As in the case of the languages of other Turkic people in the former Soviet Union, the writing sy... more As in the case of the languages of other Turkic people in the former Soviet Union, the writing system created for Soyot is based on Cyrillic. For special Soyot phonemes, letters were created by means of diacritics. Accordingly, the Russian alphabet was complemented with the following letters: к> г, 4, h, n, e, у. э, i. The yotized vowel letters e, ё, ю, я and и, as in Russian, do not have any function other than to indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized. The Latin letter i designates the palatal antipode of the vowel ы, in front of which consonants are never palatalized. The Soyot language is quote monolithic, and is not further divided into dialects. Nevertheless, in the case of some words, in the speech of members of different tribes, there occur divergences, e.g.: баъшы ~ баъИи 'his head', к,аъшан ~ каъИян 'when', маъшыына ~ маъИиина 'car', etc., which supposes a dissimilar origin of the different tribes. The Soyot language has 4 velar cardinal vowels а, о, у, ы, and 6 palatal ones, э, з, e, у, и, i, as in Tsaatan. These vowels occur in 3 phoneme types: pure short vowels, pharyngealized short vowels and long vowels. Long vowels are marked by letter doubling, while pharyngealized vowels have a hard sign (ъ) written after the given vowel. Accordingly, the vowel system of the Soyot language comprises 30 phonemes as follows:
In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge ‘sign mar... more In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge ‘sign mark, token, symptom, symbol; prognostic, omen’ and LM mengge ‘birthmark, mole; sign’. This paper aims to answer the question of whether these two words are etymologically related with each other or not, and also attempts to shed light on a question put forward by Gerhard Doerfer. In two of his works Doerfer (1992; 1993) suggested that there might be loanwords in Early Turkic taken from different Mongolic languages, but this idea has gone practically unnoticed in the Altaistic literature.
Professor Gyorgy Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. ... more Professor Gyorgy Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. His students and colleagues commemorate this occasion with papers on a wide range of topics in Altaic Studies, with a focus on the literacy, culture and languages of the steppe civilizations.
Mongolic verbs can be primary stems, or they can be already derived, i.e. secondary stems. This s... more Mongolic verbs can be primary stems, or they can be already derived, i.e. secondary stems. This second group is further divided into deverbal verbs and denominal verbs. When speaking about the structure of the verb stem, I again distinguish between primary stems and secondary ones. Secondary stems are not dealt with here. Primary verb stems are observable in the following types of structure: V-, CV-, VC-, CVC-, VCV-, VCVC-, CVCV-. The typical Mongolic verb stem is mostly disyllabic, which is in accord with the generally observed situation. It is generally accepted that "every verb stem is inherently transitive or intransitive." (Street 1963: 82) Such kind of generalization, however, does not fit to the needs of modern historical linguistics. Even in the Mnt it is observable that transitive verbs may have intransitive uses. To this must be added, that probably there occurred cases when e.g. the intransitive use was lexicalized, while the transitive use could disappear at all. The link between the stem and the suffix When verb forming suffixes are added to a stem, there can happen that the juncture of the final sound of the stem and the first sound of the suffix results in a phonotactically forbidden situation. In such cases a so-called linking vowel 9 is used to resolve the situation. The literature does not give any clue in defining whether the linking vowel pertains to the stem or to the suffix. Contrary to the observation that in some cases such linking vowels become parts of the stem 10 I am inclined to consider the linking vowels as parts of the given suffix. In most cases the linking vowel nature of the stem final vowel is not transparent, 11 comparative data should be used to ascertain it. As this lexicalization of the linking vowel is not a general phenomenon, it may happen that not even the comparative data from other stages of the Mongolic languages will help. In such cases if there are, Turkic data should be used to ascertain the original stem shape. 9 It should be a research topic if this linking vowel has something in common with the so-called thematic vowels, peculiar to Indo-European languages that are considered to have an independent morphological status. 10 Cf. Mnt hasaq-'to ask' and LM (L) asaγu-'to ask'. 11 Lexicalization of the linking vowel has mislead Janhunen in stating that no Mongolic verb stems can end in a nasal consonant. (Janhunen 2003: 10) Such a prohibition, however, does not exist for Mongolic, cf. LM (L) tunu-'to settle to the bottom, etc.' ← *tun-, cf. the derivative LM (L) tungγa-'to let a liquid settle, etc.' or LM qan-/qanu-'to content oneself, be content, satisfied, to be satiated, be full' ← *kan-, cf. the derivative LM (L) qangγa-'to satisfy, fulfill; to provide, supply with'. 16 This term covers the process when a lexeme changes its word-class. To understand this process a so-called zeromorpheme was suggested. 17 During back-formation not the addition of a bound morpheme will result in a new meaning, but the omission of something. 18 Also called truncation or shortening. This term itself includes some sub-cases, as back clipping e.g. English doc ← doctor, English exam ← examination, English demo ← demonstration, fore-clipping English phone ← telephone, English chute ← parachute, middle clipping, e.g. English flu ← influenza, English tec ← detective; complex clipping, e.g. English navicert ← navigation certificate. 19 Blending happens when initial parts of lexemes are added to the end of another lexeme, e.g. English camera + recorder → camcorder; smoke + fog → smog. 20 Although the notions productive and non-productive is generally used in the Altaic linguistics even in the case of historical languages, it is not easy to define what is the number of examples which meets the eligibility to consider a suffix to be productive. 21 Such exceptions could be the causative suffixes, which probably may have derivatives from any verb. Although it does not discuss questions of morphology, it should be mentioned the historical phonology of Mongolic authored by Tömörtogō (1992). Since the appearance of these basic works, actually from the second half of the 20th century Mongolic linguistics mostly focuses on descriptions of individual languages.
