Horse Coat Colors: Investigating Yakut and Mongolian Lexical Parallels

The article aims to identify some phonostructural and lexical-semantic features of the Yakut-Mongolian lexical parallels denoting horse coat colors. It is known that the horse is a sacred animal in the Yakut and Mongolian cultures and, therefore, horse breeding terminology is elaborate and rich enough in both the languages. The study of words denoting horse coat colors, thus, would facilitate revealing some questions of the historical development of the Yakut language. In furtherance of this goal, the paper applies several research methods of, the main ones being those involving component and distributive analysis. The component analysis was used to reveal lexical-semantic features of such parallels. The lexemes were divided into three groups, namely: a) those characterized by stability of the lexical meaning of the word; b) those with a partial coincidence of the lexical meaning of the word; c) those featured by a noticeable change in the lexical meaning of the word. The distributive analysis showed the phonostructural features of adjectives denoting horse coat colors, and also revealed ethnocultural differences and similarities. As a result of the study, 13 Yakut-Mongolian parallels have been discovered. As is known, there are about 200 horse coat colors, and to distinguish between them different nations use their complex adjectives. Therefore, the revealed Yakut-Mongolian parallels are divided into 2 categories: one-component (9) and two-component (4). The analysis of the structural type of one-component lexical parallels concluded that 4 out of 9 parallels were subjected to structural changes. Of the 5 parallels with absolute structural coincidences there are three Yakut stems — saalir, buulur, kyreng — that are most probably late borrowings from the Mongolian language. This assumption is based on the criterion developed by professor V. I. Rassadin. The component analysis has shown that preservation of the stability of lexical meanings is noted in 31 % (4) of the parallels, some slight lexical changes occurred in 39 % (5), and notable lexical changes — in 31 % (4). The investigation of lexical meanings and phonetic structures of the borrowed stems in the Yakut language leads to a consistent conclusion that the Mongolian tribes from which the Yakuts had borrowed a large number of horse and cattle breeding, haymaking terms — had mastered livestock breeding activities much earlier than the Yakut people.

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