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13Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 3 (2011 4) 323-341
УДК 81-139
Linguistic- Culturological Peculiarities of National Languages of the Northern People of the Krasnoyarsk Region
Natalya P. Koptseva*, Alexandra N. Khizhnyakova and Ksenia V. Reznikova
Siberian Federal University 82 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1
Received 4.03.2011, received in revised form 11.03.2011, accepted 18.03.2011
In the given work, we observe some of the existing view points of such socio-linguistic problems as definition of language boundaries, distinguishing of a language and a dialect, theories of language development under the influence of social factors, language progress and regress, dying languages. In particular, for the beginning, we find out the borders between the notions of «speech community», «speech society», and «speech commonness» for the purpose of defining of the frames of further research, which logics is directed from consideration of more general questions to the study of more specific items. At every stage, special attention is paid to disputable points, which have caused the largest discussions in scientific circles. Thus, the search of language boundaries, reality of existence of a general linguistic core and existence of a language of a separate person have become such an object of discussion, which has been paid special attention.
Consideration of interrelations of the notions of «language» and «dialect» is an important moment of theoretical research. Here, special attention is drawn to correlation of dialects within the language, to a possibility of dialect transition from one language to another, that is, we actually consider relations of dialects and language as in statics, so in dynamics. Thereat, the main accent is also placed not only on the relation «language - dialect» itself, but also on the features, which help to distinguish the denoted notions, moreover, these features are as linguistic, so culture-anthropological, in particular, we are speaking about people's self-conscious, which is considered by a row of socio-linguists to be a basis for ethnical identity formation. Settlement of language boundaries makes us concentrate our attention only to the processes, which deal directly with the language, i.e. to the language dynamics. So, here, we consider as the types of dynamics (evolution, development, and perfection), so its reasons, which are usually divided into internal and external; we reveal the analogy of language dynamics and human life, we speak about normal condition of a language, its corruption, its birth and death. We appeal to the eposes of the native small-numbered peoples of the Krasnoyarsk region and it allows visually illustrating theoretical elaborations of the present work by means of tracing down of peculiarities of socio-cultural dynamics of some languages of small-numbered peoples, peculiarities of their interrelations, and the character of their mutual influence.
Keywords: Native peoples of the Krasnoyarsk region, socio-linguistics, language boundaries, language development, linguistic shift, linguistic self-conscious, language socio-dynamics, concept, epos.
* Corresponding author E-mail address: decanka@mail.ru
1 © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
The research has been carried out with financial support from the part of:
1) The Federal Purpose-Oriented Program «Scientific and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel of Innovative Russia For 2009-2013 Years» concerning the problematics of «Culture of Native and Small-Numbered Peoples of the North under the Condition of Global Transformations: foresight-research for the period up to 2050 on the analysis of the material of the Yakut ethnos», which is held within the frames of Event 1.2.1 «Running of Scientific Researches by Scientific Groups under the Leadership of Doctors of Science».
2) The Regional State Autonomic Organization «KrasnoyarskRegional Fond ofScientific and Scientific-Engineering Activity Support» on the topic «The Krasnoyarsk Region as a poly-cultural space, is a motherland of native small-numbered nations of the North. Informational-analytical project».
3) The Federal Purpose-Oriented Program «Scientific and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel of Innovative Russia For 2009-2013 Years» within the frames of Event 1.4 «Running of Exploration Scientific-Research Works for the Purpose of General-Russian Mobility Development in the Sphere of Natural and Humanitarian Sciences» on the topic: «Culture of Native and Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East under the Condition of Global Transformations».
«Point of View»: Conception of Language Socio-Dynamics in the Context of the Modern Socio-Linguistic Researches
In their research work «Socio-Linguistics» (2001), V.I. Belikov and L.P. Krysin write that «language is a social phenomenon, and as far as it is so, then it is natural that language development can be fully autonomic: this way or another it depends on the development of society» (Belikov et al., 2001; 100).
For the first time, the term «socio-linguistics» was used by American sociologist German Carry in 1952, though it does not mean that the science of social relations and languages started to be formed only at that time. Already in XVII century scientists were thinking about the influence of some social factors on languages (Gonzalo de Correas), and researches, «which took into consideration dependence of linguistic phenomena on social phenomena» (Belikov et al., 2001; 14), were run rather actively since the beginning of XX century.
The basis of socio-linguistics is relations between language and society. Connection of language evolution and social factors, the speaker's choice of this or that language variant, children's assimilation of the communicative
bases, linguistic contacts and their results - this is the circle of topics of socio-linguistics - the science, which studies «language and its relation to the society» (Vakhtin).
In the given work, we are mostly interested in various opinions of language, which are connected to its existence and functioning in the society, and in those linguistic changes, which take place under the influence of man and contacts with other languages. Thus, here, we consider such notions, which are connected to language changing and existence, precisely from the positions of socio-linguistics.
1. Speech Community -
Speech Society - Speech Commonness
One of the key notions in socio-linguistics is the notion of «speech society». It correlates with such terms as «speech community» and «speech commonness».
V.I. Belikov and L.P. Krysin suggest the following definition of speech society - «it is an integrity of people, who are united by common social, economical, political and cultural ties and performing direct and indirect contacts with each other and with various social institutions with the help of one or several languages, being spread in this integrity, and in their everyday life»
(Belikov et al., 2001; 20). But people, speaking one language, do not always make up one speech society. Thus, Americans and Englishmen do not belong to one society, though they speak English. The authors write that «the boundaries of language spreading do not often coincide with the political boundaries. <.. .> that is why, when we define the notion of «speech society» it is important to take into consideration linguistic and social features» (Belikov et al., 2001; 20).