The authors review the past century of Khitan studies in Hungary and introduce the latest achieve... more The authors review the past century of Khitan studies in Hungary and introduce the latest achievements in this field in China, the country that has become the centre of academic scrutiny for the decipherment of Khitan script in recent decades. Arranged in a chronologic order for the first time, an exhaustive list of the main known Khitan Small Script monuments is also included, followed by a selected bibliography of essential pieces on Khitan studies.
In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge 'sign mar... more In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge 'sign mark, token, symptom, symbol; prognostic, omen' and LM mengge 'birthmark, mole; sign'. This paper aims to answer the question of whether these two words are etymologically related with each other or not, and also attempts to shed light on a question put forward by Gerhard Doerfer. In two of his works suggested that there might be loanwords in Early Turkic taken from different Mongolic languages, but this idea has gone practically unnoticed in the Altaistic literature.
As in the case of the languages of other Turkic people in the former Soviet Union, the writing sy... more As in the case of the languages of other Turkic people in the former Soviet Union, the writing system created for Soyot is based on Cyrillic. For special Soyot phonemes, letters were created by means of diacritics. Accordingly, the Russian alphabet was complemented with the following letters: к> г, 4, h, n, e, у. э, i. The yotized vowel letters e, ё, ю, я and и, as in Russian, do not have any function other than to indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized. The Latin letter i designates the palatal antipode of the vowel ы, in front of which consonants are never palatalized. The Soyot language is quote monolithic, and is not further divided into dialects. Nevertheless, in the case of some words, in the speech of members of different tribes, there occur divergences, e.g.: баъшы ~ баъИи 'his head', к,аъшан ~ каъИян 'when', маъшыына ~ маъИиина 'car', etc., which supposes a dissimilar origin of the different tribes. The Soyot language has 4 velar cardinal vowels а, о, у, ы, and 6 palatal ones, э, з, e, у, и, i, as in Tsaatan. These vowels occur in 3 phoneme types: pure short vowels, pharyngealized short vowels and long vowels. Long vowels are marked by letter doubling, while pharyngealized vowels have a hard sign (ъ) written after the given vowel. Accordingly, the vowel system of the Soyot language comprises 30 phonemes as follows:
In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge ‘sign mar... more In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge ‘sign mark, token, symptom, symbol; prognostic, omen’ and LM mengge ‘birthmark, mole; sign’. This paper aims to answer the question of whether these two words are etymologically related with each other or not, and also attempts to shed light on a question put forward by Gerhard Doerfer. In two of his works Doerfer (1992; 1993) suggested that there might be loanwords in Early Turkic taken from different Mongolic languages, but this idea has gone practically unnoticed in the Altaistic literature.
Professor Gyorgy Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. ... more Professor Gyorgy Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. His students and colleagues commemorate this occasion with papers on a wide range of topics in Altaic Studies, with a focus on the literacy, culture and languages of the steppe civilizations.
Mongolic verbs can be primary stems, or they can be already derived, i.e. secondary stems. This s... more Mongolic verbs can be primary stems, or they can be already derived, i.e. secondary stems. This second group is further divided into deverbal verbs and denominal verbs. When speaking about the structure of the verb stem, I again distinguish between primary stems and secondary ones. Secondary stems are not dealt with here. Primary verb stems are observable in the following types of structure: V-, CV-, VC-, CVC-, VCV-, VCVC-, CVCV-. The typical Mongolic verb stem is mostly disyllabic, which is in accord with the generally observed situation. It is generally accepted that "every verb stem is inherently transitive or intransitive." (Street 1963: 82) Such kind of generalization, however, does not fit to the needs of modern historical linguistics. Even in the Mnt it is observable that transitive verbs may have intransitive uses. To this must be added, that probably there occurred cases when e.g. the intransitive use was lexicalized, while the transitive use could disappear at all. The link between the stem and the suffix When verb forming suffixes are added to a stem, there can happen that the juncture of the final sound of the stem and the first sound of the suffix results in a phonotactically forbidden situation. In such cases a so-called linking vowel 9 is used to resolve the situation. The literature does not give any clue in defining whether the linking vowel pertains to the stem or to the suffix. Contrary to the observation that in some cases such linking vowels become parts of the stem 10 I am inclined to consider the linking vowels as parts of the given suffix. In most cases the linking vowel nature of the stem final vowel is not transparent, 11 comparative data should be used to ascertain it. As this lexicalization of the linking vowel is not a general phenomenon, it may happen that not even the comparative data from other stages of the Mongolic languages will help. In such cases if there are, Turkic data should be used to ascertain the original stem shape. 