Markers of the Sacred in the Texts of Mari Prayers through the Prism of the Correlation between the Verbal and the Non-Verbal

Introduction. In connection with society’s return to traditional spiritual values and the revival of prayer practices, new processes are emerging in the religious life of Mari believers. In line with contemporary trends in the social sciences and humanities (theolinguistics, linguotheology, linguoculturology, and discourse studies), it is necessary to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the religious practices and prayer texts of the Mari ethnic religion, which contain the most ancient layer of cultural codes. Their decipherment will make it possible to determine the ways and means of “translating” archaic meanings into a language accessible to the modern generation, while preserving the identity and subjectivity of the people. Despite the existence of studies in ethnography, folklore, and linguoculturology, many meanings embedded in Mari rites, rituals, and mythology remain concealed or have been misinterpreted. The aim of this study is to identify and describe markers of the sacred in prayer texts by establishing the correlation between verbal and non-verbal components within the sacred dimension of the prayer practices of the Mari ethnic religion. Materials and Methods. The study drew on prayer texts published in nineteenth-century missionary periodicals and ethnographic literature, as well as in scholarly and popular scientific works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; materials from the scientific manuscript archive of the Mari Research Institute of Language, Literature and History named after V. M. Vasiliev, and the author’s field data. The research was conducted using a complex of scholarly methods, including the comparative-historical, contrastive, and descriptive approaches, as well as linguocultural analysis. Their application made it possible to elucidate the significance and semantic content of linguistic signs in their connection with the nonverbal component of rituals. Results and Discussion. In religious rituals and prayer texts, the Mari people’s conceptions of the sacred, the divine, and that which possesses absolute value are articulated and preserved. Attitudes toward the sacred are reflected in the principles and rules governing behavior both in preparation for prayer and in the performance of the ritual itself. The observance of strict prohibitions ensures the inviolability of the sacred grove and the correctness of ritual actions. Euphemisms and periphrastic designations referring to animals and birds as offerings, according to believers’ views, make it possible to present to the gods those gifts that are deemed pleasing: lopka saŋga ‘broad forehead’ (ram); surt kÿdyr ‘domestic grouse’ (hen). By distinguishing the divine from the mundane, epithets in Mari prayer texts emphasize the purity, integrity, and inviolability of the offerings. Words denoting sacred objects and phenomena are endowed with the same epithets that function with the lexeme yumo ‘god’: oš(o) ‘white, bright’, poro ‘good’, kugu ‘great’. Conclusion. A comprehensive analysis of the sacred texts and rituals of the Mari ethnic religion makes it possible to identify meanings and significances that are being lost, to decode the information they contain regarding value orientations, and to determine the causes underlying the transformation and desacralization of ritual practices. In the long term, research attention should be directed toward a structural-semantic analysis of stable verbal constructions and clichés that shape the composition of prayers and define the specific functioning of sacred components within ritual practice.