Phytonymic Vocabulary of The Komi and Komi-Permyak Languages in Comparative Aspect: The Sign of the Nomination ‘Color’
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-3-70-82
The article examines the role of color in plant naming in two closely related languages. It identifies the most commonly used color designations and their expression in phytonyms. Most often, they are expressed directly. For example, kp, kz görd setör “red currant” (literally “red currant”), vezh jön “osot” (kp), “spurge” (kz) (literally “yellow osot”), kp chochkom sizyur “clover” (literally “white clover”), kz edzhid bobonyan “clover” (literally “white clover”), and so on. However, there are examples in which color is represented metaphorically. So, in the Komi-Permian phytonym shondisetör, meaning “red currant”, the red color is indicated by the word shondi – “sun”. Or Komi-Permian phytonym sim pu “black poplar, sedge” (literally “rusty tree”), in which the word sim – rust represents the reddish-brown color of the bark. Since phytonyms often have a two-component structure, the first of which is an adjective or noun indicating color, the article also focuses on the second component. Typically, the color characteristic is observed in a plant's inflorescence, berry, bark, or stem. In this case, the determiner is the name of the plant species or genus (kp, kz görd bad “willow holly” (literally “red willow”), borrowed from the Russian language the words tsvet, tsvetki, tschvet “flower” (kp vezhvet, vizhvet “dyer’s chamomile” (literally “yellow flower”), the word jur “head” (kp vezhyur, kz vizhyur “mother-and-stepmother” (literally “yellow head”), the word sin “eye” (kp vezhsin “daisy” (literally “yellow eye”)), the word turun “grass” (kz vezh turun “St. John's wort tetrahedral” (literally “yellow grass”), kp belturun “knotweed” (literally “white grass”), etc.), the word gum “stem” (kz vezh gum “common grass” (literally “yellow stem”)). Of the less expected: bugyl “eyeball” (kz lözbugyl “cornflower blue” (literally “blue eyeball”)), chacha “toy” (kp kz löz chacha “blue cornflower” (literally “the blue toy”). Both Komi-Permyak and Komi-Zyryan use five basic colors: kp, kz görd “red”; kp, kz syöd “black”; kp vöz/löz, kz löz “blue”; kp, kz vezh/vizh “yellow”; kp chochkom/chochköm, kz edzhyd “white”. However, the composition of Komi-Permian phytonyms, more often than others, contains vezh/vizh “yellow” – 25 % of the total, and vöz/löz “blue” less often – 13 %. In the KomiZyryan language, the most common color is edzhyd “white” (including the metaphorical kelyd “pale, light”) – 35 % of the total; the rarest is syöd “black” (6 %).
Keywords: phytonymy, Komi-Permyak language, Komi-Zyryan language, nomination feature, color, semantic components of a phytonym, comparative analysis
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Issue: 3, 2026
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