Etymological Dictionary Research Articles

(233–240) Proposals on orthography: Epithets honouring persons

(233–240) Proposals on orthography: Epithets honouring persons

A Sample of a Khitan–English–Chinese Wordlist with Etymological Remarks: Letters A and B

The paper offers a sample of a Khitan–English–Chinese Wordlist in preparation by scholars from the People’s Republic of China and Hungary. After a preface on general questions, it deals with the glyphs beginning with a- and b- in the Khitan Small Script. This is followed by Khitan words beginning with the first two letters of the Latin alphabet. The aim of the paper is to open a discussion on a future Khitan Etymological Dictionary.

Грамматикализация существительных side и Stelle в предлоги в английском и немецком языках

The research aims to prove the similarity between the processes of grammaticalization of relational nouns into spatial prepositions in Germanic languages of different structure. The paper is original in that it is the first to carry out a comparative analysis of grammaticalization of the English and German nouns ‘side’ and ‘Stelle’ into prepositions with the use of etymological dictionaries. The research results have shown that the process of grammaticalization of these nouns exposed to common ways of grammati-calization is similar and caused by the same grammaticalization mechanisms: desemanticization of original lexical units, decategorialization and phonetic erosion. As a result of grammaticalization of the nouns ‘side’ and ‘Stelle’ (place), the prepositions beside and anstelle von ‘instead of’ have appeared through fusion. It is noted that in the German language, grammaticalization leads to the loss of more grammatical catego-ries (gender, number, case), as the grammatical category of gender does not exist in English. The research proves the role of original meanings of content words in grammaticalization in two languages of different structure belonging to the same language group.

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

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.

ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ ТА ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ ЕМОТИВНОЇ ЛЕКСЕМИ СТРАХ У СУЧАСНІЙ УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ МОВІ

У статті шляхом аналізу дефініцій лексеми страх в академічному Словнику української мови, Етимологічному, Словнику синонімів подано опис поняттєвих ознак цієї лексеми, визначено її граматичні особливості, досліджено функціонування та транспозицію емотивної лексеми страх у сучасній українській мові, розкрито її семантику як лінгвокультурного поняття, визначено особливості мовного вираження. Автор наголошує, що граматична трансформація аналізованого слова вплинула не тільки на втрату первинного значення, але й на його сполучуваність з іншими словами.

Leksičko-semantička analiza naziva zaraznih bolesti u engleskom i srpskom jeziku

The issue of this paper is the analysis of infectious disease terms in English and their Serbian equivalents. The author also deals with the influence of the English language on the terminology of infectious diseases in Serbian as a consequence of the contact between these two languages. During the study, professional literature in English, bilingual and monolingual medical and veterinary dictionaries, bilingual collections of papers, abstract books, etymological dictionaries and other works on a similar topic in this area have been used. The analysis is based on 185 English terms and 196 Serbian equivalents for 173 infectious diseases. The processes of the development of terms are established on lexical level and they show great influence of Latin and Greek on both languages. Hybrid loanwords constitute a large section of English corpus, and the most common translation technique is calc. Based on contrastive analysis, the match, mismatch, similarities and differences are found in morphological, syntactic and semantic level. The research shows that a match occurs in over 60% of cases, and that the semantic differences are largely a matter of zero relations. The paper provides the statistical analyses of the research and a series of representative examples in both languages.

Nominations of the Speech Process of Finnic Origin in the Russian Dialects of Karelia (Structural Aspect)

