Tea in the Cultural and Linguistic Tradition of the Russian North

Abstract

The article deals with dialectal vocabulary, ethnographic information, folklore, and ritual practices associated with tea and tea drinking. The studied area covers the territory of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions and the north-east of the Kostroma region. The main source of material was the lexicological card-index of the Ural Federal University Toponymic Expedition, as well as dialect dictionaries and works of ethnographers from the 19th century. The ethnolinguistic analysis includes the semantic and motivational characteristics of the vocabulary, as well as the identification of the symbolic functions of tea in traditional culture. Using the lexicon of tea drinking as an example, one can trace how a foreign product and the tradition of its use is mastered by folk culture and takes on symbolic functions that were previously characteristic of other products and drinks. The article determines the place of tea in the diet of peasants, the specifics of organizing tea drinking, and identifies the main ideograms that assess the quality of tea (weakly brewed, strong, cooled, without sugar or sweetener, etc.). It is established that in the nineteenth century, in most of the Russian North, tea was not an everyday drink, but a festive one. Expensive and non-nutritious tea was contrasted with simple and hearty dishes: being a sign of luxury, tea at the same time began to be associated with excess and waste, and perceived as an addiction; an empty pleasure. Nevertheless, tea drinking in the Russian North became an obligatory element of receiving guests and an important link in the organization of social relations, and the rituals of communication over tea fit into the traditional ethical system. Tea shares some of the ritual functions inherent with wine and beer (meet with tea, honor guests, seal agreements), and it also forms the pair “tea-sugar”, which is functionally close to “bread-salt”.

Keywords

• tea
• drinks
• russian language
• dialect vocabulary
• ethnolinguistics
• russian north