I am a specialist in Mongolic historical and comparative linguistics. Since 2003, I have been working at the Institute for linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.
The monograph deals with the linguistic and historical study of the inscriptions on two 15th-cent... more The monograph deals with the linguistic and historical study of the inscriptions on two 15th-century steles from Tyr cliff in the Lower Amur (now they are kept in V. K. Arsenyev Primorye State Museum in Vladivostok) with texts in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian (the 1413 stele), and in Chinese only (the 1433 stele). The present book is an attempt to make the first full translation of all texts of the Tyr steles into Russian with an extensive philological and historical commentary, indices, and illustrations. A new reconstruction of all the texts of two steles was performed from their plates and photos as well as on the basis of their earlier research. The comparative analysis of the texts made by the authors enabled them to make some conclusions which are important for the textual study of the monuments. The results are significant both for linguistics (the steles are unique evidence of language contacts in the Far East in the Middle Ages) and for the history and ethnography (the monuments contain important information about the Ming China policy towards the peoples of the Lower Amur, and a large number of ethnic and geographical names).
Özer, Ş. & Knüppel, M. (eds.): Uigurica, Buddhica, Manichaica, Mongolica et Varia Turcica: Festgabe für Klaus Röhrborn anläßlich seines 85. Geburtstages überreicht von Kollegen, Freunden und Schülern. [Cambridge, MA:] Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, pp...., 2023
The paper deals with several rare military terms attested in three Mongol chronicles of the 17th ... more The paper deals with several rare military terms attested in three Mongol chronicles of the 17th century, namely the Quriyangγui Altan tobči ‘Brief Golden Summary’ (dated to between 1604 and 1634 or the latter half of the 17th century), the Erdeni tunumal neretü sudur ‘The Jewel Translucent Sūtra’ (ca. 1607) and the Altan tobči ‘Golden Summary’ by Blo-bzaṅ bstan-’jin (dated to between 1651 and 1655 or the late 17th–early 18th century). The following terms are specifically touched upon in the article: aγuraγ ‘base camp,’ bayirildu- ‘to battle each other, fight a battle,’ bulγaldu- ‘to fight each other or together,’ čaγuraγul- ‘to send on a military campaign,’ ide- ‘to capture and plunder (a city),’ nengde- ‘to make a surprise attack, to attack by surprise,’ niγtarqa- ‘to be in close order,’ toyin ‘(military) camp.’ All these terms are either totally unregistered in dictionaries of Classical Written Mongol, or they appear in unique or rare meanings in our sources. Some of them reflect important features of the military organization dating back to the Mongol Empire.
Khabtagaeva, B. with the assistance of Olacz, Z. (eds.) Historical Linguistics and Philology of Central Asia: Essays in Turkic and Mongolic Studies. Leiden — Boston: Brill, pp. 311–343. (Languages of Asia; Vol. 26.), 2022
Research objectives: An introduction to the scientific circulation of the coins of Khorasan with ... more Research objectives: An introduction to the scientific circulation of the coins of Khorasan with legends written in Preclassical Mongol, containing the names of Qaidu (c. 1235/36-1301), the grandson of Ögödei Qa’an, as well as Qaidu’s son, Oros. Research materials: Five silver dirhams are studied. One coin is clearly dated to 690/1291, while three other specimens are specifically related to the production of the Marw mint. The fifth specimen bears the mint name of Marw and Qaidu’s tamgha. Results and novelty of the research: The conclusion is made that the appearance of these coins at the mint belonging to the Hülegüids is associated with the rebellion of the Ilkhanid amir Nawruz and the invasion of Qaidu and his ally, the Chaghatayid khan, Duwa, into Khorasan in 690 A.H. (1291). The legends provide additional information to supplement written records on this invasion and the subsequent short-term occupation of Khorasan by Qaidu’s troops.