The definition of language society, given by V.I. Belikov and L.P. Krysin, is very close to the understanding of speech community, which is suggested by L. Bloomfield in his monograph «Language» (1933, Russian translation - 1968). «Speech community» is «a group of people, who interact with the help of speech» (Bloomfield). Other kinds of relations (economical, political and cultural) can be to some extend correlated to the linguistic ones, but, to the mind of L. Bloomfield, they rarely coincide. As a rule, cultural peculiarities are spread wider, then speech peculiarities. For example, the scientist recalls the situation which took place in the Northern America before its colonization: every independent Indian tribe had its own language, thus, making up a separate speech society and it also was a separate political and economical unit, but common culture and religion made it close to the neighboring tribes.
A similar idea was outspoken by N.B. Vakhtin and Y.V. Golovkoin in their work «Socio-Linguistics and Language Sociology» (2004): «as a rule, the boundaries of ethnic and speech group do not coincide. One can observe various speech variants within the boundaries of one ethnos and, visa verse, various ethnic groups can speak one language» (Vakhtin et al., 2004; 37). In linguistics, under speech variant we consider a variant of language, which, as a rule, functions independently. The most popular language variants are the variants of English language:
British English, American English, and Australian English. N.B. Vakhtin and Y.V. Golovkoin write: «any collective, even a small one has several speech variants» (Vakhtin et al., 2004; 37).
Though, Y.S. Maslov in his «Introduction to Language Study» (1987) gives an alternative thought concerning correlation of speech boundaries with political, economical and others, and asserts that «in a large number of cases, a group of people, speaking the same language («speech commonness»), is an ethnic collective (a nation, an ethnic group, a tribe)» (Maslov).
2. Language boundaries
The boundaries of language itself are also rather difficult to define, as far as language usually exists in several forms: literary language, everyday variant, vernacular language, territorial dialects, sociolects and so on. Nevertheless, linguists single out a general, sort of formative core of the language. Y.S. Maslov observes the following: «Language of some group (nation, ethnic group <...>) is not «a scientific fiction», not a compulsory «averaging» of facts of individual speech. It objectively exists, not as a «direct entity», but as the general, which exists in a part, as that one, which is being reproduced in speech again and again, being repeated in thousands, millions and billions of expressions, being pronounced and perceived in a corresponding collective» (Maslov). This way, a countless number of concrete original expressions is united by something common, invariant, and it let the language exists as a certain integral system and it is caused by «the existence of people, human collectives, using this language as a mean of communication» (Akhmamova, 1972; 99).
And visa verse, the neogrammarians negated the existence of any common language, supposing that only the language of a separate individual is real. Baudouin de Courtenay also stuck to a similar point of view: «language exists only in
some individual brains, only in the psychic of individuals or species, making up the given speech society» (ref. (Grechko, 2003; 21)). Academician A.A. Shakhmatov also shared this point of view of the language existence, admitting common language to be «a famous scientific fiction» (ref. (Grechko, 2003; 21)).
While A.A. Potebnya asserts that both common and «personal» languages are real, considering speech «to be a realized fragment of language, which is enough for revelation of necessary possible units» (ref. (Grechko, 2003; 22)).
3. Language
And Dialect Differenciation
According to various data, there are from six to six and a half thousands languages in the world. Such fluctuations of scientific data are first of all connected to the fact that up till now scientists have not yet decided what we should consider to be a language and a dialect: what are the principles for such decision making? Sometimes, dialects can be even better developed than a language and can function on a vast territory. Besides, a dialect can differ a lot from the language, up to that, that its carriers do not understand the carriers of the language. Though, the situation can be a reverse one, when speaking different languages people can understand each other without any mediators (the Dane and the Norwegians, the Serbians and the Croats, and so on.).
There are several points of view of such a differentiation:
Thus, N.B. Mechkovskaya («Social Linguistics», 2000) supposes, that «the status of language formation (i.e. language, dialect, jargon, functional style and so on.), similar to the ethnic status of some community of people, is defined by the self-conscious of a corresponding collective. Speech self-conscious is a notion of those, who speak, of what language they speak»
(Mechkovskaya). To the researcher's mind, precisely the self-definition of speakers is of top-priority in relation to the structural-linguistic criterion. N.B. Mechkovskaya writes «if the collective of speakers consider their native speech to be a separate language, being different from the languages of all their neighbors, then, the given collective speaks a separate independent language. If we respect human rights, this point of view must be admitted by scientists and politicians» (Mechkovskaya).
V.I. Belikov and L.P. Krysin share this point of view and suppose to consider the opinion of the native speakers to be determinant in this question, though, they point at that, that there are «objective» indicators, to which number they refer mutual perceptibility, presence of a prestigious super-dialect variant (oral or written) and also political-economical process of integration of kindred variants speakers (Belikov et al., 2001; 91).
Speaking about the problem of correlation of a language and a dialect, S.A. Arutyunov also marks that «there are no precise- and correct-enough pure linguistic criteria, which would help us to separate these notions clearly and distinctly» (Arutyunov, 1987; 45), that is why in each concrete case we make a decision in accordance with the perception of its character by the mass of its native speakers. For example, it is quite interesting that the Georgians (the people, who perceive themselves as Georgians) speak various dialects, accents of Georgian and also languages, which are remotely kindred to Georgian, as in Georgia, so out of its boundaries. And from the linguistic point of view, these languages are special, they even have their own dialects, but their speakers perceive themselves as Georgians, some specific spheres are also not covered by those languages, and that is why «from the ethno-social point of view, their role is equal to the
roles of the main dialects of the Georgian language» (Arutyunov, 1987; 45).
But some linguists, for example, G.I. Edelman, consider that it is not at all so important to differentiate languages and dialects. Edelman writes: «in the course of synchronic linguistic description of a linguistic variant, in the course of research of its history or finding out its genetic, typological or even territorial references it is practically insignificant, which term «language» or «dialect» is to be used in relation to it <...>: here, it is not qualitative» (ref. (Belikov et al., 2001; 91)).
