The magical power of art or the “non-blue” cocktail

The interpretation of Crimean place names, fixed by numerous local history publications, would seem to represent an unshakable paradigm. Only certain geographical names can still be discussed due to doubts about the language of origin of a name. However, the interpretation of the main most famous and common place names is no longer studied. No way!

On the geographical map of the Crimea in a noticeable number of names containing in the form of an integral part of the lexem "cock": Koktebel, Kok-Kaya, Kok-Tash, Kok-Luk, Kokkoz and so on. At the present stage of development of the Crimean local history, "coc", as an integral part of any toponym, is interpreted by the characteristic of color - "blue".

According to the content of guides, local historians, polymaths, guides, telling about the sights of the Crimea, try to explain to tourists where they should see the blue tint. It is difficult to explain because tourists see gray, white, yellow, brown and even black rocks with their own eyes.

The most striking example of such cognitive dissonance is the Kok-Kaya ridge in the Kara-Dag mountain group, folded with almost black volcanic rocks. Local historians of the Crimea need to recognize that there is no color scheme of most natural objects with the lexe “cock” blue hue ... and never was.

Let us turn to the three languages Turkish, Tatar and Mongolian, the speakers of which could fundamentally fix their Turkic linguistic basis in the form of the word "kok" in the Crimean Tatar place names. The Mongolian version of the origin of the toponyms discussed can be discarded. The words of the Mongolian language “zenhar”, “tengar”, “tengarlag” cannot be correlated with the pronunciation of “kok”.

Tatar linguistics is closer to the ingrained pronunciation, "kuk" and "kok" are quite compatible variants. However, in this case, there is no need to “plant the garden”. In Turkish there is a direct analogy in the form of the word "gök". At the same time, it is no secret that the Crimean Tatar language has been significantly influenced by the Turkish language. Actually, it is from the Turkish language that the Crimean local historians themselves derive the interpretation of the lexeme “kok” in the names of geographical objects as “blue”. Is that acceptable?

 

Table. Comparison of the lexemes “blue”, “sky” and “heavenly” in Russian, Turkish, Tatar, Mongolian (according to the Yandex.Translator service) and Crimean Tatar languages (according to the content of Internet versions of Russian-Crimean-Tatar dictionaries) illustrating the ratio of lexical borrowings

Russian	Turkish	Kr.-Tatar	Tatar	Mongolian
Blue.	mavi	mackerel	zangar	zenhar
Sky.	gökyüzü or gök.	cock	kuk	tengare
heavenly	göksel	cock	kuk	tengarlag

 

At this point, we come to the main thesis of this article: the Turkish "gök" does not translate as "blue"! In Turkish, "gök" is not even an adjective. That's the noun "sky." Crimean Tatar dictionaries adhere to a similar interpretation: the first meaning of the word “sky”. The phrase “blue sky”, used as a classic example in Russian-Crimean Tatar dictionaries, sounds like “mava kok”.

Keep in mind that the adjectives “blue” and “heavenly” are not interchangeable. These lexemes have different semantic characteristics. The adjective "blue" characterizes the color of an object or phenomenon; for example: "The blue car runs swinging, the fast train is gaining momentum" (a song from the M/f about the adventures of Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena, the series "Capoklyak").

Blue, having a color of one of the main colors of the spectrum - the middle between green and blue; the colors of a clear sky; light blue, azure, azure. Russian Dictionary: In 4 volumes / RAS, In-t linguistic studies; Edited by A. P. Evgenyeva. - 4th ed., erased. - M.: Russian. language; Polygraphresursy, 1999.

The adjective "celestial" does not characterize the color, but the location of the phenomenon or object; for example: "Heavenly slow-moving" (K/f studio "Lenfilm", 1945). “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” in 4 volumes, edited by Professor D. N. Ushakov (1935-1940), interprets the word “heavenly” with such (spatial, not color) meaning as being in the sky or coming from the sky.

As a result, the Crimean local history may allow distortion of the meaning in the translation and interpretation of the meanings of well-known Crimean place names containing “kok” as part of the lexeme, and clearly not blue in color. As an example, we give the interpretation of the toponyms Koktebel, Kok-Tash and Kokkoz (ka) based on the above logic of reasoning.

