Kalmyk Household Vocabulary in 18th-Century Official Texts: A Case Study of Khan Ayuka’s Letters and Their Russian Translations

Introduction. Being an important stratum of the vocabulary of any language that conveys ethnolinguistic specifics of texts, household vocabulary attracts attention of linguists. Khan Ayuka’s letters to Astrakhan Chief Commandant M. I. Chirikov are traditionally referred to as samples of the 18th-century Kalmyk official epistolary genre. The lexical composition of the examined texts is characterized by diversity since the latter contain essentially different types of vocabulary (military terms, titles, anthroponyms, toponyms, etc.). Goals. The article seeks to analyze the functioning of household vocabulary in Khan Ayuka’s letters in comparison to synchronic Russian translations. The 18th-century sources comprise historical/lexicological materials and provide an opportunity to clarify if there is a correspondence between the use of household vocabulary — and genre/stylistic and substantial features traced in source and translated texts. Methods and Materials. The paper investigates Khan Ayuka’s letters dated to 1714 and simultaneous Russian translations stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. The research primarily employs contextual analysis and the descriptive, comparative methods. The involved texts were transliterated, adapted (from Old to Modern Kalmyk), and translated (literally) into Russian by D. B. Gedeeva. Results. The analysis reveals peculiarities that characterize a particular fragment within early 18th-century Kalmyk and Russian vocabularies. So, the source texts contain not only common Mongolic lexemes but also Russian loanwords. There is a correspondence between the use of household vocabulary and the implied intentions: household vocabulary is used to articulate the request / demand to deliver a certain part of the annual salary which was not limited to money. Thus, acting as enumerative elements, household vocabulary units emerge in a periphery of the vast sociopolitical lexicon. Unlike texts with imperative subgenres, informative letters confirming receipt of the submitted objects are more precise: such messages routinely use words that denote measures of weight or volume paired with cardinal numerals. Besides, there are examples confirming a dependence between a token used — and the described situation and essence of the request. Our comparison of household vocabulary units chosen by translators as equivalents explicitly delineates the ethnolinguistic specifics inherent to Kalmyk official letters and their synchronous Russian translations.

household vocabulary, 18th-century Kalmyk official letters, Russian translations, products, drinks, measures of weight, zoonyms

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