Valeria KolosovaInstitute for Linguistic studies · Dictionary department
Valeria Kolosova
Candidate of Sciences (Phylology)
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Introduction
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September 2008 - present
Publications
Publications (103)
Fungi have been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. This study, based on 35 historical written sources and 581 in-depth semi-structured interviews from eight countries in the western borderlands of the former Soviet Union, investigates the medicinal use of fungi by local communities. We compared the taxa and uses obtained from fieldwork...
Wild edible plants, particularly berries, are relevant nutritional elements in the Nordic countries. In contrast to decreasing global trends, approximately 60% of the Finnish population is actively involved in (berry) foraging. We conducted 67 interviews with Finns and Karelians living in Finnish Karelia to: (a) detect the use of wild edible plants...
Background
While the hybridization of ecological knowledge has attracted substantial attention from researchers, the coexistence of local and allopathic medicinal traditions in literate societies widely exposed to centralized schooling and medical services has not yet been investigated. To this end, we studied the current and remembered local ethno...
Although the ethnoecology of the Chukchi has long been the focus of researchers, a systemic description informing the history of plant use, including local names or modes of harvesting and preparation, suitability for different ages, and different occasions, is largely lacking. C. H. Merck provided the first account of food plants at the end of the...
Russian plant names are a semantic group poorly represented in historical dictionaries. During the project “Russian phytonyms in diachronic aspect (11th–17th c.)” (2017–2020), the PhytoLex database was created, which contains plant names recorded in Russian texts of the 11th–17th centuries. The population of the database was accompanied by research...
Numele de plante ruseşti reprezintă un grup semantic slab reprezentat în dicţionarele istorice. Baza de date PhytoLex a fost creată în cadrul proiectului „Fitonime ruseşti sub aspect diacronic (secolele XI–XVII)” (2017–2020). Această bază de date conţine nume de plante identificate în textele ruseşti din secolele XI–XVII. Elaborarea bazei de date a...
Over the last century in the European context, animal production has been transformed by the dynamics of centralization and decentralization due to political and economic factors. These processes have influenced knowledge related to healing and ensuring the welfare of domestic animals. Therefore, our study aimed to document and compare current and...
This article analyzes the Naukan Yupiks ethnobotanical knowledge, i.e. the use of plants as food, medicine, household or ritual objects, on the example of one family. The resettlement from Cape Dezhnev to other settlements led to significant changes in their culture and language proficiency. Fieldwork was carried out in summer 2014 in the village o...
Ethnopharmacological relevance
The traditional medicine of various peoples populating Russia is strongly underrepresented in the international anthropological literature. In addition, it has a multicomponent structure, a long history of relations with official medicine, and is still a living system with many people using folk remedies and visiting...
DiGe project seminar, 17th March 2021. Registration deadline: 16.03.2021.
We are happy to welcome you to our seminar where we will "travel" to the lands across Karelia, Ukraine and Romania. As part of the DiGe project [https://www.unive.it/pag/33443] two members of the team are going to present their work on 17ths of March (2021) at 10:30 CET - 12:...
Socio-economic changes impact local ethnobotanical knowledge as much as the ecological ones. During an ethnobotanical field study in 2018–2019, we interviewed 25 Setos and 38 Russians in the Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast to document changes in wild plant use within the last 70 years according to the current and remembered practices. Of the 71...
Dictionary of Old Russian Plant Names (11th-17th сс.) is a logical continuation of the Phytolex database, which contains the names of plants recorded in the Russian literature of the 11th-17h centuries. The paper is discussing the key points concerning the representation of phytonyms in the dictionary.
The aim of this study was to understand the role of viral narratives and the involvement of social media into the invention of tradition. We took as an example the recently highly promoted Ivan-chaj, a tea made from the fermented leaves of willowherb, a plant little known and used in Europe until a few years ago. Relying on a wide variety of source...
While the current consumption of wild food plants in the taiga of the American continent is a relatively well-researched phenomenon, the European taiga area is heavily underrepresented in the scientific literature. The region is important due to its distinctive ecological conditions with restricted seasonal availability of wild plants. During an et...
The local use of wild food plants represents a reservoir for the biocultural diversity of human diet and is therefore being extensively studied; yet the effects of the introduction of novel uses into specific biocultural conditions have been little researched. Rosebay willowherb Epilobium angustifolium L. has been intensively promoted in Europe sin...
