Nexşeya Zimanî ya Erdnîgarê û Nirxandineke Mîkrotoponomîk li ser Gundê Qopiza Jorîn

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of toponymy and explores the relationship between placenames and broader cultural-political domains, including language, history, political science, collective memory, and state-driven naming policies. Naming processes reflect a community's collective memory, historical trajectory, and socio-cultural interactions. As a specialized branch of toponymy, microtoponymy documents and analyzes minor, unrecorded geographic entities known primarily to local residents, such as valleys, fields, hills, and springs. Focusing on a case study of the village of Qopiza Jorîn (officially Yukarıkopuz) in the Eleşkirt district of Ağrı, this study first outlines the historical and political context of the systematic alteration of Kurdish placenames in Turkey. It then applies a structural linguistic approach to document local microtoponyms collected through fieldwork. Finally, the paper defines several collected Kurmanji Kurdish terms that function effectively as precise regional geographical terminology.