Reconstructing the image of the German world in the language consciousness of arkhangelsk pomors

The article presents an ethnolinguistic study which recreates the image of the German world through the eyes of the White Sea coast inhabitants. This image was formed over the centuries due to the intensive Russian-German contacts in the White Sea area, such as military campaigns (language traces, for example, were left by the war with Sweden during Peter the Great’s time and by foreign interventions during the Civil war) and the closest trade and cultural relations established between the Russian Pomors and Scandinavians since ancient times. To reconstruct this image, the author analyses the North Russian dialect’s common words and proper names derived from “German” ethnonyms and toponyms, as well as secondary ethnonyms (ethnic nicknames) denoting the representatives of the German peoples. An important source of material is unpublished data from the databases of the Toponymic Expedition of the Ural University and the Arkhangelsk Region Dictionary. Primarily, the present work investigates the vocabulary of three thematic groups: “Geographical space” (which characterizes the Pomors’ perception of space as Russian in opposition to German/Swedish/Norwegian, gives examples of the Pomors’ adoption of the German toponymy, etc.), “Man” (where designations of the representatives of the German peoples used in the Pomors’ speech, as well as semantic derivatives from the ethnonyms Swedish, Norwegian, etc., are analyzed), “Material culture” (listing the names of everyday realities (clothes, tools, dwellings, etc., such as Danish headscarf, Swedish axe, Norwegian spinning wheel) as being German or being perceived as German). The article also considers the facts of xeno-nomination, i.e. lexical units that implement generalized ideas about the otherness of an object of reality. A comprehensive study of a block of vocabulary and phraseology containing an indication of “Germanic” in the internal form or semantics allows the author to propose and justify etymological solutions for a number of words (for example, bishka ‘dry cookies,’ varezhki ‘mittens’). The article contains the author’s observations on the mechanisms of interaction between real history, oral stories and linguistic facts; it reveals common features in the images of the representative of the German world and other “strangers” in the linguistic consciousness of the inhabitants of the Russian North. © 2019, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 17-18-01351, 17-18-01351, 17-18-01351, 17-18-01351This work is supported by the Russian Science foundation (projeсt 17-18-01351 “Contact and genetic ties of north-Russian Vocabulary and onomastics”). to cite: Berezovich e., ‘k rekonstruktsii obraza germanskogo mira v yazykovom soznanii arkhangelskikh pomorov’ [Reconstructing the image of the german World in the Language Consciousness of Arkhangelsk pomors], Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 42, pp. 174–212.This work is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (projeсt 17-18-01351 “Contact and Genetic Ties of North-Russian Vocabulary and Onomastics”). The author sincerely thanks I. B. Kachinskaya for her help in collecting the material and her valuable advice in the preparation of the article

Vocabulary for Lower Back and Lumbar Pain in Russian Dialects: ‘utin’ and ‘chemer’

A semantic-motivational and etymological analysis of two Russian dialectisms ‘utin’ and ‘chemer’ are carried out in the article, in the semantic structure of which (among others) meanings associated with diseases of various localization and etiology (the authors are mainly interested in the semantics of low back pain) are presented. The semantic organization of the corresponding etymological and derivational nests is reconstructed; nests are matched by value configuration. The authors show what semantic transitions determined the appearance of the meaning «lumbar pain» (and, secondarily, «lower back» and «spine») in the words ‘utin’ and ‘chemer’. Both designations for low back pain are analyzed in a broad ethnolinguistic context, which implies taking into account the practices of traditional medicine, which are due to archaic ideas about pain and disease. It is shown that etymological magic is repeatedly triggered in the nest of the word ‘utin’, and its action is carried out in two directions: from the generating verb *tęti, *tьnǫ «cut down, cut» to the derivative ‘utin’, and then from it to other words of the morphosemantic field (‘utyug’, ‘utin’ «boundary», ‘utinok’ «stump», ‘ovin’, ‘tyn’ etc.). In the nest of the word ‘chemer’, a nontrivial transition of botanical meaning («poisonous plant») to physiological one («poisoning» → «pain in case of poisoning» → «pain of various etiologies, including lumbar pain») is restored, then (in parallel) to somatic and demonic

