Mordovian phytonyms in system of semantic field

Dialectal lexis of the Mordovian languages, Erzya and Moksha, plays an important and cognitive role in researching peoples' history, as well as their ethnic, materialistic and spiritual culture. Issues tackling dialectal problems create some difficulty due to several reasons. Firstly, dialectal data is collected for many years not only on the territory of Mordovia itself but also in habitats of the Erzya and Moksha's ethnic groups throughout the territory of Russia. Secondly, frequently there are multiple variants of a same denotatum, together with the blending of their nominations. However, the data found represent some interest for different researches in etymology, derivational morphology, semantics and other linguistic branches. In our research we have applied the semantic approach to the phytonyms that have been disappearing from active use and dictionaries. Erzya and Moksha phytonyms have not been studied enough until now, and as regards the dialectal variants of the studied thematic group, they have not been registered in dictionaries and have never been a subject of any research, especially outside Mordovia, except for the author of the present report and the dictionaries and study aids by O. E. Polyakova and R. N. Buzakova. It is a well-known fact that borrowings occur when ethnic groups speaking different languages reside in the same area. So, dialectal words, including phytonyms, are a strong evidence of early contacts between the Erzya and Moksha people. Folk nominations of phytonyms often reflect particular conceptions of the world that is why they are of much interest and value for researchers. On the whole, the parallel research into the dialectal variants and those into literary languages will definitely enrich Finno-Ugric etymological studies, as well as comparative historical and typological ones. The problem in question is also of value for practical use, i.e. that of "language building" which will throw some light on disputable issues of theoretical etymological aspects that are not properly investigated. At the present time the research centers of the Republic of Mordovia are being actively engaged in laborious lexicographic work. Unfortunately, dialectal dictionaries are still not on the agenda.