Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Astana the Capital of Kazakhstan and Astanas in Siberia as a Linguistic-Cultural Aspect  

 

25

A Temenos (ancient Greek. Τέμενος) is a sacred piece of land 

dedicated to a specific deity. It was believed that a person could feel the 

presence of the deity when in the Temenos, meeting their personalized 

essence of the unconscious. Tyumen region is just such a sacred place in 

Russian culture: located in south-west Siberia it has a shape of a heart. Thus 

we can assume that the name Tyumen is a distorted form of Temenos. 

Modern onoma (the act of naming) is a kind of myth-making, taking 

on new life, rising to a new level of perception amongst recipients. From 

this perspective, a huge variety of proper names can be identified in 

different nuclear peripheral fields of modern onomastic space in the post-

Soviet states, reflecting the formation of various identities. However, the 

modern onomastic space becomes a platform on which communication 

takes the form of a battle between: a) Russian and English (hence, in the 

authors’ opinion, there is clear polarization in the name of the new micro-

toponymic objects such as Knyazhye Lake and Green House, etc.); b) 

Russian and the official language of other countries (Kabedenov - 

Kabedenuly; Karabulat - Karabulatov - Karabulatidis; etc.); c) the state 

language of the CIS countries and English (Halyk Bank - Nalyk bank, etc.); 

d) Russian and the languages of republics of the Russian Federation 

(Bashkortostan - Bashkortostan, etc.); e) Russian and the language of 

national minorities (Amangeldyevna - Amangeldinovna in the forms of 

patronymic names in the same family). Such a complex communicative 

situation requires a balanced approach to the analysis of modern ethno-

linguistic-informational onomastic systems. 

The polyethnic nature of the Russian-Kazakhstan border region 

impacts not only the formation of specific anthropological population types 

but is reflected in the characteristics of how local languages function, and in 

the formation of bilingualism and biculturalism. 

The authors believe that the specific type of poly-lingualism found in 

the Russian-Kazakhstan border region - namely Tatar-Arabic (confessional) 

and Russian, plus foreign languages (English/German/French), is 

characteristic of Tatar. The suppression of the confessional nature of 

trilinguism amongst Tatar and other Turkic people is a cause of surprise. As 

a rule, almost all Tatars know, in addition to the native Tatar language, 

Russian and also Arabic as an Islamic language. Languages are learned in the 

following order: 1. Tatar, 2. Arabic, 3. Russian, 4. foreign languages 

(English/German/French). The adoption of second and further languages 

and cultures represents the creation, in an individual, of a new lingual and 

cultural system to reflect objective reality. Indeed, “these and other facts 

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I. S. Karabulatova, E. N. Ermakova, G. A. Shiganova 

 

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confirm our assumption that we are dealing with invariants of the Turkic-

speaking people”

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 implemented in medieval Siberian-Tatar literature.  

All these abovementioned factors suggest the need for a wider 

definition of “the problem of formation of polylinguomental Eurasian 

linguistic personality” in the south part of Western Siberia and North 

Kazakhstan as a multi-aspect, mega-conceptual personality affecting the 

whole Turkic society in principle.

27

 

The question of Siberian Turkic peoples’ ideology has been 

considered by J. D. Rogers and other researchers,

28

 who analysed in detail 

the Turkic and Mongolian eras of civilization and the pagan beliefs of the 

Turks before the era of the Chingisids.

29

 The works of P. B. Golden seem 

important in considering syncretism in the religious beliefs of Siberian 

Turks and pagan archetypes,

30

 because pagan beliefs are organically woven 

into the so-called “folk Islam” of the Siberian Turks.

31

 This aspect was very 

important for the nomadic warriors, allowing them to enter into the 

unknown world without fear.

32

 

In general, the name - or rather, what is behind the name, the 

onomastic concept - serves as incomprehensibly complex system. 

Toponymic legends are based on the associative perception of names. In 

this regard, the mental space of a proper name is of special interest since, 

functioning in a multiethnic environment, all the elements of regional 

onomastic systems are influenced by stereotypical perceptions of standards 

inherent in man as the subject of cognition. Communication occurring 

between the elements of a toponymical concept - which includes the 

lexicographic, etymological and associative and/or psychologically real value 

of the onym (proper name) - generates weightless holographic names in the 

human mind, ensuring this naming convention a long life. 

Myths are an effective means of influencing the mass consciousness; 

mythological communication is very interesting for advertising and public 

relations, as it operates at a level that can be only weakly refuted by the mass 

consciousness. Myth is one feature of onomastic discourse. In onomastic 

discourse, myths can be understood as uncritically-perceived stereotypes of 

social consciousness. At the heart of the myth is the phenomenon of a 

fetishised symbol: Babylon (the Biblical city → meandering river with 

riverbed → complex pattern; Babylon → Network → Trade goods) implies 

                                                 

26

 Karabulatova 2013, p. 792. 

27 

Gultyaev et al. 2013, p. 158. 

28

 Biran 2005, p. 175; Golden 2006, p. 27. 

29

 Biran 2005, p. 180; Golden 2006, p. 35; Rogers 2012, p. 221. 

30 

Golden 2011, p. 21. 

31

 Ibid. 

32

 Beckwith 2012, p. 34. 

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