ЭТНОНИМ КАМЧАДАЛ В ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ СЕВЕРО-ВОСТОКА РОССИИ
ETHNONYM KAMCHADAL IN THE LINGUISTIC SPACE OF RUSSIAN NORTH-EAST

Summary/Abstract: The ethnonym Kamchadal in its contemporary sense denotes a so-called “new” people, the early history of which covers only the beginningof the XVIII century. The Kamchadals appeared as a result of the intermixture between Russian pioneers in Kamchatka andits local dwellers: the Itelmens, Koryaks, and Evens. In earlier ages, the Itelmens, ancient residents of the peninsula, were referredto as the Kamchadals; these two terms were absolute synonyms in Russian language at that time. The intensifi cation of russifi cationprocesses among some of the population in the North-East resulted in the formation of specifi c groups of people that differed from“pure” aborigines, thus entailing an objective necessity to distinguish between the ethnonyms. As an outcome, the name Itelmens wasretained for those who did not give up Itelmen language and culture, while Russian-speaking dwellers, including those who livedoutside the Kamchatka Peninsula, adopted the name Kamchadals. The article deals with the procedure of the change in the meaningof the ethnonym Kamchadal, its place in written and oral speech in the North-East of Russia in the XX century and nowadays, as wellas with its difference from the demonym. The author also gives the most probable etymological versions of the word’s origin existingnowadays. This article regards the ethnonym Kamchadal as a regionalism, because it has wide circulation in the Kamchadals’ placesof residence, but beyond the Far East it is of little notice.

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