Kalmyk Language Research Articles

PHONETIC FEATURES OF THE KALMYK AND OIRAT LANGUAGES OF WEST MONGOLIA

The purpose of the article. By comparing the elements of phonetic systems of the modern Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia, the authors aim to identify in these languages the pan-Oirat areal features, the specific phonetic characteristics that were formed during the hundreds of years of independent development in the Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia and preserved through the historical development. The solution to this task may provide the research basis for the future development of issues of historical grammar. Scientific novelty. The comparison of language contacts of Oirats in West Mongolia and Kalmyks living in Russia. The expansion of Oirats over large areas and continuous language contacts must have led to the development of differences in the languages of Oirats in West Mongolia and Kalmyks in Kalmykia. There are new opportunities to compare the identical variants in different contact situations, which allows one to assess the importance of such factors as the structural similarity on the phonetic level of the contacting languages. As a result, the prerequisites will be formed for the creation of historical grammar of the Mongolian protolanguage. This research topic is unique in global Mongolian studies. Results. The study of the Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia has indicated that during the four centuries of independent development, the Kalmyk language has remained practically unchanged within one of its main levels – phonetic and is almost similar to the Oirat language area formed in the ancient times. Conclusions. The phonetic structure of the modern Kalmyk language has remained practically unchanged and retains the features of the Oirat language area.

About phonetic features in the Kalmyk language and the language of the Oirats of Western Mongolia

About phonetic features in the Kalmyk language and the language of the Oirats of Western Mongolia

Кириллица в системе традиций письменной культуры калмыцкого народа

The paper considers the Cyrillic-based Kalmyk writing and is timed to the 95th anniversary of its introduction into practice in 1924. The advantages of this writing are considered in the context of the centuries-old rich tradition of writing culture of the Kalmyk people. First of all, it was the common Mongolian writing with more than one and a half thousand-year history,and “Clear writing” created in the middle of the 17th century. The Kalmyks chose a new script on a Cyrillic basis, leaving their traditional national scripts for socio-cultural, political, and technical reasons. It was impossible to print on a vertical line the merged writing of letters peculiar to traditional writing systems in those years. While using Cyrillic writing, the Kalmyk people, like other peoples of our country, achieved remarkable success in the sphere of educational, cultural, and economic development. The national intelligentsia was formed. Classical works of Russian and foreign fiction, as well as works of oral folk art and new Kalmyk literature, were published in the Kalmyk language. The extensive practice of establishing and using Cyrillic-based writing by the peoples of Russia, including the Kalmyk people, proves the completeness of alphabetic characters, the possibility of combining them for the written transmission of systems of different types of languages and their structural units, as well as the universality of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Стратегии перевода калмыцких деловых текстов XVIII в. (на материале писем хана Аюки и их русских переводов 1714 г.)

Among the scientific publications that research the features of the language of Kalmyk business letters and their translations, there are currently no works that analyze in detail the principles and strategies for translating Kalmyk business texts. The purpose of this article is to identify the main strategies for translating official letters of Khan Ayuka from Kalmyk language into Russian. Materials and methods. This work was based on material from the letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka of 1714 and Russian translations of these letters, also dated 1714. All materials are preserved in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. Transliteration, transcription into modern Kalmyk graphics and literal translation of the original texts into Russian were made by D. B. Gedeeva. Both synchronous and diachronic translations are used to identify translation strategies. The main research methods are descriptive, contextual analysis method, and comparative method. Results and conclusions. A comparison of the original and translated texts of Ayuka Khan letters shows that in Russian translations kept the general structure and content components of the original letter, genre and style features of the original text, although the texts of the translations are not verbatim. Authors of translations adhere to the strategy of transferring essential information while preserving the semantic message dominants, Russian translations are characterized by substitutions and repetitions of lexical units, a lexical addendum reflecting the extra-linguistic features of the communicative situation. Russian translations of letters from Khan Ayuka are made in compliance with the rules for processing business documents that were formed by the beginning of the 18th century.

Военная лексика в деловых письмах хана Аюки и русских переводах 1714 г.

