CHAT: Grozny (was: Re: Support/Oppression of Conlanging)

Hello,

[Myself:]
> > No, it is an adjexctive from the verb _grozit'_, to threat, and the
> > original name was _Groznaya Krepost'_, i.e. "Threatening,
D[an]gerous,
> > Impecca[b]le Fortress", later shortened to what it is. It is common
> > practice for placenames to be adjectives here.
[John:]
> Hmm.  Does "threatening" here represent a threat to the State, or
> by it?
By it, naturally.
Well, "threatening" isn't quite the word, it also carries a very strong
overtone of simply "mighty".

> Was the place originally an Imperial outpost against the
> Chechens?
Yes. Against the Chechens, the Avars, and the Ingushs.
In fact, Grozny was (until 1996, naturally) the largest city in the
South-East Caucasus. Ironically enough, Grozny was exactly as far as the
Germans went south and east during WWII. They couldn't take it.

> (And what is it called in Chechen?)
In modern Chechen, I fancy a Chechenization of "Grozny" (or, by some,
perhaps, a Chechen name for "Dudayevgrad"). Frankly, I don't know, but I
think it possible that it could have no indigenuous name, as it was
built in the field by Gen. Yermolov (though some obviously later
sttelements do appear to have Chechen names, like Novogrozny/Oisongur).
A search over the Russian Internet didn't reveal the answer.

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

'I am a philologist, and thus a misunderstood man'
                 --JRR Tolkien, _The Notion Club Papers_