Foreign Vocabulary in Lesya Ukrainka's Poetic Works

Abstract

Abstract. The subject of the research is foreign language vocabulary in Lesya Ukrainka’s poetic works. Ukrainian linguists continuously study the lexical system of Ukrainian artists' idiolect. However, Lesya Ukrainka’s speech style in terms of the implementation of foreign words in it is insufficient. Clarification of the specifics of the use of borrowings in the poetic texts of Lesya Ukrainka will contribute to a deeper understanding of the linguistic-poetic and artistic space of her works. Lesya Ukrainka perceived the world in an imaginative worldview. It was so comprehensive and multifaceted that it manifested itself not only in the artistic word but at the work of the brush, in the masterful playing of the piano. Undeniably gifted, she was well versed in painting and architecture, music, and theater. In her poetic heritage, Lesya Ukrainka used many terms that are the names of various musical instruments: lyre, mandolin, tambourine, harp, zither, flute.

Lesya Ukrainka actively uses various music related terms: melody, tone, rhythm, harmony. Italian and Latin musical terms are widely used in the analyzed poems, such as tremolo, trill, bass, prelude, tact, note. The poetess's interest in music can be considered one of the factors that influenced the widespread use of musical terms in her works' vocabulary. In addition to those reviewed, Lesya Ukrainka musical vocabulary included: concert, orchestra, choir and others. She uses words to denote a song's types: hymn, serenade, etc. Lesya Ukrainka uses musical terms in her work names Romans ("Romance"), Zhalibnyi Marsh ("Mourning March"). The artistic terminology includes words that name different dances. For example, waltz, gavotte, gallop, cancan ancient French dances. The connection with art is indicated by words related to the theater loge, coulisse. Besides, the Latin borrowing culture, talent a word of Greek origin can be found in Lesya’s poetry.

The article demonstrates that most of the analyzed words are of Greek origin, and they were borrowed before the adoption of Christianity and later in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It proves that all Greek borrowings, which came into the Ukrainian language in the seventeenth century, were carried out mainly through other languages.