This article analyses dialect lexemes recorded in the Russian dialects of Karelia, which genetically go back to the Finnic lexical fund and represent a fragment of the semantic field “A speaking person”. The purpose of the article is to describe the features of the adaptation of loanwords and the peculiarities of their functioning in Russian dialects at the formal-grammatical level. Such an analysis of a genetically and semantically related group of words borrowed into dialects has never been carried out previously. The author focuses on verbal nominations denoting the speaking process and derivatives from them referring to Russian dialect and etymological dictionaries and dialectological and etymological research as a source base. For comparison, the author uses data from dictionaries of the Karelian, Vepsian, and Finnish languages. The analysis of words reveals a high variability of the material due to the adaptation of genetically different morphemes. As a foreign word entered the system of the receiving language, the root morpheme carried the main load, and to adapt it, the language used a Slavic word-formation element. The correlation of the derived nominations demonstrates that there are certain lacunae in the fixation of materials due to the peculiarities of data collection. In some cases, missing lexemes can be reconstructed according to well-known grammatical and most popular and active word-formation models in the Russian language. Also, the author puts forward a hypothesis about the time of possible occurrence of such words in the system of dialects. Russian studies of the features of formal and grammatical adaptation of the nominations of the speech process prove that loanwords first became a fact of the lexical system of the Russian language in the border territories of interaction between Russians and Veps and Karelians, and then they were introduced into the speech of Russian-speaking residents of Karelia in a wider space. The latter is confirmed by the geography of the existence of the studied lexemes related to the Russian dialects of Karelia and adjacent regions. The author pays special attention to bright indicators of borrowing at the grammatical and morphemic levels — the verbs ending in -андать/-айдать.

Studies on Slavic Etymology with the Semantic Accent in the Works by Žofia Šarapatková

[Rev.: Šarapatková Ž., Slova a věci. Etymologické etudy, Prameny české etymologie 1, Bohumil Vykypěl, Vít Boček, red., Praha: NLN, 2022.] The Etymological group of Brno begins the publication of a new series: “Prameny české etymologie” [“Sources of Czech etymology”]. The series opens with a collection of articles by Ž. Šarapatková, one of the authors of the recently completed Old Church Slavonic etymological dictionary [“Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského”]. The collection comprises 20 articles, B. Vykypěl’s preface, a bibliography of the author’s works, a bibliography about the author, and indeces. Almost all articles focus on etymological analyses of the OCS lexicon with special attention to semantic aspects, which strengthens the argumentation in support of structural reconstructions. Based on particular etymologies, the following methodical problems of etymology are discussed: the importance and specifics of including rare words and dialect lexicon, and the role of folk etymology in the history of the lexicon and scholarly etymology.

Функциональная специфика словообразовательных неологизмов в дискурсивном пространстве глянцевых журналов

The purpose of the research is to study the functional characteristics of word-forming neologisms in modern English-language glossy magazines. The tasks are reduced to the analysis of scientific and theoretical literature on the problems of neology, the selection of neo-lexemes of the subject area “fashion and style”, formed by morphological methods, by the method of continuous sampling, and their systematization in relation to the functions they perform in the glamorous discourse. The sources are electronic versions of the monthly women’s magazines “Cosmopolitan”, “Elle”, “Fashion” for 2017–2022. When interpreting the factual material, data from the Online Etymology Dictionary and Dictionary.com dictionaries and a comprehensive methodology are used: the general scientific method of observation, word-formation analysis, definitional analysis, descriptive-analytical method. The findings indicate an active linguo-creative word-formation activity in the fashion sector of the economy. We formulate the thesis about the functional syncretism of derivational neologisms in the communicative space of the mass media serving it. We single out and illustrate with examples the nominative, informative, emotionally expressive, evaluative and phatic (contact-establishing) interdependent functions of neonominations. We note a significant predominance of the first two. The data obtained can be used in lecture courses on stylistics, the basics of media communication and the lexicology of modern English.

Some Berber etymologies XIII

The paper contains new etymological entries to Berber lexical roots and is part of a long-range series eventually resulting, when completed, in materials for an etymological dictionary of Berber, a desired addition to the fascicles of the comparative dictionary of Berber roots (DRB).

