THE CONCEPT «БЭЮМЭКИТ / HUNT» IN THE EVENKI LINGUISTIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD

Preserving the Evenki concept sphere is one of the most important tasks of modern Evenki studies. The current study is a contribution to the task. This article considers the linguocultural concept of Beyumekit 'Hunt' in the linguistic picture of the Evenki world. Material for analysis was selected from bilingual dictionaries, a comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages, as well as from texts written from modern Evenki speakers. More than 200 lexical units representing the concept were analyzed and distributed into 6 groups: 1) hunter, 2) fur animals; 3) hoofed animals, 4) hunting place, 5) dog (hunter assistant), 6) verbs denoting hunting process. Groups 2 and 3 turned out the most frequent. The results showed that the concept is basic in the consciousness of the Evenki, reflecting their worldview. It is concluded that hunting is perceived as one of the most important traditional activity, and the concept of Beyumekit 'hunt' is the basic one in the linguistic picture of the Evenki world as well as in the speakers of other Manchu-Tungus languages.