An epic storyteller is an individual who has devoted his life to performing heroic-epic tales in front of fellow villagers or other audiences. There are many stories about how a prospective storyteller acquires his creative abilities. This acquisition basically comes in two varieties. The first type is a «mythological» one. A person receives his poetic gift in a mystical way, either voluntarily or by supernatural compulsion, which can be called «storyteller’s initiation» (by analogy with shamanic initiation). As a rule, it happens when the future narrator is a child or an adolescent, and it happens without witnesses (the boy / young man is looking after cattle, after a strong thunderstorm, in a dream, etc.). The «patron of initiation» is almost always a representative of another world, often the spirit of the hero who is celebrated in the epic. The process of acquiring the «gift» usually coincides with mystical reception of the texts themselves in their verbal and musical form. Any attempt to refuse the «gift» brings misfortune and illness. The second type is a «realistic» one. A person is interested in songs and tales from childhood, memorizes them and tries to repeat them. Having gained approval, he becomes an apprentice to a renowned storyteller (singer, musician), observes the master’s work, adopts his skills and techniques, memorizes the repertoire, learns to control his voice and handle an instrument. In addition to practical significance, «apprenticeship» can have a symbolic function. Often, only the passage through such a «school» gives a novice storyteller the right to perform in front of an audience, for which he is blessed by his mentor, who also acts as a «patron of initiation». If the otherworldly character performs an «introductory» initiation, endowing the storyteller with the gift of poetry, the mentor completes the «initiation» by granting permission to perform (sometimes it can be done by another authoritative person). Thus, there are direct correspondences between these two types, there is a certain common model based on the first (i. e. «mythological») type of «storyteller’s initiation».

How do the ritual oral epics of the indigenous survive today in a highly westernized Christian country? The paper gives an overview of the current situation in the Philippines based on 30 years of fieldwork with the Yattuka and Tuwali Ifugao hudhud singers, compared to the data of fellow researchers of Mindanao and Panay oral traditions and interviews taken during field trips to Tboli, Sama Bajaw and Panay Bukidnon. The unique value of the Philippine situation is that it allows us to witness processes that can be only hypothetically reconstructed for most of world epics, such as: change, transformation and /or elimination of ritual connections of the epic, of ritual functions of the performance and the performer, conversion of ritual texts into oral literature for «entertainment». «Songs for gods» that were previously addressed to spirits in order to please them and gain their help, are being transformed into «songs for humans»; «deep words» of sacred ritual language are largely replaced by more common ones. Notwithstanding, the process of transmitting/acquiring the sacred knowledge of epic singing is still very much alive; it is basically similar to that of a shaman or a healer. In both cases learning from the elders is employed, but the tradition often does not concentrate on that, focusing on the notion of a sacred gift, received by an epic singer/shaman (usually in a dream) from the «epic owners»: dead or dying singers, ancestors and/or deified epic heroes. The process of formation of a new epic performer often implies «shamanic illness» at the very start and emergency replacement of an older singer at a later stage. Parallels between the formation of an epic singer and a shaman/healer are illustrated by field materials collected in the Philippines (1995–2024) and among the Bahnaric indigenous groups of Cambodia (2015–2024).

In the 21^st century, traditional storytelling was unexpectedly replaced by modern storytelling, which has become quite widespread in Russia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and other countries. Modern singers of tales enter the public space with the help of various strategies of representation (traditional dress, features of performances, stories about themselves, etc.). On the basis of interviews and personal conversations, recorded in 2022–2023 with A. A. Matochkin, O. A. Skobelev, A. B. Muliin, L. N. Ryabova and D. R. Paramonov, it is possible to trace general trends and features, principles of training of a modern singer of tales, as well as to identify representational models (singer of tales as a professional, singer of tales as an artist, etc.). Among the common features are the identification of oneself with the storytelling lineage and the aspiration for the continuity of tradition, including family tradition. The training of modern singers of tales follows two main scenarios: through recordings or through book sources. It is noteworthy that in some cases storytelling is embedded in the professional sphere and becomes, if not the main, then one of the main activities in the life of modern singers of tales.

