NOTHERN RUSSIAN DIALECTS AGAINST THE COMMON SLAVIC BACKGROUND Cover Image

ГОВОРЫ РУССКОГО СЕВЕРА НА ОБЩЕСЛАВЯНСКОМ ФОНЕ
NOTHERN RUSSIAN DIALECTS AGAINST THE COMMON SLAVIC BACKGROUND

Author(s): Svetlana M. Tolstaya
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: northern Russian dialects; Slavic languages; linguistic geography; ethnogenesis; substrate; vocabulary; toponymy; culture areas

Summary/Abstract: The common Slavic value of northern Russian dialects is revealed by the fact that principal characteristics that set these dialects inopposition to other dialect groups of the Russian language (retention of unstressed o; ѣ reflex; close vowel o; explosive consonant g;pronouncing ch as ts; postpositive pronoun member, etc.) constitute the indicators, which integrate these dialects with other Slaviclanguages. It has given many scientists the reason to consider them as a separate eastern Slavic idiom, along with the southern Russian,Belarusian and Ukrainian ones. At the present time, the question of the internal differentiation of northern Russian dialectsand their relations with other Russian and Slavic dialects has not yet been brought forward by linguistic geography, although it is ofparamount importance for the history of the Russian language and the typology of Slavia’s dialect areas. In this regard, the study ofvocabulary is of particular importance. It should be not just about turning to the “meaningful” and culturallyrelevant elements oflanguage (vocabulary, toponomastics or phraseology), but also to the layers of culture that stand behind them, i. e. to the forms, typesand genres of traditional spiritual and material culture, which are equally “dialectal”, in the words of Nikita Tolstoy, with language,and therefore they equally require geographical studying and comparative research. The elements of traditional culture (ritual forms,beliefs, mythological imagery, patterns of behavior or folklore texts), in quite the same way as language elements, indicate deepseatedethnic and genetic processes that led to the known types of language and cultural traditions.

  • Issue Year: 2018
  • Issue No: 6 (175)
  • Page Range: 53-59
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Russian