Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article examines the vocabulary used to denote folk beliefs, signs, and superstitions in the dialect texts collected within the Ukrainian Eastern Slobozhanshchyna dialects. It is emphasized that this topic has repeatedly been the subject of linguistic studies, particularly in dialectology. The author sees the relevance of the article in preserving information about this dialectal array, considering the impossibility of its systematic research at the present stage. The factual material used in the study was thematically divided into three groups: the texts about folk beliefs and signs related to people's faith in demonological beings and supernatural forces; the texts dedicated to signs and superstitions concerning traditional family life; the texts containing beliefs associated with the celebrations of the calendar cycle. The study has determined that the dialect texts serve as valuable sources of information, as they help the researchers obtain the most comprehensive data on the spiritual culture of the Ukrainian people: they establish the nature of the various signs and superstitions, clarify the narrative structure of beliefs, ritual, and magical actions, their semantic content, and gain insight into the symbolism of family traditions and so on. During the analysis the special attention was paid to the essential characteristic of the dialect texts – their information content, which allows to make an analysis of the level of mythological perception of the world by speakers. This is particularly relevant because modern dialect speakers mostly do not perceive the information in their narratives as true or real, often referring to their stories as ‘beliefs’ or ‘legends’. The author sees the prospect of further research in the study of the dialect texts related to the life and everyday customs of the people of Eastern Slobozhanshchyna.
Author: M. Voloshynova
Institution: Taurida National V.I. Vernadsky University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410124854