Stereotypes of 'Russian' and 'French': Exchanges of viewpoints

The article considers stereotypes of the 'Frenchness' in the Russian language, and the 'Russianness' in the French language in contrastive aspect. The core of linguistic images is analysed - language system facts, the internal form of which contains a direct reference to 'Russianness' or 'Frenchness'. They are: words derived from the ethnonyms francuz 'Frenchman', gall 'Gaul' and place name Parizh 'Paris' in Russian; words derived from Russe, Russien 'Russian', Cosaque 'Cossack'→ 'Russian military'→ 'Russian', Moscou 'Moscow', obsolete Moscovite 'resident of Muscovy, Russian'in French. Further more, the authors take into consideration collocations of the words mentioned. Thematic spheres of secondary semantics are covered: Material culture and Leisure. The authors reveal the motivation of linguistic facts and analyse the evaluative component of their semantics

О лингвопрагматике русских демонимических проклятий

The article continues the authors' cycle of studies on the vocabulary of Russian imprecations. It is aimed at studying the linguistic and pragmatic features of imprecations that mention the names of evil spirits. Demonyms are the standard actors of imprecations, and imprecations in which appear are the archetype of an imprecation, as they appeal to the exemplary embodiment of the idea of evil. Despite this, imprecations with demonyms are not the most frequent, and the number of euphemistic substitutions in these texts is especially high. This is due to the fact that the author of an imprecation which mentions an evil spirit violates two taboos at once - he verbalizes a slander and calls the enemy of the human race by name: both of these actions are dangerous and obscene. To soften the perlocative effect of the speech act, a euphemism is used. The authors analyze the mechanisms of encryption of demonymy (for instance, the choice of such names of demons that appear to the speaker "softer"than their main names - leman instead of leshii 'wood-goblin'; pronominal designations of the chert 'devil' or the leshii 'wood-goblin', etc.). The authors also provide a comparative analysis of the functioning of demonyms in the narrative and in the dialog modes of communication. For example, the dialog mode requires word-forming expression of demonyms, and vice versa, demonyms that have cajoling forms are less likely to get into expletive formulas; practically there are no such demonyms in imprecations that are formed from proper names (cf. uncle Misha 'devil', Sysoy 'wood-goblin'). The reasons for differences in such functioning are determined. The authors also study the nonsynonymous meta-language verbs that name the act of imprecation (chertykhat'sia, leshakat'sia with their dialect and colloquial variants and derivatives, besykat', satanit', as well as verbs like kliast', proklinat'). © E. L. BEREZOVICH, O. D. SURIKOVA.The research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 20-18-00223 “Etymological and Semantic Reconstruction of the Russian Dialect Vocabulary”

On the Study of Nonstandard Mineral Vocabulary in the Russian Language: Articulation of the Issue

