ONOMASTIC SPACE OF MESKHETIAN VERSE WRITERS

Abstract

A proper name, as an interesting and multifunctional linguistic phenomenon, is conditioned by the geographical location, the combination of historical facts and the religious-cultural foundations of the ethnic groups. Onyms add to a literary work expressiveness, emotionality, and confer aesthetic value, develop perception of an individual, and diversify the imagination area.

The onyms’ inventory of poems, published in the collection of works “I, a Meskhetian Verse Writer, Am Writing”_ organically merges with the present-day realia of poets, mostly reflecting the real situation and containing interesting information about this or that populated area of our country. Most of the Georgian toponyms, evidenced in the poems of Meskhetian verse writers, are the surviving treasure of our language in terms of historical geography. In the works of forty-five authors there are plenty of names of the countries, regions, parts of Georgia, cities or villages, rivers, individuals or characters. The naming always reflects the social life and culture of the society. Onyms with "countless colors" _ toponyms, choronyms, hydronyms, oronyms, anthroponyms, patronyms, personyms, etc. _ appear in the poetic fabric of the authors of the collection. Each of them is involved in this or that established poetical form with semantic and stylistic charge. From this perspective, in the Meskhetian verse writers’ verse space are treasured the toponyms and hydronyms of all Georgia: Mtkvari, Rioni, Aragvi, Jejveri, Kheori, Phasisi, Kvirila, Usholti Cave, thoroughly and many times – those of Meskheti and Javakheti, the native land of the poets. The various proper names used by the authors, the specifics of the use of onyms in the context of artistic speech correspond to the onomastic rationes communes, formed during the development of world literature.                 

The onyms bring in three types of information: linguistic, conversational, and encyclopedic. When comprehending the text, the nominative function of the onyms is realized in different artistic ways and creates a certain effect. For example, both Gorgasali and Erekle appear in the diachronic-chronological context; as well as Greece, Aphrodite, Orpheus, as well as Iberia, Amiran, Mzechabuki and others.