About the naming of water spirits in the Karelian language: semantic and etymological aspect

Introduction: the study is aimed at a semantic and etymological analysis of the ways of forming lexemes that nominate the mythologeme "water spirits" in the Karelian language. The article presents the result of the mutual influence of languages and cultures of the Karelian, Vepsian and Russian peoples, as a result of their contact, common linguistic and cultural data are recorded. Objective: to consider the Karelian names of water spirits in the semantic and etymological aspect. Research materials: dialect dictionaries of the Karelian language, samples of Karelian speech, folklore texts. Results and novelty of the research: the scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive study of Karelian dialectisms used to designate water spirits. In total, about 50 dialect forms collected from the dictionaries of the Karelian language, Karelian speech samples and folklore texts were subjected to semantic and etymological analysis. As a result, it was determined that the identified lemmas are formed by various methods of morphological derivation: compounding (e. g. vieni & zcaron;& auml;ndy 'master of water', vienem & auml;ndy 'mistress of water', vienhaltie 'spirit of water') and suffixation (by adding the word-forming formant-hine /-hini /-hiin /-hiene /-hinen (e. g. vetehin'i, ved'ehin'i, vedehin'e). A number of names are euphemisms (e. g. vezikuningas 'water king'), which indicates a fear or unwillingness to name a mythological character by his "direct" name. In one, the process of personification can be traced: the name Jogi-Fed'oi 'Fedya River', which is probably associated with the assignment of a personal name as a sign of special respect, reverence, and worship. Some lexemes belong to the layer of borrowed vocabulary (e. g. n & auml;kki 'waterman / master of water' and its phonetic variation sn'akki 'waterman / master of water').