Vocabulary in the ethnolinguistic aspect is considered as a verbal manifestation of the national culture. A special layer of the lexical system of the Kalmyk language, the formation of which is associated with the conditions of the socio-political life of the Kalmyks, is represented by the vocabulary of military affairs. The study of military vocabulary in the Kalmyk language touches on various aspects: historical lexicology, lexical borrowings, lexicographical description. The military vocabulary of the Kalmyk language at the present stage is considered as part of socio-political vocabulary. As sources of the material for the study of military vocabulary, works of fiction, folklore texts, the epos “Dzhangar”, old Kalmyk business texts, lexicographic publications were used. At the same time, the military vocabulary of the Kalmyk language in synchronous and historical aspects remains insufficiently studied. Materials. The work is based on the material of letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka (1714) and Russian translations of these letters (1714) stored in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. The transliteration and transposition to the modern Kalmyk graphics used in the article were made by D. B. Gedeeva. The author analyzes military vocabulary that is specific for that historical period under consideration and relates to several thematic subgroups: 1) names associated with the general concept of ceriq ‘army’; 2) representatives of a certain type of troops; 3) the type of military activity; 4) names of substances that are used for the manufacture of weapons (ammunition). Findings. The elements of the thematic group of military vocabulary analyzed in the article, recorded in business letters of Khan Ayuka for 1714, give a clearer picture of the history of the development of the lexical system of the Kalmyk language and the ethnolinguistic specificity of the business text — original and translated. An analysis of the use of the names of general concepts in business letters, representatives of a certain kind of troops, means for making ammunition reveals the specifics and patterns of functioning of one of the lexical subsystems of the Kalmyk language, confirms the possibility of replenishing existing dictionaries with outdated words and creating a separate dictionary of Kalmyk business letters of the 18th century.

Стратегии перевода калмыцких деловых текстов XVIII в. (на материале писем хана Аюки и их русских переводов 1714 г.)

Among the scientific publications that research the features of the language of Kalmyk business letters and their translations, there are currently no works that analyze in detail the principles and strategies for translating Kalmyk business texts. The purpose of this article is to identify the main strategies for translating official letters of Khan Ayuka from Kalmyk language into Russian. Materials and methods. This work was based on material from the letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka of 1714 and Russian translations of these letters, also dated 1714. All materials are preserved in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. Transliteration, transcription into modern Kalmyk graphics and literal translation of the original texts into Russian were made by D. B. Gedeeva. Both synchronous and diachronic translations are used to identify translation strategies. The main research methods are descriptive, contextual analysis method, and comparative method. Results and conclusions. A comparison of the original and translated texts of Ayuka Khan letters shows that in Russian translations kept the general structure and content components of the original letter, genre and style features of the original text, although the texts of the translations are not verbatim. Authors of translations adhere to the strategy of transferring essential information while preserving the semantic message dominants, Russian translations are characterized by substitutions and repetitions of lexical units, a lexical addendum reflecting the extra-linguistic features of the communicative situation. Russian translations of letters from Khan Ayuka are made in compliance with the rules for processing business documents that were formed by the beginning of the 18th century.

Пространственные значения и средства их выражения в калмыцком языке (на примере падежных форм)

The study deals with spatial localization in the modem Kalmyk language. Being an important element of the world model, space finds its manifestation in certain language facts. In every language spatial semantics is expressed by certain lexical and grammatical units, and has somewhat pronounced specifics, particular semantic messages. Goals. The research seeks to describe types of localizations of spatial relations in the Kalmyk language expressed through case forms. Materials. The work investigates selected literary, folklore and journalistic texts, as well as dictionaries extracted from the National Corpus of the Kalmyk Language and the Kalmyk National Corpus respectively. Results. In the Kalmyk language, a total of four grammatical cases may express spatial relations: the dative-locative, instrumental, ablative, and aditive ones serve to indicate location and motion in space, destination and starting points, and also movement of an object along or in/through space. The work reveals and describes localization types — in the Kalmyk language — with various values regarding a reference point. Among the general spatial values, the paper specificates location, approaching, departure and movement of an object ‘on, nearby, over’ with relation to a reference point. Private localizations (IN, APUD, AD, SUPER, ULTRA, SUPRA) expressed by case forms are used to indicate space inside, close, in the distance, on the surface, over a reference point, etc. The research attempts to reveal values of key localizations in the language examined.

