Стаття присвячена символіці води в болгарській лінгвокультурі. На матеріалі народних пісень, записаних українськими та болгарськими дослідниками від нащадків болгар переселенців XIX ст., які нині проживають в Одеській, Запорізькій, Миколаївській областях, в Автономній Республіці Крим, досліджено місце та роль лексики, пов"язаної з водою, у болгарській мовній картині світу. Розглянуто лінгвокультурему "вода" в її реалізаціях "водойма", "криниця", "джерело", "дощ", "Дунай", "море". The paper provides a study of the symbolism of water in the Bulgarian linguistic culture. The author analyzes texts of the folk songs recorded by several Ukrainian and Bulgarian scholars from the descendants of the Bulgarian migrants in the last half of the 18 th - 19th c., which are currently living in the regions of Odessa, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea. The role of the vocabulary around the hydrosphere in the Bulgarian
linguistic world image is researched. It is outlined that wateris a universal symbol of the human life. Water is thought as a primary substance that has created the Earth and the live nature. It is used in different liminal rituals as something able to purify, to heal, to charge with the live power and to bless p&eople. And this belief in the sacral properties of water are displayed in the Bulgarian folk songs. The author investigates the linguocultureme "water"and its implementations in "reservoir", "well", "spring", "rain", "Danube", "sea" in the folk songs& of the Bulgarians in Ukraine. It is established that "water"is a symbol of a border that must be overstepped. "Well" symbolizes the living space of a human, container of the unique sacral water that sacralizes the marriage and love. However, sometim&es the well designates the adultery and lewdness. "Spring"is equal to the immortality given to a hero as a thank for the completed mission of the life. "Danube" is a mythic path between the known and unknown world, like "sea" it is a symbol of the se¶tion with the home, and it is particularly true for the Bulgarian migrants whose ancestors had left the motherland. "Rain" represents the reciprocity between the human and the supreme forces.The analyzes of these implementation of the linguocultu&reme "water"shows the special role of the water in the Bulgarian linguistic world image.
