The epics of Olonkho and Nimkan in the context of sign systems

This article is devoted to the study of the communicative aspect of oral folklore. The problem of studying the interrelations of the epic works of the Yakuts and Evens at the level of sign systems in both Yakut and Tungus epic studies has not yet been a field of special study. The subject of this study is the units of text content – themes, epic concepts, motifs and formulas, as well as the means of their expression – linguistic metaphors, symbols and codes. The best samples of Even and Yakut epic monuments are chosen as the materials of the study. The aim of the work is to identify and demonstrate typological similarities in the semiotic systems of the Even nimkan and the Yakut olonkho. To reach the goal, the structural-semantic, lexical and comparative analyses, methods of hermeneutics, review, description and generalization were used. The information-semiotic approach served as the leading approach. The semiotic analysis of the units of epic texts allowed us to see a selection of binary oppositions, in which the specific features of the sign systems of epics, showing fragments of the natural landscape, types of economic activity, and realities of the material culture of Even and Yakut people, emerge. Comparable units of the epic texts ' content plan have differences in the size of representation, degrees of deployment, quantitative and species categories of coding, which, nevertheless, reflect the identity in the choice of objects of semiotic coding, invariant use of formulas in motifs, similarity of the metaphorization process, which is an indicator of stable links between Even and Yakut traditions. The obtained results require attention and further close study in the direction of searching for historical or historical-genetic justifications for these connections, capable of answering the question: are the similarities explained by the commonality of archaic mythological consciousness or the influence of one epic on another, common historical roots, which indicates the prospects for subsequent research.

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