From the history of studying the sound system of the Kalmyk language

From the history of studying the sound system of the Kalmyk language

О письме дербетовского нойона Ценден Доржи астраханскому губернатору И. В. Якоби (1778 г.)

The article considers the archive document of the 18th century, written in the Kalmyk language. Its content reflects the problems in the economic and economic sphere of the life of the Kalmyks during that period. The addressee noyon, in his letter addressed to the Governor of Astrakhan, is concerned about the reduction of pastures due to the construction of farmsteads, mills, the allocation of land for grain husbandry to the residents of the villages. The document is interesting because it reflects one of the reasons related to the departure of Kalmyks to the historical homeland in 1771. At the same time, this text deserves attention as a linguistic source transmitting the peculiarities of the Kalmyk language of the period. The introduction of the document into scientific circulation will give material for studying the history of the Kalmyk people and their language.

Общемонгольская лексика в названиях предметов одежды и украшений в «Сокровенном сказании монголов»

The article deals with the vocabulary which was used for the denotation of pieces of clothing and adornments in The Secret History of the Mongols. The study aims to analyze — where possible — the etymology of the lexical items in question or, at least, if the relevant data are not available, find respective lexical parallels in the modern Khalkha, Buryat and Kalmyk languages, figure out whether they belong to the common Mongolic vocabulary, and draw conclusions concerning the way the layer of household vocabulary has been formed in the Mongoliс languages. Being the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language, The Secret History of the Mongols has been thoroughly studied, and dozens of articles, monographs and other works of scholarship have been published since the 19th century when this written artifact was introduced into European scientific discourse by Palladius (Kafarov), a Russian Orthodox monk and, by a twist of fate, one of the first Russian sinologists. Still, there are no lexical studies specifically focusing on the 13th-century household vocabulary which has left traces in The Secret History of the Mongols, while research of that kind could give clues to the so called ‘Altaic problem’. The article is intended to fill this gap (partially). The paper examines the following lexical items: deel/degel ‘long garment, dress, gown, robe; clothes’, qubcasun/qubca ‘clothes’, emusgel ‘garment’, daqu ‘coat with fur outside’, ormuge/ormege ‘overcoat, bast mat’, nemurge ‘raincoat’, heligebci ‘abdominal band’, emudun ‘pants’, camca ‘shirt’, dotoaǰi ‘underwear’, buse ‘belt’, γudusu(n) ‘footwear’, ǰaqa ‘collar’, qancu(n) ‘sleeve’, qormoi ‘bottom of one’s item of clothing’, maqalay ‘hat’, eemeg ‘earring’. It has been found that all the words listed have common Mongolic stems, and the words daqu ‘coat with fur outside’, ormuge/ormege ‘overcoat, bast mat’, and ǰaqa ‘collar’ are related to their common Turkic equivalents.

Общемонгольская лексика в названиях орудий труда в «Сокровенном сказании монголов» (параллели в халха-монгольском, бурятском, калмыцком языках)

