Лексема билцг: к вопросу о происхождении и семантике (на материале эпоса «Джангар»)*

Abstract

The article presents results of a study conducted within the project framework ‘A Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar’. 28 Jangar epic songs have been investigated, the object of research being the lexeme biltsg ‘(signet) ring’ included in the word list of the Definition Dictionary. So, the paper attempts to examine the etymology and semantics of the mentioned word. Analysis of the thematic group of adornments can hardly introduce any critical discoveries in linguistics or history and ethnography, but it does facilitate solving questions on separate aspects of spiritual and cultural life of people, helps reconstruct fragments of the archaic view of the world once developed by the Turco-Mongols. The lexeme biltsg is one of the most rarely used words of the epic: only 4 patterns discovered in the whole of the Jangar. The analysis of the etymology — with due regard of related scholarly literature — concludes that the Kalmyk biltsg ‘(signet) ring’ cannot be reduced to the Turkic bizelüq. Still, two etymologically opposing variants of the lexeme were used in Mongolic languages. Thus, the forms bilesüg and bilüčеg have differing morphemic structures. The first one is a compound word and stems from — as aforementioned — the Turkic bilek ‘wrist’ + üsüg ‘ring’ which was actually never adopted by Mongolic languages due to the absence of a corresponding regular affix in the mentioned language systems. The second form is a completely Mongolic word structure, namely: the stem bile- + affix -čЕg. The lexeme is determined (motivated) by a relict stem to have constituted the basis of the proto-Turkic *bilek and that of the proto-Tungus-Manchu *bilen; though the stem is no longer to be traced in modern languages. The historical morphemic structure of the Kalmyk word consists of бил + цг < *bülü + čЕg where the first part is a nominative or verbal (?) stem, and the latter one is an affix applied to form nouns with meanings of either result or object nomination, their main function being that what is denominated by the motivating stem. The epic uses the word biltsg in the meaning of ‘signet ring’ which serves as a symbol of power and strength, also acting as a protective amulet which is typical for traditional culture of the Kalmyks.