Lullabies and Algys in the Semiosphere of the Sakha Culture: Linguistic Aspect

The article analyzes the language and cultural code of lullaby songs and maternity incantations (algyss) which belong to the oldest layer of the Yakut folklore. The addressees are the patron goddesses of clans Aiysyt and the guardian goddesses Ieyekhsit. Understanding of the cultural text language leads to the finding of prototypical conceptual meanings in the consciousness of the ancient Sakha. The novelty of the research lies in the identification of the sign nature of lullabies and incantations, which until now have not been the subject of interest for the Yakut linguists. The aim of the paper is to analyze the semiotic signs and symbols of lullaby songs and maternity spells in semiosphere of the Sakha culture. The article is based on archival materials and published folklore texts. Archaic texts are endowed with magical functions: procreative and apotropaic. In the ritual songs, especially in the rites of transition, both the action code and the sound code (moaning, sound repetitions, the manner of singing: diyeretiya or daegeretiyaҥ) are combined and coexist. Sound behavior in the house of a woman in labor during and after the delivery is strictly regulated. Special sacredness is expressed by allegorical messages about the approach of childbirth, which are expressed by the time code. A syntagmatic series of auspicious signs is presented: the numerical characteristic is joined by color and spatial ones, which model the theme of creation of the Universe and Man. The theme of creation is presented through the technological code of making the cradle. The ambivalence of archaic representation generated by the anthropic functions time/birth, our own/foreign, up/down, and death/life is observed. The symbol of the child is traditionally an egg and a bird, as for gender terms, the symbol of a boy is a knife, the symbol of a girl is a scissor. Wishes for the child’s good fortune are displayed by the concept of cold, which preserves the fact of the negative attitude of the Sakha people from the south to the northern Arctic climate. The sound song code is expressed by a set of cultural codes: the action code, which is defined as a set of ritual and ceremonial actions to achieve the hearing of the patron goddess of childbirth; the time code, corresponding to the three-dimensional universe; the spatial code, represented by the eight-member horizontal and nine-tier vertical model. Sign systems of folk culture functioning in lullabies and incantations are inseparable from their pragmatics. They are “folded messages” which eventually represent archetypal beliefs of ancient Sakha, which are deciphered as a result of semiotic and linguistic research.

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