Introduction. The words denoting tools of trade are of particular interest since those are integral to the lexical layer which can be defined as ‘household vocabulary’, while, it would be no exaggeration to say, this lexical layer forms the basis of any language and reflects the processes occurring in the language, particularly the facts of contacts with other cultures that would have resulted in linguistic borrowings. Goals. The article deals with the vocabulary denoting tools of trade in The Secret History of the Mongols. The study primarily aims to track the etymology of the words in question and discover their parallels in the modern Khalkha, Buryat and Kalmyk languages, since, in some cases, when the etymology is unclear, the fact of presence of phonetically and semantically identical lexical units in the mentioned major Mongolic languages to have acquired official state and republican status may be regarded as an additional evidence of the common Mongolic origin of the vocabulary under study. Materials. The language of The Secret History of the Mongols is the oldest physically existing (written) and, thus, analyzable form of the literary Mongolian language. Results. It has been chosen as a source of linguistic material because the conclusions regarding the forming processes of household vocabulary would have thus a solid basis. The paper describes the following lexical items: büleü/büleür ‘churning staff, a wooden stick with two cross-pieces or a disk on one end for beating kumiss’, aur ‘mortar; vessel in which substances are pounded or rubbed’, kituqay ‘knife’, süke ‘axe’, šiüci ‘chisel’, šibüge ‘awl’, tebene ‘a large needle used for sewing leather and other stiff material’, čalir ‘iron bar for demolishing rocks, breaking ice, etc.; crowbar, wrecking bar’, gölmi qubčiur ‘large fishing net’, gü:rege ‘bellows’, uqali ‘adze’, kirüe ‘saw’. It has been revealed that most of the words listed belong to the common Mongolic household vocabulary, and the words tebene ‘a large needle used for sewing leather and other stiff material’ and gü:rege ‘bellows’ are related to their common Turkic equivalents.

О еще одном «анонимном» калмыцко-русском словаре (1871, 1875 гг.)

В статье впервые вводится в научный оборот незаконченный калмыцко-русский словарь, автор которого не известен. Данный словарь напечатан в «Донских епархиальных ведомостях» в 1871 и 1875 гг. Словарь сопровождается комментариями авторов статьи. Орфография переводов приведена к современным нормам русского языка. Рассматриваются особенности составления словаря, диалектная принадлежность слов и др. В результате анализа словаря мы можем сделать вывод о личности составителя и информантах, у которых запиывались слова: во-первых, составитель словаря — не профессиональный лингвист, о чем свидетельствует непоследовательность в составлении словарных статей; во-вторых, составитель является жителем донских земель, вероятно, казак, поскольку в словаре достаточно часто в качестве переводов приводятся лексемы южного наречия русского языка; в-третьих, в качестве заголовочных слов — лексемы бузавского диалекта отсутствуют, но в словнике параллельно встречаются лексемы как дербетского, так и торгутского диалектов калмыцкого языка.

Spatial adjectives in the Kalmyk heroic epic “Dzhangar”

