UDC

81’282.2

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.2.48

Authors

Kseniya V. Osipova
Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin;
prosp. Lenina 51, Yekaterinburg, 620000, Russian Federation;
e-mail: osipova.ks.v.@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article studies dialect names for fish soup recorded in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda Regions using the lexicographic files of the Ural Federal University Toponymic Expedition. By means of a complex ethnolinguistic analysis, the author reconstructs the specifics of fish soup cooking and eating, as well as the soup’s cultural and linguistic symbolism. Fish soup prevailed in the diet of people living on the seashore and in areas rich in rivers and lakes (compare treskoyedy meaning ‘cod-eaters’ – nickname for Pomors, inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk Region), while in other territories fish was mainly eaten by rich peasants. In the Russian North one could cook soup using fresh (svezhaya ukha, yushka) or dried fish (zaspennitsa, kashitsa, krupyanka, sushchik, shcherba, shchi) which was stored up for winter. The word ukha in Northern Russian dialects was used as a general term for various kinds of soup: mushroom, bread, potato, etc. (compare. lesnaya ukha, podyolochnaya ukha). Further, this article discusses the motivation of some names for lean soup without fish: demyanova ukha, yegorova ukha, vas’kina ukha, derived from personal names, as well as expressions bezgreshnaya ukha and sovetskaya (stalinskaya) ukha, which came into use due to restrictions on fish consumption in Soviet times. In addition, secondary meanings of the word ukha and phraseological units and phrases formed on its basis are analysed here (delo ne ukha, ukhu varit’, ukhi nakhlebatsa, etc.). In conclusion, the paper presents ritual practices associated with fish soup.

Keywords

Russian North, traditional culture, Northern Russian dialects, ethnolinguistics, fish soup, ukha

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