Вопросы ономастики (Apr 2022)
Urban Toponymy as a Means of Manifesting Regional Identity: The Case of Ufa City
Abstract
The paper deals with the representation of regional identity in urban toponymy. The author focuses on the role of municipal toponymic policy in the manifestation and construction of a new regional identity. It is found that the efficiency of local policy in regards to place names builds on the effective use of cultural and symbolic capital as well as a sustained emphasis on their uniqueness. Several aspects of regional identity in toponymic practices are identified. These are the linguistic culture which ensures the creation and use of urban toponyms, general knowledge about the natural and geographical features of the territory, its historical and cultural specificity, values shared by the community, behavioral stereotypes inherent in the population. The author uses semantic onomasiological analysis and the material of the urban toponymy of Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, to explore the modifications of urban toponymic system in the post-Soviet period. It is noted that the consistency of the official representation of the toponyms including their visual forms placed in the urban environment is of primary importance. In new toponymic practices, there is a growing tendency for ethnicization and drawing attention to the Bashkir culture, science, history, folklore, and the unique nature of the region. Another trend for the urban place names is to promote tolerant inter-ethnic relations and manifestation of aesthetic values, cultivating emotional-evaluative and figurative representation of space. At the same time, the author states that there is a gap between the public demand for a consistent toponymic manifestation of regional identity and the lack of a balanced conceptual platform for toponymic policy, which complicates the task of building an integrated toponymic system within a particular urban territory.
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