O.S. Akhmanova writes that dialect crucially differs from language, because it is not independent. Dialect «is in a compulsory and inevitable correlation and interdependence on other dialects» (Akhmamova, 1972; 100). This way, there can appear «transitional cases of correlation with neighboring adjacent semiotic systems» (Akhmamova, 1972; 100). That is why the boundaries of a dialect are vague: one dialect slips into another. Though, a dialect can move from one language structure to another (for example, some Danish dialects became the dialects of the English language), or they even can become independent languages (the Dolgan language originally existed as a dialect of Yakut).
What concerns the opinion of the western linguists in the question of differentiation of a language and a dialect, the majority of scientists also consider linguistic factors to be on the second place after the people's self-conscious (Alpatov, 2000; 196).
4. Dynamic of language
Language is the main means of people's communication. «Language appears, develops and exists as a social phenomenon. Its main appropriation is concluded in the following: to serve the needs of human society and first
of all to provide communication among the members of major or minor social collectives, and also functioning of a collective memory of this collective» (Susov). By means of language, they achieve exchanging of information and build up interpersonal relations; language reflects the reality surrounding the individual and, consequently, the occurring changes. Gradual changing is a natural condition of language. Dynamics shows that language is alive and develops in a normal way.
In «General Language Study» (1970), B.A. Serebrennikov notes, that «languages cannot fail changing first of all because of that simple reason, that language is a means of practical realization of communicational acts, and in their basis there is a human reflection of the surrounding reality, which is itself in a constant movement and development» (Serebrennikov). Becoming and development of a living language come to an end simultaneously with its living, that is, when the language finishes its existence. This gradual and continuous changing includes not only reformation and renewal in connection with the progress of society, but also perfection of the language, getting rid of contradictions and various shortcomings and defects. Thus, «some part of changes has a sort of preventive character, as far as they appear because of inner necessity of the language mechanism reforming» (Serebrennikov).
In his «Lectures of General Language Study» (1990), Y.V. Rozhdestvensky separates the dynamics of language into evolution, development and language perfection. Evolution and development are in some sense in opposition to each other: in the course of evolution, language units change their phonetic (graphic) and sense qualities, but we do not observe any increase of units' quantity or qualitative changes of their relations, while in the course of development we observe all these phenomena at a time. Language
perfection opposes these two processes, as far as language is changed not by itself, but in the result of human influence (Rozhdestvensky, 1990).
The reasons of changes can be divided into several groups: external, connected to the influence of some outer phenomena on the language, and internal, connected to organization and functioning of the language itself. B.A. Serebrennikov writes, that «language reforming can be run under the influence of two various motive forces, one of them is connected to appropriation of language and realization of communicative necessity of society, and the other is connected to the principals of language organization, to its embodiment in a certain substance and its existence in the form of a special sign system» (Serebrennikov).
A. Meillet singles out three groups of reasons of changes, occurring in language: 1) language structure (proper linguistic reasons, connected to organization and functioning); 2) conditions of language existence (psychological, physical, spatial, social and other factors); 3) singular impacts of other languages (language contacts) (Serebrennikov).
Let us consider some conceptions of language development, where the changes, occurring in the language, are used to be associated with a social structure of society, which uses the given language. Socio-Linguistics is distinguished by its extremely large variety of points of view of social mechanisms of language changing.
For example, Y.D. Polivanov considers, that «in the course of language development we observe a complex interaction of proper linguistic, internal, external, and social factors» (Belikov et al., 2001; 102). Social changes, especially some drastic events, certainly, exert certain influence on language, but we should not overestimate the scale of this influence. «Y.D. Polivanov compares the course of language development with the work of locomotive pistons. Similar to
that, as some social shift cannot make pistons move along, but perpendicularly the railways, so any kind of economical or political factor cannot change the direction of phonetic and other linguistic processes» (Belikov et al., 2001; 102). Social factors influence on language indirectly, for example, they change qualitatively or quantitatively the set of native speakers of this or that language, or dialect, and, consequently, «the starting points of its evolution» are also modified. Y.D. Polivanov also mentions the degree of social factors influence on language: lexis is exposed to it in a greater degree, while morphology and syntaxes - in a much lesser. Though, Y.D. Polivanov notes, that «our acceptance of language dependence on life and social evolution does not negate or reduce the meaning of natural-historical «theories of evolution» of language» (ref. (Belikov et al., 2001; 101)).
M.V. Panov is the author of the theory of antinomy, having got wide spreading in 60-s. He thinks that «in the language development the key role is played by the constantly acting, antithetical tendencies (antinomies), which struggle is the propelling motivation of the language development» (Belikov et al., 2001; 105). All in all he singles out four such tendencies:
1. Antinomy of the speaker (the tendency to use reduced forms) and the listener (the tendency to use full forms): reduced forms economize one's efforts, and that is why they are convenient to the speaker, while full forms provide maximum of information, and it makes the process of understanding easier, and consequently, they are convenient to the listener;
2. Antinomy of the system and the norm: on one hand, the system lets us use everything, what does not contradict the laws of language, and on other hand, there is a norm, which selects only some forms for application;
3. Antinomy of the code and the text: the lesser number of units needs a longer text to
render a certain sense, and visa verse, the bigger number of units needs a shorter text for the same purpose;
4. Antinomy of the regularity and expressivity: language informational function demands a precise and definite word expression of a thought, while emotive function appeals to all the language abundance.
M.V. Panov considers that temporal domineering of one or another tendency in any of the antimonies is this way or another connected to the position of social groups in the society. For example, in 20 - 30-s of XX century, changing of the set of the native speakers of the Russian formal language influenced on its pronunciation -it became more literal: people began to pronounce bulo[chn]aya, smeyal[s'a]and ti[kh'i]y instead of the old Moscow normative variant bulo[shn]aya, smeyal[sa] and tj[khi]y.
