MATERIALS TO ETYMOLOGY OF THE KOMI-PERMYAK WORD «BICHUL’» (‘STRAWBERRY’)

Abstract

 The article presents fragments of the historical-etymological and structural-semantic analysis of the Komi-Permyak word bichul’ (Russ. ‘klubnika’; Eng. ‘strawberry’) that is found in two textbooks of the Russian language for the Komi-Permyaks (1896 and 1906). The analysis is performed both at the synchronous level (comparison with the language of Komi-Permyak publications of the 1860–1900s) and at the diachro­nic level (comparison, on the one hand, with the language of written monuments of the 1780–1840s, on the other hand – with the norms of the literary Komi-Permyak language reflected in various dictionaries of the 1980–2000s). Since nowadays different berries are called klubnika in different parts of Russia, the paper attempts to find out what exactly in the Western Urals could be understood as klubnika at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For this purpose, Russian national and dialect words with meanings klubnika (‘strawberry’) and zemlyanika (‘wild strawberry’) are involved in comparison, and a brief history of their functioning in the Russian language is traced. According to the author’s version, the Komi-Permyak word bichul’ is literally translated as ‘fiery goiter’ or ‘fiery (bird’s) goiter’. In this connection, the Komi-Permyak set phrase bichul’ka sina (‘pop-eyed’) is considered – not only because of the formal similarity but also because exophthalmus, goiter and tachycardia are characteristic syndromes of the diffuse toxic goiter disease. There are also mentioned the Komi-Permyak hapax legomenon of the late 18th century sela oz (‘strawberry’), the modern Komi-Permyak dialect word s’ölaoz (‘Rubus arcticus’), which both literally mean ‘hazel-grouse wild strawberry’, as well as typologically similar names in Russian dialects. At the end of the article, the author raises a question of possible connection between the Komi-Permyak word bichul’ (‘strawberry’) and the modern Komi-Permyak northern dialect word bichul’ (‘door spin’, with variants bichuli, bichul’ka, bichul’ki) with its extensions in the Komi dialect continuum (see the words of the Upper Sysola dialect of the Komi-Zyryan language bichul’ – ‘gag, door bolt, wrapping, spin’, bichul’ka ‘float (of a fishing rod)’). In addition, there is mentioned the Russian dialect word bichul’ki (‘detail of a weaving loom’), which is recorded in the substrate Northern Permyak area.