Ethnonyms of North-Eastern Russia as a Special Layer of Regionalisms

Abstract

Russian regional features became a subject of scientific attention in the late 1960s – early 1970s when scientists began to study old dialects, new regiolects, and how some regionalisms entered general use. Scientists usually focused on the literary speech peculiarities of local residents. As a rule, ethnonyms of small-numbered peoples have a very narrow circulation and belong to regionalisms. However, Russian ethnonyms remain understudied from the angle of their regional component, particularly the ethnonyms of the North-East. The present article deals with the ethnonyms of small-numbered peoples in the Russian North-East. The author describes how regionalisms transferred from the regiolect to the common language in the course of 20th century. The paper also features the most relevant mistakes in the ethnonyms with similar pronunciation. The author conducted a survey to investigate the comprehension level of the north-eastern ethnonyms by the residents of Magadan and cities of Central Russia and define their frequency.

Keywords

• regional linguistics
• regionalism (linguistic)
• regiolect
• dialect
• peoples of the north