Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper studies the name of Rostov the Great, or Rostov Veliky, the town founded long before the second Rostov, on the Don, appeared on the map in the 18th century. The name Rostov the Great acquired official status in 2025, when the state authorities enforced a federal law, by which in the town’s name appeared a postpositional adjective being in use for at least two centuries. As a result, the town has the composite name now. In accordance with Russian spelling rules one should hyphenate geographical objects’ names - nouns with postpositional adjective: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Novgorod-Seversky etc. In spite of the rule the astionym Rostov Veliky (Rostov the Great) has separate spelling, this has not only usual reason to which refers the legislator in the expert analysis, but also solid linguistic foundations. Moreover, the author enlightens a correlation between Rostov and Novgorod; the latter was and still can be mentioned with both prepositional adjective (which is an official name now) and postpositional one. There is a visible trace in the adjective Veliky usage with the names of Novgorod and Rostov.
Source: Socialʹnye i gumanitarnye znania
Author: Mikhail S. Teikin
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4416664697