THE DICTIONARY OF THE VILLAGE OF KONYSHCHE (KOVEL DISTRICT OF VOLYN REGION) DIALECT

Abstract

The article presents a dictionary register fragment of the dialect spoken by the residents of the village of Konyshche in Kovelskyi (before the administrative-territorial reform of 2020 – Ratnivskyi) district of the Volyn region. The object of the description is the native dialect of the compiler himself.
The lexical information collected and systematized in the form of a dictionary is of great significance since it is the first attempt to introduce into the Ukrainian dialectological science one more spatial coordinate of the linguistic diversity of the Volynian dialect, and in a broader sense, that of Western Polissia. The dictionary register comprises lexical units of different parts of speech with a quantitative predominance of nouns and verbs. All dictionary entries are arranged alphabetically and reflect a wide range of vocabulary, primarily related to the routine activities of the villagers, rituals, human traits, flora and fauna of the region, etc., situations of informal natural communication of its speakers, their unique spiritual and material culture. Every word meaning is specified by providing a literary equivalent to a dialect word or a description of the object, sign, action, or circumstances denoted by the word. Undoubtedly, the broad involvement of dialect contexts in dictionary entries spotlights the syntagmatic relationship of words, provides a reliable basis for studying the ways of how to construct utterances in accordance with the linguistic and stylistic features of a colloquial folk phrase. There are many cases of expanding the semantic structure of tokens and preservation of archaisms.
The study has revealed a considerable number of borrowings and interfering influences of the Polish language. The author concludes that it is difficult to put a full stop in the compilation of a dialect dictionary because even after the publication of the work, the need to record new lexical findings may occur. The analyzed dialect dictionary is an important and promising source of linguistic material for scientific studies in lexicology and the history of the Ukrainian language. It also contributes to a better understanding of the already known dialectological units of speech.