The paper provides a bibliographical survey of monographic publications in the field of Mongolic ... more The paper provides a bibliographical survey of monographic publications in the field of Mongolic historical and comparative studies that appeared in the last four decades. It covers scholarly literature on general historical and comparative linguistics, historical phonology and writing systems, historical and comparative grammar, etymological studies, Middle Mongol philology, and modern Mongolic language varieties. A conclusion is made that the recent development of Mongolic historical comparative linguistics has seen what can be termed the Great Move East, i.e. the gradual shift of Mongolic linguistic studies from Europe and the western part of Russia directly to the areas inhabited by speakers of the Mongolic languages. There is a considerable progress in the study of various aspects of the Mongolic languages, but serious gaps are also observed, e.g. the lack of a historical comparative analysis of Mongolic syntax and an etymological or comparative dictionary based on modern linguistic methodology.
Kupchik, J. & Alonso de la Fuente, J. A. & Miyake, M. H. (eds.): Studies in Asian Historical Linguistics, Philology and Beyond: Festschrift Presented to Alexander V. Vovin in Honor of His 60th Birthday. Leiden — Boston: Brill, 2021, pp. 236–260., 2021
The article deals with the Middle Mongolian word aram which occurs as a hapax legomenon in the Se... more The article deals with the Middle Mongolian word aram which occurs as a hapax legomenon in the Secret History of the Mongols (§ 124). The author examines the problems of phonetic reconstruction and semantics of the keyword which provoke controversy among the researchers of the monument. The conclusion is made that aram is an occasional Turkic loanword which is borrowed from Old Turkic aran ‘a stable’, ‘cattle pen’, ‘a stake with a loop for tethering animals᾿. The difference in the final consonants between the Old Turkic and the Middle Mongolian forms is explained as well.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 140.2 (2020): 287-299
The paper deals with the etymology of the personal names Qunï Säŋün and Toŋra Simä appearing in t... more The paper deals with the etymology of the personal names Qunï Säŋün and Toŋra Simä appearing in the ninth line of the Old Turkic Tonyukuk inscription (ca. 716). These names are borne by the envoys sent by the kagan of the Tokuz Oghuz to the Chinese and Khitan, respectively, to conclude a military alliance against the Turks. Both names have the same structure, a combination of an ethnonym (qun(ï) vs. toŋra), referring to a tribal unit within the Tiele 鐵勒 confederation, and a title of Chinese origin (säŋün vs. simä). Based on a thorough analysis of historical and philological data, the authors try to establish possible ethnolinguistic grounds for the Tokuz Oghuz mission, which have so far eluded researchers of the inscription and can be fully restored only in the light of the latest discoveries in the history and philology of Inner Asia of the Old Turkic period, e.g., the decipherment of the famous Khüis Tolgoi inscription from Mongolia.
International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 1.1 (2019): 125–161
This paper presents a new approach to reading the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr... more This paper presents a new approach to reading the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). The stele contains texts carved in three languages: Chinese, Jurchen, and Mongol. The Jurchen and Mongol texts are very close to each other in content , as well as in the grammatical structure of words and sentences. For this reason, some missing and previously illegible parts of the Mongol text can be reconstructed and read on the basis of the Jurchen version. Lines 2 and 3 of the Mongol inscription have already been discussed earlier in a separate publication. In the present paper, the same approach, combined with a careful investigation of all the existing photos and rubbings of the inscription, is extended to lines 4 to 9.
The Journal of Northern Cultures Studies = Beifang wenhua yanjiu 北方文化研究 9 (2018): 19-41
The article provides a brief overview of the state of the art in Mongolic etymological studies an... more The article provides a brief overview of the state of the art in Mongolic etymological studies and presents a new approach to the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Mongolic languages, using the methodology of modern comparative historical linguistics and taking into account all the available language materials of historical and contemporary forms of Mongolic.