This article examines the storytelling practices of contemporary Kalmyk jangarchi and their adaptation to the cultural, social, and political conditions of the 21^st century. A 2023 field study reveals that the dichotomy of «authentic/inauthentic», prevalent in epic studies, is becoming blurred. The study discusses Alan Dundes’ devolutionary premise in folklore theory. which shapes the discourse of both storytellers and epic scholars.  The dominant narrative suggests that «tradition is being forgotten», «folklore is disappearing» and «modern epic singers are inauthentic». However, the forms of epic performance in the 21^st century and their abundance in the Republic of Kalmykia offer rich material for studying the «laboratory» where modern storytelling art is created – from the acquisition of the gift and training of the narrator to the development of the narrator as a professional. Modern epic singing cannot be described as merely performative; jangarchi perform not only for external audiences but also for themselves, family, and guests. Their mastery lies not in rote memorization but in the internalization and variation of texts. The legitimacy of their epic gift is articulated through two narrative frameworks: the «calling of the singer» (gift received through mythological initiation) and the «training of the storyteller» (guided by experienced jangarchi or through self-study using books and recordings), consistent with 19th-century traditions. The jangarchi’s training combines traditional approaches, such as familial inheritance and imitation of the masters, with modern methods, including the use of audio recordings and professional folklore research. Particular attention is given to state support of storytelling in the post-Soviet era: jangarchi actively participate in cultural policies, festivals, and competitions, receiving honorary titles and awards. Thus, modern storytelling in Kalmykia has become a key element in presenting the region and representing Kalmyk identity on regional, national, and global stages. Furthermore, the authors highlight the link between traditional epic genres and the processes of discourse traditionalization, enabling jangarchi to play a pivotal role in shaping national identity. The article summarizes the transformations in epic singers’ practices and emphasizes their significance as a cultural and social phenomenon.

The article examines the current state of the runosinging tradition in Karelia and Finland. The objectives of the study include examining issues of performers’ motivation, strategies for selecting and memorizing material, the nature of the repertoire, the features and difficulties of the modern performance, the involvement of the state in performance practices, and the connections between the old and the new traditions of runosinging. Based on the material of semi-structured interviews in 2024 with eight performers of epic runes, and taking into account personal observations and the results of the author’s expedition trips to different districts of the Republic of Karelia in 2007–2023, the totality of storytelling practices of 21^st century runosingers was studied. Today, Karelian epic runes do not exist among the people, but they continue to live in the stage format. There is a tradition of transferring performing arts skills from the older to the younger (from mother to child), from a teacher/master to a student. The epic repertoire of the performers goes back, in addition to the «Kalevala», also to the texts of scholarly collections, archival  on their basis. There is a significant difference in the development of modern runosinging in Karelia and Finland in favor of the latter. It was not possible to identify any special role of the state in the development of modern runosinging.

The heroic epic represents a vibrant genre of Yakut folklore. Alongside the Sakha language, traditional ritual practices and other indigenous phenomena it has become a key object of the current regional cultural policy in Yakutia. This article is devoted to contemporary practices of performing the epic in the field of its historical emergence. The question of the role of the Soviet experience of cultural construction in the practices of presenting the folklore tradition of the peoples of Yakutia still remains studied insufficiently. As a preliminary formulation of this problem, this article reviews the most obvious ‘traces’ of these traditions in modern formats of performance of the Yakut epic. They are found at virtually all levels of public performance of the epic, from the performer’s clothing and the textual material he or she chooses, to the scripts and the accepted «rules» of performing/listening to the epic. Particular attention is paid to the initial phase of the formation of official Yakut Soviet culture, during which the genre of ‘folk’ performances was established. It is evident that the contemporary scenarios of listening to and performing the epic largely inherit Soviet practices. Conversely, the current period of ‘revitalisation’ of traditional culture is conceptualized as a new and even opposing phase in the assessments of the tradition bearers and folklore performers themselves.

The article examines the hypothesis of contextual conditionality linking the assessment of an ethnonym with the context. The assumption that words with negative connotation gravitate towards negative contexts is tested. This means, in particular, that quantitative processing of contexts can become the basis for identifying a negative tone and its quantitative qualification, i.e. the greater the percentage of negative contexts, the more intense is the negative connotation in the semantics of the word. The purpose of the study is to describe the quantitative distribution by type of context (positive, neutral and negative) of four ethnonyms: Asiatic, European, Italian, Tajik, and to offer a meaningful interpretation of this distribution. In response to this goal, the study clarifies assessments of context. Thus, firstly, among various understandings of the negativity of the context, one is selected («narrow contextual tonality»), and secondly, objective criteria for qualifying the context as negative are developed. The research material consisted of about 900 texts of comments and posts obtained by a continuous sampling method for lexical and grammatical search for the lexemes European, Asiatic, Tajik, Italian in the subcorpus of Social networks of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. An additional method for assessing the negativity of an ethnonym is considered: replacing a negative word with a euphemism. For names of ethnic groups, such a neutral eplacement is the construction of a person of ... nationality.

