms, i.e. those found only in one version of the epos and typical of the area where the storyteller lived, add authenticity and a local flavor to the events described in the text. The study enables a better understanding of the national and cultural originality of ideas about space, which can be transformed according to toponymic data.