Comparative Aspect of the Dagur-Samoyed Languages of Eastern Transbaikalia

This article is devoted to the description of the results of onomasiological analysis of the toponomastic vocabulary of Eastern Transbaikalia. The novelty of the article is due to the lack of comparative studies of the toponomastic vocabulary of Dagur (as one of the Mongolian languages) and Samoyedic languages. The relevance of the article is predetermined by the introduction of the results of the description of Daguro-speaking vocabulary in a comparative aspect into the scientifi c space, which makes relevant scientifi c research as regional one. The purpose of the article is to describe the results of a comparative analysis of the toponomastic vocabulary of the Eastern Trans-Baikal region, which has the scientifi c perspective of defi ning the studied territory as a region that is functionally signifi cant for the scientifi c investigation of a thesis of the diachronic Ural-Altaic linguistic union. The specifi c objectives of the study include describing the Daurian toponyms as a Mongolian toponymic substrate, describing the comparative analysis of appellative vocabulary as the basis of onomasiological strategy of analysis, and describing the elements of a comparative-historical nature when comparing the toponomastic vocabulary of Eastern Trans-Baikal region. Toponyms, especially substrate toponyms, thus, adapting to the phonology of a foreign-language superstrate, are forced to change lexically somewhat in order to fulfi ll their fundamental tasks – deictic (indicative) and functional. Under the condition of distinguishing three types of principles of nomination in toponymy: by the qualities of an object, by the connection of an object with a person, by the connection of an object with other objects, the article proposes a description of substrate toponymy according to the fi rst type – the type of the nominative principle by the qualities and physical and geographical characteristics of an object. The article uses an onomasiological approach, and the main research methods are the onomastic method (method of geographical terminology), the descriptive method, the comparative method, and the comparative-historical method. A partial result of the conducted research is the hypothesis on the nature of the Dagur language as a mediator language that developed during the period of Ural-Altaic diachronic language contacts. The article’s subject matter is original and unique in terms of describing the problems of transference and convergent phenomena, which are verifi ed based on onomastic material. The results represent a contribution to the practice of teaching comparative linguistics, arealogy (areal linguistics). The obtained preliminary conclusions can also be used by specialists both in the fi eld of onomastics and comparative linguistics in general.