Finno-Ugric World

Vera I. Antonova – Doctor of Philology, Professor, Department of Journalism,
National Research Mordovia State University,
Saransk, Russia, belkich@rambler.ru

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.67-78

Everyday cultural practices of the Ural Mari

Anna V. Berezina
Ural State Forest Engineering University,
Yekaterinburg, Russia

Introduction. The study of everyday cultural practices of the Ural Mari living in rural areas can not only provide extra information, but also change our views on distinctive features of their culture, the prospects for its development, and resistance to ethnocultural transformations.
Materials and Methods. The work used interdisciplinary research methods, the principles of comparative, system and structural analysis, as well as sociological methods: observation, in-depth survey, comparative analysis, interviewing.
Results and Discussion. Distinctive features of the ethnic culture of the Ural Mari were influenced by the regional factor, and were recorded not only in the Mari dialect, national dresses, but also in everyday practices, namely household chores, the relationship between a man and a woman, and between generations. Their formation was influenced by folk religiosity, which is closely related to mythological thinking. Belief in the spirits that accompanies the everyday life of a person, has been transformed according to new everyday practices, and is still preserved in the everyday life of the ethnos. The author provides data from in-depth surveys and interviews of Mari living in the Sverdlovsk region and the Perm Territory, and also analyzes examples from literary sources.
Conclusion. The transformation of the culture of the Ural Mari in rural areas is a response to scientific and technological progress, global changes, and is exteroceptive in nature with a persisting axiological basis. Further research of the everyday cultural practices of the Ural Mari living in rural areas will make it possible to predict the development of their ethnic culture and point out the critical aspects of transformation.

Keywords: Mari, ethnoculture, folk religiosity, everyday practices, mythological thinking

For citation: Berezina AV. Everyday cultural practices of the Ural Mari. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:67–78 (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.67-78.

Image of a snake in Karelian folk medicine

Tatyana V. Pashkova
Petrozavodsk State University,
Petrozavodsk, Russia

Introduction. The article considers the use of animal products in Karelian folk medicine in the XIX – early XX centuries. Special attention is paid to the functions of a snake in the medical practice of Karelians in comparison with Veps, Finns and Russians. The author refers to a comprehensive analysis of the functioning of snakes in the ethnomedicine of the Karelians, which includes conservation magic, and the methods of treating diseases. The relevance of the study is defined by the need to study the functioning of representatives of the fauna world in various rites of life cycle, folk medicine of one of the indigenous small peoples of the Republic of Karelia – Karelians. Previously such studies have not been carried out on Karelian material, which determines its novelty.
Materials and Methods. The material for the study was animal products (on the example of snakes) used in Karelian folk medicine, examined using comparative historical and comparative methods.
Results and Discussion. The author focuses on the use of means of animal origin in folk medicine of the Karelians, the functioning of the snake in medical rites, mythological ideas about snakes. For comparative analysis, information is attracted on the use of snakes as a means of animal origin in the ethnomedicine of Veps, Finns and Russians, the peoples that the Karelians have a close connection with and mutual influence both in cultural and linguistic aspects.
Conclusion. Animal products took a significant place in Karelian folk medicine. In the study, this was first traced on the example of a snake, which functions are contradictory. On the one hand, parts of the snake were used by healers as amulets, and “assistants” in magical rituals, on the other hand, it was seen as the embodiment of evil and the cause of disease. A comparative study showed that snakes took an important part as a means of animal origin not only in folk medicine of Karelians, but also of Veps, Finns, as well as Russians.
Keywords: folk medicine, the traditions of Karelians, agents of animal origin, the image of a snake, Karelian mythology

For citation: Pashkova TV. Image of snake in Karelian folk medicine. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:59–66 (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.59-66.

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.49-58

Transformation of the institutional environment of a timber enterprise as a factor of social and economic development of the Finno-Ugric region in the 1990-ies