Substandard vocabulary traditionally serves as a marker of territorially and socially specific communication. We decided to examine this feature from a new angle and study the characteristics of substandard vocabulary functioning in the context of conflict communication in various online communities. The aim of our research is to identify the statistical distribution of invective vocabulary across thematic groups, as well as to describe the mechanisms behind the transition of standard vocabulary to substandard, taking into account the specifics of intragroup values and ideologies. For this purpose, we compiled a dataset of comments from online communities of vegans/vegetarians and radical feminism, the processing of which took two iterations: on a sample of 10,548 comments, we identified lexical groups, and then we examined their distribution and actual functioning on a dataset of 958,591 comments. Analysis of the data showed that the formation of active clusters of substandard vocabulary in online communities is determined by group attitudes and can serve as a marker of its values both at the micro and macro levels. In the vegan/vegetarian community, vocabulary condemning meat consumption predominates, as well as appealing to the mental characteristics of opponents. In the radical feminist community, gender-oriented invectives and zoometaphors are more commonly used. The study also revealed differences in the intensity and regularity of conflict discourse reproduction, which may indicate varying degrees of community boundary permeability. The results obtained allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms of substandard vocabulary formation in the online space and can be used for further study of the dynamics of virtual community development.

The article examines two complementary trends in the game employment of obscenities in modern live colloquial speech and Internet communication: euphemization of obscenities and obscenization of normative vocabulary. The models of euphemization and obscenization are analyzed, the patterns of their lexicographic interpretation are shown. It is determined that within the framework of the first trend, traditional ways of forming euphemisms and new techniques for their creation in language games are being implemented: «included» homonymy, allusive use of foreign language borrowings, etc. Special attention is paid to abbreviation as a productive way of euphemization. Based on linguistic material of the last two decades, the dynamics of euphemistic playing with the most frequent obscenities is shown. The second trend, the obscenization of normative vocabulary, is illustrated by examples of game transformations of normative vocabulary, bringing its sound and writing closer to obscenities. Due to game epenthesis, metathesis, prosthesis, homophonic transformation of words of the literary language, obscene «pseudo-roots» appear in such words. The same result is obtained by contamination and merging of combinations of words. Materials of the article can be used in the development of problems of linguoecology and in lexicographic practice by creation of dictionaries of obscenities and youth slang.

The modern Russian communicative situation is influenced by several trends, including jargonization and democratization of norms, which have influenced, among other things, a degree of loosening the taboo on obscene and profane in speech. One of the striking and unique phenomena of modern communication is virtual communication. Virtual communication, characterized by expressiveness and anonymity, manifests considerable popularity of the use of profanity and obscene expressions: these, due to the written nature of their embodiment, require new ways of veiling their unprintable form. Because of this, paragraphemic, phonographic and errative methods of euphemizing obscenities are beginning to be used in online communication. The article considers such new ways of euphemizing Russian obscene vocabulary in the communicative space of the Internet. The material for the article came from contexts obtained by the method of continuous sampling from texts of Internet communication: posts and comments on forums, Live Journal, social networks, and others. Our analysis demonstrates not only the variety of ways of paragraphemic and phonographic euphemization of the obscene on the Web, but also the creativity and adaptability of language phenomena to the needs of society, as well as the close connection between the expressiveness of obscene vocabulary and the discursive features of the Internet itself.

The paper discusses obscene/associated with obscene, as well as explicit language used in T-shirt slogans. The pragmatic effect they produce is described. These inscriptions are defined as special speech acts. By wearing such a T-shirt, one becomes the addresser of an offensive statement and releases it into the public space. Some of the inscriptions could be considered as utterances that have abusive illocutionary force. They belong to counter-ethics. Others are associated with language games and could be attributed to counter-aesthetics. I examine the pragmatics of T-shirt slogans, and language games with swear words, such as abbreviation, neology, the use of polysemy, transliteration, contamination. The data (about 100 inscriptions) was collected from catalogues of online T-shirt stores. Most of the T-shirts are intended for women. This indicates a weakening of a double sociocultural taboo: the «unprintability» of swear words and the focus on male (rather than female) discourse. I define «the new impoliteness» as a type of communication that allows the use of swear words in a heterogeneous public environment. I focus on descriptions of physicality, cultural practices of body art, and the historical observation of prints on T-shirts, including swear inscriptions. Special attention is paid to the history of the word futbolka (T-shirt) and the history of T-shirt slogans with swear words.

