The toponymy of the South and South-East Asia

The toponymic system in South and South-East Asia is one of the most complex and little known on the planet. Ancient history, multilingualism, diverse ethnic composition, the diversity of natural conditions and socio-economic characteristics of the region make the study of toponymic daunting task. This circumstance is exacerbated by the practical lack of cartographic sources in national languages. Most of the place names on the maps is transmitted through the English, French, Dutch languages, a legacy of the colonial past of the region. Therefore, the local population pronounces the names differently than they are marked on our maps: Calcutta instead of the conventional Calcutta, Mumbai Bombay, Eavdi — Irrawaddy, Thanlwin — Salween, manly — Manda Lai, etc.

Historical evidence shows that already in the III Millennium BC in the Indus river valley existed in the largest cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, each of which was about 100 thousand people. With the coming of the Aryans to the first Millennium BC formed the ancient Indian civilization. Many place names its roots date back to the ancient Indian language — Sanskrit: the Indus from the Sindhu, "river", the Ganges from the Ganges river, the Brahmaputra, "son of Lord Brahma", the Yamuna from Yamna — "near-end" (as the river flows parallel to the Ganges), Dhaulagiri "white mountain", from Kashmir is Kasyapa-Mira — "sea of Kasyapa" (named after a mythological hero, connecting mountain lake and river Indus) and many others. Sanskrit word dvipa "island" included in the names of many of arkhi-Pelagia Indian ocean, e.g. Maldives from male-dvipa — a "high island", from Laccadive Laksa-dvipa — "one hundred thousand Islands", etc. On the basis of Sanskrit has formed many modern languages of South Asia (Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Nepali, Urdu, etc.). They are associated with a later age place names, for example, the term PUR "city": Kanpur, ja-malpur, Jodhpur (India), Bahawalpur (Pakistan), Lalitpur (Nepal), Chandpur (Bangladesh), Singapore. India's influence in South and Southeast Asia quite significantly since Hinduism and Buddhism came from this country. Therefore, place names, Dating back to Sanskrit and later languages, can be found in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. For example, the name of a large island Sumatra in the Sunda archipelago goes back to the Sanskrit: Samudra "sea".

In Pakistan and India located toponyms with the term of Iranian origin Abad — "the city" (Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Allahabad, Ahmedabad). Perhaps their appearance is connected with the spread of Islam in the middle ages.

In areas located at the Himalayas, meet the Tibetan geographical names: city of Kangchenjunga "five treasures of snow"; Darjeeling (India) — "land of the Lama's scepter" and some others. In the South of the Indian subcontinent common place names the ancient Dravidian language (Devakottai; Pudukkotai), and on the island of Sri Lanka- civilians from (Colombo — "Marina"; the mountain PI-brutaliana — "inovacna top"; Sri Lanka- "blessed, glorious land"). Toponyms of Myanmar origin are found outside of this country (Bangladesh and India). Characteristic geographical terms, forming many of the names of Myanmar: namh — "river", e -"water", Loy, ngma — "mountain", "forest" Meng -"city" ,Wang - "village". On the Indochina Peninsula are the most common Vietnamese, Khmer and Thai names. Vietnamese toponymy has experienced a strong Chinese influence, which is associated with desitively Chinese rule. Many Chinese geographical terms included in the place names of Vietnam (ha "river", Ho — "the lake," sui "water"). A characteristic feature of the actual Vietnamese names is a clear position of the term before the definition: song Hong "river red", Nui-Kao — "mountain high," Ho-Tay "lake West". This feature distinguishes the Vietnamese toponymic model from China (Haiphong — "sea fortress, protection"; Hong-ha — "red river", etc.). An interesting feature of the Thai toponymy is the presence of long, polysyllabic names of some settlements: Nakhonsithammarat rat, Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, etc. Malay place names are widely represented in Indonesia and Malaysia: Borneo, the "land of the mango tree"; Bandung — "dam"; R. Banjarmasin to "wet"; Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lipis, Kuala Terengganu, Kuala "mouth", and the second part is a hydronym, etc. of the Indo-nesiseka languages, on many different Islands of the archipelago, formed the place names resembling the names of Oceania (e.g., appear double names — Baubau, etc.). Typical are the local terms map of the "fortress" Bang "city": Jakarta.-map of, Surakarta, Palembang, Sabang, Rembang. Philippine geographical nomenclature has close ties with the Indonesian and Micronesian, but the extent of ucinnost indigenous toponymy of the country is still insufficient. For example, the name of the largest in the archipelago of Luzon is associated with the local word lusong — "wooden mortar for pounding rice", however, how this word became the name of the island is unknown.

In the toponymy of South and Southeast Asia preserved evidence of the colonial past of the region. English names are found in India, Myanmar, Malaysia (Montgomery, Georgetown, Beaufort), French — Indochina (Vietnam is the Cape Saint-Jacques, pass the major Fold and the Breast of Madame de La Madeleine); Spanish in the Philippines (San Fernando, Santa Cruz, Puerto Princesa); the Dutch in Indonesia (the island of Sauchen; Emmakate). However, these names gradually disappear from the map, replaced the local names. This process began in the countries of the region since independence and continues to this day.