Arab-Persian Loanwords in Bashkir and Its Dialects: Names of Inanimate Objects

Zarema N. Ekba

doi:10.22162/2619-0990-2025-78-2-444-463

Arab-Persian Loanwords in Bashkir and Its Dialects: Names of Inanimate Objects

Zarema N. Ekba

https://doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2025-78-2-444-463

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Abstract

Introduction. The article introduces a comprehensive insight into the lexical-thematic group ‘names of inanimate objects’ shaped by Arabic and Persian loanwords to Bashkir and its dialects. The work is the first to classify this group of words, analyze their etymological essentials in comparison to Kipchak, Oghuz, Karluk, and Finno-Ugric languages of the Volga Region, and clarify origins for a number of such words. Goals. The paper attempts a complete systemization and classification of the aforementioned lexemes by their distribution across languages and regions. It also seeks to determine the methods and times of their assimilation into the Turkic discourse. Materials and methods. The article employs the lexical-semantic, descriptive and etymological methods, those of structural and comparative analyses. The examined lexemes include groups as follows: ‘atmospheric phenomena and weather conditions’, ‘wind, cold, frost and related natural phenomena’, ‘landscape objects’. A separate group includes rarely used, obsolete and bookish borrowings clustered as follows: 1) names of atmospheric natural phenomena, 2) names of celestial bodies, 3) landscape objects, 4) names of precious and semi-precious stones and metals. Results and conclusions. It has been established that the borrowings of this lexical-thematic group may be both general Turkic, specifically regional, and purely dialectal. The study resumes the bulk of the analyzed vocabulary was borrowed to the Turkic languages through books, a significant number of the latter having been connected with Islam. To a very large extent, the loanwords reflect somewhat basic ideas about the surrounding world that continue to persist for centuries as part of the world religions.

Keywords

language contacts, Bashkir language, Bashkir dialects, borrowed vocabulary, Arab-Persian loanwords, names of natural phenomena, names of inanimate objects

About the Author

Zarema N. Ekba

Institute of Linguistics of the RAS (1/1, Bolshoi Kislovsky Lane, 109125 Moscow, Russian Federation)
Россия

Cand. Sc. (Philology), Senior Research Associate

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For citations:

Ekba Z.N. Arab-Persian Loanwords in Bashkir and Its Dialects: Names of Inanimate Objects. Oriental Studies. 2025;18(2):444-463. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2025-78-2-444-463

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