9 It should be a research topic if this linking vowel has something in common with the so-called thematic vowels, peculiar to Indo-European languages that are considered to have an independent morphological status. 10 Cf. Mnt hasaq-'to ask' and LM (L) asaγu-'to ask'. 11 Lexicalization of the linking vowel has mislead Janhunen in stating that no Mongolic verb stems can end in a nasal consonant. (Janhunen 2003: 10) Such a prohibition, however, does not exist for Mongolic, cf. LM (L) tunu-'to settle to the bottom, etc.' ← *tun-, cf. the derivative LM (L) tungγa-'to let a liquid settle, etc.' or LM qan-/qanu-'to content oneself, be content, satisfied, to be satiated, be full' ← *kan-, cf. the derivative LM (L) qangγa-'to satisfy, fulfill; to provide, supply with'. 16 This term covers the process when a lexeme changes its word-class. To understand this process a so-called zeromorpheme was suggested. 17 During back-formation not the addition of a bound morpheme will result in a new meaning, but the omission of something. 18 Also called truncation or shortening. This term itself includes some sub-cases, as back clipping e.g. English doc ← doctor, English exam ← examination, English demo ← demonstration, fore-clipping English phone ← telephone, English chute ← parachute, middle clipping, e.g. English flu ← influenza, English tec ← detective; complex clipping, e.g. English navicert ← navigation certificate. 19 Blending happens when initial parts of lexemes are added to the end of another lexeme, e.g. English camera + recorder → camcorder; smoke + fog → smog. 20 Although the notions productive and non-productive is generally used in the Altaic linguistics even in the case of historical languages, it is not easy to define what is the number of examples which meets the eligibility to consider a suffix to be productive. 21 Such exceptions could be the causative suffixes, which probably may have derivatives from any verb. Although it does not discuss questions of morphology, it should be mentioned the historical phonology of Mongolic authored by Tömörtogō (1992). Since the appearance of these basic works, actually from the second half of the 20th century Mongolic linguistics mostly focuses on descriptions of individual languages.
The authors review the past century of Khitan studies in Hungary and introduce the latest achieve... more The authors review the past century of Khitan studies in Hungary and introduce the latest achievements in this field in China, the country that has become the centre of academic scrutiny for the decipherment of Khitan script in recent decades. Arranged in a chronologic order for the first time, an exhaustive list of the main known Khitan Small Script monuments is also included, followed by a selected bibliography of essential pieces on Khitan studies.
In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge 'sign mar... more In Mongolic, the words belge and mengge have practically the same meaning, cf. LM belge 'sign mark, token, symptom, symbol; prognostic, omen' and LM mengge 'birthmark, mole; sign'. This paper aims to answer the question of whether these two words are etymologically related with each other or not, and also attempts to shed light on a question put forward by Gerhard Doerfer. In two of his works suggested that there might be loanwords in Early Turkic taken from different Mongolic languages, but this idea has gone practically unnoticed in the Altaistic literature.
Full book available at: https://brill.com/view/title/35231
Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungus... more Full book available at: https://brill.com/view/title/35231 Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies.
Professor György Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. His students and colleagues commemorate this occasion with papers on a wide range of topics in Altaic Studies, with a focus on the literacy, culture and languages of the steppe civilizations.
Contributors: Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky; Christopher P. Atwood; Brian Baumann; Ágnes Birtalan; Otgon Borjigin; Benjamin Brosig; José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente; Juha Janhunen; Olivér Kápolnás and Alice Sárközi; Bayarma Khabtagaeva; Jacques Legrand; Hans Nugteren; Daniel Prior; Elisabetta Ragagnin; Klaus Röhrborn; Volker Rybatzki; Pavel Rykin; Andrew Shimunek; Ines Stolpe and Alimaa Senderjav; Jan-Olof Svantesson; Alexander Vovin; Michael Weiers; Wu Yingzhe; Natalia Yakhontova
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Papers by Béla Kempf
Essays in Mongolic, Turkic, and Tungusic Studies.
Professor György Kara, an outstanding member of academia, celebrated his 80th birthday recently. His students and colleagues commemorate this occasion with papers on a wide range of topics in Altaic Studies, with a focus on the literacy, culture and languages of the steppe civilizations.
Contributors:
Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky;
Christopher P. Atwood;
Brian Baumann;
Ágnes Birtalan;
Otgon Borjigin;
Benjamin Brosig;
José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente;
Juha Janhunen;
Olivér Kápolnás and Alice Sárközi;
Bayarma Khabtagaeva;
Jacques Legrand;
Hans Nugteren;
Daniel Prior;
Elisabetta Ragagnin;
Klaus Röhrborn;
Volker Rybatzki;
Pavel Rykin;
Andrew Shimunek;
Ines Stolpe and Alimaa Senderjav;
Jan-Olof Svantesson;
Alexander Vovin;
Michael Weiers;
Wu Yingzhe;
Natalia Yakhontova
Series editor: Alexander Vovin