CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOLK DEMONIMICON IN ONE OF THE SLAVIC ENCLAVES OF THE BALKANS: GORANI IN NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

The article presents the preliminary results of the author's ethnolinguistic expedition to the minority cultural and religious group of the Gorani people of North Macedonia, living in close contact with the Albanians. Particular attention is paid to the preservation of one of the fragments of traditional culture: folk mythology. The original and borrowed vocabulary is analyzed in the ethnocultural context in comparison with the tradition of the Gorani people of Albania. The MP system of Slavic Muslims from Gora is relatively poor (no suicides, drowning or earth guardian spirits; no vampires or walking dead in Albania). In relation to omnipresent spirits and spirits of loci, the terminological system of the Gorani MPs is simplified and unified: individual MPs are gradually replaced by "generic" characters characteristic of the Muslim tradition (jinn). The basis of the terminological system of the MP of Slavic Muslim Gorani is a Slavic vocabulary, separate Greek words are noted (magic, sorceress), loanwords from Albanian are completely absent. Under the influence of Islam, part of the vocabulary was borrowed together with the ideas and objects (amulets).