Ancient Turkic Toponyms in Chinese and Other Eastern Sources – A Foundation for Modern Turkic Integration: Historical-Etymological and Linguistic Perspective

Ancient Turkic Toponyms in Chinese and Other Eastern Sources - A Foundation for Modern Turkic Integration: Historical-Etymological and Linguistic Perspective

Project Manager: Nurdauletova Bibaysha Ilyasovna

Project term:

Start: July 1, 2024. End: December 31, 2026 Duration: 30 months

Funding amount:

451 824 754,00 tenge

The purpose of the project:

is to lay a geopolitical foundation for the development of integration of modern Turkic-speaking countries by studying the historical-geographical, linguistic foundations of the toponyms of the Turkic land, which gave rise to Central Asia and Kazakhstan, which entered into the history of China and other countries of the East.

Scientific novelty:

1) The study of ancient Turkic toponyms in Central Asia and Kazakhstan contributes to the revival of ancient caravan diplomatic routes linking the Turkic world, providing Turkic integration. This is the main problem that emphasizes the relevance of this study.
2) In our research we try to form the concept of “Turkic toponyms”, as well as “toponyms in the Turan space”, because Turan is a large geographical space and has a value as a special linguistic area that contributes to the formation of toponymic names (the result of the study will be our scientific discovery);
3) As we became convinced during the study of the topic, Turkic in Turan space toponym formation consists of several periodic layers, and such historical toponyms can provide objective information related to the ethnogenesis and ethnic history of Turkic peoples. The work pays special attention to this issue as well.
4) The studies mainly consider toponyms on land, and toponomastic names “in the waters” are ignored. When studying historical records, it is seen that Arab, Persian, Chinese historians, geographers tell about this or that historical event connected with water (river, lake, sea, bay, island, peninsula, etc.). Because water is the source of life, it is known that whatever type of objects associated with water does not go unnoticed by travelers, wanderers, passengers, traders. Therefore, analyzing the names of old waterways in the sources is of great importance. This research paper may help to fill this gap;
5) New terms such as “toponomastics”, “toponomastic areal”, “toponomastic areal”, “topoturpat”, “substratum-based toponyms”, “areal limits of duplicated topoformants”, “conserved topoformants”, etc. are used and commented in the work.
6) The peculiarity of this program is evident from the expected results of the work. Along with the main results of the research (articles, monographs), a toponomastic map (toponomastic map of Turkic historical toponyms of the topographic area of Central Asia and Kazakhstan), two dictionaries (“geographical terms and other words involved in the creation of toponyms of Turkic origin in the topographic area of Central Asia and Kazakhstan” and “Geographical terms and other words involved in the creation of toponyms of Turkic origin in the topographic area of Central Asia and Kazakhstan”) were created. That is, the research methods and results of the mentioned program are not only linguistic, but also include historical-etymological, historical-ethnographic, historical-geographical, cartographic studies. This shows the scope of research conducted in the context of several sciences, as well as the completeness of the scope of demand.

Research work on the project

Research team

List of published articles