Ххэ ‘blue’ as a significant semantic category in Buryat linguoculture

The purpose of the article is to identify the national and cultural specifics of the symbolism of the “blue” (хүхэ) colour, determined by the development of the Mongolian-speaking peoples in general, the formation of religious beliefs and the value picture of the world of an individual. Colour is defined by each nation in its own way, the "basic" colours form a colour picture of the world, which is part of the language picture of the world, and consequently is included in the cultural and conceptual picture of the world. The linguo-colour picture of the world is manifested in the form of colour designations in separate lexemes, phrases, idioms and other verbal means. The article focuses on the identification of universal and distinctive cognitive features of the colour under study. The lexical analysis of phraseological units with the “blue” colour component is followed by linguoculturological excursions into the field of the material culture of the Buryats, ritual practices, customs, signs, myths, historical traditions and legends, fairy tales, folk songs; the data of ethnography, ethnology, psychology, psycholinguistics and other related disciplines are involved.