Calendrical Rites of Ukrainians in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Ethnolinguistic Aspect

Abstract

The paper discusses the rites and customs of the calendrical cycle of Ukrainians living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the vocabulary of the traditional culture associated with calendrical rites. The paper is based on the author's own field data and linguistic, ethnographic and ethnolinguistic literature. Calendrical traditions and vocabulary of the traditional culture of the Ukrainians in Bosnia and Herzegovina are of great interest for contact linguistic and ethnolinguistic studies, since they are one of the few examples of the Eastern Slavic enclave surrounded by Southern Slavs. Ukrainian customs survive, despite more than a century of isolated existence among South Slavic neighbours, and become an important marker of the minority's cultural identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The influence of the local Christian traditions is not very strong, being most evident in the language sphere in borrowed realia. Certain customs are shown to be typologically common to the Western Ukrainian and South Slavic traditions, with this commonality dating back to before the migration of Ukrainians to the Balkans. Also revealed are intra-local differences in the traditions and vocabulary of the Ukrainians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, related to different zones of the original migration.