Composition and semantics of coordinating conjunctions in the Karelian Proper dialects from the language contacts perspective

The issue of language contacts has been of constant interest to researchers for several centuries. This article is a study of coordinating constructions in Karelian Proper dialects of the Karelian language aimed at a comprehensive description of the composition and semantics of coordinating conjunctions in the Karelian Proper from the perspective of language contacts. The study used the comparison with the Russian language due to the historically close contacts between Russians and Karelians living in the same territory, as a result of which mutual influences are traced at the linguistic and cultural levels. The research methodology included the comparative typological, comparative historical, and lexicographic methods. Dictionaries of the Karelian language (including the dialectal dictionaries), samples of Karelian speech, which helped the author to delve into the composition, semantics, and etymology of the coordinating conjunctions of the studied Karelian dialects, were used as sources. The system of coordinating language tools in the Karelian Proper dialect of the Karelian language covers three groups of conjunctions, similar to the main groups of analogous Russian linking items in simple and complex sentences: the coordinating, disjunctive, and alternative ones. Etymological and semantic observations on the coordinating conjunctions in Karelian dialects lead to the conclusion that connectors expressing comparative and alternative relations are the original lexical items of the modern Karelian dialect. The coordinating and alternative connectors turn out to be the means of conjunction borrowed from the Russian language. The facts of transferring Russian conjunctions to the Karelian language prove that borrowing occurs only if there are certain prerequisites in the structure of the recipient language: the borrowing of coordinating conjunctions is possible due to the parataxis system formed in the Karelian language and its dialects back in ancient times as a typolog-ically significant element of the syntax. This process requires a comprehensive comparative historical reconstruction.