American linguist W. Labov has worked out an outstanding theory of language development. According to this theory, changes in the language structure cannot be understood correctly without taking into consideration of the data of the speech society, which applies this language. In the course of research of the changes we are to account following three aspects: what is the way one stage of changes replaces the other, what is that continuous process, within which limits these changes take place and, finally, how does the speaker evaluate this changing. Though, the social status of the sub-group, where the changing takes place, is also important. If it does not get any definite position in the society, then the changing can be rejected, the reaction will take place and the reverse process back to the norm will be started.
5. Language progress and regress
In spite of the fact that dynamics is a feature of the language being alive, any changes can be as of progressive, so of regressive character.
Progressive changes allow language to develop at full rate and, while changing, to preserve its integrity and originality. For example, Soviet linguistics is presented by the works of Y.D. Desheriev, and it asserts that, the process of language development must be inevitably connected to the language progress, which is understood «as social product», i.e. the language develops progressively only then, when the volume of its social functions is growing (Desheriev, 1977; 185 - 186).
In language, the problem of progress is understood in different ways. Thus, for example, F. Bopp, J. Grimm, A. Schleicher, V. Humboldt have compared ancient Hindu and modern European languages and have come to the conclusion that all the history of languages is a gradual decay and depletion. But, other scientists suppose on the contrary that, that there is nothing wrong in simplification. For example, Otto Jespersen writes that the easier the grammar system is, the more perfect the language is.
It occurs very often that the character of language changing is possible to be defined only post factum. But, we can say it definitely that the changing is regressive only when the language is close to its «death».
6. Linguistic shift
and language «death»
In the native linguistics, A.Y. Kibrikov was the first, who applied biological terms in respect to the language («healthy», «sick», «disappearing», «dead»).
A.Y. Kibrikov writes: «healthy languages are able to reproduce or even to enlarge their social status, their sphere of activity, number of native speakers, in other words, they function and develop in a standard way, they are viable. «Sick» languages are on this or that stage of degrading» (Kibrik, 1992; 67). Their social status is gradually coming down, the number of spheres of activity
and of native speakers is decreasing. Beside the social parameters, the language existence is also influenced by the internal structural parameters: steadiness of the language structure to the impact of other languages, dynamics of lexis development and so on.
Severity of «the disease» is defined by the degree of «the language progress and closeness to the dead point» (the term of N.B. Mechkovskaya). Transition of language from the category of «living» to «dead» ones usually involves «communicatively weak languages with an underdeveloped system of forms and styles. Though, there are some examples, when languages with a developed literary form (Latin, Sanskrit) have disappeared. Thus way, as internal, so external regressive changes are quite dangerous for languages» (Felde; 114).
«In General Language Study», N.B. Mechkovskaya marks, that usage of languages is very often compared with «the loss of many species of animals, plants, and with ecological catastrophes: along with the death of hundreds of languages - all this is various revelations of increasing ill-being all over the world. Next to the «Red Data Books» of flora and fauna there have appeared «Red Data Books» of languages. The question of «dying» languages survival became the main question at the XV International Linguistic Congress (1992, Canada)» (Mechkovskaya, 2001, 124].
At present time, the question of languages extinction attracts more and more attention, as far as right «now we have understood that language variety is of as much value for the human civilization, as the biological variety for the nature» (Borgoykova, 2001; 3).
The language, which is communicatively stronger, displaces the weaker one; though, there is still no unanimous opinion of what defines the power of a language. For example, N.B. Vakhtin and Y.V. Golovko consider that «when a
language turns out to be in contact with another one, then it is spreading wider and wider, and pushes the weaker language out, just because its native speakers are stronger in political, military or economical relations. D. Crystall writes about close connection between the linguistic domineering and cultural power: language exists only in the conscious, in the speech of its carriers. When they succeed, the language is also a success» (Vakhtin et al., 2004; 111-112).
Scientists also single out existence of a written language, its literary form and a developed system of styles to be the features of communicative power of language.
In some cases, communicative power can be defined by the number of its native speakers, and then we speak about mega-languages, macro-languages, languages with a medium number of speakers and languages of small-numbered nations.
Division of languages into healthy, sick, vanishing and dead is not the only one. M. Krauss (ref. (Vakhtin et al., 2004)) singles out other categories:
• dying (moribund): they are not studied by children as native ones;
• endangered: if the existing conditions are preserved, then they will not be studied by children as native ones in the next century;
• safe: children will study them as their native languages in the nearest future.
One language can be changed by the other only passing the stage of social existence in condition of bilingualism (or multilingualism). On a certain stage of development, speech community has to make its final choice: whether to preserve its language (language maintenance) or to change it for another (language shift). Refusal of the commonness to use the old language and transition to a new one is called a language shift (Vakhtin et al., 2004). Language
shift can be slow (it can take hundreds years), quick (three-four generations) and catastrophic (one-two generations). «Some linguists suppose, that bilingualism will surely bring to degradation of one the languages or assimilation of one of them (more often it is the primary language)» (Bertagaev, 1972; 86).
V.M. Alpatov notes, that «language minorities always undergo one and the same way, consisting of three stages: domineering of national monolingualism - domineering of bilingualism - domineering of the language of the majority; and the last stage is finished by the death of the language. The reverse movement is possible only in case the state boundaries are changed and the speech minority becoming the majority» (Alpatov, 2000; 203). Though, these stages changing can flow with a various speed. «The last stage (before complete disappearance of the language) is the situation linguistic ghetto, when the language is used only in some villages, in some families and so on. <...> though, life in ghetto can last for decades and even longer» (Alpatov, 2000; 206).
The reasons, which bring the speech community to such a refusal, are rather various: from «prestige» to inculcation of other language by force, and one could observe it in reality at the end of 1950-s - at the beginning of 1960-s all over the world (South America, Australia, USA, Canada, Extreme North of the USSR), «when local administrations took children from their families by force and placed them in the boarding schools, <...> and children of different nationalities were taught together and the only communication language of children and their teachers was their state language» (Vakhtin et al., 2004; 121). R. Fesold considers, that «language shift takes place only at that moment, when the speech group itself wishes to refuse from its identity» (ref. (Alpatov, 2000; 203)), but V.M. Alpatov thinks, that it is not always true. For example, usually, the Jew
people easily assimilate with the local population in western countries, but still they preserve their national identity.