Данное исследование относится к числу работ, целью которых является разработка системы дефиниций для дачи адекватных и точных толкований, в частности пространственных прилагательных, которые выступают репрезентантом языковой картины мира, в которых запечатлены и отражены главные этнокультурные особенности калмыцкого языка, зависящие от климата, условий жизни, ландшафта, места проживания. Пространственные прилагательные привлекают внимание своей частотностью и обозначают в эпосе положение над (под, внутри, в центре, напротив, перед) ориентиром, расстояние, направление, горизонтальную плоскость, вертикальную ось, расположение предметов относительно друг друга. Пространственная ориентация основана на четырех сторонах света: өмн үзг ‘юг’, ар үзг ‘север’, зүн үзг ‘восток’, барун үзг ‘запад’.Пространственные прилагательные, образуют пары: барун ‘правый’ – зүн ‘левый’, деерк ‘верхний’ – дорак ‘нижний’, өмнк ‘передний’ – ардк ‘задний’. Левый – находящийся слева, расположенный в той стороне тела, где у людей находится сердце (со стороны той руки, которая ближе к сердцу): зүн һар ‘левая рука’, зүн өвдг ‘левое колено’, зүн халх ‘левая щека’, зүн таша ‘левое бедро’, зүн там ‘левый ад’, зүн дөрә ‘левое стремя’, зүн көл ‘левая нога’, зүн хасвч ‘левая створка дверей’, зүн ээм ‘левое плечо’. Правый – расположенный на стороне противоположной сердцу (левой стороне): барун һар ‘правая рука’, барун өвдг ‘правое колено’, барун халх ‘правая щека’, барун таша ‘правое бедро’.В связи с тем, что данная работа проведена в рамках проекта «Толковый словарь языка калмыцкого героического эпоса “Джангар”», нашей главной задачей было дать толкование нескольким заголовочным словам: барун ‘правый; запад’ – зүн ‘левый; восток’. В дальнейшем мы рассмотрим прилагательные: деерк ‘верхний’ – дорак ‘нижний’, өмнк ‘передний’ – ардк ‘задний’.Пространственные прилагательные частотны и широко употребляются в эпосе «Джангар». Более глубокое изучение пространственных прилагательных, сочетание их с различными лексико-семантическими группами существительных представляет безусловный интерес для дальнейших исследований. Исследование языка эпоса «Джангар» может стать перспективной работой, ценным материалом не только для лингвистов, фольклористов, а также для тех, кто интересуется языком и культурой калмыков. This research is regarded to the works the purpose of which is working out of the system of definitions for giving adequate and exact interpretation, in particular to spatial adjectives. These adjectives act as a representative of the world language picture in which the main ethno cultural features of the Kalmyk language are imprinted and reflected. They depend on climate, living conditions, a landscape, the place of residence. Spatial adjectives attract attention by their frequency and designate in the epos the situation over (under, inside, in the center, on the contrary, before) the reference point, distance, the direction, the horizontal plane, the vertical axis, the arrangement of objects relatively to each other. Spatial orientation is based on four parts of the world: ömn üzg ‘south’, are üzg ‘north’, zün üzg ‘east’, барун üzg ‘west’.Spatial adjectives, form couples: barun ‘right’ – zün ‘left’, deerk ‘top’ – dorak ‘lower’, ömnк ‘forward’ – ардк ‘back’. Left – being at the left, located in that side of a body where people have a heart (from that hand which is closer to heart): zün ɤar ‘the left hand’, zün övdg ‘the left knee’, zün хаlх ‘the left cheek’, zün tasha ‘the left hip’, zün tam ‘the left hell’, zün dörä ‘the left stirrup’, zün кöl ‘the left leg’, zün xasvč ‘the left shutter of doors’, zün eem ‘the left shoulder’. Right – located on the side opposite to heart (left side): barun ɤar ‘the right hand’, barun övdg ‘the right knee’, barun хаlх ‘the right cheek’, barun tasha ‘the right hip’.Due to this work is carried out within the project “The explanatory dictionary of the Kalmyk heroic epos «Dzhangar»” language our main aim was to give interpretation to several heading words: барун ‘right; the West’ – зүн ‘left; the East’. Further we will consider adjectives: deerk ‘top’ – dorak ‘lower’, ömnk ‘forward’ – ardк ‘back’. Spatial adjectives are frequent and are widely used in the epos “Dzhangar”. Deeper studying of spatial adjectives, their combination with various lexico-semantic groups of nouns is of unconditional interest to further researches.The research of the epos “Dzhangar” language can be a perspective work, valuable material not only for linguists, specialists in folklore and also for those who are interested in the language and the culture of Kalmyk people.

О слове bičiq в языке калмыцкой деловой письменности XVIII–XIX вв.

Introduction: Official Kalmyk writing — like that of any other Mongolic language — had been well developed since the emergence of the Mongol Empire and its successor states. Even within Russia’s boundaries the Kalmyks kept sophisticating their writing practices, special emphasis having been paid to administrative correspondence and records management. The National Archive of Kalmykia contains 18th-century documents addressed by Kalmyk nobility to Russian authorities. The bulk of the texts date back to the period of the Kalmyk Khanate when regular state contacts facilitated the development of official Kalmyk writing to meet the requirements of Imperial Russia’s correspondence protocols. Documents in Clear Script mirrored both the then literary and conversational variants of the Kalmyk language, and now serve as the basic sources for historical linguistic studies. The official lexis contained in the sources constitutes an integral part of the Kalmyk vocabulary and is still largely understudied. Identification and further exploration of this lexical stratum is important and urgent to understand the Kalmyk — and basically Mongolic — linguistic development in the long historical context. Certain efforts have been made to facilitate this, namely, those by D. Suseeva, N. Kokshaeva, and D. Gedeeva. Goals: The article aims to review document names containing the word bičiq. Methods: The diachronic lexical research applies descriptive, historical and comparative methods. Within the investigated texts, the word bičiq and related word combinations have a number of meanings. Except for the main ones, such as ‘script’, ‘credentials’, ‘letter’, those are used as names of official documents. In modern Kalmyk it is the word цаасн ‘paper’ which serves to denote various documents being etymologically related to the source material of such documents. In the language of the investigated the same role is played by the word bičiq ‘record; letter’ which stresses the recording of official information as a hard copy. Results: The study has discovered some obsolete — though still relevant — lexis dealing with records management. Its introduction into the active vocabulary shall significantly enrich modern Kalmyk, since those words have become rare in view of their obsolescence but due to current Russian-language records keeping (written correspondence) protocols. Conclusions: The discovered archived texts containing the word bičiq in their titles show there is quite a layer of similar lexis in official recordings of the 18th–19th centuries. In turn, this proves that records management practices had been developed enough in the Kalmyk Khanate. Only small part of the mentioned sources have been examined, and there are still many more Kalmyk lexicographic units to discover, investigate and describe.

