The present article examines the national and literary specificity of children’s folk games with verbal content in Russian, English, and Uzbek cultural traditions. The study focuses on the interaction between verbal folklore, play activity, and cultural context as a complex semiotic system reflecting collective memory, national mentality, and social values. Using a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the research analyzes genre classification, systems of imagery, symbolic meanings, and compositional structures of children’s games. The material base includes more than 1500 authentic folklore texts—counting rhymes, taunts, circle games, and ritualized play—supplemented by a sociolinguistic survey involving 300 respondents. The findings demonstrate that children’s verbal folklore represents not a static relic of the past, but a dynamic and adaptive cultural phenomenon that continues to evolve under conditions of globalization and digitalization.

Children’s folklore, verbal folk games, national specificity

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