Comparative aspect of the study of mythonyms in the Turkic ethnocultural space

The paper presents a comparative aspect of the study of mythonyms in the Turkic ethnic space. The research aims to conduct a comprehensive exploration of the main lexico-semantic and ethnolinguistic features of mythonyms in the Turkic ethnocultural space in a comparative aspect. Mythonyms contribute to a deep awareness of the Turkic ethno-cultural space. The paper analyzes the semantics of mythonyms based on the material of folk traditional culture in the Turkish, Tatar, and Bashkir languages and identifies the characteristic features of these mythonyms. The scientific novelty lies in a comparative ethnolinguistic analysis of mythonyms, conducted using examples of mythological characters from Tatar, Bashkir, and Turkish cultures, which determines the conditioning of their specific functioning in small folklore genres. The research has established that the content of mythonyms represents significant concepts of the Turkic ethnocultural space. The results have shown that there are two directions in the study of mythonymy: ethnolinguistic and comparative. As a result of a comparative study, it has been proved that the Turkic religious and mythological system is characterized by the use of common mythonyms, which are actively used in folklore genres. It has been also found that mythonyms derived from Quranic characters are more frequently used in folk cultural images. Ethnolinguistic research has shown that the semantic potential of the mythonyms created on the basis of the names Muhammad, Suleiman, Khozyr associated with Islam reflect ethnocultural information about a certain ethnocultural environment. The functioning of mythonyms in small aphoristic genres (proverbs, sayings, and incantations) makes it possible to identify the types closest to their local variants within their own ethno-cultural space.