[“Finno-Ugric Traces” in Prishvin’s Early Prose

Abstract

This article examines the vocabulary which was borrowed into the Russian dialects of Pomorie, mainly from the Finniс and Sami languages, and is found in the first book of the famous Russian writer M. M. Prishvin In the Land of Fearless Birds. Essays on the Vyg Region. The employment of dialect words in the work functioned as an artistic medium through which the writer articulated the distinctive linguistic character of Karelian Pomorie, the region of Karelia he visited in 1906. An analysis of the language of Pomors reveals clear evidence of intensive linguistic contact between Russian settlers and the indigenous Finno-Ugric population. One of the most significant layers of borrowed vocabulary is landscape vocabulary. When describing the northern landscapes, Prishvin introduces into the narrative such words as selga, korga, luda, salma. The so-called commercial vocabulary is also borrowed. The article also analyses lexemes that nominate phenomena and objects related to fishing and hunting of the inhabitants of Vygozero — rinda, kibas, kerezha, nudya, etc. A separate group of loans are words related to the life of Pomors around the vast expanses of water. These are means of transportation on water such as soima, karbas, and place names, toponyms, first of all, the name of Vygozero itself and the Vyg River. The article provides an etymological analysis of dialectal vocabulary, which not only formed the stylistic dominant of the narrative and reflected the originality of Prishvin’s idiostyle but also reflected the centuries-old history of the formation of the Pomors and their original language.

Keywords

• м. м. пришвин
• прибалтийско-финские языки
• саамский язык
• поморье
• лексика
• этимология
• языковые контакты
• поморские говоры