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« 2021. # 6 (162)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2021. № 6 (162), 1356—1366

UDK [392.1:398.3:140.8](=161.2):81’373.4’27

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2021.06.1356

«THE WORD WILL BREAK LIKE WATER» (ANALYSIS OF THE SEMANTIC PAIR «WATER-LANGUAGE»)

HOROSHKO-POHORETSKA Lesya

  • ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8741-2467
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences (= Ph.D. in history),
  • Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology
  • of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
  • Svobody Avenue, 15, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: horoshyna@gmail.com

Abstract. The purpose of the exploration is to shed light on the layer of customary and ideological phenomena associated with the ritual and functionality of water in folk tradition. The object of the research is a traditional worldview, custom and ritual culture, folklore tradition of Ukrainians, and the subject — the semantic pair «water-language», that is those ritual contexts and linguistic units in which the concepts of «water» and «language» demonstrate semantic identity. In particular, the article discusses some ritual guidelines related to the rite of the first bath of the baby (using of unboiled water), and customary practices through which they tried to motivate children to speak faster (drinking water from a bell or water that has boiled), learn to read and write or play musical instruments by the river. In addition, a number of folklore and author’s texts, paremias and slang samples are analyzed, which illustrate the cohesion of the concepts «water-language», «drink-speak», etc., and samples of ancient writing of different peoples of the world, which were formed in climatic zones that differed in the amount of precipitation.

The source basis of the study is the materials of field investigations stored at the Ethnology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (notes of L. Saban (1980) from Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivs’k region, H. Droniv (2012) from Bohorodchany and Kosiv districts of Ivano-Frankivs’k region, author (2005—2011) from Dolyna and Verkhovyna districts of Ivano-Frankivs’k region,Vyzhnytsia district of Chernivtsi region and Kaniv district of Cherkasy region), as well as works of the end of the XIX—XX centuries.

The methodology of the work is based on general scientific methodological principles and basic requirements that apply to the works of historical and ethnographic direction.

Keywords: water, language, speech, talk, river, waterfall, research.

Received 16.07.2021

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