Magic of Words: Lexemes with Semantics ‘Spell’ and ‘to Spell’ in Vepsian (Etymological-Semantic and Linguo-Geographical Aspects)

A comparative analysis of the Veps language lexemes with the semantics ‘spell’ (puheg, puitoomine), as well as verbs with the meaning ‘to spell; pronounce incantations. The relevance of the study is due to the significance of the spell tradition for the worldview of the Vepsian people and the possibility of identifying the semantic and etymological features of the vocabulary group associated with this sphere of life. The names of the concept of “spell” (puheg, puitoomine) are analyzed, where the lexeme puheg, unlike the Russian term spell (< to spell < to speak), is associated not with speaking, but with a kind of “blowing” words from the mouth in the process of speaking. It is known from the literature, about a similar phenomenon that is characteristic of one of the Russian dialects of the Komi Republic (blowing words), about which the authors of this article believe that it may be a kind of tracing paper from the Baltic-Finnish languages, in which such a phenomenon is represented more widely, although they do not exclude and some universality in the development of languages. In the presented author's development, attention is paid to the etymology and semantic nuances of the lexemes sana and vajeh with the meaning ‘word’, one of which (sana) also intersects with the magic of the words of the world of spells in its semantics. The etymological aspects of the verbs of “magical action” (puhuda, puiteida, otvedaida) are analyzed in the study, where both original stems and borrowings from the Russian language are manifested. Linguistic maps illustrate the breadth of distribution of the analyzed terms in the dialects of the Vepsian.

1. Äänisvepsän näytteitä. (1982). Helsinki : Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura. 171 p. (In Fin.).

2. Dictionary of dialects of the Russian North, 7. (2018). Yekaterinburg: Ural University Publish-ing House. 400 p. ISBN 978-5-7996-2253-4. (In Russ.).

3. Dictionary of Russian Folk Dialects, 1—49. (1965—2016). Leningrad; Saint Petersburg: Nau-ka. ISBN 5-02-027894-7. (In Russ.).

4. Häkkinen, K. (2007). Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja. Juva: WSOY. 1633 p. ISBN 978-951-27108-7. (In Fin.).

5. Kettunen, L. (1920—1925). Näytteitä etelävepsästä: In 2 volums. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. (In Fin.).

6. Kettunen, L., Siro, P. (1935). Näytteitä vepsän murteista. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. 273 p. (In Fin.).

7. Lönnrot, E. (2007). Kalevala. An epic poem based on ancient Karelian and Finnish folk songs. Petrozavodsk: Karelia-Yuminkeko. 584 p. (In Russ.).

8. Makarov, G. N. (1990). Dictionary of the Karelian language. Petrozavodsk: Karelia. 495 p. ISBN 5-7545-0380-6. (In Russ.).

9. Phonogram Archive of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Scien-tific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. (In Russ.).

10. Setälä, E. N., Kala, J. H. (1951). Näytteittä Äänis- ja Keskivepsän murteista. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura. 662 p. (In Fin.).

11. Suomen sanojen alkuperä. Etymologinen sanakirja. In 3 volums. (1992—2000). Jyväskylä: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. (In Fin.).

12. Vepsän verkkosanasto. Available at: http://kaino.kotus.fi/sanat/vepsa/ (accessed 23.04.2021). (In Fin.).

13. Zaitseva, M., Mullonen, M. I. (1969). Samples of Veps speech. Leningrad: Nauka. 296 p. (In Russ.).

14. Zaitseva, M. I., Mullonen, M. I. (1972). Dictionary of the Vepsian language. Leningrad. Nau-ka. 745 p. (In Russ.).

15. Zaiceva, N. (2016). Virantanaz (The Vepsian epic). Petroskoi: Periodika. 216 p. ISBN 978-5-88170-282-3. (In Fin.).

16. Zaitseva, N. G., Zhukova, O. Y. (2012). Käte-ške käbedaks kägoihudeks [Turn around with a cute cuckoo]. Vepsian Lamentations. Petrozavodsk: KarSC RAS. 223 p. ISBN 978-5-9274-0504-6. (In Fin.).

17. Zaitseva, N. G. (ed.). (2019). Linguistic atlas of the Veps language. St. Petersburg: Nestor-History. 573 p. ISBN 978-5-4469-1395-4. (In Russ.).

18. Grünthal, R. (2015). Vepsän kielioppi. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura. 347 p. (In Fin.).

19. Ilyina, Yu. N. (2014). Dut’ Slova: Ritual Term Ethnolinguistic Description. Nauchnyi dia-log, 4 (28): Philology. 30—41. (In Russ.).

20. Kettunen, L. (1943). Vepsän murteiden lauseopillinen tutkimus, 86. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia. 526 p. (In Fin.).

21. Kettunen, L. (1945). Tieteen matkamiehenä. Porvoo-Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. 416 p. (In Fin.).

22. Siragusa, L., Zhukova, O. Yu. (2021). Blowing specific words: verbal charms as material sus-pended events. Multilingua, 40 (4): 463—485. DOI: 10.1515/multi-2020-0049.

23. Turunen, A. (1943). Vepsäläistä kansanrunoutta. Virittäjä. 147—166. (In Fin.).

24. Ujfalvy, Ch. (1875). Essai de grammaire vêpse ou tchoude du nord. Paris: E. Leroux. 129 p. (In Franc.).

25. Vinokurova, I. Yu. (2008). Vepsian plots from snakes as a source for the reconstruction of mythological representations. In: Historical and cultural heritage of the Veps and the role of the museum in the life of the local community. Petrozavodsk: KarSC RAS Publishing House. 196—205. ISBN 978-5-9274-0308-0. (In Russ.).

26. Vinokurova, I. Yu. (2006). Animals in the traditional worldview of Veps. Petrozavodsk: PetrSU Publishing House. 448 p. (In Russ.).

27. Zaitseva, N. G. (2020). Yeast and starter cultures — masters, blacksmiths? (naming concepts in the Veps ethno-linguistic space). Bulletin of ugrovedenie, 10 (4): 642—652. DOI: 10.30624/2220-4156-2020-10-4-642-651. (In Russ.).