Analysis of the toponymy of the Mordovian village of Teshnyar, Penza Region, in the context of the linguistic affiliation of the Teshnyar dialect

Background. The article presents a lexical and semantic analysis of the toponymy of the Mordovian village Teshnyar in the Sosnovoborsky district of the Penza region and its environs. Regarding the Teshnyar dialect, there is no consensus in science: whether it is Erzya, or mixed, Erzya‑Moksha, elements of which of the Mordovian languages prevail in it, etc. The study of the toponymy of the Teshnyar will provide researchers with new facts to clarify this issue, since in the Erzya and Moksha toponymies, in addition to the overall Mordovian languages ones, there are indicative ethno‑linguistic markers. Purpose. To identify the main features of the toponymy of the village Teshnyar and its surroundings, to correlate them with the Moksha and Erzya characteristic toponymic features, to determine the place of this toponymy in the system of Mordovian toponymic spaces of the Sosnovoborsky district of the Penza region. Materials and methods. The author’s own field materials collected during the 2022 expedition in the village Teshnyar and in other Mordovian settlements of the Sosnovoborsky district of the Penza region. The study used elements of lexical‑semantic and comparative analysis of the collected toponymic and other lexical units. Results. As a result of the conducted research, it can be concluded that this toponymic space, although it includes some Moksha elements, as a whole has most of the characteristic features of the Erzya toponymic spaces. Such features of the toponymy of the village Teshnyar include: the Erzya geographical lexemes as part of place‑names, the urban system of Alo pe – Vere pe, a number of place‑names characteristic of the Erzya toponymic spaces. Scientific novelty: a comprehensive study of the toponymy of the village of Teshnyar and its surroundings was undertaken for the first time, 26 place‑names exemplars were introduced into scientific circulation.