Nominations of a pockmarked person in the Karelian language

The article examines nominations of a pockmarked or freckled person using the material of the Karelian language. The primary objectives are to analyze the vocabulary describing a pockmarked person, identify the most common word-formation models, and analyze secondary nomination units. The study used semantic-motivational and comparative-contrastive methods, as well as an etymological analysis of the collected lexemes. The language material presented in the article was collected using the method of continuous sampling from dialect dictionaries of the Karelian language and collections of proverbs and sayings. The study involved the author’s fi eld material collected in the Republic of Karelia (Kalevala District, Kostomuksha Municipal District), Tver Region, and Leningrad Region between 2015 and 2024. Based on folklore material, it was revealed that in Karelian proverbs, a pockmarked person has a positive image – as more hardworking and well-natured than an outwardly attractive person. The most productive method of word formation in this lexical-semantic microgroup is compounding. Along with compounding, a number of words are formed using the suffi xal method from the productive base of the lexeme rubi / rupi.