Russian epic tradition of the village Russkoe Ustye, standing on the Indigirka River, is the subject of the study. The relevance of the research lies in the need to describe one of the regional epic traditions of Siberia at the modern stage in connection with the work of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the series «Bylinas» of the Russian Folklore Code. Accordingly, the purpose and objectives of the study are determined by a systematic approach to material, meaningful in connection with the history of inhabiting the region, the history of the recording epics in the region, and the consistent characteristics of each recorded epic plot. The article reviews the history of inhabiting the Russian Estuary: the discovery of the mouth of the Indigirka by the Cossack Ivan Rebrov in 1638, the construction of the town of Zashiversk in the middle reaches of the Indigirka, inhabiting the mouth of the river from Zashiversk and from the sea. The oral family traditions of the Russkoustians are given. The article also describes the history of the recording epics in Russkoe Ustye and from its inhabitants: political exile I. A. Khudyakov (1867–1869); V. M. Zenzinov (1912); graduate of the ethnographic department of Leningrad State University D. D. Travin (1928); Yakut local historian M. A. Krotov (1931–1932); Yakut writer, member of the ethnographic and linguistic expedition of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Yakut branch of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences N. A. Gabyshev (1946); major Moscow bylinologist Yu. I. Smirnov (1982) and famous ethnomusicologist T. S. Shentalinskaya (1985). The main content of the article is the characteristics of local epics (25 texts). There is an almost complete absence of epics about Ilya Muromets (the only text is «Ilya Muromets and the Idolishche»). The popularity of the plot «Dobrynya and the Serpent» (six variants) is indicated, in which the name of Maria Izyaslavna, absent in European Russia, appears (instead of the traditional Zabava Putjatichna), linking (through the patronymic Izyaslavna) the epics of Russkoe Ustye with the onomasticon of Ancient Russia. The epic «Mikhail Danilovich – the minor hero» (six variants) is analyzed, in which the enemy Titus appears, unknown in the Russian North. It is assumed that this name in Russkoe Ustye was borrowed from the «History of the Jewish War» by Josephus Flavij, a monument of late Antique literature (75–79 A.D.), known in Russia in translation and very popular in the manuscript tradition. Probably one of the lists was brought to Russkoe Ustye. Josephus’ Titus is the son of Emperor Vespasian, an enemy of Judea. In the «Arrival of the Lithuanians» (three variants), the names of «our» heroes – Tsar Elizar and his sister Maria Elizarovna (names that are absent in the Russian North) – may also be echoe of the «History of the Jewish War», where several characters with the name Eleazar are called among the Jews. Other epic plots are also considered – «Surovets», «Duke Stepanovich», «Sadko».

The article deals with the need to systematize all available materials about epictellers with their repertoire. The first mentions of the names of Altai epictellers are found in the works of researchers of Altai folklore and ethnography in the 19^th century and rare information about their repertoire or fixation of a particular text of the legend from them. More complete information is found in scholarly publications of the mid-20^th century concerning the biographies of now famous epictellers with an indication of their teachers. Several ethical rules contributed to the preservation of the names of epictelling teachers by their students: the faith of the epictellers themselves in the magical gift of epictelling and the veneration of the names of their mentors as sacred guides to the world of legends. So, in this article we define approaches to collecting information to create a unified catalog of Altai epictellers. Upon completion of the compilation by ethnic regions, prerequisites may be created for the formation of and additions to the Catalogue of epictellers of Russian and Eurasian epictellers. The relevance of such a study is dictated by the fact that when presenting information about the work of Altai epictellers about their teachers in publications of the mid-19^th–mid-20^th centuries, information is limited. This does not make it possible to reveal their repertoire in detail, but at the same time, separate indications of the names of texts, places of recording contribute to clarifying the places of distribution in different periods of a particular text of legends. Such a summary work contributes not only to the comprehensive identification of the Altai epictelling repertoire as a whole, taking into account the early periods of fixing epic texts, but also to clarifying the epic context of the work of famous Altai rhapsodies against the background of the revealed names of lesser-known epictellers.

The goals and objectives of the study are the need to restore the names and, if possible, their repertoire of Altai epictellers of the 19th and early 20^th in order to compile a Unified Catalog of epictellers in the future, based on information, taking into account archival and field materials recorded from their disciples – epictellers. The article reflects a summary search work to restore the names of epictellers based on published materials of researchers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, who did not pursue a specific task of systematizing the names and repertoire of epictellers, but fixed one or another epicteller.

However, it is the systematic cataloging that will contribute not only to the full identification of the list of names of Altai epictellers with an indication of their repertoire, but also to the clarification of the epic context of the work of famous Altai rhapsodies against the background of the revealed names of lesser-known epictellers. The main conclusions, the results of the study are that an attempt was made to restore the names and repertoire of epictellers from the 19^th to the 20^th century, available from publications and archival materials, and the stability of the plot composition of Altai legends is also being clarified.