ПРОБЛЕМА СЕМАНТИЧНОЇ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ ФІЛОСОФСЬКИХ КОНЦЕПТІВ В СВІТЛІ МОВНО-ІСТОРИЧНИХ ІДЕЙ І.ОГІЄНКА

The article deals with one of the most topical problems of historical linguistics, which concerns the peculiarities of the semantic content transformation of some philosophical concepts, which are active elements of sacred texts. The author of the article emphasizes that this problem was undoubtedly one of the most important in the frames of scientifi c ideas, research, and intelligence of the talented linguist and Bible translator Ivan Ohiienko. The article emphasizes that concepts in the aspect of cognitive linguistics are created and fi xed in the minds of native speakers as the result of processing and transforming mental representations through linguis-tic phenomen. One of the concept interpretations is its perception as a generally accepted one at a certain background level, i.e. in specifi c mental environment, sphere, context. In this regard, it seems interesting to cover and analyze the prob-lem of semantic transformation of some conceptual notions in consciousness at diff erent background levels, including religious, philosophical in comparison with the modern perception of the average person with his/her laws of morality, spiritu-ality. The author emphasizes that clarifi cation of the problem can be particularly deep and reliable if it is not limited to observation of textual material, certain philo-sophical concepts and religious-philosophical doctrines, but will be based on and supported by deep linguistic research in comparative historical aspect. Obviously, the solution of such a complex issue involves the study of a large number of dic-tionaries, textual material and should be supported by etymological analysis in diff erent aspects. With the aim of scientifi c validate and profanity prevention, an algorithm and the methodology of etymological research must be developed with the main criteria of analysis. They are to take into account the peculiarities of deri-vation processes, phonetic transformations associated with changes in word struc-ture, word base demotivation, morphological transformations. The main criteria in the article are phonetic, word-formation semantic, chronological. The analysis is based on etymological dictionaries and research. The examples from Latin, Greek, English and other European languages are given in morpheme-derivational com-parisons of the analysis. Quotations from various sacred texts translated into Slavic languages are used as textual illustrations.

Radicals with Diplomatic Semantics in the Ancient Chinese Dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi: Verification of Etymology

There are several signs that contain “diplomatic” semantics among the 540 most ancient radicals of Chinese writing, presented in the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary (1st century AD, Han era). Before the dictionary was created, Chinese writing had already existed for several thousand years. Therefore, some researchers (Zou Xiaoli, 2007; Oshanin, 1943) consider that the etymologies of the radicals in Shuo Wen were formulated under the influence of the later eras and are often erroneous. Attempts are made to verify the etymologies of these signs with “diplomatic” semantics by comparing them with the more ancient forms jiaguwen and jinwen, discovered and scientifically described only in the 20th century. Such a comparison and interpretation will reveal the probable correct etymologies of the analysed radicals of the Shuo Wen dictionary and verify them. In addition, the study will shed light on the beginning of diplomacy in ancient China. The article also touches upon the problem of etymological analysis in a language with an ideographic type of writing, which is carried out not at the level of morphology, as in European languages, but at the level of hieroglyphic sign graphics. The problem of semantics and etymology of radicals was considered mainly by Chinese scientists (Zou Xiaoli, 2007; Wang Fengyang, 2011, etc.), while in European linguistics, the problem was studied only fragmentarily (Kondrashevsky, 1982; Karasyova, 2019; Dictionary of Etymologies, 2019). The radicals “with diplomatic” semantics analysed in this article have not been subjected to special study. The purpose of the present article is to verify the etymology of a number of radicals that contain “diplomatic” semantics in the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi; consider information about the dictionary, its basic radicals and their semantics; briefly describe the features of etymological analysis in general, and in the Chinese language in particular; and compare the definitions of these radicals in various etymological dictionaries, thus verifying the etymologies presented in the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary.