The choice of direction of the language development depends on ethno-linguistic livability. This approach appeared in the middle of 1970-s and is described with the help of three independent socio-linguistic parameters: status (prestige of the group and its language in the society), demography (the number of the group members, its rate of birth, marriages, immigrational and emigrational behavior) and institutional support (mass media, education, policy, cultural activity) (Vakhtin et al., 2004; 125-126).
2. «Example»: Eposes of the Native Small-Numbered
Peoples of the Krasnoyarsk Region.
«Deer» as a Concept of the Evenki Epos
There are eight nationalities living in the Krasnoyarsk Region, they are used to be referred to the national small-numbered peoples: there are the Dolgans, the Kets, the Nganasans, the Nenets, the Selkups, the Chulymtsis, the Evenkis, and the Entsis. Scientists often argue about the ninth ethnos - about Yakuts, 72.5% of Yakuts, populating the Krasnoyarsk Region, live in the village Yessey, situated in the north-east of the Evenkis municipal region. Consequently, further we shall speak about peculiarities of eposes of the mentioned nine ethnoses, which we shall consider in the alphabetic order.
The Dolgan epos combines in itself features of both Russian and Yakut influence. Thus, folk tales are usually performed in the form of songs, very close to the Yakut olonkho. Russian borrowings are first of all traced in the structure of the tale heroes. Dolgan olonkho and yryalaak olonkho (with signing) are performed by the fairy-tellers, who are considered to be the choice of good spirits, which are held in special respect.
The plot, the composition of the Dolgan olonkhos is close to the Yakut ones, including the Yessey tales. The main hero of the Dolgan epos defends the people of the Middle world from the bogatyrs of abaasa, who live in the Lower world. Epic Dolgan music is also directly connected to the Dolgan epos, as a literature genre, it is presented by individual vocal characteristics of some personages of olonkho. Song melodies fulfill the role of melodic characteristics of the main heroes; besides, they are appealed to underline the most significant moments of heroes' actions.
The Kets epos is first of all presented by cosmogonical tales and myths about the world origin and about a man, about bogatyr Balne, about Albe and his struggle with Khosedem. Epic tales of the Kets are usually divided into two big blocks: the first one is Creation of the world, of the animals, and the people; the second one is existence of this world in the past, the present and the future. The Kets have been noticed to have a dual attitude to the world creation: it is whether self-development of the earth (water and air are in the origin), or creation of the world by the will of God. God, a positive personage, is opposed by the negative beginning; and this antagonism is also traced on the minor levels of the hierarchy. Thus, the superior personage of the pantheon, God Yesu, personifying Heaven, is opposed by his wife Khosedem, exiled by himself to the earth, the hostess of the world of the dead and the North; in a similar way they refer mythological hero Albe and legendary shaman Dokhu to positive personages, while Dottet and others are referred to negative. The Kets epos explains the appearance of heavy-going rapids, mountain ranges by the actions of epical heroes. Thus, the name of Albe is connected to appearance of the Yenisei river, which is lower the Osinovsk rifts, and of the rifts themselves, rocky islands. Olgyt with his family was turned in a rift in the Stony Tunguska River. Escaping from Albe, Khosedem
is ascribed to have created uninhabitable floodable islands lower the Osinovsk rifts.
According to the Kets mythological world outlooks, organization of the world is of three-part structure: it is the land, which is in the middle position and surrounded by the water («seven seas»); above the land there is the seven-part heaven, formed by parallel layers, circles or capes, the seventh layer is the roof of heaven; below the land there are seven underground caves - the notions about them are rather vague. The middle world is populated by the Kets (Kynden), animals and birds. The underground world is presented as the world of the dead and substances, which are harmful for people. The heaven is presented as a home for people and animals, having moved from the land, and also the wintering place for migrant birds. The connection between the worlds is realized by shamans, some of them are specialized in connections with the Lower world, the others - with the Upper world.
We are to mark that, fragmentary performance of the epos (singular plots, speeches of heroes) by certain people under certain conditions was considered to have a magic influence on the forces of nature, in particular, to help in traditional cropping (setting of the necessary spell of weather, incantation of the game to run into the hands of hunters and fishers and so on.).
The Nganasan folklore is various, and it is first of all presented by musical-narrative epical tales (sitabi) about bogatyrs' heroic deeds. These tales were usually performed during several evenings. Prolonged tales were often sung by storytellers-singers in wintertime. These singers were considered to have magic power. We are to underline that in comparison with the fairy-tales, characterized by a fictional plot, those mythological tales were considered to be a real narration, which told about the creation of the world. According to Nganasan cosmogonical pieces, the world was
created by the will of «the Mother of all that has eyes» and Syruta-ngou - God of earth, whose son was the man-deer, who was the first man on the earth, and was the first, who faced the evil forces, embodied in a flying horned deer. After the real people populated the earth, the man-deer became their protector. In the Nganasan epos we can find as supernatural substances nguo, barusi, djamady, kojka, kocha (all of them were considered to be the children of the mothers: Mou-nemy (the Earth), Kou-nemy (the Sun), Tuy-nemy (the Fire), Khua-nemy (the Tree), Byzy-nemy (the Water)); so the legendary bogatyrs' heroic deeds, including their interaction with real peoples - with the Nenets, the Russians, the Evenkis, and the Dolgans. Epical tales of the Nganasans, the same as the majority of other Northern peoples', are performed on various personalized melodies, which characterize the main heroes and differentiate them from each other.
