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27
Agnes Birtalan
Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest
"LABORATORY-OIRAD": Some observations on a variety of Altai Dorwod recorded in special circumstances
1. Introduction
The present article is conceived of as part of a monograph in preparation devoted to the study of an Altai Dorwod text-corpus1, recorded in special, "laboratorial" circumstances.
Being involved in research of various branches and different aspects of Mongolian languages and dialects, I and my team collected a plethora of materials concerning the language usage and various manifestations of language in situ2. The analysis of the field records is in progress and some of its results have already been published3. The Altai Dorwod text-corpus discussed here was not recorded in situ, in the field, but at the Department of Inner Asian Studies, Eotvos Lorand University, using the opportunity of the presence of an Oirad (Dorwod) native speaker, Professor Balchigiin Katuu (Balcigin Katu) who belonged to the faculty members of the Department (2005-2009). The present article deals with the process of developing the text-corpus for further studies of various philological disciplines and displays the methodological problems that emerged during this process.
2. The Altai Dorwod variety of Oirad
Dorwod (Mong. Dorbed, Oir. Dorwd) is the name of a clan and later of an ethnic group whose predecessors were already mentioned in the Secret History of the Mongols [Ligeti 1971: § 11] in the 13th
1 The working title of the monograph is: An Altai Dorwod variety. A new attempt to create a text-corpus for ethnolinguistic examination.
2 The field research of the team has been supported several times by the Hungarian Scientific Fund (OTKA), currently in the frame of the project Nr. 100613 (project leader: Agnes Birtalan).
3 For the list of publications, cf. [Birtalan 2012a: 15-20].
century. Ethnic groups named presumably after the Dorbed and the dialectal varieties called Dorwod are spread over a vast territory where Mongols live [Cendee 2012: 31-35; Rakos 2012: 27, 33-38]. The historical processes by which various groups of contemporary Oirads including the Dorwods changed or obtained their names are still inadequately described in the literature, though the source-based study of H. Okada [1987] offers a capable guideline to the problem. Altai Dorwod, fortunately, is a relatively well-documented variant of the Dorwod branch of Oirad; see the main publications that are concerned with the descriptive analysis either of the whole dialect [Vanduj 1965] or some of its peculiarities [Kara 1958; Vanduj 1962; Birtalan 2003; Cendee 2012; Rakos 2012; Badamdorj 2012; Bembeev 2012; Rassadin 2012; Trofimova 2012]. In the present article the peculiarities of Dorwod will not be described again, only the Oirad properties of Professor Katuu's language usage will be discussed (cf. below) and the Oirad (Dorwod) elements of the sample texts will be highlighted.
3. Hungarian linguistic fieldwork among Mongolian ethnic groups
Hungarian research of various Mongolian languages has a long tradition of working in the field and recording linguistic and ethnolinguistic material. A famous model of this endeavour was Gabor Balint of Szentkatolna4 (1871-1873) whose exemplary records on Kalmyk were published recently [Balint 2009; Birtalan (ed.) 2011]5. Following his footsteps L. Ligeti in 1928-1931 [Ligeti 1977], and his pupils G. Kara, A. Rona-Tas, K. Uray-Kohalmi in 1957 6 [Kara, Rona-Tas, Uray-Kohalmi 1958] recorded linguistic and ethnographic data among various Mongolian ethnic groups. I have started studying Mongolian dialects in the late eighties and since 1991 continued in the frame of the Hungarian-Mongolian Joint Expedition [Birtalan 2010]. During this period a large amount of records have been accumulated on various dialects [Birtalan 2012a]. A part of the audio corpora has been created using various approaches; the majority of the published texts deal with
4 In Hungarian: Szentkatolnai Balint Gabor.
5 Balint's Khalkha material is in the process of elaboration; the publication of the 88 pages of Khalkha manuscript with its philological context is expected to be published in 2015.
6 Following it later also several times in the seventies.
religious topics 7. These texts (shamanic invocations and other ritual texts, interviews with religious specialists, mythological narratives, etc.) are not only valuable for their content, but can simultaneously be used as dialectal materials and offer possibilities for further linguistic examination.