The paper deals with the noun case system of the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'', a little known Sino-Mong... more The paper deals with the noun case system of the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'', a little known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 and 1603. Of seven grammatical cases commonly distinguished in Proto-Mongolic, only four are attested in the Mongol language material of the glossary: nominative (the unmarked basic stem), genitive, accusative, and dative. The forms, functions and grammatical meanings of these cases are thoroughly discussed in the paper. Some features may be considered to be linguistic archaisms, e.g. formal coincidence of the accusative marker +i with one of the morphonological allomorphs of the genitive, or the variant ending +in ~ +Un used after consonant stems. However, there are a number of clearly innovative developments, such as the dative ending shape +DU < *+DU/r. In addition, some idiosyncratic features of the glossary can be distinguished as well, e.g. no overt morphosyntactic marking on the dependent in possessive phrases. A conclusion can be made that the case system of the language variety as attested in the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'' may have reflected a transitional stage between Middle Mongol and Modern Mongolian.
Á. B. Apatóczky, C. P. Atwood, and B. Kempf (eds.). Philology of the Grasslands: Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 308–330., 2018
The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Mongolic *VgV and *VxV groups as occurred in the Dada ... more The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Mongolic *VgV and *VxV groups as occurred in the Dada yu/Beilu yiyu, a little known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 and 1603. The results obtained from a detailed examination of the glossary’s language material in a historical comparative perspective allow us to draw some nontrivial conclusions about the origin and development of these groups in the Mongolic languages. For the *VgV group, the following reflexes are attested: (1.1) *VgV > VgV (e.g. buγu ‘deer’ < *bugu, hünegen ‘fox’ < *hünegen; regular development), (1.2) *VgV > VxV (e.g. toχorawun ‘crane (bird)’< *toguraxun, üdüxü ‘vagina’ < *hütügü/n; irregular development also present in Kalmuck, Buryat, and the Gansu-Qinghai languages), (1.3) *VgV > VkV (ökeʨi ‘elder sister’< *egeči; occasional development also observed in Middle Mongol sources, as well as in some modern Mongolic languages). The *VxV group has the following reflexes: (2.1) *VxV > VwV (e.g. nawur ‘lake’ < *naxur, seriwün ‘cool’ < *serixün; largely attested in Middle Mongol, but only irregularly occurring in the modern Mongolic languages such as Dagur) (2.2) *VxV > V’V (e.g. ari’un ‘clean, pure’ < *arïxun, dolo’an ‘seven’ < *doloxan; hiatus typical for Middle Mongol, but not represented in modern Mongolic languages), (2.3) *VxV > VV (e.g. aula ‘mountain’ < *axula, neü- ‘to move, migrate’ < *nexü-; diphthongs well attested in late Middle Mongol and partly preserved in Dagur, Moghol, Dongxiang, Mongghul, and Mangghuer), (2.4) *VhV > V̄ (e.g. berē ‘club, cudgel’ < *berixe, tōsu ‘dust’ < *toxasu/n; contracted long vowels found in most modern Mongolic languages). A combination of archaic (2.1, 2.2) and innovative (2.3, 2.4) features in the Mongol idiom reflected in the glossary leads us to the conclusion that it may be identified as belonging to a transitional stage between Middle Mongol and Modern Mongolian, with a statistically significant predominance of linguistic features characteristic of the latter. The cases of irregular and unpredictable fluctuation between intervocalic *g, *k, *x in the Mongolic languages are discussed as well. A new scheme of the development of Proto-Mongolic intervocalic velars from a common source is proposed by the author, which may refine and elaborate the existing Proto-Mongolic reconstructions.
The Journal of Northern Cultures Studies / Beifang wenhua yanjiu 北方文化研究, 2016
The paper deals with the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primo... more The paper deals with the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). It contains the texts carved in three languages: Chinese, Jurchen, and Mongol. The Jurchen and Mongol texts are very close to each other in content as well as in grammatical structure of words and sentences. The author tries to demonstrate the importance of this conclusion for decipherment or tentative reconstruction of some missing and previously illegible parts of the Mongol inscription. The new reading of lines 2 and 3 of the Mongol inscription proposed in the paper is based on thorough comparison of lacunae in the Mongol text with the corresponding parts of the Jurchen one which are preserved in better condition, as combined with a more careful investigation of all the existing photos and rubbings of the inscription , especially old photos of the monument kept among A. M. Pozdneev's materials in the Archives of the Institute for Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg). The overall results demonstrate a substantial progress in reading the Mongol inscription as compared to previous scholarly works on the subject.