Submitted: 20.07.2020. Accepted: 14.10.2020.Поступила в редакцию: 20.07.2020. Принята к печати: 14.10.2020.Статья призвана познакомить читателя с многообразием русской лексики, обозначающей минералы, минералоиды, горные породы, которая находится вне рамок официальной научной номенклатуры. За этим разнородным лексическим пластом предлагается закрепить термин нонстандартная лексика камня; в узком смысле она включает в себя собственно названия минералов, в широком к ней можно отнести слова сопредельных тематических групп — называющие процессы и явления, связанные с бытованием минералов в природе и культуре, их добычей и обработкой и т. д. Автор выделяет социолингвистические пласты, составляющие нонстандартную минералогическую лексику в ее узком понимании: диалектный; профессиональный и жаргонный; арготический; просторечный. Особое место занимают названия, возникшие в результате искусственной номинации (в частности, торговые). Перечисляются также некоторые тематические группы, относящиеся к лексике камня в широком понимании (группа слов, обозначающих особенности строения минералов; особенности их залегания; обозначения людей, добывающих и обрабатывающих камни; номинации изделий из камня; лексика из сферы мифологии и верований, связанных с камнями, и др.). Каждая позиция классификации иллюстрируется языковым материалом из лексикографических и книжных источников; также впервые вводятся в научный оборот данные картотеки «Лексика, топонимия, этнография камня», формируемой в настоящее время сотрудниками кафедры русского языка, общего языкознания и речевой коммуникации УрФУ. Автор заостряет внимание на проблемах вокруг нонстандартной «каменной» лексики, существующих сегодня в лингвистической науке: она находится как бы в «слепой зоне» лингвистики — недостаточно собрана, слабо введена в научный оборот, мало изучена. Констатируется необходимость системного восполнения этого пробела.This article introduces the reader to the variety of Russian vocabulary that denotes minerals, mineraloids, rocks, which lies outside the framework of the official scholarly nomenclature. The author suggests that the term nonstandard mineral vocabulary be used to refer to this layer of vocabulary; in a narrow sense, it includes the names of minerals themselves, and in a broader sense, it can include words of adjacent thematic groups naming processes and phenomena related to the existence of minerals in nature and culture, their extraction and processing, etc. The author identifies sociolinguistic layers that make up nonstandard mineralogical vocabulary in its narrow sense: dialect; professional vocabulary and slang; argotic; colloquial words. A special place is occupied by names that have emerged as a result of artificial nomination (in particular, trade names). The article also lists some thematic groups related to mineral vocabulary in a broad sense (a group of words denoting features of the structure of minerals; peculiarities of their occurrence; designations of people who mine and process stones; nominations of stone products; vocabulary from the sphere of mythology and beliefs related to stones, etc.). Each classification position is illustrated by language material from lexicographic and book sources; also data from the Vocabulary, Toponymy, Ethnography of Minerals card file, currently formed by the staff of the Department of the Russian Language, General Linguistics, and Speech Communication of Ural Federal University, is introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. The author focuses on issues around nonstandard mineral vocabulary that exist in linguistics today: it seems to lie “in the blind zone” of linguistics as it is insufficiently collected, poorly introduced into scholarly circulation, and understudied. There is a need to fill this gap in a systematic way.The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project 20-18-00269 “Mining Industries and Early Factory Culture in Language, “Naive” Writing and Folklore of Ural Region” (Perm State National Research University).Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке гранта РНФ, проект № 20-18-00269 «Горная промышленность и раннезаводская культура в языке, народной письменности и фольклоре Урала» (Пермский государственный национальный исследовательский университет)

Рус. дубоглот в заговорах и диалектной лексике (к изучению мифопоэтической мотивации слов)

The article considers the word duboglot, which functions in the Russian dialects (mainly South Russian) in the meanings of ‘strong dry cough, usually accompanied by a sore throat,’ ‘angina.’ Semantic and motivational reconstruction of this word is carried out based on its role in the text. The authors conclude that the word got into the dialect system from the folklore (mainly from the charms), where it refers to diseases related to inflammation of the oral cavity, pharynx and lower respiratory tract, and accompanied by a strong cough, pain. It is established that most often the word appeared in the texts as a part of the formula “X (a tree), take your Y (duboglot), otherwise I will eat you / swallow you,” which is initially addressed to an oak tree as a convenient “recipient” of diseases that are expelled from the speaker’s space. The authors suggest that the word duboglot is “induced” by the logic of unfolding the text: this is “the oak glot” (glot is the ability to swallow – from the Russian verb glotat’ ‘to swallow’), which should belong to an oak, not a sick person. The word creation within the framework of a spoken construction is supported by the capabilities that are inherent in the language system. Firstly, it is the image of an oak “mouth” (throat), which is formed on the basis of the natural properties and features of oak. This image could be fixed in the internal form of the word itself, which is a controversial issue, but it certainly is seen in the stable compatibility of dub ‘oak’ ↔ duplo ‘hollow’, and at the synchronous level is also supported by the phonetic proximity of these words. The image of a tree, secondly, has another facet: the image of roots of a tree and its crown is projected on the idea of the growth of a tumour (including one in the throat); roots and crown of a tree simultaneously seem to be a “tool” for clearing the throat. Yet another facet of the image is related to how the native speaker sees the properties of a bark: there is a productive model for the Russian language that fixates the connection between the designations of wood (oak) bark and tumours on the human body (including throat tumours); oak bark itself is generally an “archetype” of a bark, hard, rough, stripped from the surface of a tree (which corresponds to “tearing” sensations with a sore throat). © 2020. All Rights Reserved.Работа Е. Л. Березович выполнена при поддержке гранта РНФ № 20-18-00223 «Этимологизация и семантическая реконструкция русской диалектной лексики». Авторы благодарят Т. В. Володину и С. М. Толстую за ценные замечания, высказанные при подготовке статьи

