Lexis Denoting Some Traditional Meat, Flour and Vegetable Products in the Khalkha Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk Languages

The article analyzes lexis denoting traditional foods and products of the Mongolian peoples – Khalkha-Mongols, Buryats and Kalmyks. Meat cooking methods include cooking in water (Kh.-Mong. chansan makh, Bur. shanaγan myakhan, Kalm. chansn makhn), frying (Kh.-Mong. sharsan makh, Bur. sharaγan myakhan, Kalm. sharsn makhn), sun-drying (Kh.-Mong. borts, Bur. borso, Kalm. borts ‘air-dried stripes of meat’), roasting (Kh.-Mong. boodog,  khoorkhog, Kalm. kür). In addition, the Mongolian peoples cook and  consume animal innards (organ meats), such as heart (Kh.-Mong.  zürkh, Bur. zürkhen, Kalm. zürkn), liver (Kh.-Mong. eleg, Bur. elgen,  Kalm. elkn), lungs (Kh.-Mong. uushgi, Bur. uushkha, Kalm. ooshk),  kidney (Kh.-Mong. bӧӧr, Bur. bӧӧre, Kalm. bӧӧr), etc. Flour  foods include steamed dumplings (Kh.-Mong. buuz, Bur. buuza; the distinct feature of a similar Kalmyk dish bӧrg is that dumplings are  boiled), fried hand-held pies (Kh.-Mong. khuushuur, Bur. sharbin), flour porridge (Bur. salamat / zӧӧkhei kaasha, Kalm. bulmg), oil- fried fl atbread (Kh.-Mong., Bur. boov, Kalm. boortsg), etc. Plant- based dishes containing vegetables, fruits and roots of wild plants  may vary and depend on surrounding conditions. The conducted  analysis allowed to identify both the common Mongolian terms that  exist in all the Mongolic languages and local ones characteristic of separate groups of Mongolic languages and corresponding peoples  that live in identical geographical and climatic conditions and follow similar ways of economic and cultural life, e.g. Khalkha- Mongols, Eastern and Southern Buryats. Furthermore, the paper  identifi es a number of specifi c denotations that exist in separate  Mongolic languages. Such terms can be found in the languages of all the three peoples considered (and their subdivisions) — Khalkha- Mongolian, Buryat (both the western and eastern dialects), Kalmyk.  The differences signify that the traditional ethnic diet of Mongolian peoples started taking shape quite a long time ago, i.e. during the  common Mongolian period when the ethnic groups co-existed, and  kept developing all the way through the subsequent centuries.

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