The Nenets folklore contains narrative stories (yarabtz), historical legends, lyrical songs-improvisations (khyinbatz), fairy-tales (vadako, lakhnaku), and puzzles. Besides, the scientists are used to single out heroic songs (syudbabtz). As far as it is impossible to separate the genres in the Nenets folklore, epical tales yarabtz and syudbabtz are usually combined in one group, which is often called epical songs, because they are performed in the form of a song. Etymology of the word «syudbabtz» goes from «syudbja» -«giant», i.e. syudbabtz is actually the tale about giants. In the course of time, the meaning of the word «syudbja» has been changed, and now it means a hero-bogatyr or his antagonist. The main heroes of syudbabtz, bogatyrs possess an exclusive power and fearlessness, and besides, they have magic talents, for example, they can move in the sky with the help of their bows. The most wide spread plots of syudbabtz are revenge for the insult, for the murder of a relative or hunting for a wife.
The Nenets epos can be divided into two big blocks, and for the basis of such a division, we take the timing of the occurring events. Thus, the first group is the epos, narrating of the events, which took place in ancient times, following the creation of the world and in a comparatively small period of time. Here, we should also mark that, cosmogonical myths about the creation of the world, the man, the world of animals and plants were not used to be delivered to strangers, and that is why there are quite few pieces, which can be referred to this block. The second group is late epical pieces va'al, where the main heroes are historical persons - Lenin, Vauli Nenyang, heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
We are particularly to mark the Nenets' attitude to narrations on the whole: syudbabtz narration is usually given in the third person, but sometimes it is transferred to the first person. But, syudbabtz, as the whole Nenets folklore, is typical of personification of the narration itself; when along with the main heroes there is one more personified character - myneko, in other words, it is the tale itself. Traditionally, the story-teller was repeated by the audience, singing the last long syllable in the line and varying the melody of the narration, all this resulted in formation of a canon-like structure of the tale with some inclusions of heterophonic sub-voices.
The Selkup folklore is presented by historical legends, heroic songs, fairy-tales and small tales. A rather large layer of epical works of the Selkups narrate about the wars, which were led against their neighboring peoples -against the Evenkis, the Nenets, the Tatars. The Kets and the Khants were used to be allies of the Selkups in those collisions. Epical Selkup tales (keel'tyma) are, as a rule, performed in one piece, though, in some cases they practice to divide the plot into separate melodic formulas. Interaction of Selkup and Kets cultures can be traced not only in the structure of plots of the Selkup epos,
but also in their performance traditions, as far as epical melodies of the Selkups can be compared with the Kets tradition of shaman singing. One of the peculiarities of the Selkup folklore is that, that in the Tomsk region the main part of tales is performed in Russian.
Epos of Chulym Ethnos has been preserved in a lesser degree, so, various sources assert that there are tales about bogatyrs, whose names are considered to have given birth to Chulym surnames.
The Evenkis folklore includes as songs-improvisations, fairy-tales, and everyday tales, so the epos, as mythological, so historical. The epos is intonated, and very often in the course of the whole night. Performance of larger tales could be prolonged not for one evening. The Evenkis highly esteemed the art of talented storytellers, and people were coming to listen to their epical stories even from quite afar. According to the testimony of one of the tellers, Y.G. Trofimov, performance of nimngakan usually started after the day works and dinner were over. The storyteller was seated on an honored place in the tent - malu - and fur-rug - kumalan. The tale began with a concentrated quietness of the storyteller in a complete silence, supported by all the audience: grown-ups and children. The words of every hero were pronounced in an individual manner - it concerned both the melody and the voice peculiarities: rising and falling of the pitch, its coloration by this or that way. It was a common practice that the audience took an active part in performance of epical tales, repeating separate lines after the story-teller. In the Evenkis folklore we can single out sub-ethnical heroes - that is epical heroes (soning), who can be refereed to various groups of Evenkis. Thus, the hero of Ilimpijsk Evenkis is Uren, and the hero of the Stony Tunguska Evenkis is Kheveke. G.M. Vasilevich, the researcher of the small-numbered peoples of the North of the first part of
XX century, singled out the traditional structure of the Evenkis heroic tales, which were formed by the story-teller in a strict order: introduction -appearance of the Middle sea; appearance and the first stage of the hero's life; the hero's crusade, his struggle with the negative personages; saving of his bride or one of her relatives and coming back home. Thereat, the teller could narrate not only about the life of the main hero, but about his several generations.
According to the notions, presented in the Evenkis epos, the World possesses a three-part structure: the Middle world, inhabited by the animals, and where the first Evenkis have appeared; the Lower world, populated by the evil creatures avakhi, ogenga; and the Upper world of good spirits, spirits of nature, and the Evenkis' ancestors. General three-part structure is in its turn subdivided into seven worlds, according to the Evenkis' notions they are: three heaven worlds (Ugu buga), the Middle land (Dulin buga) and three underground worlds (Kheru buga). The Upper and the Lower worlds are not fully separated form the Middle world, thus, the entrance to the Upper one is realized through the Polar star, while to the Lower one -through the rock crevices, caves, and whirlpools. Evenkis' epical tales explain the march of day and night (she-deer Bugady carries the sun away on her horns, and hunter Mangi gets it back), narrate about the world creation (the frog fought the snake or the diver, who had brought a ball of earth from the sea bottom). Epos narrates about formation of rivers and mountains, about the kinship of men and animals, in particular, of a man and a bear. In the Evenkis epos they praise union of man and nature, their cohesion. These tales can be considered as sort of encyclopedias of authentic life and spiritual culture of the nation.
The Evenkis epos is used to be divided into two types: western and eastern, which differ not
only by their content, but also by their musical structure and the manner of performance. The main content of the eastern type of the epos is the hero's marriage, the text consists of monologues, and song words of every hero are individual. The Evenkis epos of the eastern type is widespread in the Far East, including Sakhalin, and presents an original phenomenon, in spite of the influence of the Yakut olonkho. The western type of the Evenkis epos is mainly concentrated on the theme of inter-generic wars, which main purpose was blood revenge. Its performance differs form the eastern version by a lesser individualization of the heroes; the western Evenkis epos is closer to historical novels, while the eastern Evenkis epos is full of hyperbolizations and fantastic extravagancies.
