“Snake” Plants in Russian Dialects

Abstract

The article observes a group of Russian dialect phytonyms formed from the words meaning ‘snake’, ‘grass snake’, and ‘viper’. Its purpose is to analyse the motivational features of the plants and determine the plants most often associated with snakes and the most frequent phytonyms. The lexemes for the analysis were taken from Russian dialect dictionaries and specialised phytonymic dictionaries. The unit of analysis is the “phytonym — plant” pair (176 pairs in total). Where possible, the geographical tags were given at the uezd / district level. Latin scientific names are reduced to a single nomenclature.

The most common plant features from which the names are derived are: use in folk medicine, shape of the plant’s organs, the plant’s habitat, its toxicity, and its colour. A small number of phytonyms are explained by folkloric texts. Among the phytonyms, the composite zmeinaia / zmeeva trava is the most common; zmeevka and zmeevik are the next. Common bistort, broadleaf speedwell, heath spotted-orchid, and lakeshore bulrush are most often associated with the snake.

The article argues the advantages of a comprehensive phytonym analysis. It allows developing hypotheses about plant identification. The article contains three diagrams: “Plants nomination bases”, “The most frequent phytonyms” and “Plants”.