Концепт бабушка в аспекте развития когнитивных признаков из мотивирующих

The article describes the primary cognitive signs of the grandmother concept in Russian linguistic culture. This concept received almost no comprehensive studies in modern linguistic literature. The research objective was to structure its motivating signs in their correlation with Russian myths and symbols. The research relied on eleven Etymological Dictionaries of the Contemporary and Old Russian Language. The obtained material was generalized and illustrated based on etymological, descriptive, interpretive, and conceptual analyses. The author revealed 46 motivating signs represented by 14 subgroups: 1. Ancient sacred symbols (seven signs): (water) spirit, (female) mythological character, stone idol / idol on ancient mounds, Pleiades (constellation), ancestor, sheaf, block / post / stump. 2. Woman (five signs): (female) sex, woman / wife, nurse, to assist in childbirth, to give birth. 3. Social status (five signs): witch, sorceress, healer, midwife, matriarch. 4. Relationship (five signs): to be pregnant, to be married, grandfather's wife, mother's / father's mother, relationship. 5. Game (three signs): playing blind man's bluff, dice, children's toy. 6. Inner world (one sign): soul. 7. Object of the natural world (eight signs): atmospheric object, butterfly / moth / insect, bud, cornflower, (unfolded) flower, bird (pelican), muddler / goby fish, oak-apple. 8. Age (two signs): elderly, old / old woman. 9. Status (two signs): headdress (married women), plait (around the head of a married woman). 10. Subject (three signs): tool for driving in piles; stand; bench. 11. Assessment (two signs): pet form, of low birth. 12. Part of animal's body (one sign): hoof bone. 13. Bread (one sign): bakery product. 14. Illness (one sign): smallpox. All signs in subgroups woman, game, age, assessment, animal body part, bread, and illness proved to be cognitive. Almost all signs in the remaining subgroups also proved cognitive, with several exceptions: ancient sacral symbols (block / post / stump), social status (healer), kinship (married), objects of the natural world (atmospheric object, bud), status (headdress of a married woman).

DIALECTAL CLASSIFICATION OF KHANTY IN THE LIGHT OF BASIC VOCABULARY

This paper looks at the relationship between Khanty dialects from the perspective of the “language vs dialect” problem, applying the method of lexicostatistics to new archival and field data. Dialectal classification of Khanty is still a debatable issue with no reached consensus among researchers. The borders between dialectal groups within the Khanty language are mostly drawn by the phonetic and morphological criteria. Scholars traditionally separate Khanty dialect continuum into two dialectal groups: Northern (Western) and Eastern Khanty. However, recently many Khanty sources have become available to researchers, ranging from the unpublished 18th century archives to the printed dictionaries and digital field corpora. Having applied the method of lexicostatistics to this new material, the article shows that the Eastern group is not homogenous. As a result, the study identifies three contemporary Khanty languages: Northern Khanty, Vakh Khanty, and Surgut Khanty. Also, the article observes the correlation between these three groups and traditional ones that are distinguished by phonological and grammatical criteria (Eastern, Northern and dead Southern Khanty). Also, 13 new basic vocabulary lists based on the sources from the 18th to 21st centuries are published, which makes it possible to trace evolution of the dialects. Etymological notes and references, as well as proto-form reconstructions, are provided along the lists, which makes the supplementary material a miniversion of an etymological dictionary of Khanty dialects.

On Criticism of S. L. Nikolayev/S. A. Starostin, A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary

It has been noticed that the most comprehensive etymological dictionary of North Caucasian languages (NCED) has repeatedly been disparaged, and even totally ignored, due to alleged deficiencies of the lexicon. One also finds that some critics who dismiss this dictionary do not enumerate the shortcomings of the book themselves, but simply cite two reviews, one by J. Nichols and another by the late W. Schulze. Moreover, we find that the Nichols review has not been published and is not accessible to the examination of scholars, and the Schulze review, while citing a number of disagreements, is far from advocating the disregard of this volume but instead claims that it “belongs in the bookcase of anyone interested in etymological research”. It is also observed that more positive reviews, for example those by J. C. Catford (pre-publication), M. E. Alekseev, Ja. G. Testelec, and V. Chirikba (Čirikba) are overlooked by the detractors. These circumstances are examined in this paper, with the conclusion that the NCED, like any pioneering work, is not a permanent solution but a set of hypotheses that will have to be tested and modified, where necessary, over the coming decades. It does not deserve to be dismissed or ignored, but rather engaged with and discussed in the pursuit of better solutions to etymological problems of North Caucasian languages.

耐字考

The etymological interpretation on the character Nae(耐) in the authoritative dictionary Xuewenjiezi(說文解字) is not clear and accurate because it is based contemporary concept of penal laws. Not only Xushen(許愼)’s interpretation in Xuewenjiezi but also others including Duanyucai(段玉裁)’s can be said almost anachronistic. The largest reason of this is that traditional commentaries did not know the existence of oracle bone and bronzeware scripts. This paper is to try an history-anthropological interpretation on the Character Nae(耐) by emulating the example as shown in the pioneering etymology dictionary by Shirakawa Shizuka(白川靜). The conclusion of this essay is that firstly Nae(耐) is an reflection of the ritual ceremony for rain by the magician who shaved his head and second the meaning of shaving his head is a kind of sympathetic magic praying for fertility which is commonly seen through the ancient agricultural world as proved by the classic of anthropology The Golden Bough.

