VOICES OF BIRDS IN THE LANGUAGE AND MYTHOPOETIC TRADITION OF THE UDMURTS

Альманах
Key words
Udmurt tradition, ornithomorphic images, phonetic, lexical-phonetic onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic dictionary, imitating of bird’s voices
Author
IRINA NURIEVA, IRINA PCHELOVODOVA
About the Author
Nurieva I.: e-mail: <nurieva-59@mail.ru>
Tel.: +7 (3412) 68-73-22
4, Lomonosova str., Izhevsk, 426004, Udmurt Republic, Russian Federation
Full Professor (Arts), leading researcher, department of Philology studies, Udmurt Institute of
History, Language and Literature, Uralic Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Pchelovodova I.: e-mail: <: orimush@mail.ru >
Tel.: +7 (3412) 68-78-44
4, Lomonosova str., Izhevsk, 426004, Udmurt Republic, Russian Federation
PhD (Philology), researcher, department of Philology studies, Udmurt Institute of History,
Language and Literature, Uralic Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Body

This paper describes sound characteristics of voices and cries of birds reflected in the Udmurt language and folklore. The research is based on various published sources and recent field data, recorded by the authors. Musical genres, functioning mainly in children’s folklore of the Udmurts, which reverberate birds’ phonation, are analyzed for the first time. Images of birds have occupied an important place in the religious-mythological and linguistic world-view of the Udmurts since ancient times, as it is evidenced by archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic materials. The sound sphere of the birds fits into the local sound landscape. Acoustic dimension of the world-view of ancient Finno-Ugric peoples was developed in the forest (taiga) landscape zone, and consequently, images of the pine-forest birds (e. g. grouse) and waterfowl, for example, swan, goose and duck, occupied a large place in various genres of Udmurt folklore. Most of the ornithonyms of the Udmurt language were derived from the onomatopoeia for the cries and voices of birds. For the most part they are based on phonetic (”tul-lee! tul-li-wee!” for  a “tulli” ‘sand-piper’ or “kuazh- kuazh!” for “kuazhi” ‘corn-crake’) and lexical-phonetic onomatopoeia with added semantics (“shu si!” ‘eat viburnum!’ for a bullfinch). Formation of acoustic characteristics of birds and their reflection in the language is traced in the article. The authors have collected names and onomatopoeia of birds for the onomatopoeic dictionary of ornithological fauna. Hunting activities of the Udmurts are considered in article also, including the production and using of quail-calls and decoys. Music examples of imitations of bird’s voices are presented.

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