3.1. The methodological background of linguistic research: fieldwork and workshop
The primary aim of my team's research is to prepare detailed, philologically elaborated descriptive publications of dialectal forms on the basis of our field records, thus presenting a primary source for further analysis. General introductions to the spoken Oirad using our first-hand records were proposed by Birtalan [2003] and Rakos [2012], descriptive displays of particular dialects were presented by Balogh [2012] (Deed Mongol), Badamdorj [2012] (Oolod) and Somfai-Kara [2012] (Sart-Kalmyk). Various methodological approaches have been tested on individual corpora, like sociolinguistic analysis of Oolod [Birtalan 2002, 2012b] or examining one corpus of Zaxcin in terms of speech-act theories [Birtalan 2012c]8.
While working on the materials of the monograph Oirad and Kalmyk Linguistic Essays [Birtalan 2012a, 2012b, 2012c] and further field records, I summoned a working group to study various aspects of the Oirad and Kalmyk dialects and their historical and cultural context within a workshop (in the spring semester of 2009). This became a forum for sharing ideas on the possible elaboration of our oral field records and the training for the MA-level students and PhD-candidates9. These discussions and the presence of Professor Katuu, a native speaker of Dorwod, led me to the idea of creating a corpus of his Dorwod variety of Altai Oirad.
7 From the audio records the textual tradition of contemporary shamans and other folk religious practitioners are processed and published most fully [Birtalan 2012b; see also the homepage: www.birtalan.innerasia.hu].
8 The shamanic and ritual texts were examined in the frame of sacred communication and text philology.
9 The participants of the workshop: Âgnes Birtalan (topic: varieties of spoken Oirad), B. Katuu (Oirad epics), Matyas Balogh (Deed Mongol variant of Oirad), Attila Rakos (Written Oirad), Âkos Avar (field records among Altai Oirads); two students (Maté Rottar and Zsolt Toth) were also involved into the discussions of the workshop.
3.2. The methodological background of creating a "laboratory" for recording Oirad (process, advantages and disadvantages)
The above preliminaries, i. e. the fieldwork-background, the process of working in a workshop with specialists who are interested in the Oirad language and its historical and cultural context, and above all the fact that an Oirad native speaker belongs to our faculty encouraged me to find out a possible method to record texts and to create a special corpus based on a single native informant, Professor Katuu10. The main aim was to create a Dorwod text-corpus which will be appropriate for further linguistic research and for the study of its cultural context. We are experienced in working in the field and recording linguistic data in situ — i. e. recording spontaneous conversation of the informants — and also in focusing on special aspects like working with the informants based on questionnaires on phonetic features of a dialectal variant11, or collecting specific ethnocultural vocabulary12. However, working with a single informant who had been separated from his cultural background and linguistic surroundings for three years13 brought around new problems; indeed, the whole corpus was deemed to be artificial to some extent. Taking into consideration the possible advantages and disadvantages of the recording in the above mentioned circumstances, we decided to create the audio corpus of a variety of Altai Dorwod (among ourselves, we called this variety Katugin yaria (Khalkha) or Katugin ktinddn (Oirad)). I called the process of preparing and recording the corpus "laboratorial" process because the circumstances — in contrast to the research in the field, i. e. the natural environment of the informants — were created artificially. Similarly to a "laboratory" where some steps of an experiment can be repeated, the records we made could also be re-examined, corrected and recorded again. Consequently, the result that will be published on
10 For a similar attempt in Mongolian linguistics cf. [Martin 1961], based on the information recorded from Peter (Urgunge) Onon.
