Kofta-Ubka (Jacket-Skirt), Ivan-da-Marya (Blue Cow Wheat), Ryabushka (Greyhen), Festival... How Many of Them? (New Dialect Vocabulary for Name of New Potato Varieties)


2019. № 3, 42-49

Anna D. Cherenkova, Voronezh State Pedagogical University (Russia, Voronezh), czerenkova@mail.ru

Abstract:

This article is devoted to the study of new words and meanings that arise as a folk versions of naming for new phenomena. In this context, we will focus on the different names of new potato varieties.This paper is based on the material with 200+ word tokens, obtained from 88 villages of the Voronezh region and some nearby villages of other regions.  Due to its stability in storage, good yield and high taste qualities, this new variety became widespread in the southern part of Russia in the 90s  of the 20th century and is popular now. Its distinctive feature is colored, red and white skin, which was as a motivating sign for the most of the names of this variety, namely: most of them have binarity (pairing) in the assessment of a skin color in the opened (ubka-kofta/skirt-jacket) and in a latent form
(
pod’ubochnik/underskirt).  But this is not the only motivating sign. The variegation of color (ryabushka, latataya), brightness, elegance (csigan (gypsy), festival), socio-historical sign (gorbachyovka) are also revealed. Some of the names have a single, located usage (aunt minnie, man-and-woman, louis alberto and marianna), others are popular, covering vast territories (jacket-skirt, blue cow wheat). The formation of large areas of new dialect vocabulary in a relatively short time is due
to the high degree of socialization of the denotation, as the new potato, having a good taste, becomes the subject of actualization both in cultivation and on the market.  These aspects were refl ected in the onomasiological and linguogeographic sections of the article.