The Khalkha Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk Languages: Common Clothes and Footwear Denoting Lexis

Abstract

The article deals with the lexis denoting pieces of clothing and footwear in the major Mongolic languages, such as Khalkha, Buryat, and Kalmyk. The research into the historical background and semantics of the lexis in question has shown that the basic notions, e.g. qubčasun ‘clothes’, debel ‘traditional Mongolian garment’, γutul ‘boots’, terlig ‘summer robe’, etc., are common for most of the Mongolic languages. However, semantics of these lexical units may vary, because native speakers of every Mongolic language have had contacts with different nationalities, and, for instance, inhabitants of Inner Mongolia are more likely to use Chinese loanwords for a wider range of things than Khalkha, Buryat or Kalmyk speakers. Thus, in Inner Mongolia the word dašinǰa (< chin. 大裙子dà qúnzi, literally ‘big skirt’) refers to all kinds of 'long clothes without lining', including doctor’s white coats, while in Khalkha the word даашинз is reserved mainly for the items resembling Chinese and European-style dresses. For bathrobes, dressing gowns and white coats, Khalka speakers use the Russian borrowing халат/ халад/ халаад. A similar situation can be observed in Kalmyk - the Kalmyks and Oirats have their typical бишмүд (< turk. *bäšmät ‘long frockcoat’), along with девл, which, unlike Khalkha дээл, denotes mostly items resembling fur coats. The semantic field of the Khalkha дээл, sometimes meaning even ‘clothes’, is much wider. As for the boots, Mongols have numerous footwear types - for men, women, children, lamas, and shamans - but, speaking about the most common one, Khalkha and Buryat speakers denote it with the word гутал ‘boots’ (<*gutul), while Kalmyks prefer to use the word hосн (<*gutusun) with the same meaning. These two words have the same root, which, probably meant ‘hide from wild animal legs’. In Khalka and Buryat the both words are used - the word гутал denotes the traditional Mongolian boots, whereas the Khalkha годос and Buryat годоhон denote ‘high fur boots, mukluks’. In Kalmyk, the word гутал is not used; they use the word hосн as a common term denoting the most widely spread traditional Kalmyk footwear. The reason is, probably, that traditional Oirat and Kalmyk boots had more resemblance to the ancient footwear made of soft hide from a wild animal’s legs.