Source study capabilities of regional etymological dictionaries (based on The Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Dialects of the Altai)
The article is devoted to the development of the concept of The Historical and Etymological Dictionary of Russian Dialects of Altai and identification of its source study capabilities. The produced dictionary is a regional one. It explains the origins and history of dialect words recorded in the Altai region and Altai Republic. Currently 5 issues of the dictionary are prepared, which contain historical and etymological explanation of 5000 Russian dialect words from letter A to K. Historical-etymological interpretation of a sufficiently large number of words can help make some (preliminary) conclusions about the etymological and historical status of the dialect words of the Altai region, and also (on this basis) about the genesis of the study of dialects. It turned out that the vast majority of the analysed words are of native origin, and many of them relate to the pre-Slavic lexical stock. Among the pre-Slavic origin of dialect words recorded in the Altai are the following groups: 1) the words found in other Slavic languages and Russian dialects (both parent and secondary - Siberian); 2) the words that are a continuation of pre-Slavic forms used in other Russian dialects, but not certified or poorly attested in other Slavic languages; 3) words that are a continuation of pre-Slavic forms unidentified in other Slavic languages and dialects of the Russian language; 4) words that have correspondences in other Slavic languages, but non-existent or poorly represented in other Russian dialects. It is possible to distinguish three layers in loanwords of the Russian dialects of the Altai: pre- Siberian, i.e. brought to Siberia and the Altai from the territories to the west from them; Siberian, which came to the Russian dialect of the Altai from other dialects of Siberia, and Altai proper, borrowings from indigenous languages of the Altai and adjacent regions. Historical analysis of dialect vocabulary showed that the vocabulary for the most part is recorded in written monuments of the Old Russian period: in business documents, orders, books expenses, private correspondence. A comparison of the vocabulary of the Russian dialects of the Altai with the vocabulary of other regions revealed that in the Altai there are words found in dialects of the European part of Russia, the Urals and Siberia. The North Russian dialect layer prevails in this case. A part of words is recorded only in the Altai. More often they are local borrowings, complicated in etymological terms. The Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Russian dialects of Altai summarizes and records the knowledge not only of language but also of culture of the regions past and present.