NAMES FOR THE WAGON IN THE DIALECTS OF ODESA AND MYKOLAIV REGIONS: COMMON AND DISTINCT FEATURES

Abstract

The article examines the names for the wagon in two adjacent multiethnic regions — Odesa and Mykolaiv — based on regional dialect dictionaries. Despite rather extensive areal research of traditional transportation terminology, the southern region of Ukraine has so far remained largely overlooked by scholars, and the aim of our work is to fill this gap. Our comparison of wagon nominations in Odesa and Mykolaiv reveals considerable differences, which concern mainly the linguistic form, the semantic component, as well as the number of recorded transportation names, though the difference is small (33–38). In the dialects of the Buh–Inhul interfluve, there exist phonetic, lexical, and word-formation variants that are absent in Odesa Region: vasazh, karutsyka, drab, draby, tarka, kochiia, leniika, poluharbok, fira, etc. Five shared vocabulary items were identified (vasah, karutsa, balahura, mazhara, vodovoznia). According to functional criteria, in both regions wagons are used: 1. for transporting people (bida, bedka, kachalka, drizhky, etc.); 2. for transporting goods. Cargo wagons, in turn, can be divided into three groups: a) for transporting sheaves, straw, etc. (beztarka, mazhara, sharaban, drabynchаk); b) for transporting various types of timber (byndir, tarban, tichka, kotok, rozpuskу); c) for transporting grain, salt, and other bulk materials (bestarnyk, balahura, mazhara). Most of these are multifunctional wagons, though monofunctional, specialized ones also exist (moloshnyk, vodovozka, kotyha). From a linguistic perspective, there are both borrowed names (vasaha, karutsa, mazhara, kamnion, etc.) and native ones (vozovyk, tarka, moloshnyk, etc.). One of the important linguistic characteristics is monolexemic structure; even analytical two-word names, through univerbation, become synthetic, single-word forms (liternyi viz → literniak; drabynchastyi viz → drabynchаk). All these parameters characterize wagon nominations as ethnospecific linguistic units that preserve the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people.