Ethnopharmacological relevance:
Currently various scientific and popular sources provide a wide spectrum of ethnopharmacological information on many plants, yet the sources of that information, as well as the information itself, are often not clear, potentially resulting in the use of plants among lay people or even in official medicine that may b...
The authors worked from 2014–2016, with 67 Naukan and Chukchi participants in six villages on the subject of “mouse roots,” a category of edible plants, including tubers of five species, taken from caches of Microtus voles. Only eight out of 44 Chukchi and none of the Naukan respondents said that they still actively gather these foods. However, 43...
Приводится обзор программ, используемых в проекте «DiGe – Ethnobotany of divided generations in the context of centralization» (университет Ка’ Фоскари, Венеция). На этапе расшифровки интервью используется программа F4, позволяющая управлять одновременно аудиозаписью и текстовым файлом без переключения между окнами, автоматически проставлять время...
The publication is a review of a work “Plants in folk beliefs and rituals” compiled by Adam Fischer and published by Polish ethnobotanists. It is a rich collection of Polish folk plant knowledge
The current project, PhytoLex, will create favorable conditions for introducing new materials into scientific circulation, for future comparative and typological studies on phytonymy, ethnobotany, folk taxonomy, folk medicine and magic. The texts selected for analysis cover all the main genres of the 11th-17th centuries, such as religious literatur...
The article concerns the historical dictionaries of the Russian language taken as sources of the Russian phytonyms database PhytoLex. Not questioning the significance of the dictionaries which reflect the lexical richness of the Old East Slavic and Old Russian languages, the authors offer a number of clarifications in the dating and semantics of so...
The article analyses Russian folk names of dandelion (Taraxacum), with a special attention to motivation of phytonyms by various plant features. The dependence among names in Russian dialects, folklore, and using dandelion is analysed. For example, lexemes with the roots дут- (‘to blow’) and пух- (‘fluff’) are determined by achenocarps with downy e...
The paper analyzes a limited group of Bulgarian dialectal phytonyms formed from Bulg. мечка/мечок ‘bear/he-bear’. It focuses on 31 names for 32 plants. Some plants have several names, while the same phytonym may signify a number of plants. The phytonyms analyzed are formed from the same root and their motivations are rather various.
The paper analyses the Russian dialectal plant names formed from the words meaning ‘dog’ – Russian собака. The purpose is to find the plant features which served the basis for their nomination, that is to find out the reasoning behind dog-nomination in Russian dialects, as well as differences and similarities between the patterns. The total sample...
PhytoLex is a database of Russian phytonyms, used as the main tool in research of the phytonym history in the Old Russian language (11-17 cc.). This research includes such fields as lexemes and denotata, the time and place of writing manuscripts, and their authorship, source languages, etc., and it allows searching by these parameters and a number...
The chapter describes the plant names in the region of Golo Bordo, divided between Albania and Macedonia.
The article concerns the phytonyms derived from the words еврей / жид / жыд / žid / żid / jud ‘Jew’ as a particular case of xeno-denomination. They are often used for naming thorny, poisonous, harmful plants. The ersatz properties of plants may also be interpreted through a stranger’s image.
More interesting is the case when an ethnic group is cho...
Background
This study focuses on health-related plant use among speakers of the critically endangered Naukan language (Inuit-Yupik-Unangan family) in the Russian Far East. The Naukan people were forced, in 1958, under Soviet consolidation, to move from their original settlement on Cape Dezhnev, leading to significant changes in spiritual worldview,...
Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current s...
The article analyzes Slavonic dialect phytonyms derived from the names of elements: air, water, earth and fire. Plant features motivating their names are very various: colour, taste, place of growing etc. At that, their proportion differs in various groups: colour is the leading feature for "fire" plants, while in "water" ones the place of growing...
The article presents the idea and the primary results of the project “Russian Phytonyms in Diachronic Aspect (11-17 cc.)”. The aim of the project – fixing the genesis,
chronology of appearing, ways of borrowing phytonyms on various development stages of the Russian language – requires creating the database of the Old Russian plant names. At the fir...
article analyses the Slavonic folk plant names formed from the words meaning
‘bear’. The purpose is to find the plants features, which became the basis for their
nomination. One might argue that the most important features are: Size. “Bear” names are
given, as a rule, to high plants with big leaves (like Bulg. меча леска, Serb.-Cr. медвjеђа
лиjеска...
