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

[Kazan Tatar texts and translation: Dictionary of Kazan Tatar: Grammar of Kazan Tatar (Phonology, morphology, syntax)]. Bálint's two volumes, the Texts and the Dictionary were re-edited in a critical edition as part of the series Keleti Tanulmányok - Oriental Studies of the Oriental Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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4 Some necessary corrections, German translation of the texts, and plenty of notes were added to the reprint edition by Árpád Berta. FIELDWORK AMONG THE MONGOLS THE KALMYK MATERIAL Bálint started his Kalmyk studies already in Kazan with Mirotvorcov,

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5 a teacher of Mongolian languages. As Bálint noted, they used the Kalmyk grammar of A. A. Bobrovnikov published in 1849 (Bobrovnikov, A. A.: Grammatika mongol'skogo-kalmyckago jazyka. Kazan', Universitetskaja Tipografija 1849).

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6 Bálint mentioned that he collected a certain amount of Kalmyk texts already in Kazan, but it has either disappeared or it constitutes part of the Kalmyk chrestomathy collected in Astrakhan and kept now in the Academy (the title and shelf number cf. above). This problem might be solved on the basis of a careful study of the whole Kalmyk text corpus. "After living two and a half months in Kazan I mastered the spoken Kalmyk tongue so that I speak and write in it. After hearing I collected words, folk tales, folk songs, riddles, materials representing the purest folk tongue for a little Chrestomathy."

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7 The fieldwork method tested among the Tatars in Kazan was used by him among the Kalmyks as well; he looked for a school where he was able to find teachers of the language and also students from various parts of the country, to master various dialects. The centre of his researches in Astrakhan was the "Kalmyk foster home and school" (he named it in Hungarian "Khalymik növelde és iskola"). "As the Christian Tatar School in Kazan, so the Kalmyk foster home and school - which is supported by the Kalmyk nation - was a lucky choice for me. To hear the seventy-five young Kalmyks from various tribes every day and to talk to them continuously was the best method to study their folk tongue."

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8 In fact he mentioned twice in the Preface to the Grammar that a "stationary field work" among the shepherds in their yurts is a desired method of collecting linguistic and folklore material. Working with the teachers and schoolboys for a shorter period, however, seemed to be similarly as successful: "I am convinced that, had I lived under the tents of the Oirat- (Öiräd)-Mongolians - so call 1

4 Berta: Op. cit. 1

5 [Bálint Gábor levele Fogarasi Jánoshoz 1871. szeptember 2 ] In: Akadémiai Értesítő V. (1871) pp. 241-244. [Gábor Bálint's letter to János Fogarasi 2. September 1871. In: Proceedings of the Academy] p 242 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.). 1

6 Cf. [Bálint, Gábor]: Jelentés a: Akadémiához. In: Akadémiai Értesítő. V. (1871) pp 244-245. [Report to the Academy. In: Proceedings of the Academy] on p. 244 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.)-, quoted by Nagy as well: Op. cit. p. 312. 1

7 "1 harmadfél hónapi Kazánba [sic!] lételem alatt magamévá tettem a kalmik népnyelvet annyira, hogy rajta beszélek és irok [sic!]; gyűjtöttem [sic!] egy kis Chrestomathiára való anyagot, mely áll tulajdon hallomásom után följegyzett szók, népmesék, népdalok és talányokból, a lehető tiszta népnyelven." Jelentés az akadémiához, pp. 244-245 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.). Nagy tried to solve this problem and came to the conclusion that these texts have been lost and the remaining material represents only the Kalmyk dialects in Astrakhan. Nagy: Op. cit. p. 312, note 11. 1

8 "Valamint Kazánban a keresztyén tatár iskola, úgy Asztrakhánban is a khalymik növelde és iskola, mely a khalymikság költségén tartatik fon [sic!], nagy szerencsémre szolgált, mert a különféle törzsből összegyűjtött [sic!] 75 fiatal khalymikot naponkét hallani s velők folytonosan társalogni, a lehető legjobb mód volt tanulmányozhatnom a nép nyelvét." In: Bálint Gábor jelentése, p. 10 (cf. Kara: Bálint Gábor keleti levelei.)-, Preface to the Grammar, p. III (in present book p. 4). XII