The Dialectal Correspondence e → ö in Kalmyk: Evidence from Historical Lexicography

Introduction. The dialectal correspondence e → ö, an archaic feature tracing back to the Proto-Mongolic state, has been preserved in modern Kalmyk dialects, primarily in the Buzava dialect, and is of significant interest for reconstructing historical phonetics and understanding the paths of dialectal differentiation. This paper aims to identify, systematize, and conduct a diachronic analysis of examples of this correspondence’s realization using extensive material from lexicographical sources from the second half of the 18th to the early 20th century. Materials. The study provides a detailed analysis of ten lexicographical sources of Old Kalmyk, including an anonymous Russian-Kalmyk dictionary from the second half of the 18th century, Cornelius Rahmn’s Kalmyk-Swedish dictionary, and the dictionaries of V. Diligensky, H. Zwick, K. Golstunsky, N. Lyvovsky, A. Pozdneev, etc. Particular attention is paid to the dictionaries containing phonetic transcription, which allows insights into the actual pronunciation, not just the orthographic norm. 
Results. It has been established that the e → ö correspondence was widespread but dialectally conditioned. It is most consistently represented in the materials reflecting the Derbet and Buzava dialects (the dictionaries of C. Rahmn, V. Diligensky, N. Lyvovsky, and the anonymous dictionary from the “Don Diocesan Gazette”), while its traces are minimal in Torgout sources. The analysis revealed both archaic instances of the correspondence, descending from Proto-Mongolic *e, and innovative ones, where [ö] corresponds to Proto-Mongolic *ö. It is shown that at the turn of the 20th century, a gradual unification of the orthographic norm occurred in favor of the spelling with [ö] for the most frequent lexemes. The conducted research makes a substantial contribution to the historical dialectology of the Kalmyk language, demonstrating the value of lexicographical sources for reconstructing history of the language and confirming the close connections between the western dialects of Kalmyk and Buryat.

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