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HOMELAND in the Linguistic Image of the World in Siberian Languages // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2024. Issue 2 (44). P. 46-57

The following article analyzes the concept of HOMELAND in the Siberian Turkic languages (Altai, Khakas, Tuvan, Yakut) and Khanty (an Ob-Ugric language), in contrast to the Mongolian languages. Compared to Russian, where HOMELAND encompasses the ‘small homeland’ and the ‘large homeland’ as a state, the concept of HOMELAND is still developing in the Siberian languages, partly under the influence of Russian linguaculture. In the Siberian and Mongolian linguistic images of the world, the homeland is represented as an idealized space (both physical and spiritual) conquered by the ancestors. The notion of homeland is associated with birth (the land where a person was born and their afterbirth was buried), kinship (homeland as a parent, metaphorical connection with the homeland through the umbilical cord), objects that mark one’s ‘own’ space (rivers, mountains, meadows, forests, campsites, hearths). Also important are the national characteristics and qualities attributed to the homeland by native speakers (junipers, healing springs, richness of flora and fauna, abundance of people). Emotional components of the concept are also essential and are verbalized through expressions that positively characterize the homeland. We distinguish common and unique national features of the concept of HOMELAND in the languages mentioned above. For example, HOMELAND is defined in all languages as the land where someone was born and raised; the idea of kinship with the land is also universal, as is the sacralization of space and the presence of a body of water. In the descriptions of the Altai, certain similarities can be found between the linguistic worldviews of Altaic and Mongolian (frequent epithets such as ‘sacred,’ ‘golden,’ and ‘healing’). Certain unique somatisms and verbs characterizing the homeland as an anthropomorphic being are found in different Turkic languages.

Keywords: Siberian Turkic languages, Khanty language, Mongolian languages, linguistic worldview, concept, linguaculture, lexis