Toponymic and Linguistic Layers of the Interfluve of the Tsna and the Don Rivers as Evidence of Known and Unrecorded Peoples of the Southeast of Ancient Russia

The article provides an overview and linguistic analysis of the main toponymic and linguistic layers of modern Tambov oblast, which in the past were inhabited by peoples who spoke Finno-Ugric, Turkic, and Iranian languages. Work on the toponymic atlas of the region should show that the population of the main geographical names in terms of their linguistic affiliation, which shows the general distribution of local peoples in the interfluve of the Tsna and the Don rivers. In addition to the Russian language, a patch of Mordovian names (Savala, Vyazhlya, Kuzhlya, Liplyai, Merlyai), associated with the time of residence in the Mordovian-Moksha corporation. The Turkic layer (Karachan, Karai, Beklemishevo, Chekmari, Taldykin Barak, Saburovka, Yakutino) is associated, among other things, with the Kipchaks (Polovtsians). The toponyms of the Iranian layer (Isorok, Kenzar, Lomovis, Kalanda, Negi) go to study the material of the Ossetian language and, apparently, reflect the period of residence in Tsna and Don regions of some unrecorded population, the search should become a mass study, not only toponymic, but also archaeological. The abundance toponyms, and above all hydronyms, occurring to the tributaries of the first, second and third orders, on the territory of the Khoper and Tsna river basins indicates the existence in the past of a population, speaking in a language close to modern Ossetian. New linguistic materials on this topic of Tambov oblast’s toponyms, presented in the article, reduce the toponymic, historical and geographical landscape of the southeast of Ancient Russia.