Нужен ли учащейся молодежи Калмыкии калмыцкий язык (по материалам социологических исследований 2015 и 2017 гг.)

Одним из языков в России, который имеет некоторую опасность исчезновения, является калмыцкий язык — язык титульного этноса Республики Калмыкия. Социологические исследования показывают, что активных носителей языка становится все меньше. Язык из разряда реального этнодифференцирующего признака становится символическим признаком народа. Калмыцкий язык в качестве средства коммуникации в молодежной среде используется достаточно редко, особенно вне дома (на работе, учебе, в общественных местах). В 2015 и 2017 г. автор проводила социологические исследования, анализирующие позицию учащихся и студентов Калмыкии (репрезентативная выборка) по проблемам языкового, а также в целом этнокультурного образования. В статье представлены результаты исследований и проведено сопоставление данных как по ответам молодежи калмыцкой национальности, так и по калмыкам и русским учащимся.Установлен низкий уровень коммуникации на калмыцком языке среди калмыцкой молодежи. Только 43% билингвальны (владеют русским и калмыцким языками) в 2015 г., 46% — в 2017 г. Ее основными причинами названы собственно не владение калмыцким языком, а также отсутствие языковой среды на калмыцком языке.Потребность в изучении национального языка в республике актуальна: только 4% опрошенных школьников и студентов считают, что калмыцкий язык им не нужен, тогда как 52,5% выбрали бы стандартное, 20% — углубленное, 18% — общее знакомство с калмыцким языком. В 2017 г. показатели этой потребности были существенно снижены, однако, в причинах автор видит смену учебных заведений в выборке.Значительно выраженной является установка школьников и студентов на изучение иностранного языка (прежде всего — английского). Заметно меньше интерес молодежь проявляет к традиционным курсам по истории региона, истории народа, а также на изучение национальной культуры. Тем не менее приобщение к национальной культуре для молодежи интересно, но не в образовательной форме, а в форме практического освоения в ходе посещения театров, концертов, в туристических походах и пр.

ТИТУЛЬНЫЕ ЛЕКСЕМЫ ХАН, ХААН, ХАТН В ТОЛКОВОМ СЛОВАРЕ ЯЗЫКА КАЛМЫЦКОГО ГЕРОИЧЕСКОГО ЭПОСА «ДЖАНГАР»

The article examines the thematic group ‘titles’ in the context of development of the Definition Dictionary of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar, and analyzes the title lexemes khan, khān, khatn. The frequency of use of the titles allows to identify their place in the language of the Oirats — ancestors of the Kalmyks, a detailed study of the titles helps determine the meanings of some rare titles (e.g., söltg ‘prince possessing no subjects’), as the Jangar epic is probably the only remaining source they can be borrowed from for studies. Compilation of dictionary entries containing title denoting lexemes as header words with application of all illustrative examples from songs of the epic might be useful for researchers of the Kalmyk language and folklore, it may also be used in supplements to lexicographical works. In modern Kalmyk, the title lexemes act as historicisms. Keywords: Kalmyk language, text corpus of the Jangar Epic, definition dictionary, dictionary entry, titles.

