On some names of braga and moonshine in northern Russian dialects

The article represents the description of the group of homemade alcoholic beverages names, which exist in the dialects of Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Kostroma regions. The study is based on lexical materials of the Toponymic Expedition of the Ural University, as well as dialect dictionaries, which include the lexemes used on the territory of the Russian North. The peculiarities of vocabulary formation and the influence of social, demographic and economic factors on its formation are revealed. Semantic-motivational and etymological analysis of dialectal lexemes showed that this group of vocabulary, along with the original Northern Russian units, includes borrowings from Volga dialects, semi-professional languages and the words originating from foreign sources (polonism, turkism). The author identified sustained motivational models presented in the considered nominations: the semantics of “homemade intoxicating drink” emerges from the alteration of meanings “low-quality liquid”; “disorder, bustle”, “prank, hooligan”; “talk, chatter”. The peculiarities of this lexical group were influenced by governmental bans on home brewing: there are a large number of euphemisms and variability of the lexical group. Compared with beer, home brew and moonshine in the Russian North were considered second-rate drinks and were associated with alcohol addiction, while drinking beer rarely caused social condemnation.