Names of midges in Russian folk dialects

Entomological vocabulary refers to the oldest parts of the linguistic world-image and reflects both archaic and modern linguistic processes. The purpose of this paper is to describe the names of midges in the Russian folk dialects from areal-etymological approach. The objectives of the study include: identification of lexical structure, etymological analysis, determination of geographical origin of the words and mapping. The matter is selected from the card-index of “Lexical Atlas of Russian folk dialects”, as well as main regional dictionaries of the Russian language. The lexical and derivational map of the names of midges is made up on the basis of the following matter. The lexical structure of the ‘midges’ semantic group in Russian folk dialects has about 60 units (including derivational variants). Most of these words refer to five root groups. The lexical units with the root мошк- dominate among them and are marked almost everywhere. The names with мушк- related to them prevail in Pskov, Kirov, and Nizhniy Novgorod dialects. The lexical units with the root комаш- in Russian folk dialects can be found mainly in the south-eastern dialect area. Words with the root слеп- are marked in Arkhangelsk, Kirov, and Ural dialects. It is significant for dialects of Obonezhje and Pomorje to possess words that are somehow connected with the Baltic-Finnish languages - these are so-called entomosemizmy (the names of insects) кигачи, тигачи, чигач, седоха, сидала and their lexical-derivational variants.