Oleg I. Kulagin
Petrozavodsk State University,
Petrozavodsk, Russia

Introduction. The article examines the processes of transformation of the institutional environment of the regional timber industry enterprises in Karelia in the 1990s. The aim of the study was to identify the impact of this transformation at the level of socio-economic development of the Republic of Karelia as a Finno-Ugric region with the predominant development of the branches of the timber industry.
Materials and Methods. The research methodology is based on the use of a predominantly institutional approach. Its application makes it possible to trace the changes that occurred in the structure of the institutional environment of regional timber industry enterprises with the beginning of market transformations in the 1990-ies, as well as the degree of effectiveness of the interaction of this enterprise with various economic entities.
Results and Discussion. The analysis of the changes that took place in the first post-Soviet decade in the institutional environment of regional timber industry showed a number of negative aspects. First of all, the role of the state greatly reduced, which was unable to form effective “rules of the game” for the timber economy. The Forest Code adopted in 1997 infringed upon the rights of Karelia as a subject of the Federation, since only a part of the forests could be transferred to the ownership of the Republic. In the current difficult conditions, with the absence of the party and state control departments, and the difficult financial situation of the region, the role of regional authorities in solving the problems of forestry enterprises increased. In the context of spontaneous privatization and the collapse of the financial system, timber industry enterprises faced numerous problems of interaction with suppliers, customers, consumers and banks. This period was the time of the strengthening of the role of foreign companies in the work of timber enterprises. Unfortunately, having received a controlling stake in a number of domestic enterprises, foreign entrepreneurs were in no hurry to invest in their development.
Conclusion. The transformations that took place in the institutional environment of the regional forestry enterprises in the 1990-ies negatively affected the level of the socio-economic development of Finno-Ugric region, based on the development of branches of the timber industry complex.

Keywords: timber industry enterprise, Finno-Ugric region, institutional environment, socio-economic development

For citation: Kulagin OI. Transformation of the institutional environment of a timber enterprise as a factor of social and economic development of the Finno-Ugric region in the 1990-ies. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:49–58 (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.49-58.

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.38-48

Local rural holidays as a manifestation of cultural memory of Russian
and Finno-Ugric populations in Nizhny Novgorod region

Olga V. Galtseva
Nizhny Novgorod History and Architecture Museum Reserve,
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Introduction. In the context of cultural memory the article analyzes the rooting mechanism and subsequent functioning of local religious holidays in the cultural space of Russian rural communities of the XIX–XX centuries.
Materials and Methods. The article contains studied and generalized materials found in research that give an idea of the problem under consideration. It also employs the author’s field materials collected during ethnographic trips to the Nizhny Novgorod region. The theoretical basis of the presented research is the problem-chronological and comparative-historical methods. Such methods of field Ethnography as direct observation and interviewing were used during the collection of field materials.
Results and Discussion. In modern humanities, the representative properties of the holidays are interpreted in the context of cultural memory, where the holiday acts as its element or primary form. In this approach, the holiday can be considered as “General text”, which, according to Yuri Lotman can be stored and updated in the shared memory of the community, and as the mechanism of this update process, which acts from generation to generation and allows members of this community to exercise their cultural identity. The author considers local religious holidays of the Russian and Finno-Ugric population (Mordovians and Mari people) in Nizhny Novgorod region as one of the traditional forms of preservation, actualization and intergenerational transmission of information, important for the formation of cultural identity.
Conclusion. Local religious holidays were the mechanism used for the collective memory of individual rural communities to be comprehended, preserved and transferred through the unified traditional forms of all-Russian spiritual culture. In the cultural memory of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the local religious holidays of the Russian neighbors became the key to the perception of Christian religion and played an important role in the processes of acculturation.

Keywords: cultural memory, holiday, local holiday, Patronal holiday, spiritual heritage, national identity

For citation: Galtseva OV. Local rural holidays as a manifestation of cultural memory of Russian and Finno-Ugric populations in Nizhny Novgorod region. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:38–48 (In Russ.).
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.38-48.

Information about the author
O. V. Galtseva – Head of Ethnography Department, Nizhny Novgorod History and Archi­tecture Museum Reserve, ol.galczewa@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1258-3771

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.29-37

Representation of the concept “money” in phraseological units of the Finnish and Erzia languages

Ekaterina D. Karpunina
National Research Mordovia State University,
Saransk, Russia

Introduction. The article examines the ways of representing the concept of “money” on the material of phraseological units of the Finnish and Erzia languages in a comparative aspect. It employs the model of conceptual analysis, which is based on the comparison of phraseological units of two distant languages. The purpose of the article is to identify the linguistic means of expression of the concept “money” on the material of phraseological units of each of the required language, and find out how the concept of “money” is represented in the linguistic, cognitive and cultural space of the nations. The study of phraseological fund of languages from the point of view of the representation of a concept is of great importance in linguistics.
Materials and Methods. To achieve this goal, the article uses descriptive and comparative methods, a method of conceptual analysis developed independently in the course of the study, as well as techniques of component and etymological analysis. The actual material is obtained as a result of using the method of continuous sampling from phraseological dictionaries of the Finnish and Erzia languages.
Results and Discussion. This study has allowed to identify the phraseological units that most accurately reflects the concept “money” in the Finnish and Erzia languages; select the frequency of duplicate tokens and spend a lexical analysis of their dictionary definitions; to make their own model of concept analysis to explore the identified language material taking into account semantic basis, and to submit to the lexical-semantic classification of phraseological units based on the material of the Finnish and Erzia languages.
Conclusion. During the study, 62 Finnish and 35 Erzya phraseological units were identified and analyzed, 17 most frequently occurring nuclear lexemes were identified, which allowed us to conclude that the concept of “money” is similar in the minds of the Finnish and Erzia peoples. As a result of the analysis, a classification was made based on the lexical and semantic feature, including 7 groups of phraseological units.