The article deals with the problem of dating and provenance of the Sino-Mongol glossary ''Dada yu... more The article deals with the problem of dating and provenance of the Sino-Mongol glossary ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'' compiled under the Ming dynasty. The author is basing his conclusions on the analysis of some place names that occur in the glossary. The place names are studied in the light of historico-geographical works from the Ming period. The author comes to the conclusion that the original text of the glossary was compiled between 1567 and 1603 in northern China (Xuanfu–Datong area). The paper also addresses a number of textological issues, e.g. a comparative study of the main copies of the glossary.
The present paper deals with some particularities of affricates in Middle Mongol (13th – 16th cen... more The present paper deals with some particularities of affricates in Middle Mongol (13th – 16th centuries) as related to the problem of reconstructing the (Pre)-Proto-Mongolic consonant system. Three particularities of Middle Mongol affricates are especially highlighted: (1) č ~ ǰ alternation; (2) alliteration of the type č – ǰ or ǰ – č; (3) underdifferentiation of the medial č and ǰ in Uighur-Mongol script. Examples of the non-distinctive use of affricates in the Modern Mongolic languages as e.g. those spoken in Qinghai and Gansu provinces (Eastern Yugur and Shirongol) and the central Mon-golic group (Khalkha, Buryat, Kalmyk) are given as well. The author comes to the conclusion that in Proto-Mongolic the distinction between *č and *ǰ may have been a phonemic one, while at the Pre-Proto-Mongolic stage *č and *ǰ were presumably free-variant allophones of the same consonant phoneme **C. Our reconstruction seems to be confirmed by the evidence from Khitan where alternation of the segments <c> and <dz> occurred, probably dating back to the Pre-Proto-Mongolic stage.
The paper deals with the Mongolian inscription on the first Tyr stele (1413) — a little known mon... more The paper deals with the Mongolian inscription on the first Tyr stele (1413) — a little known monument of Preclassical Written Mongol which is now found in Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). In the paper, the main grammatical, phonetic, and lexical features of the text are described, which are charac-teristic of Preclassical Written Mongol and Middle Mongol monuments altogether. While retaining a number of clearly archaic features, probably of Proto-Mongolic origin, the inscription contains some innovative developments which seem to date from the Post-Proto-Mongolic stage and reflect colloquial and/or dialectal influence. A few phonological and lexical features, as well as the place and circumstances of its appearance, enables us to consider it as belonging to the Eastern dialect zone of Middle Mongol.
The monograph deals with the linguistic and historical study of the inscriptions on two 15th-cent... more The monograph deals with the linguistic and historical study of the inscriptions on two 15th-century steles from Tyr cliff in the Lower Amur (now they are kept in V. K. Arsenyev Primorye State Museum in Vladivostok) with texts in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian (the 1413 stele), and in Chinese only (the 1433 stele). The present book is an attempt to make the first full translation of all texts of the Tyr steles into Russian with an extensive philological and historical commentary, indices, and illustrations. A new reconstruction of all the texts of two steles was performed from their plates and photos as well as on the basis of their earlier research. The comparative analysis of the texts made by the authors enabled them to make some conclusions which are important for the textual study of the monuments. The results are significant both for linguistics (the steles are unique evidence of language contacts in the Far East in the Middle Ages) and for the history and ethnography (the monuments contain important information about the Ming China policy towards the peoples of the Lower Amur, and a large number of ethnic and geographical names).
