THE REPRESENTATION OF PHYTONYMS AND THEIR LINGUO-SEMANTIC FEATURES IN MUNIS’S TRANSLATION OF RAVZATU-S-SAFO

This article examines phytonyms—lexical items denoting plants, trees, fruits, flowers, and plant parts—in the Old Uzbek translation of Mir-Khwand’s historical work Ravzatu-s-safo traditionally associated with Munis. It explores the lexical-semantic groupings of the plant-related vocabulary, discusses the Turkic, Persian, and Arabic lexical strata identified in the material, and considers the contextual and figurative functions of selected plant names. The analysis draws on a comparison between the Persian source text and the Old Uzbek translation, alongside componential, contextual, comparative-historical, and linguopoetic approaches. The examples discussed suggest that plant vocabulary serves not only referential purposes but may also contribute to the representation of beauty, dignity, prosperity, decline, and political change. The article highlights the value of historical translations as evidence for the study of lexical contact and the stylistic resources of pre-modern Uzbek prose. The findings should be regarded as qualitative and illustrative: a fully reproducible account will require a complete inventory of occurrences, verified manuscript foliation, and systematic source–target alignment.