The article is devoted to the topical issue of studying archival records of epic monuments recorded outside the Republic of Bashkortostan, in particular in Orenburg, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Samara, and Saratov regions, some of which have been published, and variants are taken into account in the comments to the volumes. In the first monograph devoted to the Bashkir heroic epic, its author A. N. Kireev noted that expeditions to the regions of the Russian Federation listed above gave a lot of new information about the Bashkir folk epic. This article is aimed at the study of epic material recorded precisely outside the Republic of Bashkortostan. The objectives of the article are to identify texts included in the volumes of the scholarly code “Bashkir folk art” and texts that have not yet been published; possible repeated recordings; determining the area of distribution of this or that epic tale, the age and gender of the informants. To solve the tasks, a statistical method was used to characterize the repertoire; the method of comparative analysis was used as the main one, an element of structural analysis and a comparative-descriptive method was also used in the study of repeated recordings in line with experimental approaches developed by V. M. Gatsak in the field of the theory of the preservation of the epic in time.

The methodological basis of the article was the works of Russian, including Bashkir, researchers-predecessors in the field of epic studies: A. N. Kireev, S. A. Galina, M. M. Sagitova, V. M. Gatsak, I. V. Pukhov, etc.

The study will allow us to present the content, volume of material, distribution areas of the Bashkir epic in the regions of the Russian Federation where Bashkirs live compactly. When studying archival materials, it turned out that epic works about animals and social and everyday ones were particularly widespread there. In the future, archival texts will be published and put into active scientific circulation. It is a subject for special research, including dissertations, on various genres of folklore of the Bashkirs of the Russian Federation, both from the folkloristic and linguistic point of views (dialects are interesting, both archaisms and Russian words are used, even characters of Russian folklore are found in the texts).

The Dai ethnic group in China boasts a rich tradition of poetry and folk narratives, often closely intertwined with folk ritual activities. Behind these folk events, there are usually the associated explanatory text. This paper is based on field research data collected from 2008 to 2016, including interviews with the local people, tracking folk events, and understanding narrative texts. Three cases were selected from the data to elaborate on the relationship between rituals and narratives. The first case is wedding, the pickled fish jars in the betrothal ceremony could be explained in the narrative poem “A-Luang Basom” and the ritual of Crossing-the-Bridge during weddings simulates the typical scene of a hero’s return and marriage as portrayed in the A-Luang story. The second case is funeral, where people often transcribe and recite the scripture “Ga Po” to express gratitude for the mother’s childbirth. The third case involves the dedication of narratives “Ya Huanhao” or “Bu Huanhao” in Buddhist temples, narrating the story of the struggle between the rice sprite and the Buddha. The ritual of summoning “Ya Huanhao” or “Bu Huanhao” reflects deep respect for the rice sprite. Through these analyses, it becomes evident that folk narratives serve as interpretations of folk rituals. Different rituals, in turn, provide the context for the practice and transmission of narratives. Narratives and rituals complement each other, reflecting the Dai people’s profound understanding of traditional poetry.

This paper is dedicated to the comparative constructions formed by the lexeme ush in the Chalkan language. The lexeme ush is a multifunctional means that is used in different types of syntactic constructions to express similarities both between the characteristics of objects and events. The conceptual and terminological apparatus for the analysis of comparative constructions is discussed with the aim of systematizing their plane of content, as well as the principles of modeling different types of comparative constructions, taking into account all the components necessary to express the comparative relation, regardless of their explicit expression. The relevance of the study is due to the appeal to comparison as one of the nuclear means of forming figurativeness. Comparative relations are the basis of epithets, metaphors and other expressive means that are actively used in folklore and literary texts to describe characters and events.

The material for this paper consists of examples collected by continuous sampling from Chalkan folklore texts. In addition, several surveys were conducted among native speakers of the Chalkan language in cases when it was necessary to clarify the specifics of the language material. The main method of analysis used is the method of modeling a sentence as a unit of language, through which the plane of content of a linguistic sign is reconstructed by restoring the components missing in the utterance as the result of reduction, but necessary for the formation of a comparative relation.

The following types of comparative constructions with the word ush are identified: polypredicative constructions with verbal and nominal predicates, in which ush marks the second compare (comparative standard), as well as simple and complex sentences with predicative ush, in which it plays the role of a nominal predicate with the semantics of equivalency.

The novelty of the research lies in the fact that it is the first to identify the analytical-synthetic type of polypredicative constructions with the postposition ush, in which the main predicative unit represents the first comparee, the dependent predicative unit represents the second comparee, and the lexeme ush functions as a means of expressing equivalent relations between two events.