The purpose of this article is to summarize a number of specific pragmatic changes characteristic of the use of Russian terms of address, which we propose to call a gender shift. Gender shift in the pragmatics of addresses consists in their non-standard use in the gender aspect, when addresses to women, such as mamochka ‘mommy’, matushka ‘mother’, are used towards men, and typical addresses to men, such as tovarishch ‘comrade’, druzhochek ‘buddy’, chuvak ‘dude’, are employed with women. It is noted in the article that gender shift in pragmatics of terms of address occurs under certain conditions and signals specific types of attitudes towards the interlocutor: patronizing, as to an equal, friendly, etc. Thus, the use of feminine terms of address to men is associated with a patronizing position of the speaker, as a rule, older in age and higher in status. These terms of address express an affectionate, patronizing, good-natured attitude of the elder towards the younger. The use by men of familiar and even masculine terms of address to women can express an attitude towards a woman not just as an equal, but also as «their brother», acceptance into a community such as a «men’s club». At the same time, the use of familiar, friendly male terms of address in communication between girls may reflect a desire to transferred to the female community relationships similar to relationships in informal male communities. In all these cases, we are not talking about gender-neutral terms of address, but about a gender shift associated with desemantization (semantic depletion), which is felt by native speakers as a living process. Research methods were used to analyze corpora and conduct surveys.

This paper deals with non-standard (substandard) linguistic units in Russian speech and their description in existing dictionaries of standard Russian, e. g. the word tselka ‘hymen; virgin (girl)’ and such words as bliad’, blia and blin in their interjectional and parenthetical use. It makes use of corpus data (in particular, data from the Russian National Corpus) and shows that their lexicographic descriptions often do not account for their use in speech. The paper makes special reference to lexical units that have both standard and non-standard meanings. In particular, it discusses the meaning and usage of the Russian verbs dat’ / davat’, konchit’ / konchat’, trakhnut’ / trakhat’, and trakhnut’sia / trakhat’sia. Non-standard meanings of these units have only recently received lexicographic descriptions. All these words deserve a thorough semantic and syntactic analysis (in particular, their government patterns should be carefully studied for each particular lexical meaning). The relation between standard and non-standard readings is idiosyncratic in each case and also should be taken into account. The paper aims to show that the descriptions of the words under consideration (not only descriptions of their nonstandard meanings but descriptions of their standard meanings as well) in existing dictionaries often require revision. It outlines ways of improving their lexicographic descriptions.

The article focuses on the analysis of lexemes of the standard language and sublanguage, including jargon and obscenities, in terms of their connection with the speech act of insult. The author takes primarily the position of a practitioner of linguistic expertise. The relevance of the topic is driven by the demand for the most accurate and exhaustive description of the criteria for attributing a particular word, phrase, sentence to the language units of a speech act of insult. The aim of the research is to define the conditions under which different types of substandard lexical units participate in a speech act of insult. Semantic, stylistic and pragmatic methods are used in the research, as well as cases from the author’s practice in the field of forensic linguistics. The results of the study distinguish two types of substandard: a) the lexical substandard, which includes units of jargon, vernacular and obscene vocabulary; b) the functional substandard, including the vocabulary of the literary language used in invective. The analysis made it possible to determine the conditions under which obscene pejorative vocabulary with the negative characteristic of a person participates in a speech act of insult. It is concluded that there are conditions under which the vocabulary of the literary language is also included in the speech act of insult. The factor of lexical units belonging to a lexical or functional substandard is the key criterion for an expert linguist when analyzing a controversial text.

Faina Ranevskaya (1896–1984) was a famous Russian comedic and dramatic actress, many of whose utterances eventually became aphorisms. The article, based on documentary sources, analyzes the peculiarities of Faina Ranevskaya’s speech, in particular, her penchant for obscene vocabulary (names of the lower body, scatological themes). A large amount of illustrative material is provided. These are dialogical remarks spoken in a theatrical environment (often as a kind of defensive reaction), statements containing a misanthropic assessment of the surrounding reality (recorded in Ranevskaya’s surviving letters and notes), critical reflections regarding her own life and work, etc. The obscene language used here boils down to a few main themes. In particular, the public use of the Russian word zhopa (ʽassʼ) is discussed. Facts are used as a background to discuss attitudes towards this topic in Russian society of the 19th–20th centuries. In addition to a desire to shock others, the reason for such speech behavior may have been age, health, dissatisfaction with personal life, psychological feeling of inferiority, attitude towards a rigid (artificial) literary norm and other social circumstances, etc. The attitude of the actress towards her contemporaries, primarily her theater colleagues (Yu. A. Zavadsky, I. A. Pyryev, N. P. Okhlopkov, V. P. Maretskaya, P. L. Wulf and other), is characterized. An attempt to describe a complex personality psychotype is made. For this purpose, an excursion into the field of practical psychiatry is undertaken. The conclusion lets us admit the possibility of dissociative identity disorder syndrome, which is reflected in speech.

