Beluga roars.

When this famous phrase is uttered, an association arises with a person who screaming and cries so that you can hear very far around. In Russian, there are other phraseological units that sound completely different, but have a very similar meaning. They are pronounced like this: “overflowing with a stream”, “whining like a dog”, “shouting a good obscenity”, “roaring roar” and much more. There are even similar expressions in other foreign languages ​​of the world.

The phrase itself beluga roar” can be considered a mistake, or even, most likely, a verbal typo. Beluga fish is the largest of the sturgeons and, like other fish, it not only does not roar, but does not make any sounds at all. Therefore, it would be more logical to say "dumb as a fish." But another aquatic inhabitant has a voice. Yes, and what. It is a polar white whale dolphin that has smooth white skin and lives and hunts in herds. Beluga whales can make a special sound, very similar to lowing. This scream is not only loud, but also quite unpleasant.

Why is there such a funny confusion? Most likely, this happened due to some peculiarity of the Russian language. In some places in Russia, the letter "G" is pronounced as the sound "X". It is possible that the same thing happened with the word beluga whale and the replacement of the sound, which no one even noticed. It is difficult to say this one hundred percent, but this version has the right to exist. Everyone who hears idiom roar beluga, perfectly understands its meaning, which could not be argued if the erroneous word began to be pronounced absolutely correctly.

Beluga is a huge fish, one of the largest freshwater fish. Reaches a length of up to 4.5 meters and weighs more than a ton.

With such a gigantic size, it seemed that the expression “roaring like a beluga” was also successful.

Yes, but this rather big fish does not make any sounds that a person can hear, that's why she is a fish. Where did such an expression come from?

It's all about Russian. It actually sounds like "beluga roar". Beluga whale unlike beluga- a mammal and lives in the northern seas. This is a toothed whale, a relative of dolphins and narwhals. A fairly large animal up to 6 meters long and weighing up to 2 tons. The color is pearly white, for which the beluga whale got its name.

Belukha

In addition to the ability to emit ultrasounds, with the help of which she locates the depths of the seas, she is famous for her vocal abilities. Beluga whales can whistle, quack, make sounds that resemble an untuned symphony orchestra, and many others. And all this with a decent volume. It is even called the sea canary.

Beluga

Northern industrialists, who for a long time hunted beluga whales, introduced the saying "roars like a beluga". People who live far from the ocean and have never seen a marine cetacean have recast this statement in accordance with their ideas. After all, very close to them in the longest river in Europe lives a giant fish - beluga.

This is how the beluga was converted into a beluga.

This expression is used most often in common speech, that is, in everyday reduced speech. It means "very strongly, violently scream, cry." In the drama of A.P. Chekhov "Ivanov" one of the characters says: " Zyuzyushka is brought to life. Beluga roars, dowry is a pity". In M. A. Sholokhov's novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" we read: " Swollen from tears, the snub-nosed master's daughter roared like a beluga, leaning against the door".

The modern form of this expression - to roar like a beluga - often causes bewilderment. Indeed, in modern Russian, beluga is a fish from the sturgeon breed. Of course, she can't cry. After all, they say: "mute like a fish." What's the matter here?

The following assumption was made: initially this expression sounded different, namely: roar beluga, since here, they say, we are talking about sounds made by a polar dolphin, a marine animal, which is called a beluga whale in modern Russian. Belo replacement X and on white G y in phraseology is given in some popular books as an example of a "linguistic paradox".

However, there is no evidence that the word beluga was ever used in this expression. In Russian they spoke and speak only roar beluga. According to the Card Index of the Old Russian Dictionary of the Institute of the Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences, one of the manuscripts of 1535 says that "lions and belugas can roar." And in later written monuments we find an already formed phraseological combination to roar like a beluga. The fact is that for a long time in Russian the word beluga meant both a large fish from the sturgeon breed and a polar dolphin. We have reliable evidence of this since the 16th century. In the "Dictionary of the regional Arkhangelsk dialect" published in 1885, the sea animal, the polar dolphin, is called both the beluga and the white whale. At the same time, the word beluga is in the first place. " local industrialists, - writes the compiler of the dictionary A. Podvysotsky, - this animal is also called a sea cow". This name is given to the beast, no doubt, for its ability to make very characteristic sounds, to roar.

In all dictionaries of the Russian language of the 19th century, the polar dolphin is called both the beluga and the white whale. It can be assumed that the word beluga as a dialectal, local name for a hunting animal entered the literary language from scientific geographical literature, in particular from the works of the Russian traveler of the second half of the 18th century I. Lepekhin. This scientist-naturalist was distinguished by a deep knowledge of folk speech. Lepekhin consciously sought to introduce folk, local names into scientific use. So, the northern Russian dialect name belukha became known first in a special scientific language, and then appeared in general literary speech.

In modern Russian, the beluga whale is the only name for the polar dolphin. Beluga is now called only fish. The modern distribution of "roles" for these two words occurred only in the 20th century. But what about phraseology? In stable speech turns, words, grammatical forms, pronunciation features that have changed or even completely disappeared from the language are very often preserved. And so the stable expression is preserved in the Russian language to roar beluga, despite the fact that the word beluga itself has not been used as the name of a sea animal for a long time. Phraseologism retains its old form.