Vocabulary of lapidary art in the Urals

The article deals with the vocabulary of gem stone processing mainly recorded in the Ural region. The cutting of precious and ornamental stones was found to have the greatest number of specific designations among various types of lapidary art, which is due to the peculiarities of this work (repeatability of finished forms). The expanded term system of cutting art is practically not reflected in linguistic dictionaries and is beyond the attention of most native speakers; however, the multiplicity of names used and subtle differences in their semantics indicate its high importance among the ‘masters of stone work’. The paper identifies the main thematic groups that can be referred to the vocabulary of cutting: first of all, these are the parts of a cut stone, studied through an example of classic diamond cut, and variants of finished products; in addition, the process and stages of work with a stone as well as the assessment of processing capabilities and results receive verbal embodiment. The paper makes an attempt to identify possible sociolinguistic layers of vocabulary since, despite the fact that formally the entire lexical array can be considered professional, there is heterogeneity of stone processing names (colloquial, outdated, and geographically limited variants). The main source of the material is recordings of conversations with gem cutters; part of the data that make up the catalog ‘Vocabulary, toponymy, and ethnography of stone’ (Ural Federal University) is first introduced into scientific circulation.