Özer, Ş. & Knüppel, M. (eds.): Uigurica, Buddhica, Manichaica, Mongolica et Varia Turcica: Festgabe für Klaus Röhrborn anläßlich seines 85. Geburtstages überreicht von Kollegen, Freunden und Schülern. [Cambridge, MA:] Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, pp...., 2023
The paper deals with several rare military terms attested in three Mongol chronicles of the 17th ... more The paper deals with several rare military terms attested in three Mongol chronicles of the 17th century, namely the Quriyangγui Altan tobči ‘Brief Golden Summary’ (dated to between 1604 and 1634 or the latter half of the 17th century), the Erdeni tunumal neretü sudur ‘The Jewel Translucent Sūtra’ (ca. 1607) and the Altan tobči ‘Golden Summary’ by Blo-bzaṅ bstan-’jin (dated to between 1651 and 1655 or the late 17th–early 18th century). The following terms are specifically touched upon in the article: aγuraγ ‘base camp,’ bayirildu- ‘to battle each other, fight a battle,’ bulγaldu- ‘to fight each other or together,’ čaγuraγul- ‘to send on a military campaign,’ ide- ‘to capture and plunder (a city),’ nengde- ‘to make a surprise attack, to attack by surprise,’ niγtarqa- ‘to be in close order,’ toyin ‘(military) camp.’ All these terms are either totally unregistered in dictionaries of Classical Written Mongol, or they appear in unique or rare meanings in our sources. Some of them reflect important features of the military organization dating back to the Mongol Empire.
Khabtagaeva, B. with the assistance of Olacz, Z. (eds.) Historical Linguistics and Philology of Central Asia: Essays in Turkic and Mongolic Studies. Leiden — Boston: Brill, pp. 311–343. (Languages of Asia; Vol. 26.), 2022
Research objectives: An introduction to the scientific circulation of the coins of Khorasan with ... more Research objectives: An introduction to the scientific circulation of the coins of Khorasan with legends written in Preclassical Mongol, containing the names of Qaidu (c. 1235/36-1301), the grandson of Ögödei Qa’an, as well as Qaidu’s son, Oros. Research materials: Five silver dirhams are studied. One coin is clearly dated to 690/1291, while three other specimens are specifically related to the production of the Marw mint. The fifth specimen bears the mint name of Marw and Qaidu’s tamgha. Results and novelty of the research: The conclusion is made that the appearance of these coins at the mint belonging to the Hülegüids is associated with the rebellion of the Ilkhanid amir Nawruz and the invasion of Qaidu and his ally, the Chaghatayid khan, Duwa, into Khorasan in 690 A.H. (1291). The legends provide additional information to supplement written records on this invasion and the subsequent short-term occupation of Khorasan by Qaidu’s troops.
The paper provides a bibliographical survey of monographic publications in the field of Mongolic ... more The paper provides a bibliographical survey of monographic publications in the field of Mongolic historical and comparative studies that appeared in the last four decades. It covers scholarly literature on general historical and comparative linguistics, historical phonology and writing systems, historical and comparative grammar, etymological studies, Middle Mongol philology, and modern Mongolic language varieties. A conclusion is made that the recent development of Mongolic historical comparative linguistics has seen what can be termed the Great Move East, i.e. the gradual shift of Mongolic linguistic studies from Europe and the western part of Russia directly to the areas inhabited by speakers of the Mongolic languages. There is a considerable progress in the study of various aspects of the Mongolic languages, but serious gaps are also observed, e.g. the lack of a historical comparative analysis of Mongolic syntax and an etymological or comparative dictionary based on modern linguistic methodology.
