Chukchi vyutkunen storm howler

выюткунэн / выюткунэнг / въюлгын

Source term: storm or blizzard howler / rotating aerophone 412.22

Chukchi name for the storm howler, from выял-выял (vyal-vyal), "blizzard, snowstorm"; въюлгын (vyulgyn) is a variant of the same term.

Etymology. From выял-выял (vyal-vyal), "blizzard, snowstorm"; въюлгын (vyulgyn) is a variant of the same word.

The Chukchi of northeastern Siberia name this whirled instrument from the word for a blizzard, выял-выял, and believe its drone imitates "the sounds of the snowstorm." Because of that, its voice was held to act on the surrounding nature. The ethnomusicologists who recorded it stress that, unlike the related тэлитэл buzzer, which survived only as a children's toy, the howler never crossed over into the category of toys at all. It is linked to a hunting weapon, the эплыкытэт, a flat stone or bone on a cord that a hunter whirled overhead and flung at a flying bird; possibly from that origin in bird-hunting the howler keeps the shape of a bird's feather, with carved notches imitating the plumage. Across the Chukchi buzzers and howlers these things were cut from mammoth ivory, wood, thick hide, alder chips, the small bones of a bear's paw, baleen, and even pieces of dried fish. In the Chukchi understanding of sound, a buzzing in the air is the flying soul of a person or one of the кэлэт spirits.

Гуделка выюткунэн ~ въюлгын (от слова выял-выял (вьюга, метель)) … в разряд игрушек так и не перешла. Согласно поверьям, она имитирует «звуки вьюги», и по этой причине ее голос влияет на «окружающую природу».

The vyutkunen ~ vyulgyn howler (from the word vyal-vyal, "blizzard, snowstorm") … never crossed over into the category of toys. According to belief, it imitates "the sounds of the blizzard," and for this reason its voice affects "the surrounding nature."

Sheikin, Dobzhanskaya & Ignatieva 2019:15, citing Bogoraz 1987:158 and Rultyneut 1989:121

Particulars

Object

A whirled instrument shaped like a bird's feather, with carved notches imitating the plumage.

Function

Imitates blizzard sounds and its voice affects surrounding nature; worldview and weather context