Firangiz Rustamova Azerbaijan Milli Bilimler Akademisi Folklor Enstitüsü folklorda almanin mifoloji semantikasi// Folklorda elmanın mitolojik semantikası

Anahtar kelimeler: alma, folklor, mifologiya, etimologiya, folklor mətnləri

Firangiz Rustamova

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Institute of Folklore

THE MYTHOLOGICAL SEMANTICS OF THE APPLE IN FOLKLORE

Summary

In ancient Turks the fruit “an apple” considered both mother and father of the all fruits and created in the Caucasus and Anatolia is supposed to spread to the world from the Central Asia, to tell the truth, from Kazakhstan. This fruit can live almost in most weather conditions and it has spread all over the world, so there are many kinds of this ancient fruit and if we want to eat one kind of the apple a day, 20 years time is needed to taste all kinds. Because there are about 7000 (according to some sources more than 7000) kinds of the apple. The tree or the plant “Apple” is called “Malus” in the Latin language and belongs to the family of flowers (in the Latin language “Rosaceae”). This family combines some known fruits such as: pear, quince, almond, apricot, cherry, plum, peach, etc.

The word “Alma” (Apple) being the pro-Turkic word is sounded phonetically same in all Turkic peoples: in Azerbaijani, Bashgird, Kazakh, Garachay-malkar, Tatar, Kirghiz, Ottoman Turkish, Gagauz, Garagalpag, Nogay, Uyghur, Turkmen and Gumug languages it is sounded as “alma”, in the Turkish language it is sounded as “elma”, in Uzbeks as “olma”, but in the Chuvash language it is sounded as “ulma”. Even in Hungarian this beautiful fruit is called “alma”. But in Portugal, Galicia and Spanish languages this fruit means “spirit”.

In the article it is said about the apple which has its own special place in tradition, the mythological outlook, in family life and the ceremony folklore of the world peoples. In the report the etymological explanation of some words and expressions is investigated and the research is carried out mainly in the comparative aspect.