Classifications of the Names of Smolensk Streets

Abstract

The article deals with two classifications of urbanonyms of the city of Smolensk in view of historical periods of the Russian state formation, and taking into account internal units included in the urbanonymic field. In the ancient classification, the names of intracity objects are divided according to the principle of referring them to another significant object (as a rule, it was a church) or according to the principle of naming an object by the name of a famous person, usually by the name of a saint. In the modern classification, the principle has changed. Most of the renamed streets started to be called by the names of revolutionary figures, leaders of the Russian and world proletariat, by significant revolutionary events. The classification of regional urbanonyms is important due to the fact that every onym is a cultural constant from the point of view of linguistics and reflects the peculiarities of the linguistic picture of the world of both an individual and society as a whole. For the streets of the city in the period from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century, renaming is not typical; after the revolution, the names were changed regularly. The relation to another significant object (temple, monastery) was the most productive principle of nomination for the streets of ancient Smolensk. The main motive for the nomination of modern streets is their connection with people.