The comparative use of ush is contrasted with that of another Chalkan comparative marker shylap // shchylap // shchynap, as well as cognates of the lexeme ush in other Turkic languages of Southern Siberia, primarily the functionally similar oskhas in the Khakas language, with a number of similarities and differences having been identified.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the lexical and semantic features of the connotation of zoonyms denoting wild animals in the Altai language. The relevance of the work is due to the lack of a comprehensive study of the connotative meanings of zoonyms in the Altai language. The subject of the study is zoomorphisms that designate representatives of different families (bears, canines, deer, mustelids, squirrels) and are used in human nominations. One of the tasks is to identify the positive (meliorative) and negative (pejorative) connotations of these zoolexems. The research methods used in this work are the semantic-pragmatic method, contextual and component analysis. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of manifestations of connotation in the speech of native speakers of the Altai language, which are not recorded by existing dictionaries, but are reproduced in the process of forming and interpreting statements. In line with the anthropocentric approach, the specificity of zoonyms denoting in the Altai language representatives of the families of bears, canines, mustelids, squirrels, and deer, which are endowed with connotative meanings and are means of emotional-evaluative nomination, is considered. Zoonyms denoting wild animals in the Altai language are involved in the conceptualization of man, his physical, moral, ethical and intellectual qualities. By expressing a subjective attitude towards another person, describing his qualities, a native speaker actualizes those stereotypical established associations with animals that are enshrined in his linguistic consciousness. The connotative meanings of zoonyms denoting representatives of the bear and dog families are as follows: ayu «bear» expresses the word «strong», bӧrü «wolf» – «evil», «cruel», «greedy», «young»; tülkü ‘fox’ – «beautiful», «cunning», borsuk ‘badger’ – «stupid, kind, honest», jeeken ‘wolverine’ – «boastful», toktonok ‘weasel’ – «wise»; pulan ‘elk’, maral ‘deer’ – ‘strong, brave’, elik ‘roe deer’ – ‘beautiful’, ‘timid’, tiyyn ‘squirrel’ – ‘fast’, ‘light’, ‘nimble’. In cultural and linguistic practice, when using zoonyms, two trends in meaning are noted: anthropomorphism, or endowing animals with human properties, and zoomorphism, or endowing people with animal properties, likening humans to animals. In the process of functioning of zoonyms in a figurative meaning in speech practice, mutual enrichment of the semantics of lexemes occurs.

The actualization of ecological discourse in modern research is due to the growth of problems in the relationship between man and nature both in the world and in modern Russian society, requiring the involvement of all possible mechanisms in their complex solution, including the study of everything rational and constructive in the cultural and historical heritage of each nation, including its mythopoetic folklore creativity, which it can bring real practical benefits in overcoming the consumer attitude of an individual to his environment and the formation of personal and social ecological culture.

The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that the value dimension and the significance of the spiritual meanings of the Bashkir epic Ural-Batyr, in particular the proclamation of nature as a value, are revealed for the modern world and man, who are on the verge of an ecological catastrophe today. The purpose of the study: to consider the axiological and ecological components of the ideological ideas of the epic about the Ural Batyr. In accordance with the goal, the following tasks were solved: to identify the spiritual, moral and ecological potential of the epic Ural-Batyr; identify the key environmental imperatives of the legend; and to prove the relevance and significance of the ecological ideas of the epic for modernity.

The authors used general scientific and philosophical methods: dialectical, hermeneutic, descriptive, abstraction, generalization, analysis and synthesis within the framework of the socio-cultural approach to the study of the topic and on the basis of the philosophical and axiological interpretation of the text of the epic about the Ural-batyr. These methods, in contrast to the exclusively philological analysis of epic works, the study of their poetics, the system of images, etc., made it possible to identify the spiritual and cultural meanings of the epic, the significance of its ecological imperatives for modernity. Moreover, the philosophical and ethical view of the value aspects of this work, the results obtained and the conclusions drawn about the importance of the ecological ideas of the epic for contemporaries allow us to further project the concept of «nature as value» also to other genres of Bashkir folklore and use their pedagogical potential in the educational process, in particular in the formation of the ecological culture of the individual and society.

