Microtoponymics of Bila Tserkva district: ethnolinguistic aspect

This article addresses the issue of reflection of national and cultural experience of the people, their values, beliefs, crafts, preferences, important historical events and outstanding figures in the microtoponymy of Bila Tserkva district. The paper clarifies nominative specificity of microtoponyms in the context of other onymous vocabulary, and substantiates the expediency of studying them through the prism of ethnolinguistics. The research was carried out on the basis of a survey of the inhabitants of the district and employed methods of etymological, structural and cultural-historical analysis. The authors present an innovative classification of microtoponyms according to the degree of manifestation of cultural connotation in them, which can be used to analyze the onymous material of other districts. The classification distinguishes neutral, culturally marked, culturally veiled and culturally alien names. The analysis of the material shows that cultural connotation is most widely represented by microoikonyms, somewhat less often by microhoronyms, microoronyms and microhydronyms. The researchers conclude that, despite their territorially limited functioning, microtoponyms are important components of the cultural development of the people, since they reflect not only the external characteristics of the designated objects, but also the associated worthy experience of struggle, growth and development of crafts; they cultivate among contemporaries the values ​​of freedom, labor, education, and the culture of honoring the dead. The paper suggests recommendations for speakers to give preference to culturally marked onyms, consciously built on national-patriotic principles, and avoid culturally alien microtoponyms.