11 In detail cf. [Birtalan 2012c: 92].
12 On various approaches applied to the analysis of such vocabulary-corpora, cf. [Birtalan 2002, 2012b].
13 As Professor Katuu lived in Ulaanbaatar since 2001, he was partly separated from the Oirad milieu even earlier. However, he participated several times in expeditions to Western Mongolia between 2001 and 2005 and in this way he was in touch with bearers of various Oirad dialects from time to time.
a CD together with the monograph in preparation is a product of a longer development. Below the process of preparation and recording of the corpus will be described: first, the preliminaries and the recording process will be introduced; second, the methodological means of dealing with the records will be presented; and third, advantages and disadvantages of the examined research attempt will be discussed.
3.2.1. The preliminaries of the research attempt. As mentioned above, there is an archive of a comprehensive database of fieldwork materials on various Mongolian speaking groups at the Department of Inner Asian Studies, the elaboration of which (from various approaches) is still in progress (see e. g. [Birtalan 2012a]). The Oirad dialectal material constitutes a considerable and ever-growing part of audio records. The international team of the Oirad and Kalmyk Linguistic Essays worked partly on the basis of the archival material and partly on corpora recorded in the frame of other field studies (cf. the essays of Kalmyk and Russian colleagues in the same volume).
Professor Balchigiin Katuu, the informant of the recording of text-corpus, worked at our Department as a language teacher between 2005 and 200914. Professor Katuu is of Dórwód origin from Uws province, Sagil district; he carried out numerous field trips among various Oirad groups also with students of the Khowd University between 1983 and 200115. During his field trips he visited several parts of Uws and Khowd provinces recording epics and other folklore genres and also variants of Altai Oirad vernacular. He has preserved many features of his native dialect; it was traceable in his pronunciation and was observable in his usage of special Oirad morphological elements, as e. g. the frequent but not exclusive use of
(a) palatal k-, -k- (versus Khal. x-, -x-), also in front of i in words with back vowels,
(b) palatal front vowels, o, ü, 5, ü (versus the Khalkha centralised variants).
Traces of
(a) Oirad long vowels (versus the Khalkha diphthongs),
14 During this period he worked together with Laszlo Kadar on the epic heritage of Uwxin Bat [Kadar, Katu 2012], and with me on the DVD devoted to traditional Mongolian material culture [Birtalan 2008].
15 That time Pedagogical Institute of Khowd (Xowdin Bagsin Ded Surgul)
(b) the original i of the first syllable (versus the Khalkha vowels, results of the process of breaking i),
(c) spirant z-, -z- (versus Khal. j-, -j-),
(d) unrounded vowels in the non-initial syllables after rounded vowels (versus Khalkha rounded vowels),
(e) different extent of reduction of non-initial syllables
were also observable. These are the most decisive Oirad properties of Professor Katuu's pronunciation16.
Morphologically the use of typical Oirad negative forms (negation applied to verba finita) was also traceable in Professor Katuu's everyday speech.
3.2.2. The corpus of Altai Dorwod. Gabor Balint of Szentkatolna's Kalmyk text collection serves as an example for a dialectal text-corpus that also contains rich information on a given ethnic group [Birtalan (ed.) 2011]. Balint deliberately and carefully collected text types offering information on various speech types and ethnographic vocabulary:
(a) everyday speech (in the form of conversations),
(b) texts with constant elements and text-modules (ritual texts, lyric and narrative folklore texts),
(c) texts with constant and improvisatory elements and text-modules (narrative folk tales),
(d) text with rich terminology of the local culture (samples on the traditional culture),
(e) letters17.
While discussing the content of the planned text-corpus of Altai Dorwod, I proposed to compile a comprehensive database similar to Balint's materials: therefore, the Altai Dorwod text-corpus would contain the following sections:
(a) various types of everyday conversation,
(b) folklore genre samples,
(c) brief descriptive texts on the traditional Dorwod culture.
16 A detailed analysis of the degree of the Khalkhaisation of his speech in the text-corpus will be included in the monograph devoted to his texts, cf. note 1.
17 Balint's Kalmyk corpus that I published contains not only the photocopy of his manuscript and annotated English translation of the sample texts, but also a comprehensive philological analysis of particular genres [Birtalan (ed.) 2011].