In the study of the poetic-stylistic system of the epic, the consideration of stable poetic descriptions is very important, since they play an important role in the formation of the structure and content of the epic plot. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe magic objects with the semantics of «getting information» that contribute to the development of a certain plot and motifs in the epic narrative of the Khakas people. The achievement of this goal provides for the solution of the following tasks: identification and description of stable poetic descriptions on the example of magic objects with the semantics of «getting information», with a detailed analysis of the Book of Fate, similarities and differences in different epictellers’ texts, determining the degree of attachment to the epic plot and motifs. In heroic tales, the Book of Fate as a magic object is found under different names: the borrowed word, a book, in the meaning of ‘a fortune-telling book, omniscient book, letter, written message’, kinde ‘a book, paper’, pichik ‘a letter, note, message’, sugdur pichik ‘a letter, paper with written text, sutra’, kigdei pichik ‘a letter, paper, book’, sabyra pichik ‘an inscription carved on wood, stone, rock, rock inscriptions, message, heroic letter, letter, epitaph’. As a result of the analysis, with a sample of ten heroic tales recorded from famous Khakas epictellers, it was found that a book, kinde, pichik are most often used as a magical object in the meaning of ‘a book’, and less often – sugdur pichik and sabyra pichik. The main function of a magic book in heroic tales is to deliver a message to the heroes. The introduction of a magic book into the poetic body of the epic contributes to the motivation of the departure of a bogatyr/woman-bogatyr from home (for hunting, receiving a message, searching for a betrothed or a bogatyr horse, for the battle with opponents). Compositionally, motivation is the beginning of the action. It is also found that if epic heroes write a message on hard surfaces (stone, wood), then a writing tool is also indicated: a nail, a steel sword. As the analysis showed, variability is observed by contextual synonyms-verbs, due to the use of epithets, formulaic phrases, but the comparison of a letter with a cheprak (a saddle cloth) remains unchanged. A epicteller’s use of various epic formulas, fixed expressions, and phrases does not violate the unity of the poetic impression, but contributes to the creation of harmony in the folklore narrative.

The article analyzes the nature of reflecting the symbolism of the number one and two in the poetics of historical and heroic epic. It is proved that they contain deep mythological roots, are the carrier of folk consciousness and mentality of ethnos, and have a clear reflection in the Adyghe folklore. To reveal the artistic forms of manifestation of these numbers on the material of historical and heroic songs and legends was the purpose of our work. To achieve the goal the following tasks were set: to analyze the texts of historical-heroic epic; to study the symbolism of the number «one» and «two» in its aesthetic plan; to trace the specificity of representation of the sacral basis of these numbers. The ideas of the Pythagorean philosophical doctrine of numbers were taken into account in the work. We support the theory of division of even and odd numbers, and attributing the former to the female sex, i. e. negative, and the latter to the male sex, i. e. positive. The study of the nature of artistic reflection of number symbolism in historical and heroic epic is important for the comprehensive study of folklore. This is the relevance of the chosen topic. The work is carried out using the structural-comparative method. The theoretical basis of the study was the works of domestic authors devoted to the study of the symbolism of numbers of the Adyghe cultural tradition. The main ideas of Z. Zh. Kudaeva and M. R. Hezheva are outlined and applied. The practical significance of the work consists in the fact that its results can be useful for specialists in the field of folkloristics, as well as for the circle of readers interested in folk traditional culture. The result of the work done is that number symbols turn out to be one of the ways of expressing moral ethnic consciousness. In the epic they are understood as means of artistic expression.

This work is devoted to the problem of integrating scientific knowledge with the use of systematic methodology in research. The relevance of addressing the problem is due to the insufficient implementation of postnonclassical approaches in modern folklore studies. The level of knowledge of human culture today is increasingly demanding the synthesis of knowledge from different disciplines to expand the boundaries of worldview. The purpose of the study is to update the conceptual foundations of systematic research of mythological texts, and then to identify the real core of the myth of the Aal Luuk Mas world tree in the light of natural science theory. The materials for the analysis are extracted from the epic texts of Olonkho, where the mythological views of the Sakha ancestors are most fully preserved. Scientific novelty is seen in the very formulation of the problem of integrating knowledge and methods in the study of images of the mythological canvas of olonkho texts. The principle of integrity serves as the leading principle in the study, and a systematic approach is implemented. Structural and semantic analysis, the method of mutual interpretation of myth and science, methods of demetaphorization, dehyperbolization of the mythological image are applied. The author clarified that the approach is based on a number of concepts of the scientific paradigm «nature-man-thinking-creation». It is proposed to introduce into folklore research the consideration of the problems of humanitarianism and myth, and science in the context of the integral field of human culture, which is possible to provide a multidimensional result of research. As a result of the analysis, the content of the ancient image of Aal Luuk Mas appears in a new light, in the form of the most important cosmic process – the spiral dynamics of systems of celestial bodies. It is emphasized that the main cosmic function of the mythological image of the Aal Luuk Mas tree as a driving principle is to ensure the dynamics, integrity and unity of the Universe at all levels of matter (microcosm, macrocosm, and megaworld). The author concludes that the results obtained contribute to the revision and possible adoption of the scientific image of the phenomenon of «spiral motion» in the form of a projection of the «psychological universal and archetype» (S. Yu. Neklyudov) mythological representations of ancient people.