Á. Birtalan (ed.).: Bálint of Szentkatolna, Gábor: A Romanized Grammar of the East- and West-Mongolian Languages (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 3.)

Introduction - The fate of Bálint's texts

Books of the LHAS (shelf Nr. RAL 1400/1878).

4

3 In all probability there might be some documentary evidence in the depths of libraries, archives that will help future researcher to solve this question. His Mongolian language material became the basis for his controversial word list entitled: Párhuzam a magyar és mongol nyelv terén. Madsar Monghol khojor khele adalitkhakho bicsik [Magyar mongol két nyelvet egyenlítő irat], Budapest, Hornyánszky Victor 1877. [Hungarian-Mongolian language parallels]. The list of Hungarian-Mongolian parallels was sharply criticised by Lajos Ligeti.

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4 Ligeti also mentioned that Bálint himself later reviewed his suggestions

4

3 and after visiting new territories (as a member of the Széchenyi

4

6 and later the Zichy

4 expeditions) and mastering more languages, he presumed that there were contacts between Hungarian and other languages, too. Nonetheless the present publication has another aim and does not wish to review his views on language affinity. Concerning the folklore texts, Bálint and some of his successors in Mongolian studies published only a few sample texts from this extraordinarily rich and valuable material. He added five Kalmyk songs to his Report,

4

S published three songs from the Khalkha collection,

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9 and a mocking tale (he called it anecdote).

3" Lajos Gyula Nagy transcribed one of Bálint's Kalmyk tales (utu tüP) on the basis of Ramstedt's system

3' and translated it.

5

9 Kara published two folksongs (one from the Khalkha, the other from the Kalmyk collection) as sample texts to his article devoted to Bálint's manuscripts.

5

3 4

3"... a legalább JVi - 8 nyomott ívre terjedhető nyugati és keleti mongol gyűjteményem az Akadémia által kivánt átírással rövid időn készen lesz sajtó alá." [... my collection of Western and Eastern Mongolian [texts] estimated to extend IV2 — 8 printing sheets will be ready for publication within a short time], Bálint' letter to the secretary general (between 1865-1879) of the Academy, János Arany, the famous Hungarian poet, who wrote epigrams to Gábor Bálint; cf. György: Op. cit. pp. 19, 20; Zágoni: Op. cit. p. 7. 4

4 Ligeti, Lajos: Mongolos jövevényszavaink kérdése. In; Nyelvtudományi Közlemények. XLIX. (1935) pp. 190-271. Republished: Ligeti, Lajos: A magyar nyelv török kapcsolatai és ami körülöttük van. I. (Budapest Oriental Reprints. Series A 1.) Ed. Edmund Schütz - Éva Apor. Budapest, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára - Körösi Csorna Társaság 1977. pp. 202-283. [The problem of the Mongolic loanwords in Hungarian. In: Linguistic Proceedings] on pp. 202-203. Some of Bálint's ideas appear with plenty of data, source material and references in Ligeti's major work devoted to the Turkic elements in Hungarian: Ligeti, Lajos: A magyar nyelv török kapcsolatai a honfoglalás előtt és az Árpád-korban. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 1986. [The Turkic contacts of Hungarian before the conquest and during the Árpád Dynasty], 4

5 Ligeti: Mongolos jövevényszavaink kérdése, p. 202. 4

6 Count Béla Széchenyi (1837-1908) organised an expedition to investigate the geography and the languages of India, Japan and South-East Asia (1877-1878) and he asked the polyglot Gábor Bálint to be the linguist and also the translator of the expedition. The geographer Lajos Lóczy and the topographer Gusztáv Kreitner also belonged to the expedition. It is a wellknown fact that Bálint left the expedition earlier and it caused problems to the team. On the basis of his Tamil studies, carried out in the frame of the expedition, he tried to find connections between Hungarian (and other "Turanian" languages) and Tamil. About his bibliography concerning the Tamil language: Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei, p 7. 4

7 Count Jenő Zichy (1837-1906) organised three expeditions (1895, 1896, 1897-1898). The first two expeditions investigated the Caucasus and the third one led through Russia and Siberia to Inner-Asia. Bálint accompanied him on his first expedition. Cf. Zágoni: Szentkatolnai Bálint Gábor, Válogatott írások, p. 15. 4

8 Bálint Gábor jelentése, (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.). 4

9 Bálint, Gábor: Mutatvány a mongol népköltészetből. In: Ethnographia. II. (1891) pp. 138-141. [Specimens of the Mongolian folk poetry] on pp. 140-141. 5

0 Bálint, Gábor: Mongolische Anekdoten. Aus dem Volksmunde aufgezeichnet und mitgeteilt von Gabr. Bálint de Szt.-Katolna. In: Ethnologische Mitteilungen aus Ungarn. IV. (1895) pp. 70-71. Cited also by Laufer, Berthold: Skizze der mongolischen Literatur. (Keleti Szemle VIII.) 1907. pp. 12-261, on p. 247; Cf. Kara: O neizdannyh mongol'skih tekstah G. Balinta. p. 163. 5

1 Cf. Ramstedt's dictionary: Ramstedt, Gustaf John: Kalmückisches Wörterbuch. Helsinki 1935 (reprinted: Helsinki, SuomalaisUgrilainen Seura 1976). 5

2 Nagy: Op. cit. pp. 324-327. 5

3 Kara: O neizdannyh mongol'skih tekstah G. Balinta. pp. 163-164. Four folk songs recorded by Bálint have been translated or newly translated and published in the collection of the Mongolian literature. Kara, György: A mongol irodalom kistükre. XVI