Designations of Cultivated Plants in Permyak Languages

A corpus of some 900 designations of cultivated plants from Udmurt, Komi-Zyryan, & Komi-Permyak is divided into seven classes: (1) grains, (2) vegetables, (3) fruit-bearing trees & berry bushes, (4) decorative plans, (5) production plants (hemp, hop, flax), (6) fodder plants, & (7) spices. The productivity of each group is quantitatively characterized. These phytonyms are analyzed for occurrence at the Proto-Finno-Ugric & Old & Modern Permyak stages & the presence of Turkic & Russian borrowings. A typology according to designation motivation is proposed. An attempt is made to trace some of the oldest designations to phytonyms of wild plants that originated already in the Proto-Uralic period & identify the most productive, phytonymic periods in the Proto-Finno-Permyak history of cultivated plants. 7 References. Z. Dubiel