Phytonyms of the Kazakh Steppe Reflecting the Culture and Sacred Awareness

Abstract

There exists a relationship of phytonyms in the Kazakh language with the content of the Kazakh mythical texts. This study attempted to examine mytho-phytonyms as carriers of information about the worldview of the Kazakh people. In the course of this qualitative study, the data was collected though documentation search. The mytho-phytonyms like karagai (pine), sekseuil (saksaul) and similar other "sacred equivalents" within the framework of mythological texts were examined, which expressed the cognitive attitude of the ethnos to the environment and to religion. During the analysis of the data, the information about the myths related to the phytonyms karagai and sekseuil was correlated with the external features, biological characteristics of plants, and their role in the genres of folklore and literature was determined. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that phytonyms are considered for the first time in the mythological aspect. As a result of this research, images of pine and saksaul are established clearly in the minds of the Kazakh people, and the breadth of the intertext field of mythical texts has been determined. The implications of this study relate significantly to the relationship between language, culture, and mythology and further research on mytho-phytonyms and the creation of a dictionary of mytho-phytonyms of the Kazakh nation.