Notulae etymologicae Lemkovianae

NOTULAE ETYMOLOGICAE LEMKOVIANAE (LEMKO ETYMOLOGICAL NOTES) The study was inspired by the recent monograph Lemko Etymologies (Fałowski, Hojsak, 2020) which analyses more than 520 words from the Lemko ethnolect, mostly lexicon of unclear and unreliable origin, lexicon for which new explanations may be proposed, as well as rare lexemes which had not yet been interpreted etymologically. The present article consists of 18 etymological notes in which the author discusses a fragment of the lexicon included in the monograph (additional arguments in favour of the proposed etymologies, alternative etymological explanations, attempts at interpretation of obscure lexemes). Against the background of recent advances in Slavonic etymology (more emphasis on etymological research into dialectal lexicon), the author also expresses his unequivocal support for the intended project of a comprehensive etymological dictionary of the Lemko ethnolect.

Scientist, enlightener, innovator... (to the 100th anniversary of the birth of N. M. Shansky)

The paper concerns the centenary of M. N. Shansky’s birth and provides a brief overview of those aspects of the scholar’s scientific and creative activity which he was involved in as an initiator of traditions and an innovator. For instance, he authored the first higher education textbook "Phraseology of Modern Russian". Moreover, the structure and content of the textbook "Lexicology of Modern Russian" became models for the authors of other vocabulary textbooks for many decades. The popular science genre of "history of words" targeted at teachers and schoolchildren was developed in N. M. Shansky’s papers and books. The popularisation of the genre in the pages of the "Russian Language at School" journal (N. M. Shansky was its editor-in-chief for over 40 years) made the "history of words" an integral part of the Russian language teaching process. N. M. Shansky played a significant role in the development of Russian phraseology and phraseography. He not only created an expanded, in comparison with V. V. Vinogradov’s, typology of phraseological units of the Russian language, but also authored and co-authored many phraseological dictionaries, including the first etymological dictionary of Russian phraseological units. N. M. Shansky also occupied a special place in the history of Russian lexicography: he authored and co-authored a host of Russian language dictionaries, including the multi-volume "Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language", and several typologically new dictionaries. Moreover, as the author of the lexicography section in a textbook on lexicology, he laid the foundations for the tradition of typologic al characterisation of Russian dictionaries. The content of his essays about dictionaries is also valuable. I prove this thesis in more detail using N. M. Shansky’s essay on the "Shakhmatov’s" academic dictionary of the Russian language. This paper attempts not only to comprehensively characterise the legacy of N. M. Shansky as a lexicologist, phraseologist, lexicographer, and methodologist, but also to emphasise his innovation and the invaluable contribution he made to the development of national science and education.

Gothic leiþu, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

Gothic <i>leiþu</i>, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

English Occult Discourse as a Cultural Phenomenon

The paper reveals structural and functional peculiarities of English occult discourse as a cultural phenomenon. The research is based on the material of English explanatory and etymological dictionaries and texts manifesting occult discourse on the Internet. The paper uses a comprehensive methodology involving general scientific and special linguistic methods. The paper identifies the institutional forms and types of English occult discourse and outlines ways to study them. The term “occult discourse” denotes the general direction of discourse, which studies the peculiarities of communication in all institutional activity areas beyond science and official religion. Based on the results of etymological and componential analyses, we conclude that occult discourse contains such primary genre varieties as astrological, magical, and alchemical. Regarding socio-cultural features, we note that the function of these types of discourse stem from the symbolic and social meanings that are added to the relevant practices. Thus, the acquisition of occult sciences is part of the general system of thinking and beliefs in a particular society, allowing us to study the relevant fragment of the English worldview in mythological and naive versions.