The attempt to periodize the toponymic system of Artsakh is aimed at identifying historical and linguistic toponyms – realities and regularities of development of their system based on the analysis of historical and linguistic facts. Periodization is carried out on the basis of three principles: 1. The principle of the history of the toponymic system is the history of all its separate stages. 2. The principle of impossibility of absolute periodization. 3. The principle of the direct connection between the emergence of toponyms and their change in parallel with the history of the nation.

Keywordstoponymy of Artsakh historical periodization elements of substrate linguistic impact renaming influence of historical and political processes.

Tabasarans (endonym – Tabasaranar) are concentrated in the southeastern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Range from ancient times. These Dagestanian people, whose language belongs to the Lezgin group of the Ibero-Caucasian language family, is mentioned in the Armenian bibliography of the V century- in the works of M. Khorenatsi, Yeghishe and Buzand, in the form of ''t‘awaspar(k‘)''. Along with the Armenian sources, the medieval Arabic historiography plays an important role in the examination of the ethnonym of Tabasaran people, where the country of Tabasarans is mentioned as Tabarsaran and the people are called ahl ṭabarsaran (inhabitant of Tabarsaran) or al-ṭabarsaraniya (Tabarsaranian).

KeywordsT‘awaspar Tabasarans ethnonym toponym North Caucasus Caucasian tribes Armenian historiography Arabic sources etymology The Caspian region Iran.

When identifying word-formation groups of toponyms of Artsakh, classical and modern principles of word-formation classification in toponymics are adopted as basis, particularly, Jahukyan’s approach (with consideration to some features). А) According to their structure, toponyms of Artsakh are grouped into simple and root toponyms that are classified as follows: a) genuine root toponyms, when the word root is the toponym itself; b) toponymic roots, i.e., names that are conceived as root toponyms.

KeywordsArtsakh toponym word-formation model classification toponymic root simple compound complex