Генезис, развитие и лексическая семантика цветообозначения ҡыҙыл ‘красный’ в башкирском языке

Abstract

Goals: Тhe аrticlе aims to investigate the origins of the word ҡыҙыл ‘red’ in the Bashkir language, trace its evolution against the common Turkic background, and reveal the semantic message of the color term. Methods: Semantic analysis method — analysis of meanings of diverse color terms to denote ‘red’ — served as the leading research method. The comparative historical method was used to identify the common and specific in the evolution of terms and their meanings, a synchronous method applied to identify denotative and connotative components of meanings. Results: The study revealed that the current gloss qїδїl ‘red’ dates back to the proto-Turkic *Kϊř-ϊl ‘red’ which might have originated from the proto-Altaic form *kiūŕu ‘red; brown, dark’. The word is recorded in all Turkic idioms with some phonetic changes. In the Bashkir language it takes a number of phonetic variants, such as qїδїl / qїhїl / qїzїl. Changes in the sound composition of the word result from the emergence of specific sounds in the Bashkir phonetic structure. The main meaning of the gloss is designation of the red-orange part of the spectrum (red and its shades, i.e., orange, red, pink, scarlet). In addition, the lexeme qїδїl is actively used in word formation being involved in the formation of a variety of terms, such as phytonyms, zoonyms, anatomical terms, names of minerals, etc. Generally speaking, the range of red in the Turkic languages includes the red and orange spectra. Shades of red can appear monolexemic as in qїδїl (qїδїl sӓsle ‘red-haired’). In most cases, the red color saturation is expressed / formed analytically (qujї qїδїl ‘dark red’), as well as by particles and affixes to construct degrees of adjectives (qïp-qїδїl, selt / sem qїδїl ‘very red, utterly red’, qїδγїlt ‘reddish’). Moreover, the analyzed Bashkir lexeme has not only the meaning of color but also obtains certain connotative meanings. It has developed the following secondary connotations: ‘ripe’ (the transfer of ‘red’ > ‘ripe’ occurs in regard to ripe berries, fruits), ‘bright’ (resulting from the physical property of red brightness); ‘east’ (in Bashkir toponymy); ‘Soviet’, ‘revolutionary’ (in historical terms); various substances (blush, rust); ‘completely, very’ (i.e., a strong degree of manifestation of some quality / feature); it also acts as a mythologized color to perform a protective function. Conclusions: The paper summarizes that the Bashkir term has cetain proto-Turkic and proto-Altaic bases; in the course of its evolution the word has undergone phonetic changes, semantics assumed certain forms and developed against the common Turkic background. Nevertheless, in the Bashkir toponymy (different from other Turkic languages) the meaning of the color term red as ‘eastern’ comes to the fore which is explained by the red colour of the sky at sunrise.