Adjectives with positive emotional semantics in the Veps language (on the basis of dialectal and folklore materials)

The article discusses the lexemes used for conveying the meaning “sweet” or “beloved” in the Veps language dialects and obtained from the required concept in the collection of linguistic materials prepared for the forthcoming Linguistic Atlas of the Veps Language. The analysis showed that folk speech in the dialectal areas has common lexemes armaz (a medieval northern Vepsian word of Baltic-Finnish origin) and mel’hine~mel’hine (mel’meaning “sense”, “reason” or “mood” in southern and medieval Vepsian dialects). The peculiarity of this semantic group of vocabulary (“cute” or “beloved”) is its intertwinement with traditional folklore language. The Adjectives sula and izo tend to be used in folklore, where they act as permanent epithets and are designed to support alliteration in the lamentations: sulad susedaized (cute neighbors), sulad sutkaized (cute days), izod iknaized (cute little windows). It should be noted that the folklore usage of some lexemes from this group contributed to the change or expansion of their meaning: for example, the adjective libed, meaning “slippery” in the Baltic-Finnish languages, in the Veps language obtained a positive emotional semantic meaning in conjunction with the word linduine, (“bird”) which is constantly used in the Vepsian lamentations (e. g., libed linduine -“cute bird” or “little bird”). A rare lexeme raha (räha) with the meaning “sweet” or “beloved” acquired under some influence of folklore language, is recorded in the southern Veps language area. In kin languages it means “money” or “silver”. This semantic group was extended by such borrowings as zadobnii and zalanni, which indicates a close relationship with the Russian neighbors.