I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

zoonym, Chuvash language, Turkic languages, common Turkic word, mammalionym.

The Chuvash name šăši ‘mouse’ has been analyzed. The study showed that šăši ‘mouse’ is a common Turkic word. To name the mouse in the Chuvash language a popular name кушак кайăкĕ is also used. There is no universal point of view about the origin of this zoonym in linguistics. Most researchers tend to believe that this zoonym in the Chuvash language, as well as in other related Turkic languages, comes from the transition of the participle formed from the common Turkic root *сыч- with the help of allomorph of the affix -кан/-кен into the category of name. In one of the dialects of the Chuvash language phonovariant шăших is used. In the dialects of the Chuvash language the names of other rodents are used in the form of the phrase with the component šăši, which should be attributed to the Chuvash formations. For naming of the field mouse (field-vole) çĕмел кайăк(ĕ) is used as a popular name, too.