Kupchik, J. & Alonso de la Fuente, J. A. & Miyake, M. H. (eds.): Studies in Asian Historical Linguistics, Philology and Beyond: Festschrift Presented to Alexander V. Vovin in Honor of His 60th Birthday. Leiden — Boston: Brill, 2021, pp. 236–260., 2021
The article deals with the Middle Mongolian word aram which occurs as a hapax legomenon in the Se... more The article deals with the Middle Mongolian word aram which occurs as a hapax legomenon in the Secret History of the Mongols (§ 124). The author examines the problems of phonetic reconstruction and semantics of the keyword which provoke controversy among the researchers of the monument. The conclusion is made that aram is an occasional Turkic loanword which is borrowed from Old Turkic aran ‘a stable’, ‘cattle pen’, ‘a stake with a loop for tethering animals᾿. The difference in the final consonants between the Old Turkic and the Middle Mongolian forms is explained as well.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 140.2 (2020): 287-299
The paper deals with the etymology of the personal names Qunï Säŋün and Toŋra Simä appearing in t... more The paper deals with the etymology of the personal names Qunï Säŋün and Toŋra Simä appearing in the ninth line of the Old Turkic Tonyukuk inscription (ca. 716). These names are borne by the envoys sent by the kagan of the Tokuz Oghuz to the Chinese and Khitan, respectively, to conclude a military alliance against the Turks. Both names have the same structure, a combination of an ethnonym (qun(ï) vs. toŋra), referring to a tribal unit within the Tiele 鐵勒 confederation, and a title of Chinese origin (säŋün vs. simä). Based on a thorough analysis of historical and philological data, the authors try to establish possible ethnolinguistic grounds for the Tokuz Oghuz mission, which have so far eluded researchers of the inscription and can be fully restored only in the light of the latest discoveries in the history and philology of Inner Asia of the Old Turkic period, e.g., the decipherment of the famous Khüis Tolgoi inscription from Mongolia.
International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 1.1 (2019): 125–161
This paper presents a new approach to reading the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr... more This paper presents a new approach to reading the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). The stele contains texts carved in three languages: Chinese, Jurchen, and Mongol. The Jurchen and Mongol texts are very close to each other in content , as well as in the grammatical structure of words and sentences. For this reason, some missing and previously illegible parts of the Mongol text can be reconstructed and read on the basis of the Jurchen version. Lines 2 and 3 of the Mongol inscription have already been discussed earlier in a separate publication. In the present paper, the same approach, combined with a careful investigation of all the existing photos and rubbings of the inscription, is extended to lines 4 to 9.
The Journal of Northern Cultures Studies = Beifang wenhua yanjiu 北方文化研究 9 (2018): 19-41
The article provides a brief overview of the state of the art in Mongolic etymological studies an... more The article provides a brief overview of the state of the art in Mongolic etymological studies and presents a new approach to the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Mongolic languages, using the methodology of modern comparative historical linguistics and taking into account all the available language materials of historical and contemporary forms of Mongolic.
The paper deals with the noun case system of the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'', a little known Sino-Mong... more The paper deals with the noun case system of the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'', a little known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 and 1603. Of seven grammatical cases commonly distinguished in Proto-Mongolic, only four are attested in the Mongol language material of the glossary: nominative (the unmarked basic stem), genitive, accusative, and dative. The forms, functions and grammatical meanings of these cases are thoroughly discussed in the paper. Some features may be considered to be linguistic archaisms, e.g. formal coincidence of the accusative marker +i with one of the morphonological allomorphs of the genitive, or the variant ending +in ~ +Un used after consonant stems. However, there are a number of clearly innovative developments, such as the dative ending shape +DU < *+DU/r. In addition, some idiosyncratic features of the glossary can be distinguished as well, e.g. no overt morphosyntactic marking on the dependent in possessive phrases. A conclusion can be made that the case system of the language variety as attested in the ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'' may have reflected a transitional stage between Middle Mongol and Modern Mongolian.