Наименования нечистой силы в русских проклятиях

The work continues the authors' series of articles devoted to the study of the vocabulary of Russian imprecations. It is aimed at the study of demonyms that are used in imprecations. The article is based on the material of Russian dialect vocabulary, the authors use the maximum number of dialect dictionaries available today, dialectal archives, primarily the lexical files of The Dictionary of Dialects of the Russian North and of the Toponymic Expedition of the Ural University. For the most part, the fieldwork material used in the article is published for the first time. The authors identify the nominations of evil spirits which are mentioned in imprecations and establish how often this happens, indicate the reasons for such preferences of the speaker; identify the features of demonyms in terms of the motives of nomination and mechanisms of euphemization. From an ideographic point of view, the “pantheon” of imprecations is rather poor: these texts mostly mention chort and leshy (in the dialects of the Russian North and in the affiliate dialects), they mention other demons (vodyanoy, domovoy, etc.) much less often. This is due to the fact that the speaker tries to mention the most dangerous and effective evil forces, not the numerous “minor” demons. Ideographic scarcity is compensated by the variety of ways of a demon's nomination. They are: direct speech (direct mention of the name of the spirit, cf. chort, leshy, vodyanoy, etc.); numerous euphemistic substitutions-phonetic (leman, lekhman, leshmak instead of leshy), pronominal (etot 'this', tot 'that', ikhman < ikh 'their' instead of chort, leshy); loanwords (vergoy < Finnish verkanen, Karelian verka, verga 'chort', keremet' < Chuvash kirεmεt 'evil spirit', laytay < Buryat layaty 'sly, sneaky', and others instead of chort), external (koryavyy 'crooked', chyornyy 'black', zelyonyy 'green' instead of chort) and behavioral (lyutyy 'fierce', likhoy 'dashing', okayannyy 'cursed', nalyotnyy 'blown in' instead of chort) characteristics of a demon, etc. The desire to euphemize demonyms as part of malevolence is associated with the danger and obscenity of cursing. It becomes especially effective and destructive when falling into the context of imprecations, which are tabooed themselves. People believe that cursing is dangerous both for the addressee and for the author of the malevolence, even the use of profanity is more preferable than calling evil spirits by name. Among other things, the authors of the article present motivational solutions for a number of etymologically undetermined lexemes that appear in the formulas of imprecations as names of evil spirits: mosyak, osheyonok, chyokish, poksha, etc. © 2020 Tomsk State University. All rights reserved.The research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 20-18-00223 “Etymological and Semantic Reconstruction of the Russian Dialect Vocabulary”

Lexis of the russian north: State and prospects of study

The article analyzes the current state of the studies on the vocabulary of the Russian North dialects. The concept of the Russian North is discussed, the Russian North dialectal zone is briefly characterized in light of its linguistic features, of the Northern Russian dialectal vocabulary size in comparison with the Southern Russian dialects, and of the fundamental importance of its study for Slavic linguistics in general. The article also presents a review of the main dictionaries of the Northern Russian dialects since the appearance of the Russian North lexicography to the present day. It includes dictionaries of different coverage of the territory: macro-regional (the ones including vocabulary of the whole Russian North), the ones dedicated to certain zones (Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Karelian regions, etc.), micro-territorial (including dictionaries of certain settlements); of different types and subjects of study: lexical, phraseological, areal-thematic, areal-etymological, dictionaries of personal linguistic identity. Special attention is paid to non-professional lexicography. The review of studies (monographs, dissertations, articles) on the Northern Russian lexicon and phraseology is also presented. They are considered from a thematical point of view: these are works where the semantic and motivational analysis of different groups of concrete and abstract lexis is carried out, etymological interpretation of lexemes is given; works where beliefs, traditional rituals, folklore are considered through the prism of linguistic facts; etymological works, works on grammar, etc. The arguments in favor of the need to continue the collection of the Northern Russian dialects vocabulary and its dictionary representation are given, prospects and objectives of its study are formulated. A list of references is of high importance for researchers-dialectologists, etymologists, historians of language, etc.-it is an extensive bibliography, which contains lexicographical and lexicological works on the dialects of the Russian North. © Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Vocabulary for Lower Back and Lumbar Pain in Russian Dialects: an Overview

