The origin of local names?

Classification: society/culture >> Historical topics

Problem description:

Where did the local name come from? For example, each of us has its own name, and each city has its own name, so what makes these cities take such names?

Analysis:

First, the analysis of the origin of place names

The origin of place names can be traced back to the time when primitive people created languages in ancient times, but because there were no words at that time, there were almost no traces left for us to explore, so it was impossible to describe them in detail. But we can get some inspiration from the earliest written records, some inferences from the laws of human thinking, and some proofs from the case investigation materials of tribes still in primitive society, so as to make a rough and principled inference on the origin of place names.

First, the necessary conditions for the emergence of place names, first, the formation of language, which is the primary condition for the origin of place names; The second is human's understanding of geographical environment. In other words, place names come from objective existence and are born from the production of human language and the accumulation of geographical knowledge.

Second, the appearance of place names is much earlier than the formation of words. Long before writing appeared, there were a lot of place names. Today, there are incredible places with many languages in the world without words, which is the best proof.

Third, at the beginning of place names, people's understanding level was low because of simple language and poor vocabulary. From the development of language itself, nouns and verbs that express specific meanings appear early, while function words appear late. It can be inferred that the earliest original place names can only be simple and rough language codes equivalent to proper names named after common phenomena and things at that time, and it is impossible to produce general names.

Fourthly, from the analysis of the living environment of ancient human beings, there were no fixed residential areas at that time, let alone administrative divisions. In the most primitive economic activities such as gathering, hunting and fishing, people have to deal with the surrounding natural geographical entities such as mountains, peaks, hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, rivers and seas, so the mountains, water, soil and islands closely related to the living environment of human beings at that time appeared at the earliest. According to relevant experts' research, there are 400 special water names, government names (mountain names) and city names (residents' names) included in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, accounting for about 5% of the total number of words in the book, which shows the proportion and position of mountain water names in ancient place names.

Fifth, the original place names only had sound and meaning, no form, and no concepts of time, place and class. According to modern archaeological excavations, before the formation of characters, human beings experienced the historical stage of picture recording, and then developed into the stage of simple graphic symbol recording. The former is equivalent to the Paleolithic Age, while the latter is equivalent to the Neolithic Age. During the above period, there appeared the phenomenon of using pictures and graphic symbols to represent geographical entities, which can be regarded as the earliest tangible place names.

Sixth, after the appearance of written language, people began to record spoken place names in the form of written language, so that place names could spread and accumulate rapidly.

At this point, place names have three basic elements: sound, meaning and form, which indicates that place names have entered a mature development stage. From China to Shang Dynasty, Chinese characters were basically formed, and there were at least 500 place names recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which accurately recorded the real features of early place names in China.

Second, the evolution law of place names

Geographical names are the result of the socialization of human production activities, and the development of society will inevitably promote the evolution and development of geographical names. According to the analysis of the development process of place names for thousands of years, the evolution law of place names can be summarized as follows:

(A) the trend of geographical names from prosperity to decline until extinction.

Judging from the place names recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and other ancient books, most of the early place names in China were single-word place names. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the development of single-character place names reached its peak, forming the characteristics of the times in which the pre-Qin place names were dominated by single names. It should be pointed out that there are many disyllabic place names in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and other ancient books, some of which are conjunctions such as Handan, Kunlun and Kunwu, which are inseparable simple words. They may be randomly and accidentally combined with some sounds and alleged places, more based on a single name, plus locative words and adjectives. For example, the "houses" representing tribes have evolved into "ghost houses", "Fang Qiong", "Fang Qiang", "Fang Yi", "dangerous houses" and "basic houses", which are extended from the "scenery" representing high mountains, and others such as Huan, Dayi, Tang Yi and so on. After Qin and Han Dynasties, the single-word place names in China gradually disappeared, and most of the place names were disyllabic words, which kept pace with the development of language.

Using disyllabic words to distinguish homonyms avoids the confusion caused by a large number of homonyms and homonyms. It can be seen that the trend of single-word place names changing from prosperity to decline is one of the inevitable trends in the development and evolution of place names, the expression of the law of place names changing from simplicity to complexity in China, and the objective requirement of the increase in the number and categories of place names. The extinction trend of monosyllabic place names is not only reflected in the whole place names, but also in proper names. Take the place names of administrative districts above the county level as an example. At the end of 1978, there were 164 counties and cities in China with proper names of single words, and the number of 1998 dropped to13. This trend will continue.

(b) The formation and perfection of common names are crucial.

The original place names did not have the concept of generic names. Judging from the situation in China, the early place names recorded in ancient books such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions have not yet had special generic names, but they have begun to sprout, that is, the classification of place names is reflected by radicals, which has formed the characteristics of the times that the early place names in China are generic by symbols. Such as Huan, Luo, Ba and Si. On the left is water as a generic name and on the right is a proper name. Another example is "Bo", the upper part comes from "Jing", that is, "the so-called lofty hill", which is its generic part and the lower part is its proper name part. Another example is Han, Xing, Tan, Gao and Yong. The word "one" on the right indicates the residential area, which is a common name, and the word "one" on the left is a proper name. Of course, some place names, such as "jar" and "painting", had not yet formed the bud of generic names.

The appearance of generic names indicates that people's understanding of the natural environment and social development is further deepened, which is an inevitable trend of the development and evolution of place names, marks the development process of place names from simple to complex and from few to many, and marks the maturity of place names. In the early days, people often borrowed their own or animal body parts to name them. For example, there are "Kou" (Shankou, Hekou, Jiangkou, Haikou, Shuikou, Sanchakou, intersection), "Nose" (Wushi Nose, Luan Nose), "Tou" (Peak, Shuitou, Thin Head), "Ridge" (Peak, Dam Top, Baiyun Top) and "Back" (.

With the increase of the number of place names, the expansion of the field of place names naming, the enrichment of languages and the refinement and deepening of human understanding of things,