This article analyzes Russian canned jokes with substandard linguistic items. Two types of such jokes are distinguished: (1) jokes where obscene words serve the point and (2) jokes where obscene words increase the humorous effect. The article gives an account of the role that substandard items play in creating the «linguistic masks» of certain joke characters, which correlate with their «behavior masks». It discusses various types of such texts: jokes about foreigners, ethnic jokes, jokes about Armenian radio, political jokes, jokes about family life, etc. Substandard lexical units, that is, obscene or vulgar words, may be found in all of the above-mentioned jokes. The article describes the role of substandard language in creating «linguistic masks» of joke characters and the correlation of these linguistic masks with their «behavior masks». In particular, it mentions the linguistic masks and behavior masks of Chapaev, Vovochka, and Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Each of these characters has their own linguistic and behavior masks. In particular, Chapaev is an uneducated communist military commander of the Russian Civil war era who uses obscene words only when he is severely irritated; Vovochka is a schoolboy who reminds «dirty Johnny» of American jokes; Lieutenant Rzhevsky combines the characteristics of a nobleman and a rude soldier.

In 1984, «Podval» («Basement»), the home publishing house of the poet Konstantin K. Kuzminsky, published a book by Vagrich Bakhchanyan called Akh, matom! («Oh, Obscenities!»). This was a small compilation of parodic adaptations of some early verse by Anna Akhmatova, in the spirit of travesty alterations of popular songs or poetry from the school curriculum that can be found in teenage folklore. Without a broader context created by several of Konstantin Kuzminsky’s texts polemically aimed at Anna Akhmatova and her poetic circle, as well as without a wider context of the avant-garde tradition of discrediting literary opponents through vulgarizing mockery of their writings, often using obscene vocabulary, the book might not seem like a very successful joke of the two authors, known to be inclined towards shocking the public. Knowing this context, one would see all the hidden meanings of the book, which were consciously made offensive for adherents of traditional art, but were fairly acceptable in terms of epatage or avant-garde art, for which even the emphasized negligence and «ineptitude» of form is considered to be a technique: that is, the artistic sign of «spoiling» the primary source, and not a banal manifestation of envy of the two supposed «graphomaniacs» and «misogynists» towards their great predecessor. This was essentially a form of debate between two inheritors of the avant-garde line of Russian poetry and an author, whose work they perceived as a precedent for the alternative, neo-acmeist tradition.

For nonconformist writers, the lexical substandard is often counted about the basic criteria by which the linguistic reality they create is interpreted. The forms of usage of the non-normative layers of language in an underground culture, which are heterogeneous and include a completely different set of stable speech formations, often claim to be the dominant function, acting as a means of linguistic manifestation of fundamentally different behavior in culture in relation to established Soviet norms and radically correcting them. The sub-standard vocabulary included in the fabric of a poetic or prose narrative is usually marked intonationally and implies a sharp speech gesture that does not violate the texture of the language, but creates a fundamentally different – often new – effective text space. A text that has mastered the substandard acquires a performative dimension. It is integrated into the general practices of sub-standard word usage, and at the same time offers its own, authorial ones. Without claiming to generalize, this material is focused on identifying patterns and searching for possible algorithms for classifying such phenomena. The case of Vsevolod Nekrasov is both characteristic and unique. The article examines several characteristic episodes of Nekrasov’s use of profanity. They relate to his polemics in relation to phenomena that claim to be the main position in both official and unofficial culture. In addition, his attitude towards colleagues in the craft who use profanity is discussed. Considering such situations may prove productive, as they clearly reveal the boundaries and ways of speech reaction. Researchers have yet to identify the general patterns of the presence of varieties of substandardness in underground culture, to find methodological keys to the search for typologies.

A review of: Veselkova, N. V., Gramatchikova, N. B., Enina, L. V., & Priamikova E. V. (2022). Mechty i pamiat’: narrativnye landshafty nebol’shogo sovetskogo goroda [Dreams and memories: narrative landscapes of a small Soviet city]. Kabinetnyi uchenyi. (In Russian).

The paper presents a brief synopsis of the latest academic events on the topic of the Asia-Pacific region held in St. Petersburg, namely the Maclay Readings conferences of 2023 and 2024 and «The issues of philology and ethnography of Southeast Asia» 2023. «Maclay Readings» is an annual conference run since 1980s by the Dept. of Australia, Oceania and Indonesia of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS. The forum on Southeast Asia was organized jointly by the Oriental Department of SPbSU, the Institute for Linguistic Studies and Kunstkamera RAS.