The semantic-motivational and etymological analysis of the Russian dialectal designations of lumbar and lumbar pain is presented. The material was extracted from dictionaries of Russian dialects, from unpublished card files of the Ural University toponymic expedition to the territories of the Russian North and the Upper Volga region, as well as folklore and ethnographic sources related to folk medicine. The main semantic-motivational models underlying the designation of the lower back, which can reflect the idea of the “topography” of this part of the body, correlation with adjacent bodily areas, the functions of the lower back, and pain symptoms are considered. It is noted that in the “lumbar” vocabulary the main place belongs to the names of lumbar pain, the abundance of which is determined by the nature of agricultural labor. It has been shown that several names contain an indication of the localization of pain, but in most cases the nature of the pain is conveyed — cutting, stabbing, aching, etc. The authors analyze linguistic material in combination with folklore and ethnographic: texts of conspiracies, ritual dialogues, descriptions of magical healing practices. Sign complexes are identified, within which the designations of pain symptoms are projected onto methods, means and tools of treatment. In such complexes, the principle of etymological magic can be realized, consistent with the concept of the “witchcraft” origin of pain symptoms. Motivational and etymological solutions for dark words are proposed

Revisiting the History of the Ural Mineral Industry and its Terminology: Who are тальяны (talians) Dedicated to?

Поступила в редакцию: 29.04.2022. Принята к печати: 24.06.2022.Submitted: 29.04.2022. Accepted: 24.06.2022.Авторы статьи изучают историю разработки месторождений минералов в Самоцветной полосе Урала (у села Мурзинка в Горноуральском городском округе Свердловской области), а также связанную с этой историей минералогическую и топонимическую номенклатуру. В центре анализа вопросы о том, как осуществлялось открытие месторождений, какую роль играли в этом приглашенные итальянские мастера (братья Тортори), как связан с их деятельностью народный термин тальян (тальянчик, тальяшка) ‘драгоценный (кристаллический) камень вообще’, ‘аметист’, ‘горный хрусталь’, ‘дымчатый кварц (раухтопаз)’, а также название горы (копи) Тальян. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что, несмотря на широкое распространение этой версии в популярной литературе, братья Тортори не были первооткрывателями самоцветов в окрестностях Мурзинской слободы. Название горы Тальян метонимически перенесено с обозначения соответствующей копи близ Мурзинки, где добывали кристаллические самоцветы — главным образом, аметисты, называвшиеся тальянами. Слово тальян в любом случае производно от основы (и)тальян- со значением «итальянскости», но не связано с фактом открытия месторождения: вероятнее всего, слово передает наивное впечатление о цветных прозрачных камнях, похожих на итальянское стекло, и является тем самым мотивационной параллелью к слову вениса ‘гранат’ (букв. «венецианский камень»). Термин тальян возник не позднее XVIII в., бытовал в районе Мурзинки до прибытия Тортори, а после их приезда мог получить новый мотивационный импульс — и начать восприниматься как результат посвятительной номинации.The authors study the history behind the development of mineral deposits in the Ural Gemstone Belt (near Murzinka village, Gornouralsky Urban District, Sverdlovsk Oblast), as well as mineralogical and toponymical terminology connected to this history. The analysis focuses on the following issues: how the deposits were discovered; what role in it belonged to visiting Italian masters (the Tortori brothers); how their activities are connected to the popular term тальян (тальянчик, тальяшка) ‘any precious (crystal) stone’, ‘amethyst’, ‘pure quartz’, ‘smoky quartz’, and the name of the mountain (mine) Тальян. The authors conclude that, although this version is widespread in popular literature, the Tortori brothers were not the first to discover gemstones near Murzinka settlement. The mountain name Тальян is a metonymic transfer from the name of a mine near Murzinka. In this mine, crystal gemstones were mined — mostly amethysts that were called тальяны. In any case, the word тальян derives from the stem (и)тальян- meaning “Italian” but is not connected to the discovery of the deposit. Most probably, the word conveys a naïve impression of coloured transparent stones that resemble Italian glass. Thus, it is a motivational parallel to the word вениса ‘garnet’ (lit. ‘Venetian stone’). The term тальян appeared no later than the eighteenth century; it already existed near Murzinka before the Tortori arrived. After their arrival, the word could gain a new motivational impetus — and started to be perceived as a result of dedicatory nomination.Исследование выполнено в рамках проекта «Региональная идентичность России: компаративные историко-филологические исследования», финансируемого Минобрнауки России (номер темы FEUZ-2020-0056).The research is part of the project “Regional Identity of Russia: Comparative Historical and Philological Research” funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia (project FEUZ-2020-0056)