Anthroponyms and somatisms in Russian and Chuvash riddles: intersections of cultural codes

The aim of the research is to identify the features of representing the surrounding world in riddles through anthroponyms and somatisms in the Russian and Chuvash linguistic worldviews. In particular, the article focuses on such somatisms as "head" (Chuvash "пуç"); "eyes" (Chuvash "куç"), partially "mouth" (Chuvash "çăвар"), "thigh" (Chuvash "пĕçĕ"), etc. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that Chuvash riddles (against the background of Russian ones) are considered in this aspect for the first time, which makes it possible to identify cultural nuances in the modeling of the surrounding reality, reflected in the oldest folklore material. As a result of the study, it was established that in riddles the interpretation of objects of the surrounding reality, marked as "alien", when using the names of people and their body parts, moves from the zone of undeveloped to "one's own", close to a person, and becomes cognizable. Somatisms are thus either indicators of the space "top – bottom", "inside – outside" when comprehending household items, or the objects/phenomena themselves when reflecting natural phenomena.