Á. Birtalan (ed.).: Bálint of Szentkatolna, Gábor: A Romanized Grammar of the East- and West-Mongolian Languages (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 3.)
Introduction - Fieldwork among the Mongols
the Khalmiks themselves when speaking with confidence - many years long, I could hardly have a better opportunity to the pursuit if my propose than I had in the mentioned Institute." 1 9 He spent several months among the Astrakhan Kalmyks (end of September 1871 - May 1872) and worked with many informants. He mentioned by name in his Report and in the Preface to the Grammar Samba, a teacher of the Kalmyk language and culture who worked in the boys' and girls' school. With the permission of the school director he visited Samba's lessons every day and talked to the pupils. Besides the teacher, the surgeon of the school Manjin Sawyr (in Bálint's transcription Mandsin Szabghar) also helped him in mastering the language. From among the students he mentioned Muck(a) Baldr (in Bálint's transcription Mucska Baldir) who provided him with a large amount of material on Kalmyk folk life. Despite his previous Kalmyk studies in Kazan he first used Russian, but owing to his excellent capability in learning languages he became able to communicate in Kalmyk very soon. He collected language material from the illiterate Kalmyks as well who visited the market in Astrakhan. 2 0 The result of his field work is a text corpus to be published in the nearest future by the author of present lines. It contains vernacular sample texts (6 pages), riddles (2 pages), proverbs (2 pages), blessings (yöräl , 1 page), folk songs (20 pages), folk tales (103 pages), texts on customs (30 pages), juridical documents (8 pages), and a text on the funeral customs (3 pages). 2 1 Following his return to Hungary, he worked on the Kalmyk records besides the Kazan Tatar material. He intended to publish it with a German translation with notes, 2 2 as he introduced it to the Linguistic Committee of the Academy in 1879, but he never finished it. He mentioned in the Preface to the Grammar that he prepared a Kalmyk grammar on the basis of his texts: "After having gathered a good number of folksongs, fables, proverbs and other materials for a dictionary and made a draft of the Khalmik-Mongolian grammar, I left Astrachan for St. Petersburg to study the Finnic and other related tongues, .,.". 2 3 Probably this "draft" was the first attempt, the core of the present manuscript. THE EAST-MONGOLIAN (KHALKHA) MATERIAL Bálint left Astrakhan (12 May 1872) by train and arrived in Saint Petersburg (18 May). 2 4 He contacted - among others - A. F. Schiefner (1817-1879), the versatile philologist of the Imperial Academy in Saint Petersburg and discussed his results and further plans. Schiefner supported Bálint's endeavour to prepare a grammar of spoken languages, as Bálint wrote: "Mr. Schiefner favoured my efforts to study the Kalmyk [spoken] language with my Hungarian ears." 2' But his unwillingness to follow his plan 1 9 Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4 ). 2 0 Bálint Gábor jelentése, p. 13 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.); Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4) 2 1 Cf. also the Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4). 2 2 [Bálint Gábor levele Fogarasi Jánoshoz 1872. július 16.] In: Akadémiai Értesítő VI. (1872) pp. 210-211, on p. 211 [Gábor Bálint's letter to János Fogarasi 16 July 1872. In: Proceedings of the Academy] (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.)-, also Nagy: Op. cit. pp. 315-316. 2 3 Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4). 2 4 [Bálint Gábor levele Fogarasi Jánoshoz 1872. június 17.] In: Akadémiai Értesítő VI. (1872) pp. 208-210. on p. 208. [Gábor Bálint's letter to János Fogarasi 17 June 1872. In: Proceedings of the Academy] (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.). 2 5 "Schiefner ur [sic!] helyeselte, hogy a khalymik nyelvet magyar fülemmel tanulmányoztam." Cf. the letter written to Fogarasi 17 June 1872 p. 208 (Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei). Schiefner also supported his efforts to study "Finnic and other related languages". Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4). XIII