In both literary Russian and Russian dialects, romashka ‘chamomile’
can refer to various plants of the Asteraceae family. The article analyzes
Slavonic dialect phytonyms in terms of their motivation by chamomile’s
features and use in the traditional culture. A significant number of
the native names for chamomile are motivated by its colour, habitat...
В статье анализируется группа славянских диалектных фитонимов, образованных от названий зайца - заяц, зайчик, ушкан, zec, wuchač и под. Выявляются признаки растений, которые легли в основу номинации. Делаются выводы о распределении тех или иных типов фитонимов по основным группам славянских языков.
The article concerns language processes resulting in phytonyms made of other phytonyms. Word-formation may be realized in various ways: meaning transferring; prefixal, suffixal, and prefixal-suffixal methods; forming compounds and word-combinations. At that, the same plant may have a number of cognates formed according to different models. Two plan...
insectivorous perennial plant of Droseraceae family, dwelling on boggy soils. A special attention is paid to the plant’s features influencing its names in various parts of Slavonic-speaking territory, beliefs about the plant
(reflected in folklore), as well as the use of sundew in ethnomedicine and folk magic.
Most Slavonic names of the plant – as,...
The article concerns pragmatic, symbolic, and linguistic aspects of folk knowledge and using of the birch / Betula in Slavonic tradition.
Ethnobotanic notes. VIII. Calamus
Ethnobotanic notes concern Acorus calamus L. The article analyses the morphological features of the plant, its functional uses, and etiological and etymologic aspects of dialectal names of the plant.
Key words : fitoportrait, Acorus calamus, public medicine, public calendar.
The abstract conserns the Russian dialectal phytonyms derived from the names of food and dishes of the folk cuisine.
The article concerns plant names in the dialects of various Slavonic languages. The aim of the analysis is to demonstrate how, in different local traditions, different plant features are being noted and interpreted. These
features are: colour, size, shape, surface, number of plant organs, “behaviour”, time of appearing and flowering, place of growt...
The article concerns folk understandings of etymologically-opaque
phytonyms in Slavonic languages and the consequences of these
understandings, such as creating plant symbolism in folklore, their
usage in etymological magic, folk medicine and agricultural practices.
The author proposes a principle for the distribution of cases of
etymo logical...
The review considers János Géczi’s monograph The Rose and its
Symbols in Mediterranean Antiquity. The book concerns the forming
of rose symbolism in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the culture
of early Christianity. Moreover the monograph describes various
aspects of Mediterranean life in antiquity — its mythology, literature,
art, medicine,...
Рецензия на сборник «Биље у традиционалноj култури Срба (приручник фолклорне ботанике). Нови Сад, 2013.
The article describes basic facts of life and work by Nikolay Ivanovich Annenkov (1819–1889), who was one of the first to collect Russian folk phytonyms, as well as a pioneer in several branches of botany. It also contains the lists of jis works and rewards.
The article analyses Slovak phytonyms derived of the word медведь ‘bear’. In F. Buffa’s dictionary there are only six of them for three plants. Equally not numerous ones from A. Bernolak’s dictionary don’t coincide with them; neither do the denotatums. Slovak material is typical for Western Slavonic area; Southern and Eastern Slavonic “bear” phyton...
This paper is a review of local plants used in water infusions as aromatic and refreshing hot beverages (recreational tea) consumed in food-related settings in Europe, and not for specific medicinal purposes. The reviewed 29 areas are located across Europe, covering the post-Soviet countries, eastern and Mediterranean Europe. Altogether, 142 taxa b...
Background
Ethnobotanical surveys of the Western Balkans are important for the cross-cultural study of local plant knowledge and also for obtaining baseline data, which is crucial for fostering future rural development and eco-tourism initiatives in the region. The current ethnobotanical field study was conducted among the last remaining Albanians...
В статье рассматриваются фольклорные и мифологические образы как сада в целом, так и отдельных садовых растений на материале фольклорных произведений различных славянских народов, а также этнографических описаний обрядов. В традиционной культуре и мифопоэтическом сознании славян сад занимает промежуточное место между освоенным, культурным и чужим,...
The article studies plant names formed from the root 'bear' in East-Slavonic languages.
