*THE ORONYM ALTAI AND THE HYDRONYM IRTYSH: FOLKLORE VERSIONS AND ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Authors
-
Zhanat Aimukhambet
L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University
-
Bibaisha Nurdauletova
Sh.Yessenov Caspian University of Technology and Engineering
-
Nuraisha Bekeyeva
KIMEP University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55808/1999-4214.2026-3.13Keywords:
Keywords: toponym, oronym, hydronym, Altai, Irtysh, toponymic legend, etymology, historical memory.Abstract
The article examines the origins of the oronym Altai and the hydronym Irtysh, which occupy an important place in the toponymic landscape of East Kazakhstan. The study aims to compare popular interpretations of these geographical names with scholarly etymological theories and to identify their historical, linguistic, geographical, and folkloric features.
The research is based on toponymic legends about the Altai and the Irtysh included in Volume 80 of the one-hundred-volume collection Babalar Sözi (The Words of the Ancestors), as well as the works of prominent onomasticians. The folk interpretation deriving Altai from alty ai (“six months”) is compared with scholarly hypotheses linking the name to the components al, altyn, tağ, and tau. Interpretations of the hydronym Irtysh based on the meanings “to cross,” “whirlpool,” “water of the land,” “a river cutting through the earth,” and “water flowing crosswise” are systematised and evaluated.
The findings show that toponymic legends preserve popular perceptions of natural space, historical memory, and an imaginative worldview rather than reveal the exact linguistic origins of place names. The study emphasises the need to examine folklore alongside ancient written sources and comparative linguistic evidence.