What concerns the Enetsky folklore, consisting of myths, historical legends, fairy-tales about animals, narrations about shamans, and everyday stories, the scientists testify that now it is in the period of decay. The Enetsky folklore has been under-studied and it has been also caused by the fact that the notes and publications of the folklore texts have mostly been done in Russian. In the Enetsky folklore, epical Nganasan sitabis and Nenets syudbabts correspond to large epical tales about bogatyrs - syudobichu. Nenets naming of bogatyrs - the heroes of syudobichu, the same as Nenets naming of tribes, mentioned in syudobichu, let the researchers come to the conclusion that the genre itself and its main patterns have been borrowed from the Nenets people rather recently. Along with the cosmogonical myths, the main themes of syudobichu are narrations about hunger, finding food; besides, we can rather often find the plots about heroes, who have survived after some dreadful epidemy, which has killed all the relatives. Moreover, the themes of struggle with other peoples and myths about animals, in particular, about bear, are most popular among the Entsis.
The most wide-spread genre of the Yakut folklore is the bogatyr epos of olonkho, which is considered to be the main kind of the Yakut poetry, being performed in the form of reciting by the story-teller (olonkhosut), possessing the divine gift, before a large audience. The main theme of olonkho is narrations about bogatyrs, being their progenitor. They were the people of the Middle world, which belonged to a powerful tribe ajyy ajmaga, which origination is connected to the divine ajyy.
The Field research, which was carried out in July, 2010, in the Turukhansk and Farkovo village, and which participants were the representatives of the small-numbered nations, has shown that folklore, including epos as well, is mostly in the condition of extinction or total disappearance. Thus, the questioned Kets have told that the main carriers of their folklore were their grandfathers and grandmothers, who were speaking the Kets language fluently and had difficulties in speaking Russian. As the Kets, so the Selkups have underlined songs of improvisational character as the main genre of traditional folklore, which is still alive. The singer was the author of the piece at one and the same time; for example he could sing about the kettle, which was boiling or about what was going outside, or how the weather was changing. At present time, national culture is of minor interest, at least on words; there is actually no ethnocentrism. The native people say that there have been some fairy-tales, stories, and legends and the older generation have been telling them, but now they fail to remember at least one story.
The tendency of extinction was already noticed by the researchers of the second half of XX century, as far as they found out that the texts, they managed to write down, were mainly performed by the representatives of the older generation, who had failed to find any successors to render their art. Moreover, the carriers of the epos failed to find not only any
successors of their story-telling tradition, but even any listeners of their own performance, as a consequence it brought to their seldom storytelling and resulted in an irrevocable loss of some parts of the texts, to fragmentary notes, to retelling of the plot, to instability in epical formulas usage, tongue-slips, to usage of the modern words and so on.
Having revised in short the eposes of various ethnoses, populating the Krasnoyarsk region and being referred to small-numbered peoples, for example, we shall address to the piece «Brave Sodani-bogatyr», which belongs to the Evenkis tradition. The given piece was fixed by means of self-recording by prominent rhapsodist Nikolay Germogenovich Trofimov (1915-1971). In the course of fixation, the story-teller did not use any punctuation marks, the words were written as an uninterrupted text, and were not divided into separate verses. While writing, N.G. Trofimov used Yakut vowels and diphthongs, which had no analogues in the Evenkis alphabet. Later, the scientists divided this uninterrupted text into separate verses, for that purpose they used an audio-record, made by the same story-teller, but of some other legend, in order to use the analogue for the text processing. Besides, the text was fully re-transcribed within the frames of the modern Evenkis written language, without omitting any dialect forms of the original. Translation of «Brave Sodani-bogatyr» to Russian was made in accordance with the norms of the Russian language; as a result there appeared a necessity to introduce some words for connection, for example, of complex sentences. Thereat, additional words were taken in square brackets. Peculiarities of the Russian syntaxes and Evenkis syntaxes did not allow preserving the original order of the verses in the course of translation, but the admitted rearrangements of the lines did not change their total number. Consequently, all the mentioned let us suppose with a certain assurance, that content-
analysis of the text of «Brave Sodani-bogatyr», having been presented in Russian language, pretends for verifiability.
The Evenkis epos «Brave Sodani-bogatyr» inclludes 2632 verses, the total number of the words in the text is about 10 000 (9 982), a significant part of the total number of the words is functional words (prepositions, conjunctions and others). In the process of calculations it have been found out that beside the words being directly connected with the main heroes of the epos (such as Evenki, ai, brother, sister, bogatyr, mata), the most often used words in the text are: wild (61), beautiful (49), and blood (42). If we address to the words this or that way connected to the world of plants, then we see that the most wide spread are the following: trees (25), herbs (13), osier-bed (12), and larch (9). Most popular words, referred to the world of animals are: moose (6), lynx (5), bear (4), and fox (4). But the most popular word in the considered text is the word deer. Thereat, it can be mentioned as directly (105), so by means of such words as horns (52) and roaring (3), thus, all in all the usage of the word deer reaches up to 160 times. This fact gives us an opportunity to come to the conclusion about high significance of the deer for the Evenkis. Precisely the word «deer» can be singled out as the concept for further researching of the Evenkis epos on the example of the tale «Brave Sodani-bogatyr». For this very purpose it is planned, firstly, to single out the characteristics of the deer, which are given in the text; secondly, to singled out as the concept and compare the given word with some other words according to their characteristics, having denoted the basis for comparison; thirdly, in order to research the chosen concept, we can carry out content-analysis of another example of the Evenkis epos, which was also fixed with the help of self-recording by the same storyteller - N.G. Trofimov. Here, we mean the epical
text «Almighty bogatyr Develchen in fancy-ornate clothes».
