E. A. Tsypanov. Komi lexical archaisms in fairy tale “Mikul” by I. A. Kuratov

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DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.015.2023.04.441-449

Komi lexical archaisms in fairy tale “Mikul” by I. A. Kuratov

Evgeny A. Tsypanov
Institute of Language, Literature and History,
Komi Science Centre,
Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Syktyvkar, Russia

Introduction. In Finno-Ugric studies, as well as in Komi linguistics, an inadequate attention is paid to the study of archaisms as an integral part of the lexical composition of languages. Usually, these lexemes being a part of the passive vocabulary, are a valuable source for studying the history of languages, as well as an important source of lexical renewal, revitalization of the language.
Materials and Methods. The paper is based on the analysis of the language of I. A. Kuratov’s fairy tale “Mikul”; several lexemes and phenomena of syntactic and morphological archaisms that are not found in modern Komi texts are highlighted. The language of the works written in the middle of the XIX century provides interesting material for the study of archaisms of various types. When writing the paper, the traditional methods of linguistic analysis were used, those which have been tested in linguistic studies.
Results and Discussion. Based on the text of the fairy tale of the founder of the Komi literature, Ivan Alekseevich Kuratov “Mikul”, it revealed 4 lexical archaisms (azyam, av/al, perth, rotal), which characterize the usual features of the language of the southern Komi-Zyryans, the speakers of the mid-Sysola dialect. Based on a special survey among the speakers of the modern Komi language, it was revealed that the four identified lexemes are unknown to them both from the point of view of phonetic sound and from the point of view of word meanings. These lexemes, as native dialect words, are not preserved in the language of dialect speakers, nor have they become part of the modern literary language, which indicates the former variability of the written tradition in the XX century. In practical terms, the material of the work suggests the need to comment on the language of I. A. Kuratov’s poetry in future publications of the writer’s classical heritage.
Conclusion. The considered material of archaisms from the text of Kuratov’s fairy tale “Mikul” vividly demonstrates the historical variability of both dialect vocabulary and morphological and syntactic systems, the picture of the Komi language as a whole.

Keywords: the Komi language, lexicology, vocabulary of passive composition, archaisms, lexical archaisms

Acknowledgments: The publication was prepared as part of the implementation of the state task of the Federal Research Centre of Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, state registration number of the IYALI project FUUU-2021-0008 “Perm languages in the linguistic and cultural space of the European North and the Urals”.

For citation: Tsypanov EA. Komi lexical archaisms in fairy tale “Mikul” by I. A. Kuratov. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2023;15;4:441–449. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.015.2023.04.441-449.

Information about the author
E. A. Tsypanov – Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of Language, Literature and Folklore, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Komi Science Centre, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tsypanov@mail.illhkomisc.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6351-2896

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