As Balchigiin Katuu has collected and published large amounts of folklore text of various genres, he suggested they should not be included in the corpus18. At this point I let Professor Katuu choose freely those text types that he regarded important. The content of the Altai Dorwod text-corpus formed in this way shows features of the prestige culture, as the informant endeavours to present the most attractive and representative parts of his native cultural phenomena. Below the sample-texts of the corpus are listed systematised19 according to the "classical" sequence: (1) texts concerning the material culture, (2) texts concerning the spiritual cultural phenomena and (3) the folklore texts.
Kündän I. Conversation
II. Way of life
Dörwödm nüdlln tuxä On the Dorwods' nomadism
Dörwödm ay aw The Dorwods' hunting
Dörwödm taränä tuxä On the Dorwods' agriculture
III. Material culture
Dörwöd ger The Dorwod round tent
Dörwöd xölnä tuxä On the Dorwod food
Dörwödm cayän idä The Dorwods' white food
Dörwöd cä The Dorwod tea
Dörwödm dewl xuwcn The Dorwods' clothing
IV. Spiritual culture
1. Festivities
Dörwöd xurim The Dorwod wedding
Dörwödm bux nöldän The Dorwods' wrestling
Dörwödm cayän sar The Dorwods' Lunar New Year
2. Games
Dörwödm togläm nädyä The Dorwods' games
Dörwödm dund xuryan The Dorwods' game: "Finding the
olox nädyä middle finger"
18 The disadvantage of these — otherwise excellent — folklore text publications is that they do not reflect the dialectal features (cf. [Birtalan 2012b]).
19 The above systematisation of the completed records was suggested by me.
V. Folklore
Dorwodin dom siwsleg The Dorwods' incantations
Dórwód samyana yaran 1. The "old Dorwod woman's talk" 1.
Dorwod samyana yaran 2. The "old Dorwod woman's talk" 2.
Dorwod samyana yaran 3. The "old Dorwod woman's talk" 3.
3.2.3. The recording process: the "laboratory "
(a) Recording the conversation20
We started the process with dialogue samples, testing some typical situations of conversation, such as greetings, introducing, and inquiry — the usual situations in Mongolian conversational etiquette. The next step was that Professor Katuu put down some typical conversational modules of speech and created a dialogue according to his conception.
(b) Recording ethnographic miscellanea21
We went through the possible topics for a proper introduction of Dórwód traditional culture, and as I mentioned earlier, I let Professor Katuu make a choice of what he considered to be the most typical phenomena for an introduction of his own culture (presented in the dialectal vernacular). The only aspect I asked to be present in the samples was the use of the rich dialectal vocabulary. Eventually Katuu chose numerous common phenomena that characterise the nomadic way of life and nomadic cultural syndrome of any Mongolian ethnic group that still maintains a pastoral economy (cf. above the Content). In fact, he presented all the important spheres of life, and among the markedly unique Dórwód phenomena, he devoted separate sections to the "Dórwód tea" and the game "Finding the middle finger".
(c) Recording folklore texts
As mentioned above, there was a plethora of possibilities for recording the subcorpus of folklore texts. However, Professor Katuu decided to limit himself in this field (NB! this is his major subject of studies) to a genre which is commonly known and widespread among the Mongolian ethnic groups: the "(whispered) incantation", dom siwsleg in Khalkha (see e. g. [Sodnom 1968]), and a typical Oirad genre which is a very good text type for studying the dialectal peculiarities, the so-
20 In Bálint's corpus, cf. [Birtalan (ed.) 2011: 26-31].
21 In Bálint's corpus, cf. [Birtalan (ed.) 2011: 137-167].
called "old woman's' talk", samgand yaran (Oir.). On the basis of his field experience Professor Katuu was able to collect several samples of this unique genre and he compiled three narrations from the known motifs and text-modules for the corpus.
