ABOUT THE BURTAS AND BURTASONYMS OF PENZA REGION (historical and ethnological aspect: controversial and indisputable)
Authors: Kornilov Gennadiy E. 
Published: November 2024

M.S. Poluboyarov’s book “Antiquities of Penza Region in the Mirror of Toponymy” was an event-related comprehensive analysis of the names of “natural-geographical and other landscape objects of Penza region”, based “on archival sources of the 17th and 18th centuries”, on “allotment books, economic descriptions”, “Economic notes to the materials of the Ordnance Survey, cartographic sources of the 18th and 19th centuries” covering the Burtas, the Mordovian, and the Turkic toponymy of “the northern section of the former Wild Field, the Upper Sura, the southeastern part of Meschera and the Upper Trans-Khoper.”

Deserving of high praise in general, allowing for subsequent reprints for learners, students, local historians and teachers of humanities, the book, of course, needs to discuss the details, to clarify individual conclusions and statements.

The purpose of the study is to introduce when reading M.S. Poluboyarov’s book “Antiquities of Penza Region in the Mirror of Toponymy” some data that escaped from the author and to evaluate individual specific interpretations of the so–called burtasonyms, geographical names, mainly potamonyms left on the map of Penza Region allegedly from the Burtas, a mysterious people about whose origin and fate scientists continue to argue with fervency to this day.

Materials and methods. The main source base of the research was made by historical and geographical data, inventoried by the author of the book “Antiquities of the Penza Region in the Mirror of Toponymy”, as well as historical, etymological and onomatological dictionaries, reference books, publications of predecessors. The main method of research is the historical-genetic method, which is expected to involve the historical sources and critical using the results of their consideration by their predecessors; an appeal to the data of reference books and various dictionaries.

Research results. The article establishes the ambiguity of the following statement: The Burtas appellative, semantically close to the term “water, river”, is -is, on its basis 22 names developed in Penza region: the Katmis, the Koldais, the Umys, the Chipuris, the Shelemis, the Shuist (from the source of the Sura to Penza); the Kachais, the Kondrais, the Mais, the Old Koldais, the Chais ( from the upper reaches to the mouth of the river Inzy); the Katmis,the Kurmys (right tributaries of the Sura River); the Shirokois (tributary of the Issa River), the Sherkais (Muromka River basin), the Atmis, the Varezhka(!), the Sheldais (upper reaches of the Moksha River), the Atmis (tributary of the Ushinka river in the Burtas river basin), the Kermis, the Pechenvis); in Tambov region: the Big Lomovis, the Kolais. The postfix ‑-is goes back to Hungarian. viiz (in the original viz “water, river”), in which, under the influence of the Tatar language, the anlaut v- was lost, which, however, preserved in two potamonyms: the Lomovis and the Pechenvis.

In fact, in part of the listed names, non-is, but-mis (the Cat-mis, the Shele-mis, the At-mis) or -mis (Kur-mis) is isolated, and the Lomovis allows for a variable division: Lomov-is (surname Lomov) and Lomo-vis (with the assumed -vis<*-viis<*-viis<víz). In addition, the postfix -is forms not only potamonyms, but is also quite widely represented in derived anthroponyms, in particular, only in the dictionary of V.K. Magnitsky “Chuvash pagan names” more than three dozen male “pagan” names of various origins are revealed.

Conclusions. The potamonyms of Penza Region inventoried by M.S. Poluboyarov on -(v) is require additional comparative historical analysis in a broader historical-linguistic and historical-ethnological context.