Cosmic and Atmospheric Images in Russian and Finno-Ugric Folk Sayings and Superstitions

Based on the facts of vocabulary and phraseology of Russian folk dialects and the Finno-Ugric languages (Udmurt, Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian), the article deals with folk cosmonyms (the names of planets, stars, and constellations) and examines the names of atmospheric phenomena (thunderstorm and lightning, dawn and rainbow). The study identifies motivational attributes that underlie figurative nominations and metaphoric characteristics of celestial events and objects. On the basis of the dialect data and folklore (riddles, ditties, and folk sayings), the mythological grounds behind the figurative names of celestial events and the nature of such figurativeness are revealed. There is noted an increased significance of celestial symbolism for the emergence of folk sayings related to weather changes, labor activities, historical events, and people’s destinies. Mythologisms of folk speech that are used to characterize the unknown remain in demand among the inhabitants of certain localities, they arrange the previous cultural experience of human interaction with nature and motivate the folk sayings, which continue to be the guiding points for human economic activities. Furthermore, since the images of the upper world are widely used in literary and folklore texts, the article describes their mythological and poetic potential. The study reveals a significant number of typologically similar figurative names of cosmic and atmospheric objects in languages having different structures, traces how the peculiarities of the ethnic worldview are reflected in the studied nominations. The authors draw a conclusion about a high linguocultural intensity of vocabulary and phraseology related to the celestial sphere.