Kalmyk Official Letters of the 18th Century: Social Position-Related Naming Units and Their Equivalents in Russian Translations

Linguists consider the ability to reflect historical events of society to be a specific feature of socio-political vocabulary. Socio-political vocabulary is basically studied in synchronous perspectives, through the use of dictionaries and journalistic texts. Insights into the functioning of socio-political vocabulary in different languages (including Kalmyk) are historically promising: analysis of socio-political vocabulary in diachrony helps identify stages of formation and transformation of the lexical cluster within a particular language depending on changes in a particular society. Social position-related naming units align with the group of socio-political vocabulary referred to as ‘vocabulary denoting social classes’ but are not identical to the latter, since the social position implies not only social status as such but also respective social roles. Goals. The article seeks to analyze functioning patterns of the mentioned lexical cluster in 18th-century Kalmyk official letters and in Russian translations of the same period. Materials. The work examines 28 letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuki and their Russian translations housed by the National Archives of Kalmykia. All the texts date to the year 1714. The investigated Kalmyk written sources contain a total of five social position-related naming units, such as 1) xa:n (transliteration) / хан (modern Kalmyk spelling); 2)yeke caya:n xa:n / ик qahaH хан; 3) kinas / кинас; 4) bayar / баяр; 5) elci / элч. In Russian 18tll-century translations, the indicated lexemes correspond to seven units of the same cluster, namely: 1) хан (‘khan’); 2) Великий Государь (‘Great Sovereign’); 3) князь (‘prince’); 4) боярин (‘boyar’); 5) комендант (‘commandant’); 6) губернатор (‘governor’); 7) посыльщик / посыльный (‘messenger’). Conclusions. The analysis of functioning patterns of the lexemes traced in the letters of Khan Ayuki and their Russian translations reveals certain ethno-linguistic trends in the use of the vocabulary by the addressant and Russian translators. Social position-related naming units used in the Kalmyk and Russian texts illustrate the 18th-century official correspondence practices, and can reflect the actual course and circumstances of socio-political relations between Peter the Great’s Russia and the Kalmyk Khanate.

1. [National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia].

2. Shipova E. N. [Turkisms in the Russian Language: a Dictionary]. Alma-Ata: Nauka, 1976. 444 p. (In Russ.)

3. Aleeva G. U. [Socio-Political Vocabulary of the Tatar Language]. A Cand. Sc. (philology) thesis abstract. Kazan, 2009. 29 р. (In Russ.)

4. Alekseev A. A. Excerpts from the history of socio-political vocabulary: Peter the Great’s era. In: [The 18th Century]. Coll. papers. Vol. 9. 1974. Pр. 313–317. (In Russ.)

5. Bachaeva S. E. [Socio-Political Vocabulary of Modern Kalmyk]. Elista: Dzhangar, 2012. 253 р. (In Russ.)

6. Gedeeva D. B. [The Oirat Written Language of the 17th-18th Centuries: Legal Vocabulary]. A Cand. Sc. (philology) thesis abstract. Moscow, 1999. 18 p. (In Russ.)

7. Gedeeva D. B. The judicial oath in Kalmyk legal proceedings: 17th-18th centuries. In: [The Turko-Mongols: Issues of Ethnic History and Culture]. Coll. papers. Vol. 5. 2018. Pр. 70–75. (In Russ.)

8. Gedeeva D. B. The language of Kalmyk official writing of the 17th–19th centuries: an ethno-linguistic study. In: [Annual Scientific Readings of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences – VIII]. Elista, 2019. Рр. 93–96. (In Russ.)

9. Gedeeva D. B. The word bičiq in the language of official Kalmyk writing: 18th–19th centuries. Oriental Studies (Bulletin of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanitarian Studies of the RAS). 2018. No. 5 (39). Рр. 145–151. (In Russ.)

10. Kolesov V. V. [The World of Man in the Word of Ancient Russia]. Leningrad: Leningrad State University, 1986. 312 p. (In Russ.)

11. Olyadykova L. B. Yeke tsahaan khan formula as a linguistic feature of khan Ayuki and his contemporaries’ letters (in 1714–1723). Vestnik of Kalmyk University. 2012. No. 4 (16). Рр. 84–89. (In Russ.)

12. Resutova E. I. The history of studying the issue of socio-political vocabulary in Russian and Turkic linguistics. Questions of Crimean Tatar Philology, History and Culture. 2017. No. 4. Pр. 43–47. (In Russ.)

13. Suseeva D. A. Borrowings from Russian and other languages in the Kalmyk language of the 18th century revisited. In: [Russian Speech in a Non-Russian Environment]. Vol. 3. 2006. Рр. 53–58. (In Russ.)