Common Names of Old Believers in the Dialect Speech of the Rus­sian Population of Perm Krai

Abstract

Referring to field materials, this article describes the peculiarities of folk terminology connected with common names of Old Believers in the Russian traditions of Perm Krai regardless of belonging to a certain concord. In the article, such group of dialect words is defined as “common names of Old Believers”. The main sources include materials of field studies carried out by the author in different regions of Perm Krai and materials of the regional dialect dictionaries. Among the most widespread common names, the author singles out the following three nominations: староверы , кержаки and старообрядцы as well as some lexical variants derived from these terms. The name староверы is most frequently used to denote the Old Believer population of Perm Krai fixed in all the territories of the region and actively used nowadays. The names староверы , кержаки and старообрядцы have a nationwide character and are widespread in different regions of Russia, the names старообрядцы and староверы function in the literary language as well. Regional and local peculiarities occur when a certain term is fixed which in most cases is a general name of the Old Believers referring to a certain group or hierarchy. Most often the name староверы (“Old Believers”) is attributed to representatives of the Chasovennyi concord while старообрядцы (“Old Ritualists”) refers to a representative of the Belaya Krinitsa concord. In the conditions of a complex confessional situation when a certain place is inhabited by both representatives of the official Orthodox Church and of different other concords, the local communities build up confessional boundaries using a certain term. The article lists all the fixed names and gives examples of dialect speech that reveal the peculiarities of their usage.