THE RITUAL CULINARY LEXIS RELATED TO THE BIRTH OF A CHILD IN THE BULGARIAN DIALECTS (SEMANTICS AND MOTIVATION)

Abstract

The paper presents ritual culinary lexis related to the ritual of childbirth from the Bulgarian dialects. In the ethnocultural aspect, the motivational sign of the names that underlie the nomination are studied, and according to which they are classified into separate groups. Ethnographic material is of particular importance in determining the motivational sign of the names, although there are terms in which it would be very difficult to determine the motivating word even in the context of the whole ritual. In each group the culinary terms are presented with their meanings and distribution in the Bulgarian language territory. The material is excerpted from the "Archive for Bulgarian Dialect Dictionary" at the Institute for Bulgarian Language "Prof. Lyubomir Andreychin" - BAS, "Bulgarian etymological dictionary", from field work and other written dialect sources. The semantics of the names is analyzed in the context of the birth rite with which it is directly related. Some changes in the semantic structure of the names, unfolded in diachrony, are pointed out. They have changed their meaning and have gradually changed from specialized names to commonly used words. The aim is to show the close connection between rituals and ritual lexis and the need to study this lexis from both linguistic and cultural point of view, as a significant part of the terms are motivated by the names of rituals and ritual realities.