Realization of the Meaning ‘Upward Movement’ Using the Root Consonant [r] in Mongolian Languages
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-1-49-58
This article compares and analyzes the semantic connections of words with the common root elements ur-/ür-, or-/ör-, and the shared seme ‘rise, movement upward/forward’ in Mongolian languages. The relevance of this work lies in the need to study how language expresses human perceptual experience during world cognition and to examine linguistic units that reflect the physical perception and comprehension of surrounding reality by a language personality. The novelty of the study is in identifying motivating factors that contribute to the nomination of phenomena and processes associated with rise and growth, as well as in identifying several semantically related lexical-semantic groups. The aim of the study is to identify phonetic-semantic correlations in words with the common root element ur-/ür- in Mongolian languages by analyzing the acoustic-articulatory features of the sonant [r] (impact, energy, strength, impulse, movement). In the process of verbalization, this consonant acts as a sound sensory reaction to the physiological perception of the movement of internal strength and energy. These features motivated the nomination of ‘rise of internal strength’ in Mongolian languages. The hypothesis that semantics depend on the acoustic-articulatory features of this consonant, symbolically embedded as the basis of the nomination, made it possible to establish and describe a number of lexical units with the root consonant [r], which are connected by their phonetic-semantic structure and content and form a common semantic continuum. The factual material for the study is based on data from dictionaries of Written Mongolian, Khalkha-Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk languages. Semantic connections between two large lexical-semantic groups of words with the root element *ur- and a common meaning are considered and justified as: 1) ‘up, rise’ (WMo. ergü- ‘to raise (up)’; urγu- ‘to grow’; üre ‘fruit’; urma ‘inspiration’; orgi- ‘to bubble up, surge’; ürgü- ‘to be frightened’; orboyi- ~ örbüyi- ‘to ruffle, stick out’; örbis- ‘to flare up’) and 2) ‘forward; before; to be first’ (WMo. uruγši ‘forward; to the south’; urid, urida ‘before, in front of’; öris- ‘to get ahead, to warn’; uruldu- ‘to compete in a race’).
Keywords: Mongolian languages, Turkic languages, phonosemantics, synesthesia, lexical-semantic group, root morpheme, paired words, reduplication
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Issue: 1, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 49 — 58
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