Biblical names and the Rusin "formula for the impossible"
Authors:   St. Petersburg State University, Mokienko Valerii M. , Nikitina Tatiana G. ,   St. Petersburg State University
Published: November 2024

The list of biblical names in the Rusin language is large enough to become the basis of winged words, proverbs, and sayings. Some of them retain their direct semantic connection to the sacred source – such, for example, is znaє go Syatyy Petro and Ne mozh sluzhiti Bõgu i Mamonі. Most of these names have received a regional meaning. Such are the names of the saints who became weather lore sayings: na Ilya cherevo gi kobylya; Na Pétra ledva dusha tepla (na Petra uzhe ledvy dusha tepla); Dav Bog Yurya, ne zamerzne kurya; Ne use v niґіlyu Petra. The semantic reorientation of some of them comes from popular ideas about the corresponding biblical characters – cf., for example, Mikolay tryase borodõv, corresponding to the Ukrainian and Russian phraseological units bіlі mukhi lіtayut’; belye mukhi letayut, relating to the first snow. Sometimes such representations are mediated by folklore (for example, song) tradition – as in the expression govoriti na bum lazarya. Even greater semantic reimagining is observed in cases of desacralized names in line with the folk “culture of laughter” (Mikhail Bakhtin). This is the way how the temporal phraseological units Na zhid’ÿs’kі Petra and Do zhidÿs’kikh Petrÿv with the meaning ‘never’ are created. Dmitry Pop’s Dictionary contains their Ukrainian and Russian equivalents na Mikoli ta y nіkoli; posle dozhdichka v chetverg; dozhidaysya Yur’eva dnya; kogda rak svisnet. In fact, they are all oxymoronic phraseological units that Petr Bogatyrev (1962) called the folklore “formula for the impossible”, which is found in proverbs, sayings, fairy tales, epics, folk songs and dramas, charms, and riddles. In each of these genres, this formula has its own aesthetic function and artistic specificity. This “oxymoron in action” is based on an invalid, absurd fact. Especially functional, we can say “self-sufficient” is the "formula for the impossible" in small (simple) forms of folklore. In paremiology, the formula for the impossible is an ironic and playful saying, being typical of folk phraseology with such characteristics of the latter as fragmentation, semantic cohesion (i.e., reducibility to the meaning ‘never’), and expressiveness generated in an implausible manner. That is why the phraseological fund of many nations abounds with expressions of this type. The given Rusin temporal phraseological units with biblical names refer precisely to such paremiological universals. Their scope is also expanding due to phrases with the meaning ‘never’, formed by the integration of other components: na syatі niґda (Ukrainian yak rak u polі svisne; Russian posle dozhdichka v chetverg); za Ferents Yõvshki (Ukrainian za tsarya Timka, koli zemlya bula tonka; Russian pri tsare Gorokhe); Takі rozumnyaki byli ishchi za Marіï Tiriyzіï (Ukrainian Takі rozumnyaki buli shche za tsarya Timka, Russian Takie umniki byli eshche pri tsare Gorokhe); koli na gorі rak svisne (Ukrainian na Mikoli ta y nіkoli; Russian na to leto, ne na eto, a na tretiy god, kogda chert umret); Rusin koli rіka udgόrі sya vberne (Ukrainian todі to bude, yak sya dogori voda oberne). Cf. also Rusin phraseological units of a similar type, formed according to the same universal “formula for the impossible”: Koby kazhdyy byv bogatyy, ba ko by bіdovov; Koby ne zhona i dіti, lem u kõrchmі by sidіti; Koby svіnya rogi mala, ta by svіt perevernula; Koby sontse znalo, yak tyazhko robiti, ono by sya izmygalo skoro zakhoditi; Koby chilyadnik znav navpered, storaz by sya vshitkogo varovov; Koby chilyadnik znav, de vpade, zagolovok by posteliv. The article offers a comprehensive analysis of Rusin sayings of this type compared with other languages. The obscure imagery of some of them is revealed and commented on.