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.

KALMYK VERNACULAR AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE

visited - to write sample texts on behalf of and to various persons, such as son to parents, father to son, brother to brother. Being an educated lawyer,

1" he also included among his texts official submissions on the topic of inheritance and the frequently emerging matter of stealing livestock, besides the personal letters.

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4 "Following the tales [I recorded] proverbs, riddles and samples of letters and official documents.

1,

3 Concerning these last ones I [should] mention that the Kalmyks turn with their frequent complaints to the leadership and government always in writing and in both the Russian and Kalmyk languages quoting the particular titles and articles of the highest edicts issued to them with the skilfulness of a lawyer. In fact the Kalmyks like to take legal action."

13

6 Bálint included three letters in the sample texts of the Grammar that only partly tally with the unpublished Kalmyk letters of the Manuscript. His translations issued only in the Grammar (with some additional notes), not incorporated in the Manuscript

, are represented in the chapter Addendum

, along with folk songs missing from the Kalmyk Manuscript as well. Four texts of the Manuscript follow below. Concerning the previously issued publications on Kalmyk epistolography, two bulky monographs devoted to corpuses of Kalmyk correspondence (one from the mid 18

t

h century

1" and the other from the beginning of the 19"' century)

1'

8 and some articles dealing with particular letters are at my disposal.

1'

9 The connection of the corpuses and some further stylistic conclusions are outlined at the end of the present chapter devoted to some problems of Kalmyk epistolography. g TO [MY] VERY BENEVOLENT MOTHER AND FATHER 'Íj (Bálint Aciyeketä éji ab a xoyortu, Kalm. Ac ikt ej äw xoyrt) 14

0 tri § [172] I was so happy getting the letter sent by post

14

1 to learn that all of you live in peace and calm without any trouble thanks to the benevolent Buddha's protection, and receiving the ten Rubbles. It was as if a poor man had found an inexhaustible treasury mine.

14

2 As for me, I also live without any 13

3 Cf. his biography and all the bibliographical references in Grammar pp. X-XI. 13

4 Cf. the texts "On the Taking an Oath among the Kalmyks and the Horse Racing. Wrestling. Stealing. '

3 In Grammar Bálint calls this corpus "Writs". 13

6 "A mesék után jöttek a példabeszédek, a talányok, levelek és ügyiratokból való mutatványok, a mely utóbbiak alkalmából mcgemlitem, hogy a khálymikok gyakori panaszukat mindig Írásban és pedig khálymik és orosz nyelven szokták a főnökséghez és igazgatósághoz fölterjeszteni, egész ügyvédes ügyességgel idézvén a számukra kibocsátott legfelsőbb rendeletek illető czimét és pontját, a khálymikok általában perlekedni eskedni nagyon szeretnek." Bálint: Jelentése, p. 12. 13

7 Gedejeva, D. B : Pis'ma namestnika Kalmyckogo Hanstva Ubasi (XVIII. v.). Elista, Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Kalmyckij Institut Gumanitarnyh Issledovanij 2004. 13

8 Krueger, John R. - Service, Robert G.: Kalmyk Old-Script Documents of Isaac Jacob Schmidt 1800-1810. Todo Biciq Texts. Transcription. Translation from the Moravian Archives at Herrnhut. (Asiatische Forschungen 143) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 2002. The general introduction to the letter collection in Berlin: Krueger, John R. - Rozyczki, William - Service, Robert G.: An Oiratscript Collection of Letters in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. In: ZAS 29. (1999) pp 109-136. 13

9 Krueger, John R. - Rozycki, William - Service, Robert G.: Two Kalmyk letters requesting free passage. In: Mongolian Studies. XXI. (1998) pp. 43^47; Krueger, John R - Rozycki, William - Service, Robert G. Two Oirat-script letters of German authorship. Zentralasiatische Studien 25. (1995) pp 116-130: Krueger - Rozyczki - Service: An Oirat-script Collection of Letters. 14

0 Manuscript pp. 172-173, Kalm. Ac iktä éj äw xoyrt: a letter entitled similarly in the Grammar (pp. 199-200) differs from this text, cf. Addendum. 14

1 Bálint postarar biciksen bicigäsü, Kalm. postär bicsn bicgés, lit. "by the letter the letter written by post", the form postarar is probably misspelling of post + -är (instrumental) 14

2 Bálint üryan sang. cf. Kalm ürxä, urxä "Grube zum Aufbewahren, Proviantkeller" (R. 454), ürxa "kopy, rudnik, priiski; istoénik, naőalo; ürxan sang neisierpaemoje bogatstvo. sokroviäöe" (Mun 542). Khal. ürxai "mine" (Bawden 392). On the Buddhist notion of this phenomenon: Bakajeva, E. P.: Legenda ob Uurxan sang burxane: k probleme etniieskoj specifiki kalmyckogo buddhizma In: Buddijskaja tradicija v Kalmykii v XX veke. Pamjati O. M. Dordiijeva (Tugmjud-gawdzi) 1887-1980. Elista, KIGI RAN 2008. pp 13-25. 32