Linguistic-Historical Study of the Toponym Ureki

Abstract

In this paper, we present a linguistic analysis of a toponym using a historical comparative method. We provide our interpretation of the toponym "Ureki" based on historical data. People have been interested in toponyms—place names and their origins—since ancient times. The majority of geographical objects did not have official names. People named them according to their natural characteristics, which played a significant role in their daily activities and livelihoods. Different categories of scholars, such as linguists, historians, geographers, ethnographers, and others, study toponyms of interest. The toponymy of any country reflects soil, water, plants, animals, birds, or any living or nonliving nature, organic or inorganic natural resources, or traces of the inhabitants of that area. A toponym is a geographical name of a place, a word taken from the linguistic material of the collective that created it, and usually contains information about the named object. The toponym is passed down from generation to generation, from era to era, and continues for thousands of years. In this interdisciplinary research, we aim to advance academic studies further by providing an etymological analysis of a toponym. In the article, we analyse a specific toponym, "Ureki," located in the northeastern part of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast, within the Ozurgeti municipality