Specific Features of the Ethnic and Religious Consciousness of Peoples of Alaska and Their Meaning in the Historical and Cultural Heritage of Russian America

This article presents an analysis of Russian borrowings in the Yu'pik language as they manifest adoption of Russian material and spiritual culture by the indigenous people. The results of the analysis show that cross-cultural and cross-linguistic contacts between the indigenous people and the Russian colonists brought about considerable changes in the commonsense world view and the religious world view of the Yu'pik people. The study also proves that religious concepts were adopted by the Yu'pik people mainly with the help of translation loans and semantic borrowings. The semantic features of the native words used for the designation of the new concepts highlight profound understanding of the Orthodox Christian values.