Birtalan Ágnes: Kalmyk Folklore and Folk Culture in the Mid-19th Century: Philological Studies on the Basis of Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s Kalmyk Texts.

INTRODUCTION

in addition to Mirotvortsev's

1" instruction Bálint used the Kalmyk grammar of A. A. Bobrovnikov published in 1849 to master basic Kalmyk and

2" although he did not mention it, he was also definitely acquainted with A. Popov's Kalmyk grammar, published in Kazan, which preceded Bobrovnikov's and is still a good reference book.

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1 Popov also emphasised that he utilised idiomatic speech in formulating is grammatical description ("Vse primery, privedjonnyje mnoju dlja objasnenija izlozennyh pravil, poCerpal ja ili iz luőSih kalmyckih soőenenij ili iz 2ivoj narodnoj redi.")

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2 during his 1838 field work among Kalmyks living in various areas "... predprinjal puteäestvije v kalmyckije stepi Saratovskoj i Astrahnaskoj gubernij i Kavkazskoj oblasti".

2' Thus, Popov's longer sample texts are taken from written sources and the samples of the oral tradition are limited to the shorter examples. In his Grammar Bálint only refers to Bobrovnikov's work and not at all to Popov. It is certain, however, that the structure of discussing particular morphs, the construction of nominal declensional paradigms of his predecessors were followed by Bálint.

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4 Both Popov and Bobrovnikov laid emphasis on involving spoken material into his grammar, too: cf. "skol'ko vozmozno glubze izuőit' kalmyckij jazyk v leksiőeskom i grammatiőeskom otnoäenijah, vyjasnit' razliőija mezdu pis'mennym i razgovomym, mongol'skim i kalmyckim jazykami."

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5 Bálint mentioned that besides learning vernacular Kalmyk, he recorded some folklore texts already in Kazan: "After living two and a half months in Kazan I mastered the spoken Kalmyk tongue so that I spoke and wrote in it. After listening I collected words, folk tales, folk songs, riddles, materials representing the purest folk tongue for a little Chrestomathy."

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6 The fate of this collection is unknown. Lajos Gy. Nagy examined this problem in his introduction to Bálint's Kalmyk material and decided that the present Manuscript did not contain the Kazan-material. Nagy came to the conclusion that the texts had been lost and the remaining material represented only the Kalmyk dialects in Astrakhan. 2

7 Unfortunately, Bálint gave no further data on his research activity concerning Kalmyk in Kazan and nothing is known about the informants he worked with there (except for Mirotvorcev). A careful study of the texts reveals that the language usage in the Manuscript is uniform, showing only minor diversity resulting from the utterances of informants from differing geographical areas The possibility that some texts in the Manuscript were recorded already prior to his stay in Astrakhan during his stay in Kazan - where Kalmyks from across their country and representing all dialects could be encountered - still cannot be excluded. However, it can be inferred from Bálint's notes that parts of the texts are only from Astrakhan; he wrote that all of his fifteen tales had been recorded from " Uspenskij published a brief biography and some of the main works of Vasilij Vasilevii Mirotvorcev (1838-1891): He graduated from Spiritual Academy at Saint Petersburg University and in addition he took exams in subjects of Mongolian and Kalmyk studies taught at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. From 1869 he became the teacher of Mongolian and Kalmyk languages at Kazan Spiritual Academy. In 1870 - just before Bálint's arrival - he was appointed to become extraordinary professor at the Department of Missionary (Russ. Kafedra missionerskih predmetov) and in 1881 to inspector of the Kazan Spiritual Academy. Uspenskij: Mongolovedenije v Kazanskoj Duhovnoj Akademii. p. 1

2-13. 2,

1 Bobrovnikov, A A.: Grammatika mongol'skogo-kalmyckago jazyka. Kazan', Universitetskaja Tipografija 1849. Cf. |

Fíálint:] Jelentés a: Akadémiához, on p. 244 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei ): quoted by Lajos Gy. Nagy as well: Nagy, Louis J : G. Bálint's Journey to the Mongols and his Unedited Kalmuck Texts. In: AOHIX. (1959) pp. 311-327, on p. 312. 2

1 Popov, A.: Grammatika kalmyckogojazyka. Kazan', Universitetskaja Tipografija 1847. 2

2 Popov: Grammatika kalmyckogo jazyka. p. IX. 2

1 Popov: Grammatika kalmyckogo jazyka. p. III. 2

> Grammar, pp XXII-XXIII. 2

5 Uspenskij: Mongolovedenije v Kazanskoj Duhovnoj Akademii. p. 1

2. He succeeded to spend thirty-three days among the Kalmyks in 1846. In order to finish his grammar he brought a young orphan lad from Kalmykia to check his material. During the writing process significant help was given to him from the leading scholar of the period Dorii Banzarov (1822-1855). 1 harmadfél hónapi Kazánba lételem alatt magamévá tettem a kalmik népnyelvet annyira, hogy rajta beszélek és irok; gyűjtöttem egy kis Chrestomathiára való anyagot, mely áll tulajdon hallomásom után följegyzett szók, népmesék, népdalok és talányokból, a lehető tiszta népnyelven." [Bálint:] Jelentés az Akadémiához, pp. 244-245 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei ). 2

7 Nagy: G. Bálint 's Journey to the Mongols, p. 312, note 11. 1 1