Once he decided which kind of topics he wished to include into the corpus of Altai Dorwod, we recorded his texts. Being dissatisfied with his pronunciation and unevenness of his speech, Katuu chose to use these initial recordings as a preliminary test, and told me that he would rather put down and read aloud all the samples for recording. At this point the spontaneousness of recording turned into the "experimental laboratory", as he developed all the details of his talk and repeated the record several times. He also expressed his wish to delete the previous records. The motivation of Professor Katuu's endeavour can be understood and explained by the striving to represent Altai Dorwod as perfectly as possible. In an earlier paper I discussed the prestigiousness of the Oirad dialect and its cultural context, introducing the social situation which has given rise to this phenomenon, i. e. the minority culture and language (dialects) gaining the status of prestige culture [Birtalan 2012b]. In accordance with my argumentation in the mentioned article, Professor Katuu's attitude to his texts was wholly acceptable for me. The final, revised, repeatedly recorded texts can be characterised by the following:
(a) the themes, topics were chosen according to the native informant,
(b) Professor Katuu considered initial recordings to be a test that must be revised and repeated,
(c) he prepared a written version of his speech before recording again,
(d) he deliberately worked out his pronunciation to be more proper for a Dorwod corpus,
(e) while repeating the texts several times, he changed the vocabulary and made it more "Oiratised" (Dorwodised).
4. Evaluation of the attempt of creating the Altai Dorwod text corpus
Here I attempt to summarise the advantages and disadvantages of the recording process of the text corpus and evaluate the results.
The "laboratory" method includes the following disadvantages: the result is to some extent artificial, i. e. the texts emerge from a long preparatory process. The informant corrected, revised his texts several times in order to prepare the possibly most perfect variant according to
his expectations. It implies the danger that the pronunciation is "improved" to the extent that is far removed from the spontaneous living usage. The informant, Professor Katuu, is a learned professional folklorist who had had the Dorwod background from his earliest childhood, but as a teacher of Mongolian language and folklore and as a scholar who had spent many years with field research he was wholly aware how such texts could and should be "polished" in order to become perfect. In the solution of this problem the informant simultaneously used ethic and emic approaches which influenced to some extent the sample texts.
However, in accordance with the main aim, i. e. to prepare a longer corpus of an Oirad dialect containing various culture-specific sample texts, the project can be evaluated as a successful attempt. The eighteen text pieces reflect Dorwod (and also common Oirad) peculiarities of an informant's ideal language usage and as such will be a starting point for further linguistic examination. It is necessary to prepare similar text corpora because although the ethnographic and folklore text publications on various Altai Oirad groups are abundant, the texts reflecting the peculiarities of the spoken variant are quite scarce [Birtalan 2012b]. Concerning the content of the corpus, the text samples offer further information on the cultural background of the informant (though these data are known from numerous ethnographic descriptions) and — what is more important, according to my opinion, — refer to the informant's attitude to his own culture.
If one wishes to use our text corpus for further examination, one should take into consideration the features summarised above and be fully aware of the possible shortcomings of these texts. Nevertheless, I hope that considering its value, several similar text corpora will be created in the future. Certainly there are intriguing questions for further elaboration, e. g. to examine the connection of our Altai Dorwod samples to other Altai Oirad dialects, to find out the influence of Khalkha even in the texts with improved pronunciation, to find more parallels to the folklore genres and examine them in a larger context and so forth...
5. Appendix — Samples from the text-corpus
Dörwöd cä
Dörwödüd cä ik üdg. Dörwödd ked kedn cä bän.
1. Üstä gej bän. Üstä cäg canj beldkdä ekläd xar cäyä cinn. Xar cäyä buclsnä darä säri n 'süj, tusyä sawnd ütln.
Darä n ' üsä körülnä. Üs köräd irklär körsn üsn derä xar cäyä kïj säxn samrn.
Darä n' daws, äryTn sar tos kïj bas samrn.
Dörwdd üstä cäg oln dakn samrwl säxn amttä boln gegäd ik udän samrn.
Samrxdä cänä dolgilx ködlgön nar jöw bän. Iygäd cänäxä dawsï n' amsäd burxydä dëjörgäd, [yajärär ?] sayyadä awc yaräd teygr, ül, usndä cacl örgäd corytä modn sülyyd sawln.
