Explication of Mongolian parallels in relevant Yakut concepts

Abstract

The Yakut language belongs to the Uyghur group of Turkic languages. It has a special place among the Turkic languages due to its archaic nature and unique characteristics of vocabulary and grammar. It is distinct from related Turkic languages by abundance of Mongolian parallels also. Yakut-Mongolian relations are diachronically divided into earliest Yakut-Mongolian and later Yakut-MiddleMongolian contacts (not before 12th-13th centuries and not later than 15th or even 16th century). Phonetically, most Mongolian parallels in Yakut retain features of the medieval Mongolian language. This body of Yakut vocabulary is generally believed to be Mongolian loanwords. The issue of the origin of borrowing is still open as most Mongolian loanwords in Yakut are neutral towards modern Mongolian languages. Their parallels are found and shared by all Mongolian languages. However, some scholars note a number of Yakut-Buryat parallels. The purpose of the study is to find relevant concepts in dialect vocabulary of the Yakut language with Mongolian parallels. The analysis of explication of parallels from Mongolic languages in relevant Yakut concepts has not been studied before. The explanatory principle finds its specific meaning when comparing dialects of the modern Yakut language with parallels in Mongolic languages since interrelation of Turkic and Mongolic studies allows finding various explanations and providing each of them rational content. In the present paper, we have restricted ourselves to nouns functioning in Yakut dialect vocabulary. First of all, these are proper dialect words not present in the literary Yakut language. Preliminary observations show that it is dialect vocabulary that incorporates interesting original Mongolian parallels. Yakut dialect nouns with Mongolian parallels were classified according to semantic features into three groups: 1) Nature; 2) Living things; 3) Abstract notions. Each lexeme is provided by parallels from written Mongolian and modern Mongolian languages. In terms of lexico-semantic characteristics of Mongolian parallels, nouns in Yakut dialect vocabulary fall into three large terminological groups: names of various local landforms, names of instruments and terms of fishing. A great number of names of landforms and instruments are found in the North-Eastern groups of dialects, with the Kolyma patois standing out in bout categories. Terms for fishing are most abundant in the Vilui group of patois. The least number of Mongolian parallels is observed in the Central group of dialects; the reason is that the Yakut literary language is based on the Central dialect zone. Keywords–Yakut language, Mongolian Parallels, Concept, Yakut dialect vocabulary, Yakut-Mongolian relations