ТОЛКОВАНИЯ НАИМЕНОВАНИЙ МАСТИ ЛОШАДЕЙ

The article describes the interpretation system of the lexical units denoting the color coat of the horse in the Kalmyk language. It contains a table of lexical units denoting the color coat of horses with their interpretation, translations, synonyms, depending on the type of dictionary. It should be noted that in the Kalmyk language, some words denote color in general, and serve to denote the color of an animal (khar ‘black, (dark-)chestnut, black’), others call only the color coat (zeerd ‘chestnut’, ker ‘ bay’, saarl ‘ashen, mouse-coloured, dun’). Besides, the adjectives that are used to represent the coat color at the same time can act as an animal nicknames. As the format of the dictionary is explanatory, all the entries are given without translation in comparison with the existing dictionaries of the Kalmyk language. Though the descriptive method of the dictionary is the main one, in some cases, the descriptive-synonymous method is also used as they are both the best ones in interpreting the meanings of words, fully and accurately discovering the meanings of entry words. In square brackets the source of the word usage is indicated, which gives the name of the version of the epic “Jangar” in abbreviated form (see list of abbreviations), through a colon comes a song number - in Roman numerals, as in [EO: V], [MB: I], [BC: II]. The given vocabulary entries of the language of the Kalmyk heroic epic “Jangar” are the one way to test them. The results of the research provide a basis for improving practices of adequate interpretation and further developing cliches-interpretations for the other groups from the Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Kalmyk heroic epic “Jangar”.

Особенности номинации народных праздников в калмыцком и немецком языках

Особенности номинации народных праздников в калмыцком и немецком языках

Images of men and women in the Kalmyk language picture of the world (on the material of proverbs)

Images of men and women in the Kalmyk language picture of the world (on the material of proverbs)

БУДДИЙСКАЯ УСТАРЕВШАЯ ЛЕКСИКА КАЛМЫЦКОГО ЯЗЫКА (на материале Национального корпуса калмыцкого языка)

The article attempts to study the obsolete Buddhist vocabulary of the Kalmyk language with evidence from the “early” 18th-19th century texts that have been introduced into the database of the Kalmyk National Corpus. As is known, within any language one can constantly witness two reciprocal processes: disappearance of some lexemes that pass out of use — and appearance of new ones. In terms of the historical approach to the studies of a word, the stages as follows can be distinguished: appearance of a lexeme, loss of novelty and movement into the realm of neutral lexis, appearance of obsolete features, passing out of use and designation as obsolete. But the process can be both slow, continuous — and uneven like, e.g., the case of religious lexis. Once shifted towards passive positions, such vocabulary did not disappear altogether but kept existing in corresponding texts. However, at certain historic moments obsolete vocabulary can get re-actualized and start functioning actively in speech; thus, re-emergence of a once obsolete word to active use is always a new stage in the life-cycle of the word. So, e.g., due to the social and political transformations that occurred in the past 20 years, religious terms and notions that used to be designated as obsolete are re-introduced into the active vocabulary. Kalmyk written monuments contain a huge layer of Buddhist lexis and expressions that passed out of active use and are difficult to understand (or cannot be understood at all) for contemporary Kalmyk speakers. Analyses of old written texts allow to fill some gaps relating to the vocabulary of modern Kalmyk and Mongolian languages in general. In view of the aforesaid, to enrich the contemporary vocabulary certain archaisms and obsolete words should be re-introduced – with due account of corresponding examples since the boundaries between the active and passive vocabulary (including mainly obsolete words) are not fixed. The considered examples testify that due to external reasons (both linguistic and extra-linguistic ones, i.e. those that resulted from social and political transformations) there occurred substitution of notions, restriction of meanings of words and other processes in modern Kalmyk which signifi cantly impoverish the vocabulary of the language. E.g., the word ӓӓldkhl expresses both the meanings of ‘report’ and ‘predestination’, bishilγkh stands only for ‘to contemplate’. It is the social movement for restoration of once lost spiritual traditions, cultural values and realities that stimulates the reintroduction of rare and obsolete lexis. The value of most of the words is indisputable since those constitute a huge layer of the culture and traditional national identity.