From the history of semantics of the word "Kolyma"

Semyonov Alexey Ivanovich

The purpose of our research is to clarify the lexical semantics of the word "Kolyma". Based on the analysis of lexicographic sources, contextual analysis, using both modern written sources and texts of business writing of the Old Russian time, we fix along with the meanings of this proper name indicated in the scientific literature ("hydronymic", "resource", "camp", "administrative ") The functioning of a" narrow "spatial significance - 'the territory adjacent to the Kolyma River'. This region has been known since the 17th century. Over the next centuries, it was for a long time the main means of naming this territory, and in the 20th century. due to intensive study and significant economic development of the region, it was supplemented with options that are of broader significance. The novelty of the work lies not only in fixing the specified value, but also in the description of its origin, in the consideration of its regional specifics. "Narrow" territorial semantics originally arose in the phrase "Kolyma-river", and then developed in the hydronym of interest to us. The regional aspect in the use of the meanings under consideration is manifested in the fact that the "narrow" semantics of the toponym "Kolyma" is more characteristic of Yakutia, "wide" - for the Magadan region (today the regionim "Kolyma" and "Magadan region" function as synonyms).

Keywords:business writing, history of the Russian language, Russian old-time dialects, regional linguistics, regionalism, toponym, hydronym, regionym, Kolyma, North-East of Russia.