A calendar is a system of calculating time, taking into account the sequential periodicity of natural phenomena. The emergence of the names of the months is closely connected with the history of the formation of the calendar.
East Slavic calendar
The name of the months in Ukrainian and Russian has a different origin. If the formation of modern Russian names is associated with the borrowing of Latin names through the Old Slavonic language with phonetic changes associated with the fall of reduced vowels and the influence of analogies, then the Ukrainian language uses traditional Slavic names associated with natural phenomena. Next, we will consider in detail the name of the months in Ukrainian and what they mean.
Another East Slavic language demonstrates a different approach from the Russian one. In the modern Belarusian literary language, there is such a system of names for months: student, lute, sakavіk, krasavіk, may (grass), cherven, lіpen, zhenіven, verazen, castrychnik, listapad, snezhan.
The name of the months in the Ukrainian language has semantic similarities with it: number, lute, birch, quarter, grass, cherries, lime, sickle, heather, zhovten, leaf fall, chestnut.
Unlike Russian, the name of the months in the Ukrainian language for a long time did not have a single system. Old names were used in parallel with new ones, and in the book language of the XIV-XV centuries. preference was given to the names of the old. Only at the end of the XVI century. a modern system of names began to take shape.
Name of months in Ukrainian with translation into Russian
Sichen (January) originates in the Proto-Slavic language, when our ancestors dealt with deforestation (cutting, carving) of forests. Sections (clearing, cutting) were carried out mainly at that time, which approximately fell on the month of January. It is likely that the word is very etymologically associated with the concept of severe (cutting) frost.
Lutius (February) completes the sovereignty of winter. The modern Ukrainian name lutius corresponds to the Slavic names of frosts this month: angry and crackling, prickly and cruel, fierce. Since the lexeme lutium as the name of the month is not found in ancient Russian monuments, it can be assumed that it comes from the Old Ukrainian language. For a long time, February had the form of a lute, which in the dictionaries of the 19th - early 20th centuries. fixed first in parallel with the name lutium. Lutium is the only name of the adjective form of all modern month names.
Spring - from sap flow to grass drilling
March is the period of preparation of the healing drink - birch sap. In the Old Russian language, the name Berezozol (Berezozel, Berezozіl) was used for the name of this month. The Ukrainian language inherited it in the form of a birch tree or a birch tree. Researchers interpret the etymology of these names in different ways: some believe that they arose during the burning of birch trees to clear up arable land, others explain the name’s motivation as a natural phenomenon, which obviously was of great importance in the life of the people. It is about the beginning of the development of birches. Dictionaries of the Ukrainian language of the 19th - early 20th centuries contain various forms. B. Grinchenko in his dictionary introduced the word birch as the main register, because in the Ukrainian language of this period it was more common than birch. E. Zhelehivsky as the main name serves the birch. Similarly to the names sіchen, qіten, the name birch was formed, which is included in the Ukrainian system of names of months as the main.
The name qіten is etymologically associated with the onset of spring as the pore of flowering plants. So it is called from the XVI century. The name also had a phonetic doublet - color (from blossom) with the initial combination of color, which is the historical correspondence of sq. B. Grinchenko entered both names in the dictionary: quarter and color.
Etymologically, the name of the months in Ukrainian is associated with certain natural phenomena. The modern Ukrainian name grass (May) is closely related to the springtime of the violent growth of herbs (this is what it is motivated by). In lexicographic sources until the 40s of the XX century. Together with the word grass, May is registered as equivalent.
Cochineal, linden and sickle color
The etymology of the month of cherub (June) is explained differently. Some researchers point to the connection of the name with the phenomenon of nature: in June, many worms appear that give life to cochineal - a species of insects from the family of worms. So, the modern Ukrainian literary name is worm (the national name for worm insects is cochineal). Kochergan adheres to the etymology of the word worm, indicating that the worm is the month of worms, the worm is a month, therefore, the name is not based on the lexeme worm, but the worm - a common word for all worms.
The flowering time of linden is directly related to the modern name lipen (July). Along with this name, the Lipetsk doublet form was widely used in the Ukrainian language. As a result of comparing the morphological design of the names of other months (number, birch, quarter), the lipen token at the beginning of the 20th century. consistently used not only in oral speech, but also in various calendars, and subsequently as the official Ukrainian name of the month.
Sierpen - the last month of summer. The name of the month was associated in antiquity with the harvesting period and comes directly from the name of the manual tool for harvesting bread - the sickle.
From heather bloom to the first frost
It is in the first month of autumn that flowering squat bushy heather occurs. The modern Ukrainian literary name heather is indisputably derived from the folk name of this evergreen plant.
The modern name of the month Zhovten (October) is associated with the color of the leaves of most trees at this time of the year. At the end of the second half of the XIX century. Zhovten form finally entrenched in the Ukrainian language.
The modern name for the month of leaf fall (November) is due to the autumn fall of leaves. In the dictionaries of the Ukrainian language of the late XIX - early XX centuries. such forms of the month are recorded: leaf fall and padolist, leaf fall. In the Ukrainian language, as a result of the tendency to reduce the word, the name listopad was formed.
The name chestnut (December) dates back to the 12th century. The first month of winter was also called jelly - from icy, cold. Breast has a similar meaning, denoting frozen lumps of earth - piles that form on roads and fields with the onset of the first frosts. The official name of the last month of the year was only in the twentieth century. B. Grinchenko fixes the use of the word root for the designation of November. This is another striking illustration of the instability of the names of the months in the past.
Continuation of the Slavic tradition
Thus, the above allows us to draw the following conclusions.
A unified system of month names in the Ukrainian literary language did not exist for a long time: old names were used in parallel with the new ones. The modern system was formed no earlier than the 16th century.
The name of the months in Ukrainian has a fairly transparent meaning and clear motivation. It is associated with certain natural phenomena.
The Eastern Slavs, like other Slavic peoples, had different month name systems based on Latin ones. The Russian literary language has inherited Old Russian names - modified Latin names, which exist also in oral Ukrainian speech and in dialects of the Ukrainian language.
In conclusion, we give the name of the months in Ukrainian in alphabetical order - this will facilitate the search for translation.
birch heather chest Zhovten quarter sticky leaf fall lutium sіchen sickle grass worm | March September December October April July November February January August May June |
Now you will not have difficulties with the translation.