Russian Phraseological Units' National Color and Their Equivalents in the Uzbek Language

Abstract

This article investigates the national-cultural coloring of Russian phraseological units and the ways they find their equivalents in the Uzbek language. Drawing on a corpus of 340 phraseological units collected from Russian literary texts, folklore sources and contemporary media, the study classifies them according to the degree of national specificity and identifies four major equivalence strategies employed in Uzbek translation practice: full equivalents, partial equivalents, analogues, and calque-descriptive renderings. Quantitative analysis reveals that only 18% of Russian phraseological units have full Uzbek equivalents, while 47% require analogical substitution reflecting distinct Uzbek cultural concepts. The findings underscore the role of historical, geographical, and ethnographic factors in shaping phraseological meaning and suggest practical implications for translation pedagogy and bilingual lexicography.