From Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

Dear colleagues, authors and readers!

This issue of the journal is dedicated to honoring the memory of Vera Pavlovna Strogova (1924–1996).

Since 1958, Vera Pavlovna worked in the Department of the Russian Language at the Novgorod Pedagogical Institute. Her scholarly focus encompassed the history of the Russian language and dialectology, with particular emphasis on supervising the study of Novgorod dialects. Over many years, she compiled a card index that served as the foundation for the Novgorod Regional Dictionary, published in 12 volumes from 1992 to 1995, which received high praise from linguists; this is exemplified by the review authored by A. F. Zhuravlev1.

Even after her passing, Vera Pavlovna’s colleagues, Lidiya Yakovlevna Petrova and Antonina Vasilyevna Klevtsova, continued work on the dictionary. In 2010, the Novgorod Regional Dictionary was published by the Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a comprehensive academic volume2, enriching the collection of lexicographic descriptions of Russian dialects and becoming a valuable resource for all scholars engaged in dialectology. According to the annotation of the academic edition, this dictionary describes 25,000 dialect words and 2,600 phraseological units, including indexes of phraseological units, toponyms, nicknames, and a reverse index. Its scholarly value has been reaffirmed through multiple evaluations by specialists across various disciplines3.

Apart from this fundamental dictionary, Vera Pavlovna authored three specialized «dictionaries»: «As They Say in the Novgorod Region» (1991), a description of landscape vocabulary; «Ancient Toponyms of Novgorod and Its Environs» (1993); and «Street Names of Ancient Novgorod» (1995). The latter was republished in 2012, with supplementary material by historian Lyudmila Andreyevna Sekretar and photographs by Alexander Ivanovich Orlov. This edition also features a biographical article about Vera Pavlovna4, significantly expanding her readership.

Vera Pavlovna Strogova’s scholarly legacy continues to resonate within the fields of linguistics and history, enriching the understanding of the language of the Novgorod region. The journal issue aims to pay tribute to her memory and to honor her contributions as an expert and researcher of the Novgorod linguistic landscape. Included are articles by linguists from Novgorod and Pskov regions, which explore various aspects of dialectal speech.

The first section, Dialect Dictionary, features the article by Victoria Genrikhovna Didkovskaya, her former colleague, who employs the dictionary as a research tool: “Dialect Dictionary as Source of Linguistic Information”. The article “New Source of Pskov Regional Dictionary: Mythological Prose)” by Natalya Valentinovna Bolshakova, a Pskov dialectologist, discusses the Pskov dialect dictionary and its sources. As a subject of linguistic concern, dialect vocabulary remains a constant focus for linguists, although their approaches vary.

The second section, Regional Onomastics, presents the article by Valery Leonidovich Vasiliev, who collaborated with Vera Pavlovna and is now a researcher at the V. V. Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language. His work “Hydronymy in -ikha in Historical Novgorod-Pskov Lands” reflects a research interest shared by Vera Pavlovna and represents the long-standing scholarly pursuits of Valery Leonidovich. The article introduces the results of an analysis of the underlying motivations for a specific type of regional hydronym, effectively demonstrating the model’s potential for further onomastic studies.

The final section, Dialect Word: Grammatical Aspect, features articles dedicated to the study of dialect words. Yulia Andreeva, who has previously contributed to our journal, presents the results of a study on the lexicon of animalistic semantics based on materials from the Novgorod Regional Dictionary. Tatyana Lysenkova from Pskov State University, together with Natalya Valentinovna Bolshakova, offers an account of the description of a type of dialect word with a negative semantic prefix.

The articles in this issue collectively demonstrate the enduring relevance of Vera Pavlovna Strogova’s research to contemporary dialectologists. Her scholarly legacy, particularly her lexicographic descriptions, continues to significantly contribute to the advancement of dialectology. I extend my sincere gratitude to the authors of this issue – from Novgorod, Pskov, and Moscow – who have dedicated their contributions to honoring the memory of this esteemed scholar, whose work has greatly influenced
the study of dialectology.

Special thanks to the reviewers – Doctors of Philology Valery Leonidovich Vasiliev from the V. V. Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as Tatyana Gennadyevna Nikitina and Elena Ivanovna Rogaleva from Pskov State University.

See you soon on the electronic pages of our journal!

1. T. Shmeleva

1 Zhuravlev, A. F. (1996). Novgorod regional dictionary. 1–12 Vols. Novgorod. 1992–1995. Bulletin of the Russian Foundation for Humanities, 3, 288–294. (In Russian).

2 Novgorod Regional Dictionary (2010). St. Petersburg: Nauka. (In Russian).

3 Tolstaya, S. M. (2017). Notes on the margins of “Novgorod Regional Dictionary”. Memoirs of NovSU, 3(11), 1–5. (In Russian); Tsvetkova, E. V. (2017). Novgorod Regional Dictionary as a source of toponymical investigations (Novgorod and Kostroma micro-toponymy). Memoirs of NovSU, 3(11), 1–6. (In Russian); Kobeleva, I. A. (2020). Novgorod Regional Dictionary: Lost phraseology. Northern Russian Dialects, 19, 315–329. (In Russian); Busikova, A. S. (2024). The Novgorod Regional Dictionary as a source on the history of weaving. Historical Assembly: Problems of National History and Archaeology: Collection of Papers of the Second All-Russian Scientific Conference with International Participation of Students and Young Scientists, Veliky Novgorod, 2023, 8–10 February (pp. 208–216). Veliky Novgorod: Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University Publ. (In Russian).

4 Sergeeva, L. N. (2007). Vera Pavlovna Strogova (1924–1996). Vestnik NovSU. Philology, 43, 80–81. (In Russian).