Komi lexical archaisms in fairy tale “Mikul” by I. A. Kuratov

Introduction. In Finno-Ugric studies, as well as in Komi linguistics, an inadequate attention is paid to the study of archaisms as an integral part of the lexical composition of languages. Usually, these lexemes being a part of the passive vocabulary, are a valuable source for studying the history of languages, as well as an important source of lexical renewal, revitalization of the language.
Materials and Methods. The paper is based on the analysis of the language of I. A. Kuratov's fairy tale “Mikul”; several lexemes and phenomena of syntactic and morphological archaisms that are not found in modern Komi texts are highlighted. The language of the works written in the middle of the XIX century provides interesting material for the study of archaisms of various types. When writing the paper, the traditional methods of linguistic analysis were used, those which have been tested in linguistic studies.
Results and Discussion. Based on the text of the fairy tale of the founder of the Komi literature, Ivan Alekseevich Kuratov “Mikul”, it revealed 4 lexical archaisms (azyam, av/al, perth, rotal), which characterize the usual features of the language of the southern Komi-Zyryans, the speakers of the mid-Sysola dialect. Based on a special survey among the speakers of the modern Komi language, it was revealed that the four identifi ed lexemes are unknown to them both from the point of view of phonetic sound and from the point of view of word meanings. These lexemes, as native dialect words, are not preserved in the language of dialect speakers, nor have they become part of the modern literary language, which indicates the former variability of the written tradition in the XX century. In practical terms, the material of the work suggests the need to comment on the language of I. A. Kuratov's poetry in future publications of the writer's classical heritage.
Conclusion. The considered material of archaisms from the text of Kuratov's fairy tale “Mikul” vividly demonstrates the historical variability of both dialect vocabulary and morphological and syntactic systems, the picture of the Komi language as a whole.