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 Grammar

The descriptive Grammar follows a traditional linguistic division: phonology, morphology and syntax. In the chapter on phonology Bálint emphasises the differences between writing and pronunciation, and discusses the phonemes in various positions and the permutation of phonemic structures of the spoken languages versus the written languages (both Uigur-Mongolian and the modified "Clear script" of the Oirat and Kalmyk).

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3 Phonology (Bálint: "Fonology") is mentioned also in Mongolian düdülxuin uxän (by Bálint dődolkhoin ukháríf

4 - today merely awia jüi (Khalkha). The chapter dealing with the sounds of Mongolian language includes the enumeration of short and long vowels, diphthongs and consonants of the spoken Kalmyk and Khalkha languages. Both among the vowels and the consonants, Bálint includes some allophones beside true phonemes, which can be explained sometimes with the effect of the written language or, in other cases, with the endeavour to be more precise. There is also a sound zM, which is mentioned here, but does not occur in either Kalmyk or Khalkha. This probably comes from Bálint's Buryat studies, since he mentions Buryat parallels in the Grammar at other places, too. Common differences and correspondences between Kalmyk and Khalkha soimds are discussed, and although Bálint notes that some sounds are pronounced differently by Kalmyk and Khalkha speakers, he does not indicate this difference in his transcription (e. g. in the case of ö and ti, where the Khalkha pronunciation is shifted back in comparison with Kalmyk). Although Bálint sometimes describes even minor allophonic variations in the pronunciation of some sounds in different circumstances (especially in the case of diphthongs), he does not mention such characteristic features as aspiration (except /O and the opposition of aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Since the Uigur-Mongolian and Oirat scripts were the only ones used to write Mongolian in Bálint's time, he describes both alphabets in his grammar, but in contrast with other grammars he gives the letters' value as they are pronounced in the spoken languages. It is interesting that he often cites examples from the Manchu script, which is derived from Uigur-Mongolian, but was not used in common practice to write the Mongolian language (except Daur. but it is far away from the topic of the present Grammar). The correspondence between short vowels of written and spoken languages is discussed in more detail (at least in comparison w ith consonants), and Bálint gives an explanation and several examples for each short vowel. Bálint's transcription sometimes reflects the influence of the written languages. It is probably most evident in Kalmyk texts, but can also be traced in Eastern Mongolian texts. It is also admitted by the author to some extent, at least in the case of reduced vowels and some diphthongs. This effect is clearly visible in the transcription of the letter b of the Mongolian script, which is always transcribed as b in the Grammar, while it often sounds as w in spoken idioms. Although Bálint mentions this pronunciation, he consistently writes b in his transcription, which cannot be taken as an effort to indicate the b phoneme instead of its allophones, since he distinguishes several allophones in other cases. Besides the sounds, Bálint discusses some common phenomena that occur in Mongolian, such as labial attraction, metathesis and reduction of short vowels in non-first syllables (Bálint: "apocope"), and he also deals with stress (Bálint: "accent"). 8

3 On the Clear script and Written Oirat cf. Rákos, Attila: Written Oirat. (Languages of the World 418 ). München, LINCOM 2002. 8

1 Occasionally Bálint indicated the Mongolian grammatical terms as well; it could be a topic of a farther study to collect and analyse his Mongolian terminology and its relation to the terms of traditional Mongolian grammars. XXII