Эвфемистические названия частей тела медведя в вилюйском говоре якутского языка

Егор Револьевич Николаев

doi:10.25178/nit.2026.1.21

Authors

Egor R. Nikolaev Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3782-8402

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2026.1.21

Keywords:

Yakut language, dialect vocabulary, euphemism, motivating feature, bear, bear body parts

Abstract

The article examines the semantic features of euphemistic names for bear body parts in the Vilyui dialect of the Yakut language. It provides a motivational, etymological, and word-formation analysis of these units. The motivating features underlying the nomination of euphemisms are described. The study employs methods and techniques of linguistic analysis (grammatical and etymological), as well as comparative and contrastive methods. The sources comprise dialectological and explanatory dictionaries and the author’s field data collected during a dialectological expedition to the Vilyui ulus in 2023. Anthroponymic material is brought in to clarify the semantics of euphemisms.

It is concluded that the Yakut language observes the basic principle of euphemisation, namely the prohibition of naming the body parts of the animal directly. This prohibition is grounded in the bear cult, which is interconnected with the hunting cult of the Yakuts. Formally, euphemisms are represented by the category of third-person singular possession. The content plane of the euphemisms is revealed through semantic features that arise from a set of word-formation processes: (1) narrowing of the semantics of a common word, resulting in units with euphemistic meaning; (2) dialectal use of euphemisms, that is, their functioning in the territory of the Vilyui or several dialects, conditioned by the taiga landscape in which commercial hunting developed and found reflection in the lexicon.

The main motivating features are determined by the external appearance of bear body parts (shape, colour: kyimata, kyhyla), their functional purpose (kylatara, ihilliire, amsayara, sytyrgyyra, üllüge), qualitative properties (ahyyta, kharannyta, kharata), and localisation (tühülgete). The results obtained can further be used in studying the semantic space of various lexico-thematic groups to identify semantic–motivational models in the Yakut language, including those underlying euphemisms.

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