What the Locations of Settlements and Textual Data Reveal about the Tatars

Abstract

The Tatars of Lithuania are one of the oldest ethnic minorities residing in the Republic of Lithuania. Ethnically and culturally distinct from the dominant majority of the country’s population, the Tatars have preserved their culture, national identity, and religious traditions.
This article aims to discuss the historical and cultural situation of the Tatar minority in Lithuania, analyse their settlements, examine place names associated with Tatars, and explore the conceptualisation of Tatars. The research material was collected from the Lithuanian Spatial Information Portal (https://www.geoportal.lt/), the Catalogue of Lithuanian Place Names at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, and the texts from the press included in the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language. The semantics of place names referring to settlements were studied using semantic analysis, considering the semantic features and motivations of these names. The representation of Tatars in the corpus was analysed using corpus linguistics, interpretative, and descriptive methods.
The semantic analysis of place names with the root totor- indicates that these names are often linked to Tatar settlements, history, and culture. The data from the Contemporary Lithuanian Language Corpus, examined from semantic perspectives –
psychological, social, physical, locational, demographic, national, and religious – provide a deeper understanding of the formation of the Tatar image in the Lithuanian language, reveal existing stereotypes, and highlight the Tatars’ cultural heritage.