Thus, making a certain conclusion of our short review of the eposes of the native small-numbered peoples of the Krasnoyarsk Region, we shall mark, that all of them possess common features, along with the fact that each of them has its own originality. Thus, we refer to the common features the following ones: compassion of the story-teller and the audience in the process of narration, high respect to the story-teller as a possessor of the divine gift. The rhapsodist does not simply present the events, but also colors tonally various actions, various heroes, makes the epical personages individual. Eposes of different nations have similar structures: beginning-introduction (description of the time, place, and its main heroes); intrigue (some disaster, wish of travelling, matchmaking); culmination (hero's struggle with enemies, who can be relatives of the future wife); plot movement (marriage, bogatyr's homecoming). Besides similarity of the plot structure, eposes are also typical of common motifs, such as hero's anger, which changes the appearance of the hero, hero's incantation of the arrows for the victory over his rival and so on. Epos turns out to be a sort of encyclopedia of people's authentic everyday life and spiritual culture, thus, for example, most eposes narrate about the structure of the world (as a rule, it is three-part structure), about peculiarities of people's habitation, about traditions of this or that nation.
3. Results:
1. It is quite logical that in the process of speech community definition one must take into
account not only territorial, political and proper linguistic factors, but also self-conscious of the native speakers.
2. The same way one should act in the course of distinguishing of a language and a dialect, though, up till now linguists do not share one common opinion in these aspects, in spite of some coincidences.
3. The reasons of language changing can be as internal (purely linguistic), so external (connected to the influence of various factors on the language, including social factors and language contacts). Progressive changes cause a normal full-rate existence of the language, while regressive ones can finally bring to its «death».
4. Extinction of languages can be observed because one language is displaced by another one, which is communicatively stronger, prestigious, supported by the state and so on in the situation of multilingualism.
5. Though, every single epos of the native small-numbered nation has its own originality, still there are some common features, being typical to all of them, and it can testify of the fact that languages of the native small-numbered peoples have mutual influence, thereat, epos researching let us trace the process of their influence.
6. Comparative researching of the eposes as of peculiar prints of their language actual condition let us visually trace down peculiarities of the socio-cultural dynamics of languages of small-numbered nation, some details of their interrelations with each other, and the character of their mutual influence. Results of such a research can be also extrapolated over the dynamics of more popular languages.
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Лингвокультурологические особенности
национальных языков
северных народов Красноярского края
Н.П. Копцева, А.Н. Хижнякова, К.В. Резникова
Сибирский федеральный университет Россия 660041, г. Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 82
В работе освещены некоторые из существующих взглядов на такие социо-лингвистические проблемы, как определение границ языка, разграничение языка и диалекта, теории развития языка под влиянием социальных факторов, прогресс и регресс в языке, вымирание языков. В частности, для начала нащупывается граница между понятиями «языковой коллектив», «языковое сообщество», «языковая общность», с целью обозначить границы дальнейших рассуждений, логика движений которых направлена от рассмотрения более общих вопросов к изучению более частных моментов. Особое внимание на каждом из этапов уделяется спорным вопросам, вызвавшим наиболее значимые дискуссии в научной среде. Так, подобного рода объектам дискуссии, которому уделено внимание, стал поиск границ языка и реальности существования общего языкового ядра и языка каждой отдельной личности. Важный момент теоретического исследования - это рассмотрение взаимоотношений понятий «язык» и «диалект». Здесь внимание сконцентрировано на корреляции диалектов внутри языка, на возможности перехода диалекта из одного языка в другой язык, - то есть, по сути, отношения языка и диалекта рассматриваются как в статике, так и в динамике. При этом упор также делается не только на само отношение «язык - диалект» и на динамику этого отношения, но и на признаки, лежащие в основе разграничения обозначенных понятий, причем, признаки как лингвистические, так и культурантропологические, в частности, речь идет о самосознании народа, на первичности которого в формировании этнической идентичности настаивает ряд социолингвистов. Обозначение границ языка влечет за собой необходимость концентрации внимания сугубо на процессах, касающихся непосредственно языка, то есть на динамике языка. Здесь рассматриваются как виды динамики (эволюция, развитие, совершенствование), так и причины ее, которые принято разделять на внутренние и внешние, получает освещение аналогия динамики языка и жизни человека, речь идет о здоровом состоянии языка, о болезненном, о рождении и о смерти языка. Обращение к эпосам коренных малочисленных народов Красноярского края позволяет наглядно проиллюстрировать теоретические разработки настоящей работы, проследив особенности социокультурной динамики отдельных языков малочисленных народов, особенности их взаимоотношений друг с другом, характер взаимовлияний.
Ключевые слова: коренные народы Красноярского края, социолингвистика, границы языка, развитие языка, языковой сдвиг, языковое самосознание, социодинамика языка, концепт, эпос.
Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке:
1) Федеральной целевой программы "Научные и научно-педагогические кадры инновационной России на 2009-2013 гг." по проблеме "Культура коренных и малочисленных народов Севера в условиях глобальных трансформаций: форсайт-исследование до 2050 г. на материале анализа якутского этноса", проводимому в рамках мероприятия 1.2.1 "Проведение научных исследований научными группами под руководством докторов наук".
2) Краевого государственного автономного учреждения «Красноярский краевой фонд поддержки научной и научно-технической деятельности» по теме «Красноярский край
как поликультурное пространство, родина коренных малочисленных народов севера. Информационно-аналитический проект».
3) Федеральной целевой программы «Научные и научно-педагогические кадры инновационной России на 2009-2013 гг.» в рамках мероприятия 1.4 «Проведение поисковых научно-исследовательских работ в целях развития общероссийской мобильности в области естественных и гуманитарных наук» по теме: ««Культура коренных и малочисленных народов Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока в условиях глобальных трансформаций».
