The importance of toponyms in the study of antiquity

Abstract

The great scientific importance of the study of the toponomy of Azerbaijan lies primarily in determining the role played by the Azerbaijani people, as well as the ethnic groups and tribal associations that exist here in the history of Azerbaijan, and in the study of the cultural heritage reflected in place names. The study of Azerbaijani toponymy stems from the necessity of detailing the history of our language and people. Solving such a problem is undoubtedly important and significant.

The toponyms, which provide valuable information about the history, language, ethnogenesis, thinking, and practice of each nation, stand out among the onomastic units due to their richness. Azerbaijani toponymy has a very ancient history. In the past, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, as well as Russian and European travelers were always interested in Azerbaijan and expressed different opinions about geographical names in its territory.

It is known that onomastic indicators are one of the reliable sources in the study of language history, as well as the history and ethnography of the people. Because these include not only geographical names, ethnonyms, personal names, theorems, etc. even, the lexical-morphological features of the language are reflected in a certain synchronic aspect. The thing is that despite the fact that toponyms, especially poletoponyms, are subject to morphological changes in some cases, as a whole, they are stronger than the grammatical structure of the language. It provides information about the more ancient state of the language.

In order to justify what we said in the article, examples from Azerbaijani toponymy are shown. Because such linguistic facts have been preserved that are an irreplaceable source in the study of the ancient period of the Azerbaijani language.