From the etymology of Russian dialectal words with the root ‘tal-//tol-'

The article presents etymological and motivational analysis of three dialectal lexical groups with the root tal-//tol-. The author considers that the dialecticisms under study refer to the word family талый (talyi) (melted) / таять (tayat') (to melt) and attempts to reconstruct its own motivational logic for each lexical group. The first part of the article analyzes the word талы/толы (taly toly) (eyes), the origin of which currently remains not clear enough. The author provides the known hypotheses of the word origin, which include both the initial version (bringing to the family таять (to melt) and an assumption of borrowing. The initial version of the word origin is developed based on its semantic and functional characteristics, the peculiarities characterizing the perception of the organ of vision in language and culture, and motivational patterns in dialectal designations of eyes. The version of the origin of the word as borrowed from the Turkic languages is critically analyzed through reference to the patterns of the appearance of Turkic borrowings in Russian dialects. The second part of the article is devoted to the lexical group талики/толики (taliki toliki) (ripe cloudberry). Different sources treat these lexical unit as a Finno-Ugric borrowing, on the one hand, and as related to the Russian word таять (to melt), on the other hand, thus interpreting them as a result of semantic loan translation from Finno-Ugric. The paper provides some additional arguments in favor of the version that the names of ripe cloudberry belong to the family таять (to melt), while admitting the possibility of the original (not loaned) origin of the naming. The third part of the article deals with the dialectal word талица (talitsa) (rutabaga), the etymological solutions for which are unknown. The author considers this word to have origin in the verb таять (to melt), which is argued based on the peculiarities of the secretion of juice from rutabaga while its being cooked. In conclusion, some other names of cloudberry and rutabaga are compared, and general semantic lines of ‘melting' and ‘steaming' for the analyzed phytonyms are derived.