Im cä barg xöl idsnä adlxn tejältä bädg. Imäs dörwdüd en üstä cäyä ik üdg. Aild yamr negn kümn irkd en üstä cäyä cinj ögdg. radnäs irsn kümnd beln ogt amsüldgö.
The Dorwod Tea
The Dorwods drink lots of tea. There are several types of tea among the Dorwods.
1. There is [tea] with milk. If one prepares to cook milk tea, one first cooks black tea. After the black tea has come to the boil, the tea-leaves are sieved and put into a separate vessel.
Thereafter one boils the milk. When the milk starts to boil, the black tea is poured on the boiling milk and stirred profoundly.
Thereafter salt and one cup of yellow fat is put [into the boiling tea] and stirred again.
The Dorwods think that if the milk tea is stirred many times, it will have a good taste; that is why they stir it for a long time.
When one stirs the tea, its waves move clockwise. Then one tastes how salty the tea is, and offers the best part for the god; [...] then one scoops [from the tea] in a ladle and going out offers libation to the sky, to the mountains and waters. Finally [the tea] is poured into a wooden jug with a spout.
This tea has similar nourishment to food. That is why the Dorwods drink this milk tea much. If someone comes [to visit] the family, this milk tea is cooked [for him]. For people who come from outside [i. e. for guests] the cooked [tea] will not be served.
2. Xoyir dax ca bol xorulsn ca, xorulsn derkta adlxn. Ilyatan xar caya cinsna dara xoina stilig xaltilj tos yaryad ter tos dere ttika yuyar kij bagsrad, deres n' us kij buclyn.
Iygkd ttika yuyar bickn bickn boryka boldg. En yuyar bolad irkan aldd xar caya kij daws, tos kigad samrn. Iygad dakn buclyj yuyar n' bolad irkd coryta sulyqda [yugad ?] ucyn.
2. The second type of tea is the [...] tea; the [...] is similar to the above kind. The difference is that after cocking the black tea, a [greasy] sheep tail is melted and in the fat that formed after melting, some row flour is mixed. Some milk is poured into it and then it is boiled.
This way the row flour will turn into small round pieces. When the flour turns [into these round pieces] the black tea is poured into it and salt and fat is added and then stirred [together]. Then the [tea] is boiled again and when the flour is cooked, the tea is poured into a jug with a spout and drunk.
3. Dorwodin yuraw dax cimgtayum. Im ca n' xoinoi duyd, sayat cimgig cinj maxi n' moljij idcxad yasi n' canda kij cinsan cag cimgta ca gej nerldg. Im cag xawar, namar max xowrdsn Uyed cinj udg.
3. The third [tea] of the Dorwods is the one with a shinbone. The shinbone of sheep is cooked, the meat is eaten and the bone is put into the tea; the tea cooked this way is named tea with shin bone. This tea is drunk in spring and autumn when the meat becomes rare.
4. Or neg ca bol xurgslsn ca yum. Im xoina neg sirig saxn xuxlad uyaj cewrlad, usta canda kij cinsn cag xurgslsn ca gen.
5. Dorwodin taw dax ca bol xar cin' yum. En cag usn xowrdson owl, xawrin cagt cinj un. En cand ida ik bickn kidg.
4. One type of tea is called [...] tea. One leg of a sheep is skinned, washed, cleaned and then put into the milk tea; the tea cooked this way is called [...] tea.
5. The fifth tea is the black tea. This tea is cooked in winter and spring when milk becomes rare. Only very small parts of [other] food are put into this tea.
6. Juryädax bol kimryum. En kimrïg idägö üs, us xoyirîg xolij cinsnîg kimr gen. En kimrîg kükdd ögdg. Kükdd ötgn cä xodödd mü gej üjäd ögdggö îm kimr ögdg.
6. The sixth [tea] is the kimr. This tea is prepared from milk without any other food and water mixed together. This is called kimr. This kimr is given to children. To give thick tea for children is harmful for the stomach, so [for children] it will not be given; this kimr is given [to them].
