Vocabulary of permian old believers dialects in lexicographic description

Abstract

The article presents the materials of the forthcoming Dictionary of Vocabulary and Phraseology of the Old Believers Dialects of the Perm Region. The available lexicographic descriptions of the Old Believers speech (Baltic States, Transbaikalia, Siberia) are outlined. The main layers of Permian Old Believers vocabulary – cult terminology, borrowings, expressive and evaluative words and paroemias are described. The thematic diversity of vocabulary can be noted (self-names of the interpretations, names of saints, names of books, names of services and rituals, utensils, cult food, clothing, traditional mythological vocabulary). The dictionary reports not only the cult aspects, but also the everyday and economic sides of life of Old Believers, which explains the inclusion of household
vocabulary and ethnographisms in its composition. The main emphasis in the article is set on the
mythological vocabulary fixed in the speech of Permian Old Believers: the characteristics of
demonim (names of spirits and anthropomorphized diseases, nominations of people in contact with
evil spirits, designations of magical and ritual actions and ritual attributes). Representing a special
group of words, the mythological layer of vocabulary, which is considered to be basic for traditional culture, shows that Old Believers, with all the closeness of life, specificity of their worldview and moral and ethical norms, were and remain part of an integrated Russian folk culture.