THE SPELLING OF TOPONYMS IN THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN STANDARD LANGUAGE: THE WRITTEN PRACTICE AND YAKOV GROT’S SUGGESTIONS

While formulating his orthographic principles academician Ya. K. Grot subjects to thorough analysis the writing tradition of the previous time (not only the XYIIIth-XIXth centuries but even earlier). Yaving in mind that basic principles of the orthography of his time should be traced back to Church Slavonic period, Grot believes it necessary not only to formulate the rule but to explain its origin. That is why texts of various periods ranging from the middle of the XYIIth to the beginning of the XIXth centuries are adduced to illustrate Grot’s statements. Many ideas concerning the rules of capital letter usage in proper names — geographical names — introduced by academician Grot are still relevant.