Keywords: concept, money, phraseological unit, the Finnish language, the Erzia language, comparative method

For citation: Karpunina ED. Representation of the concept “money” in phraseological units of the Finnish and Erzia languages. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:29–37 (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.29-37.

Information about the author
E. D. Karpunina – Master of Philology, Department of Finno-Ugric Philology, National Research Mordovia State University, edkarpunina@yandex.ru

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.16-28

Prosodic characteristics of emotionally-colored phrases in typologically unrelated languages: based on the Mari and French languages

Iraida G. Ivanova
Rita A. Egoshina
Mari State University,
Yoshkar-Ola, Russia

Introduction. The study of speech influence on the interlocutor is one of the most pressing problems in modern linguistics. From this point of view, emotional speech and its prosodic parameters in various languages are of particular interest.
Materials and Methods. The following methods were used in the research: electro-acoustic method of phonetic analysis using PRAAT software; descriptive method; comparative analysis method; statistical analysis method; linguistic analysis method.
Results and Discussion. A comparative analysis of the phonetic design of emotionally colored phrases of the French and Mari languages allows us to identify specific and common features. The analysis of narrative emotionally colored utterances in French and Mari revealed some discrepancies in the intonation design of expressions due to different actual division of the sentence. In exclamation emotionally colored types of utterances, there are differences in the ways of highlighting the communicative core. Analysis of interrogative utterances with direct word order in both languages showed a coincidence in the movement of the main tone, which rises sharply in the final part of the phrase.
Conclusion. The results of the study confirmed that the intonation design of speech in the languages with different structures, with all existing differences, has a fairly large number of similar features, in particular, such as the direction of movement of the main tone and the method of actual division of the sentence.

Keyword: prosody, melody, melodic range, stress, temporal characteristics, pause, emotionally-colored phrases, communicative type, Mari language, French

For citation: Ivanova IG, Egoshina RA. Prosodic characteristics of emotionally-colored phrases in typologically unrelated languages: based on the Mari and French languages. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:16–28. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.16-28.

Information about the authors
I. G. Ivanova – Candidate Sc. {Philology}, Associate Professor, Department of Fundamental Medicine, Mari State University, iraida44@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5247-0125
R. A. Egoshina – Senior Lecturer, Department of Romano-Germanic Philology, Mari State University, affaires@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7295-8793

Download (pdf)

Original article
DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.8-15

The history of the studying word building in the Mordovian languages

Tatiana P. Ariskina
National Research Mordovia State University,
Saransk, Russia

Introduction. The article provides an overview of research regarding word building in the Mordovian languages. The purpose of the study is to highlight the history of the study of word building in the Mordovian languages, and to analyze the works of D. V. Tsygankin, who made a significant contribution to the study of Mordovian derivatology, to the formation of the principles of its teaching and analysis.
Materials and Methods. The material of the research is based on word building in the Mordovian languages. The work was performed using descriptive, comparative and historical-typological methods.
Results and Discussion. Word building is considered a new research area. In Russia its formation is associated with the name of M. V. Lomonosov. In the design of word building as a academic branch in the 19th century the main role belongs to representatives of four scientific schools in Russia: in Moscow, Kharkov, Kazan and Petersburg. Word building has been considered as an independent object of study only since the mid–1940s, and since the late 1960s as a separate linguistic discipline. This progress became possible primarily thanks to the works by V. V. Vinogradov. A special role in the study of derivational processes in the Mordovian languages belongs to D. V. Tsygankin. The scholar described word formation as a system, defined basic concepts, characterized the methods of word formation, identified productive models, traced changes in word-building morphonology, developed the principles of studying word formation in higher education.
Conclusion. A fairly large amount of material has been accumulated on the organization of the word-building system in the Mordovian languages. The number of works in the field of word building continues to grow, but not all of its problems have been resolved. For example, there is a need to develop a new classification of word building methods based on emerging data about the language.

Keywords: word building, history of study, derivatology, word building system, Mordovian languages, Erzya language

For citation: Ariskina TP. The history of the studying word building in the Mordovian languages. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2021;13;1:8–15 (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.013.2021.01.8-15.

Information about the author
T. P. Ariskina – Candidate Sc. {Philology}, Associate Professor, Department of Finno-Ugric Philology, National Research Mordovia State University, ariskina82@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0927-2283