Koktebel, according to local history literature, is a complex toponym and is composed of three words: “kok” – blue, “tepe” – the top and “yer” (in writing and pronunciation, established in the Crimean toponym “el” – place) at the end of “the edge of blue hills”. The generally accepted interpretation of the translation of this toponym as “the edge of the blue hills” comes from one single line of a journalistic essay about a trip to the Crimea and, in particular, to Koktebel, by the writer Nazym Hikmet Rana (1902-1963), a Turkish poet and public figure of the communist movement, who wrote: “From Moscow we go to the Crimea, to Koktebel, or rather: Gök Tepe Ili – the Edge of the Blue Hills.” This interpretation has entered the local literature.

In the semantic interpretation, based on the logic of linguistic patterns, Koktebel (“kok” – heavenly, “tepe” – the top and “yer”) is “the place where the tops go to the sky.” The treatment fully corresponds to the position of Koktebel in the past. The village "creeped out" on the shore of the bay and to the hills of the Armutluk valley only in the late XIX - early XX century, earlier it was located 2 kilometers from the coast, closer to the foot of the Syuryu-Kai range, whose peaks hung over the settlement "going into the sky" and no hills around.

Kok-Tash, a mountain located in the low mountains between the Main and Inner ridges of the Crimean Mountains near the villages of Sinekamenka and Povertnoe. The top of the mountain is a rock block of gray color, sharply distinguished from the series of surrounding peaks not only by height, but also by a bare stone (rock) from above. All the neighboring peaks of the named low mountain area are covered with a dark forest, and only on Kok-Tash above the forest rises into the sky “stone”. Therefore, the translation should be interpreted as “a stone sticking out into the sky”.

Kokkoz (ka), a river flowing through the Belbek valley and translated as "kok" - blue, "goat" - eye. Locals and tourists know that the river is never blue. Transparent - yes, cloudy - yes, turquoise - yes, blue - no. Actually, the second part of the toponym “goat” (eye) does not correlate with the concept of a river. This river could only get its name from another object, important for the inhabitants of the valley, located nearby. Such an object was! Historians know and write about it.

A quote from the book "The Threshold of the Millennium." Excursions on the medieval Crimea" V. P. Babenchikov, E. V. Weimarn, T. N. Vysotskaya, V. K. Garagulya, O. I. Dombrovskiy, M. G. Kustova, S. A. Sekirinsky, M. A. Fronzhulo. Executive editor-compiler I. O. Dombrovskiy. Artist N. G. Chaika. Publishing house "Crimea", Simferopol, 1966:

On the northern side of the mountains in inaccessible places - along the Chernaya River, in the upper reaches of Belbek, Kachi and other rivers - by the end of the IX century small but powerful castles appear (as on the southern coast). Like eagle nests on steep rocky heights, they dominate the gorges and valleys - this is Sandyk over the village of Polyana, Suyuryu-Kai at the ascent on Ai-Petri, Kermen-Kai on Basman, Pakhkal-Kaya over the Angarsky Pass, Sardzhik over the Chernaya River and others.

Indeed, the top of the Syuryu-Kaya mountain, on which the feudal castle was located in the Middle Ages, is located directly above the confluence of the Sary-Uzen and Auzun-Uzen rivers, that is, the place from where the Kokkoz river begins. Based on the location of the fortress and the preserved name of the river, it can be assumed that this castle was called by the locals Kok-Goz, “heavenly eye” or “eye looking from the sky”. To interpret the translation of the name of the river Kok-Koz in this case can be as follows: "river of the heavenly fortress", "river beginning at the fortress, watching the valley from the sky."

Is the above interpretation of the translation of place names something new in the Crimean toponymy? Nope! On the map of the peninsula, names containing a mention of color are widely presented, but recognized not in the logic of the color scheme, but in the meaning of the phenomenon. For example: the rivers Biyuk- and Kuchuk-Kara-Su, where "kara" is not black, but "flowing out of darkness [caves]" (Terekhov V. P. "Behind the pass). - Simferopol, Tavria, 1991. - 272 pp, 16 litres).

Somehow...

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In the photo: Koktebel, with the rocks of Suyuryu-Kai going into the sky.
Photo from WikiMedia.org © CC BY-SA 4. 0