A mordvin névtani kutatások etimológiai problémái
Etymological problems in Mordvinian onomastic researches

Summary/Abstract: The paper provides an overview of Mordvinian toponymic researches from their beginnings up to the present day. First, the etymological dictionaries of place-names published recently are presented, and then, by way of analysing several examples taken from these works, the reliability of the dictionary entries is discussed. The author proves that the explanations of microtoponyms, place-names of anthroponymic origin and toponyms of Russian origin are generally correct in the etymological dictionaries; those of the so-called topoformants, however, are very often problematic. The explanations of hydronyms of non-Mordvinian or Russian origin and single-constituent place-names are likewise less trustworthy in these dictionaries. The present situation could only be improved by the publication of new, entirely reliable Mordvinian etymological dictionaries, as the available ones contain only few words and, unfortunately, often display inaccuracies.

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