Ляхи и поляки в языковой истории новгородской земли
Ljachi and Poljaki in the linguistic history of the Novgorod region

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes how Polish ethnic names are reflected in the material of ancient Novgorod written sources, Old Novgorod toponymy and dialectal vocabulary. The first part of the article is devoted to the ethnonym Ljachi. Firstly, the functioning of the ethnonym in ancient Novgorod chronicles is explored. Due to the so-called “anthroponymization” of this ethnonym the Old Novgorodian personal names Ljach, Ljashko marked in the 12th–13th centuries, appeared. Secondly, the medieval toponymy on Ljach-/ljash- is explored, among which most important are the names of Ljachovichy (from 1134) and Lachova (= Ljachova) in villages located near the southwestern borders of the historical Novgorod Region. It is likely that these place-names were left by the ancient Ljachi-Lendzjane, which, along with other Slavs, could have participated in the colonization of the territory of the Russian Northwest. The second part of the article deals with the ethnic name Poljaki that stuck in the Russian language in the 17th century, displacing the ethnic name Ljachi to the periphery of the language. Novgorod Cadastre Books (piscovyje knigi), as well as other written documentation of the 17th–19th centuries generally use the word Poljak in the wider, territorial sense – as a designation of the inhabitants of the Polish-Lithuanian States. Most often, the word Poljak referred to the Belarusians who had fled to neighboring Novgorod in search of a better life. However, ethnic Poles also lived in separate localities in Novgorod province in the 19th century. At the end of the article, there is interesting material on inscriptions in Polish, that are on the tombstones over the graves of Poles living in the 19th century in the countryside near Novgorod.

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