Á. B. Apatóczky, C. P. Atwood, and B. Kempf (eds.). Philology of the Grasslands: Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 308–330., 2018
The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Mongolic *VgV and *VxV groups as occurred in the Dada ... more The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Mongolic *VgV and *VxV groups as occurred in the Dada yu/Beilu yiyu, a little known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 and 1603. The results obtained from a detailed examination of the glossary’s language material in a historical comparative perspective allow us to draw some nontrivial conclusions about the origin and development of these groups in the Mongolic languages. For the *VgV group, the following reflexes are attested: (1.1) *VgV > VgV (e.g. buγu ‘deer’ < *bugu, hünegen ‘fox’ < *hünegen; regular development), (1.2) *VgV > VxV (e.g. toχorawun ‘crane (bird)’< *toguraxun, üdüxü ‘vagina’ < *hütügü/n; irregular development also present in Kalmuck, Buryat, and the Gansu-Qinghai languages), (1.3) *VgV > VkV (ökeʨi ‘elder sister’< *egeči; occasional development also observed in Middle Mongol sources, as well as in some modern Mongolic languages). The *VxV group has the following reflexes: (2.1) *VxV > VwV (e.g. nawur ‘lake’ < *naxur, seriwün ‘cool’ < *serixün; largely attested in Middle Mongol, but only irregularly occurring in the modern Mongolic languages such as Dagur) (2.2) *VxV > V’V (e.g. ari’un ‘clean, pure’ < *arïxun, dolo’an ‘seven’ < *doloxan; hiatus typical for Middle Mongol, but not represented in modern Mongolic languages), (2.3) *VxV > VV (e.g. aula ‘mountain’ < *axula, neü- ‘to move, migrate’ < *nexü-; diphthongs well attested in late Middle Mongol and partly preserved in Dagur, Moghol, Dongxiang, Mongghul, and Mangghuer), (2.4) *VhV > V̄ (e.g. berē ‘club, cudgel’ < *berixe, tōsu ‘dust’ < *toxasu/n; contracted long vowels found in most modern Mongolic languages). A combination of archaic (2.1, 2.2) and innovative (2.3, 2.4) features in the Mongol idiom reflected in the glossary leads us to the conclusion that it may be identified as belonging to a transitional stage between Middle Mongol and Modern Mongolian, with a statistically significant predominance of linguistic features characteristic of the latter. The cases of irregular and unpredictable fluctuation between intervocalic *g, *k, *x in the Mongolic languages are discussed as well. A new scheme of the development of Proto-Mongolic intervocalic velars from a common source is proposed by the author, which may refine and elaborate the existing Proto-Mongolic reconstructions.
The Journal of Northern Cultures Studies / Beifang wenhua yanjiu 北方文化研究, 2016
The paper deals with the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primo... more The paper deals with the Preclassical Mongol inscription on the 1413 Tyr stele, now kept at Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). It contains the texts carved in three languages: Chinese, Jurchen, and Mongol. The Jurchen and Mongol texts are very close to each other in content as well as in grammatical structure of words and sentences. The author tries to demonstrate the importance of this conclusion for decipherment or tentative reconstruction of some missing and previously illegible parts of the Mongol inscription. The new reading of lines 2 and 3 of the Mongol inscription proposed in the paper is based on thorough comparison of lacunae in the Mongol text with the corresponding parts of the Jurchen one which are preserved in better condition, as combined with a more careful investigation of all the existing photos and rubbings of the inscription , especially old photos of the monument kept among A. M. Pozdneev's materials in the Archives of the Institute for Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg). The overall results demonstrate a substantial progress in reading the Mongol inscription as compared to previous scholarly works on the subject.
The article deals with the problem of dating and provenance of the Sino-Mongol glossary ''Dada yu... more The article deals with the problem of dating and provenance of the Sino-Mongol glossary ''Dada yu/Beilu yiyu'' compiled under the Ming dynasty. The author is basing his conclusions on the analysis of some place names that occur in the glossary. The place names are studied in the light of historico-geographical works from the Ming period. The author comes to the conclusion that the original text of the glossary was compiled between 1567 and 1603 in northern China (Xuanfu–Datong area). The paper also addresses a number of textological issues, e.g. a comparative study of the main copies of the glossary.
