Inherited lexicon and Russian Borrowings in the Ritual Terminology of the Komi-Permyaks: Preparing the Dead for Burial

Abstract

The article examines the Komi-Permyak lexicon that reflects the ritual preparation of the deceased for burial. The main attention is paid to the washing ritual, its agents, attributes and their verbal descriptions in the oral speech of dialect speakers during the thematic survey. For comparison, we used the data on Russian dialects, including contact dialects with Komi-Permyak. The main part of dialect material was collected by the authors during expeditions in 2022; we also used earlier field records. The findings suggest that in the conditions of long interethnic interaction there is a lexical convergence of two cultural and linguistic traditions. It is reflected in numerous borrowings from Russian into Komi-Permyak (pokoinik ‘dead’, zhivöy ‘alive’, prostöy va ‘plain water’ and pokoinishnöy va ‘dead water’, etc.). We can also talk about the unity of many cultural concepts behind the ritual lexicon: both traditions in the situation of ritual washing are characterized by the opposition of the “hard” and “soft” deceased body, “fragility” and “strength” of the bowl for washing. Objects in contact with a deceased body and anomalies during the ritual are endowed with negative semantics, etc. The influence of the Komi-Permyak tradition on the Russian one is less strong, but also noticable. In the context of the pervasive bilingualism of the Komi-Permyaks, their language affects the vocabulary of Russian monolinguals in mixed settlements. In particular, in the southern part of the Komi-Permyak district, on the territory of the settlement of Kudymkar-Inven Komi-Permyaks, in the speech of speakers of both languages we did not find some ritual terms (the verbal nouns with the meanings of action and figure) typical for Russian dialects in other territories of the Perm region.