Dôrwdîn dom siwsleg
The Dôrwôds' incantations
22
Je, odö bi dôrwdîn... dom siwslegîy tuxä kelyä! Dörwdüd küxdtä sin del xuwcs(a) kîj ögöd ömsülxdän urd xör... urd xörmö xoid xörmöd n ' sü düsäyäd:
Urd xörmöd... xörmög n'
Unay däy gisgeg!
Xoit xormög n'
Xoin xurya gis... gisgeg!
En Jildën
Däw dälimb ömsj,
Irx Jildën
Toroy durm... durdam ömsx boltyä! Ed n ' xewreg! Ej n ' möyk boltyä! - gej... siwsëd, siwsëd üms... ümsgdäg
Ye, now, I will talk about the Dôrwôds' incantations. When the Dôrwôds prepare a new rob for their children, they spill some milk on the front skirt and back skirt:
- On the front skirt... the front skirt let the colts and two-year-old colts step!
On the back skirt let the lambs step! In this very year
put on [a dress made of] cotton and drill,
In the next year
put on [a dress made of] silk and crêpe!
The thing is breakable, Become the owner eternal!
- whispered, whispered this way, they put on [the clothes].
22 These texts have been recorded just once, so that they have not been revised; repetitions and the mistakes are observable in the transcription.
Ja, mon (a) dorwddxums... xumsa uraykar xumsa awad, awad, awad yajart(a) bulaxdan... ci... yajart bulaxdan:
Tekin ewer Teygert kurc, Temeni sUl rajart kurx cagt(a), Xos mory kunsta irj Bi camag awna. Ter uyed ci:
Caxir cayan xad bolara, Bi cal burl owgy bolna. - kemey kel... kelj siwsed yajart bol buldag.
Ye, when the Dorwods' nails get long, they cut, cut, cut their nails and while digging them into the ground., digging them. into the ground [they say]:
- When the horn of the wild goat grows up to the sky,
When the tail of the camel grows up to the ground, I will come with a pair of horses loaded with food and take you. For that very time you will become a stone-white rock; I will become a white haired old man!
- say. saying it whispering they dig it into the ground._
Ja, yurawduyart n': ral asc ogko Ye, for the third: when the fire does
boloxlar... oda, yalasc ogko bolxor: not catch. now, when the fire does
As as! not catch:
Alag yamani ox ogn. Catch, catch!
Kogj kogj! I will give you the fat of a spotted
Kok yamani ox ogn. goat.
Ulalj ulalj! Grow, grow!
Ulay yamani ox ogn. I will give you the meat of a blue
- xemen uledeg. goat!
Become red, red!
I will give you the meat of a red
goat!
- saying so one blows [the fire].
Ja, sajya, sajya sagsraxim bol: Ye, when a magpie, a magpie babbles:
Say kel, say kel, say kel! - Say good [news], say good [news],
Say gewel, say good [news]!
Sarxinagar dUrn If you say good [news],
Sar tos og(o)n. I will give you a paunch
Mu kelwel full of yellow fat.
Mody xawcax[ay]ar xarwana If you say bad [news],
- gej xeldeg. I will shoot you with a longbow.
- so says one.
Dörwöd (cf. common Altai Oirad) features in the sample texts:
(a) k versus Khalkha23 x: ik (ix), ked kedn (xed xeden), bickn (byacxan);
(b) long vowel versus Khalkha diphthong: cä (cai), ilyatän (yalgatai n'), xawcäx(äy)är (xawcaxaigar), but also preservation of diphthongs in some lexemes: xoinoi (cf. Khal. xonini);
(c) preservation of i in initial syllables: kimr (xyaram), cinn (canan);
(d) unrounded vowels in the non-initial syllables, but also Khalkhaisation is observable: oda and odö both appear in the texts;
(e) other Oirad peculiarities: metathesis: kimr (xyaram), üs (sü) Khalkha features:
the frequent use of j versus Oirad z: sajya, ulalj, yajar-. Bibliography
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