The article presents plant names fixed in 2010 in two villages of Golo Bordo (Albania), as well as comments on their parallels in Slavonic and Balcanic languages
In this article we review the use of tree saps in northern and eastern Europe. Published accounts by travellers, ethnologists and ethnobotanists were searched for historical and contemporary details. Field observations made by the authors have also been used. The presented data shows that the use of tree sap has occurred in most north and eastern E...
The article analyses concepts of traditional Slavic culture, connected with the plant known as milfoil. It considers connections between the name of the plant in Slavic dialects, folklore texts about it and the use of this plant in the rituals of popular magic and medicine. Dialect names, understood in the terms of popular etymology are of special...
В статье анализируется небольшая группа русских диалектных фитонимов, образованных от зоонимов, а именно таких растений, чьи названия образованы от слова медведь. В качестве материала рассмотрено чуть более шестидесяти фитонимов. Притом, что все они образованы от одного и того же зоонима, мотивации их достаточно разнообразны.
The article observes the influence of number of plant parts on its name, folklore and usage.
An article from the ethnolinguistic dictionary "Slavic antiquities" describes general functions and principles of using herbs in traditional Slavonic culture.
An article from an ethnolinguistic dictionary "Slavic antiquities" describes folk names, folk texts, and usage of thistle in traditional Slavonic culture.
An article from the ethnolinguistic dictionary "Slavic antiquities" describes general functions and principles of using flowers in traditional Slavonic culture.
Archiving the Spoken Text (Folklore, Oral History, Ethnography)
There are archives (e.g. of folklore and ethnography) where the main corpus of materials is
made up of orally transmitted materials (for instance, records of folkloric texts and other
material transcribed in the field, interviews, field diaries). Such materials are not primarily
rec...
The article covers the problems of reflection of the subject code of traditional culture (on the material of names of pieces of clothes) in the plant code — names of plants and folk texts about them. The author observes how the features of the plants makes people compare tham with some pieces of clothes and give them methaphorical names. The article...
The article studies plants connected with Our Lady by names or via folk legends.
The article concerns Slavic folk names, folk texts, and usage of plants connected in traditional ideas with devil and other bad spirits.
The article analyses the notions which in traditional Slavic culture are linked to the costmary plant Tanacetum vulgare L. belonging to the Compositae family. The text traces the ties between Slavonic folk
phytonyms, folklore texts about them, and uses of the plant in rites, folk magic, and folk medicine. Dialectal phytonyms, interpreted in the spi...
The article considers Slavonic dialectal phytonyms for the plants of aconite genus. Close attention is paid to such features of the plants, as their colour, shape of fl owers, leaves and roots, place of growing, taste, poisonousness, which underlay the phytonyms, popular beliefs, refl ected in etiological legends, and infl uenced the use of aconite...
The article concerns connections between plants and mythological personages in Slavonic traditional culture.
In the article Sorbian phytonyms are analysed on the wide Slavonic background. In the first part of the article, they are grouped according to the features reflected in them. These features are: colour, size, form, number of plant organs, time of appearing and flowering, place of growth, taste, smell, sound, medical usage, usage in magic, and so on...
В данной статье предметом нашего интереса стали такие растения, в названиях которых отражена лексика, связанная с огнем и горением. В основании названий растений – фитонимов – может лежать уподобление огню по различным признакам. Растения с лепестками желтого, оранжевого и красного цвета своим ярким, «горящим» цветом вызвали в сознании носителей ди...
The article covers the problem of reflection of the subject code of traditional culture (on the material of names of pieces of clothes) in the plant code — names of plants and folk texts about them. The author observes linguistic and geographic differences of such group of phytonyms at various groups of Slavs.
The article demonstrates how, among the Slavs, a given objective feature of a plant becomes an important factor in the selection of plants for use in folk medicine. At the same time, this feature provides remarkably close ties between the plant, folk beliefsabout certain biblical personages, and the symptoms of disease. The role of another mediator...
The article analyses reflections of the anthropomorphic code in the
plant code of traditional Slavonic culture. There exist: 1) the language
level (using body parts names in phytonyms); 2) the folklore level
(aetiological stories about the genesis of plants from the human body);
and 3) the level of ritual (using body parts to influence the plants,...
The article is a glimpse of history of Ethnobotany in Slavonic countries
The article studies folk names for chicory, folklore about it, and its usage in Slavonic folk medicine.
