Bryatesle Toponymy

Bryatesle toponymy has a few quirks of a somewhat grammatical nature, and I figure the toponymy more generally might be of some interest to conlangers.

Many toponyms have morphemes that correspond to the type of geographic feature involved, much like in your average language. Seldom are these morphemes independent lexemes, however:

-irg (m) = valley, c.f. aren (n), valley

-uxik (m) = bay, c.f. saun (m), bay

-rab (f) = forest, c.f. ramn (m), leafy forest, dugen (f), coniferous forest, kuvaļ (m), forest on a hill, sdas (n), small forest of any type, restricted by geographical things (i.e. on an island or otherwise 

 -xeş (f) = lake, c.f. dinye (f), lage (m), raşņ (n) - different types of lakes

-kik (n) =  hill, c.f. şirp (m), ţarig (n)

When the name is not just one noun, but two nouns in apposition or an adjective and a noun in apposition, the noun forms are used. The noun forms also are generally used when talking about the natural geographical objects as opposed to the places themselves.

Compounds with these can be inflected for case, and also part of larger nouns:

kaŗexeşa pirḑu = market at Heron lake

kar-e-xes-a = heron-(compound form)-lake-DAT market-neut

Towns where significant markets are held yearly may simply be named 'pirdu' with a variety of determiners. The hierarchy of town sizes and significances goes a bit like this:

dirḑu (N) - a village that is only seasonally inhabited 

ţalaņ (M) - village 

birga (M) - coastal village  

ŗiḑkir - a small village in the vicinity of a town 

kimŗa (F, has -a in the dative) -  a village with stationed military presence

vamiŗ (F) - a village with a minor temple (up to maybe 700)

pirḑu (N) - a village or small town with yearly markets or religious festivities that attract significant numbers of people. May be described as any of the previous nouns when the market or festivities is not used, but may also be used to stress the fact that some such regular event occurs.

teņḑ - a medium-sized community with walls, and likely both some military presence and a minor temple. (Numbers of inhabitants between 500 and 5000.)

gri teņḑ - a significant-sized community with walls, military presence and temple. Some administrative significance in the empire's system is also assumed in a gri tend - professional courts, some industries, etc.

One peculiarity with regards to Bryatesle is the use of 'left' and 'right' (şaņud and teņex). This generally refers to sides of a river as seen relative to the downstream direction. If only one side is settled, or significant, it is adjectiveless. Sometimes, different definiteness or possessedness is assumed by the nouns:

byņḑŗiteņ - the rapids (variations on this name occurs along pretty much each river)

teņex byņḑŗili - right rapids

This particular pair is just one such pair - other rapids may be unmarked for definiteness, might be singular, etc - and the other member of the same geographical feature may be unmarked. However, if both sides at the rapids are inhabited, a situation along the lines of

 teņex byņḑŗi(li) - right rapid(s)

şaņud byņḑŗi(li) - left rapid(s)

may occur.  A few place names instead consist of left and right as nouns (tën, san), generally with some nominal possessor or other attribute:

Şgebi teņune - Sgeb's right

Kŗali şaņune -  Kral's left

In this case, these refer to the left and right sides of the valley where Kartun Sgeb's and Mern Kral's armies countered a barbarian invasion. Sgeb held the right side (delineated by the river along the middle of the valley), Kral held the left side, and the barbarians did not break through - both the generals, however, died.

Bŗaḑuņ teņune - left of rock

Bŗaḑuņ şaņune - right of rock

These are two big rocks situated outside the harbour of the capital. One to the left of the usual route, the other to the right. The names maybe most closely would be translated as 'the left (side), (made) of rock, the right (side), (made) of rock'. A much smaller skerry between the two sometimes is referred to, jocularly, as

bŗaḑuņ begune - middle of rock

or rather the 'median made of rock'. A few isles in some rivers also have similar names.

leiḑşţaņ begune - the median of the bend

sţagar begune - town of the middle, (a name for the centre of the capital city) 

More absolutely, compass directions are used - nivix (m) north, maziņ (m) south, gurde (f) east, ņexs (n) west. These are generally in the partitive oblique case, niver, mazeŗ, gurdeŗ, ņeşyr.  The forms given above are rather adverbs indicating 'direction'. Actual nominative forms do not exist. They precede the proper toponym.

It is not particularly unusual for toponyms to use case morphology in nonstandard ways - often the dative or the ablative also are used for subjects with toponyms.

Ḑylemxi - out.dat.pl, 'to the outs', outlying islands or small permanent shelters on outlying islands

Madiţy, maḑuŗşi - coast.abl.sg, coast.abl.pl =  permanent shelters on not particularly distant islands

ḑugna - woods.dat.pl 'to the forests', generally the designation of small permanent shelters for hunting or gathering in forests

kauvux - fight-oblique.part, 'to/of a/some fight', battlefields

In other cases, the marking varies depending on dialect; many dialects simply do not inflect these further, some go and inflect them in regular manners except for the exceptional omitted nominative. The particle used to mark neuters as transitive subjects are used in situations where clarity is required.

A number of placenames are obscure, and originate with languages cognate to Ćwarmin and to Dairwueh.