How correctly to name inhabitants of cities? Kursk residents are Kurds or Kursk citizens?

In Russia, and other countries, quite a lot of unusual toponyms: Alaverdi, Yoshkar-Ola, Gus-Khrustalny and so on. The obvious question arises: how correctly to call the inhabitants of these settlements? For example, Kursk residents are Kursk citizens or Kurds? Our article will help to understand this issue.

What are toponyms and ethno-morphemes?

Before answering the main question of the article on how correctly residents of Kursk and other cities are properly called, it is necessary to find out the meaning of some terms.

So, a place name means any geographical name. It can be the names of cities and villages, individual territories, forms of relief, rivers, seas, lakes, streets and so on.

With toponyms is closely related and another concept - ethno-moron (comes from the Greek word "ethnos" - the people). These are the names of residents of a particular locality or locality. And do not confuse ethno-morphemes with the names of nations, peoples or nationalities. This is a completely different concept.

Now we can approach the following question: how do residents of Kursk, Arkhangelsk or any other city are called? And how do you not make mistakes?

What are the residents of Kursk, Omsk, Arkhangelsk called?

The suffixes used for the formation of ethnohoronims are:

• -c-;
• -h-;
• -an-, -yann-;
• -chan.

The names of residents of cities and villages are always written together, regardless of the source name (for example: New York - New York).

Perhaps, it is not by accident that the Russian language is called one of the most difficult to study. Some even argue that it is impossible to learn it - you only need to feel it. If we consider the most diverse variants of ethnohoronim, then it is not so difficult to believe.

So, there are fairly simple options. For example: Moscow - Muscovites, Kiev - Kiev, Paris - Parisians, etc. However, this is because many of these toponyms are on hearing. But how to form ethno-bibles from such names of cities as Alaverdi, Oslo or Karlovy Vary? There is no way to do without the help of a philologist.

The suffix -c- in the Russian language is used to form ethnorhhoronyms, which originate from toponyms with endings -no, -eno, -ow, -evo. For example: the city of Ivanovo - the inhabitants of Ivanovo; The city of Domodedovo - the residents of the housekeepers, etc. The suffix -h- refers to archaic ones, it is used only in the case of ancient Russian cities (Moscow-Muscovites, Tomsk-Tomichi, etc.).

If the names of settlements end in -sk, -kk or -sk, then, as a rule, suffixes -an, -yan, -chan (for example, Irkutsk-Irkutsk) are used for the formation of ethnohoronims.

But not all ethno-morphemes are formed by this principle. So, in Russia there are many names of cities for which it is very difficult to find the correct and correct form of the name of its population. By the way, the residents of Kursk also belong to this list of ethno-morphemes-exceptions.

How can you not make a mistake in this situation? To do this, there are assistants - special dictionaries, compiled by literate philologists. So, in 2003 one of these was published: "Russian names of inhabitants: a dictionary-directory".

Residents of Kursk: how to properly call them?

Kursk - an ancient city, once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was founded in 1032, and today it is an important industrial, transport and cultural and religious center of the European part of Russia. In the modern city there are about 430 000 people. Residents of the city of Kursk produce for the country plastic and rubber products, electrical equipment and food. Several research institutes and universities work here.

Residents of Kursk correctly and correctly call the Kurians (and not the Kurians). And the henman is a resident of the city of a male, and a chicken is a female.

Some unusual ethno-morphemes

In some cities of the world, women, figuratively speaking, are not welcome at all. From these toponyms it is simply impossible to form ethno-morphemes of the feminine gender! Such "cities-sexophobes" are: New York (USA), Daugavpils (Latvia), Copenhagen (Denmark), Pereslavl-Zalessky (Russia).

Here is another list of some non-standard ethno-choronyms (Russian and foreign):

• Oslo: a donkey, a donkey;
• Cannes: canvas, canvas;
• Engels: Engelsites, Engelsites;
• Yaya: the egg, the egg;
• Arkhangelsk: Archangel of the city, archangel;
• Omsk: Omsk, omichka;
• Rzhev: rzhevityanin, rzhevityanka;
• Torzhok: the Novator, the Novotork.

Conclusion

Now you know what the residents of Kursk call. It should be noted again that there is no single rule for the formation of words-ethno-choronyms in the Russian language. For each variant (city) it is desirable to use a special dictionary.