To the problem of the Komi origin of the Northern Russian word kulyash “imp”
Abstract
The Russian dialect word kuliash “Yule mythological character”, “mummer”, which, according to popular etymology, is the result of contamination development of the Komi word kul “devil” and the Russian words with the base kul- associated with the Yuletide rites, and dressing up, are considered. The hypothesis about Komi source, which has not received sufficient coverage and is the weakest link of this etymology, has been verified. For the first time the following questions were considered: 1) the initial form of the Komi borrowing and the possible process of its reception in Russian dialects; 2) the substrate character of the Komi borrowing; 3) the geographical localization of the supposed process of contamination, etc. The author's version of a substrate joining of the Komi word in the plural form in the contact zone of the Eastern Vologda and disappeared South-West Komi-Zyryan dialects is given. Further semantic, phonetic and word-forming transformations of this form are explained by contamination with Russian lexemes like kul, kulik etc. and irradiation in the contact Vologda, Vyatka and Perm dialects. The proposed version excludes the possibility of borrowing words from the Komi-Permyak language. It in both meanings (“imp” and “mummer”) was formed already in the zone of the North-Eastern Vologda dialects, and then during the further colonization by the Russians of the basins of Vyatka and Kama together with resettlement flows moved in the South-Eastern and Eastern directions. Historically, the Great Perm was populated mostly by inhabitants of the basin of Northern Dvina river, Vologda and Vyatka, where the Northern Russian dialects already existed, contacting in varying degrees with the dialects of the Komi-Zyryans. Accordingly, the word in question was 140 introduced into the Perm dialects, formed with the direct participation of the North-Western Russian dialects, and not vice versa.
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