The Kobyaysky Dialect of the Yakut Language: Lexical-Semantic System and Phonetic Variation (Based on P. P. Barashkov ‘s Materials)

Abstract

 P. P. Barashkov is one of the prominent representatives of Yakut linguistics, who stood at the origins of the formation of the research tradition in Yakutia. In 1954–1960, he carried out a primary description of the dialectal features of the Kangalassky, Gorny, Namsky, Zhigansky, and Kobyaysky districts, having collected extensive fieldwork data. In his work “The Dialect of the Yakuts of the Kobyaysky District”, the scholar characterized the phonetic, lexical, and morphological features of the dialects of this area. The present article is devoted to the analysis of the factual material on the Kobyaysky dialect recorded in the 1950s–1960s. The aim of the study is to systematize and provide an in-depth examination of this dialectological corpus. To achieve this aim, the following tasks are addressed: description of the phonetic, lexical, and morphological peculiarities of the Kobyaysky dialect; thematic classification of the collected dialectal units into lexical-semantic groups; identification of the types of variation in phonetic dialectisms. The structural research method is applied, including the semantic field method and distributive analysis. Lexical-semantic groups representing the environment, hunting, fishing, food culture, clothing, names of animals, plants, and parts of the human and animal body have been established. In terms of origin, the study identifies native Yakut lexemes, borrowings from Evenki (Even) and Russian. In addition, types of phonetic dialectisms with vowel and consonant variation are revealed. The results of the study can be used in teaching Yakut lexicology and phonetics, as well as in the course of Yakut dialectology.