The present paper deals with some particularities of affricates in Middle Mongol (13th – 16th cen... more The present paper deals with some particularities of affricates in Middle Mongol (13th – 16th centuries) as related to the problem of reconstructing the (Pre)-Proto-Mongolic consonant system. Three particularities of Middle Mongol affricates are especially highlighted: (1) č ~ ǰ alternation; (2) alliteration of the type č – ǰ or ǰ – č; (3) underdifferentiation of the medial č and ǰ in Uighur-Mongol script. Examples of the non-distinctive use of affricates in the Modern Mongolic languages as e.g. those spoken in Qinghai and Gansu provinces (Eastern Yugur and Shirongol) and the central Mon-golic group (Khalkha, Buryat, Kalmyk) are given as well. The author comes to the conclusion that in Proto-Mongolic the distinction between *č and *ǰ may have been a phonemic one, while at the Pre-Proto-Mongolic stage *č and *ǰ were presumably free-variant allophones of the same consonant phoneme **C. Our reconstruction seems to be confirmed by the evidence from Khitan where alternation of the segments <c> and <dz> occurred, probably dating back to the Pre-Proto-Mongolic stage.
The paper deals with the Mongolian inscription on the first Tyr stele (1413) — a little known mon... more The paper deals with the Mongolian inscription on the first Tyr stele (1413) — a little known monument of Preclassical Written Mongol which is now found in Primorye State Museum named after V. K. Arsenyev (Vladivostok, Russia). In the paper, the main grammatical, phonetic, and lexical features of the text are described, which are charac-teristic of Preclassical Written Mongol and Middle Mongol monuments altogether. While retaining a number of clearly archaic features, probably of Proto-Mongolic origin, the inscription contains some innovative developments which seem to date from the Post-Proto-Mongolic stage and reflect colloquial and/or dialectal influence. A few phonological and lexical features, as well as the place and circumstances of its appearance, enables us to consider it as belonging to the Eastern dialect zone of Middle Mongol.
The article deals with the main principles according to which Mongolian sounds are rendered into ... more The article deals with the main principles according to which Mongolian sounds are rendered into Chinese in the Sino-Mongolian glossary Dada yu/Beilu yiyu (late 16th–early 17th cent.) where one of the late Middle Mongolian dialects is reflected. Three such principles are distinguished by the author: 1) principle of phonetic identity (the Chinese and Mongolian segments completely coincide with each other by their features); 2) principle of phonetic substitution in its two varieties: weak phonetic substitution (the Chinese and Mongolian segments differ from each other in only one distinctive feature) and strong phonetic substitution (the Chinese and Mongolian segments are distinguished from each other by two or more features); 3) principle of zero marking (the Mongolian segment is in no way rendered into the Chinese transcription because of the impossibility of its notation by means of Chinese). The influence of different stages of the phonetic development of Chinese on the glossary’s system of transcriptions is also emphasized, such as Standard Chinese, Late Ming Guanhua, and Ancient Mandarin.
The paper deals with the structural analysis of the system of kinship and affinity terms in Middl... more The paper deals with the structural analysis of the system of kinship and affinity terms in Middle Mongolian based on all known lexicographical and narrative sources. The system of kinship and affinity terms is seen as a separate lexical group which is to be studied by methods of structural semantics, in particular by the method of componential analysis. This method is for the first time applied to the study of Middle Mongolian vocabulary. The meaning of each kinship or affinity term is defined in the meta-language of componential analysis in its two varieties, main structural features of the system are discovered and defined, the dialectal distribution, inter- and intradialectal lexical differences among the terms are described and presented in the form of tables. The morphological classification of the terms is given, the question of the polysemy of some of them is touched upon. The author comes to the conclusion that East Middle Mongolian dialects and their system of kinship and affinity terms could be in a more archaic stage of development than the language of West Middle Mongolian literary monuments. The results of the semantic analysis are compared with some historical and ethnographical data on the Mongolian social structure of the imperial period (in particular on kinship system and marriage rules).
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