В статье речь идет о таких растениях, в названиях которых содержится компонент "богородицын", а также о таких, чье возникновение в этиологических легендах связывается с Богородицей. К богородичным травам относятся почти исключительно растения полезные, лекарственные, или медоносные, а также обладающие приятным запахом. Помимо запаха, к признакам, в...
В статье предлагается версия идентификации растения молчан из Олонецкого сборника (2-я четверть XVII в.).
The text is a review of a monograph about Russian herbal books.
The article analyses Russian dialectal plant names derived from the names of various ethnic groups.
The article analyses reflections of the anthropomorphic code in the
plant code of traditional Slavonic culture. There exist: 1) the language
level (using body parts names in phytonyms); 2) the folklore level
(aetiological stories about the genesis of plants from the human body);
and 3) the level of ritual (using body parts to influence the plants,...
A number of dialectal Slavonic phytonyms is tied to some characters of Christian mythology. The aim of the article is to show which objective features of a plant caused this connection and to demonstrate the influence of such ties on creating plant names, on their use in calendar rituals, in folk medicine and magic.
The article studies connections between plant names and their usage in folk medicine.
The article concerns folk names, folk texts, and usage of Euphrasia officinalis in Slavic traditional culture.
The article concerns folk names, folk texts, and usage of nettle (Urtica) in Slavic traditional culture.
The text contains a review of the International symposium “Epos — Language — Myth” (October 2–5th, 2008, Samokov, Bulgaria), devoted to the 130th anniversary of Samokov’s emancipation from Ottoman domination. The Symposium was combined with a film festival “The Film Library of Balkan Culture”. Participants’ papers
concerned the problems of interpre...
The text consists of reviews of three recently published books united by a common theme — folk plant names. Two of them concern Finno-Ugric phytonymic lexis, the third one — the terminology in a Russian dialect tradition. In I.V. Brodsky’s monograph, FinnoUgric plant names are analysed on the basis of wide comparative material. The author considers...
В статье анализируются общие принципы мифопоэтики А. Ремизова, реализованные в его ранних сказочных циклах. Рассмотрена конкретная группа образов, чтобы более подробно описать принципы авторской работы с этнографическими и фольклорными первоисточниками. Мифология растений выбрана как наименее изученная сторона образной системы циклов «Посолонь» и «...
Ряд диалектных славянских фитонимов связан с персонажами христианской мифологии. Цель данной статьи – проследить те признаки растений, которые обусловливают эту связь, а также продемонстрировать влияние этой связи на создание названий растений и их использование в календарной обрядности, в народной медицине и магии.
The review describes the papers given at the conference “Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religions, Cultures II” on October 8-10, 2008 in Sofia
The article concerns folk names, folk texts, and usage of Cichorium Intybus L. in Slavic traditional culture.
Цель настоящей статьи — рассмотреть, как в славянской фитонимике представлены личные имена, и выяснить основания переноса имени на растение или использования имени в названии растения.
The article concerns folk names, folk texts, and usage of Plantago species in Slavic traditional culture.
В статье рассматриваются народные славянские названия ятрышника и его применение в народной магии и медицине.
The article concerns folk Slavic names for cornflower and its usage in folk medicine.
В статье рассмотрены ассоциации растений с глазом, зрением/слепотой, плачем или сном. Они могут быть вызваны самыми разными причинами — окраской цветков или листьев, строением листьев и прикорневой розетки, общим внешним видом растения. При этом название растения может иметь развернутое объяснение в виде фольклорного текста и/или соответствующее пр...
The aim of this article is to show how among the Slavs a given objective feature of a plant becomes one
of the most important factors in the selection of plants for use in folk medicine. At the same time I shall reveal
the remarkably close ties between the feature, the plant name and the folk beliefs surrounding it.
The article presents the relations between two name codes in traditional Slavic culture: the names of body parts and those of plants or how the names of body parts are reflected in the plant name code. Three levels are presented: the level of language (that is the use of names of body parts in phytonyms), the level of folklore (etiological stories...
The aim of this article is to show how among the Slavs a given objective feature of a plant becomes one of the most important factors in the selection of plants for use in folk medicine. At the same time I shall reveal the remarkably close ties between the feature, the plant name and the folk beliefs surrounding it. Such features as colour, form, t...