Kalmyk Wordbook by J. H. Klaproth: A Grapho-Phonetic Analysis of the Graphemes a and ä

Introduction. The dictionaries compiled by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century travelers and missionaries are of particular importance for the study of the then living Kalmyk speech. Works authored by those travelers — including J. H. Klaproth — essentially contribute to the recording and study of Kalmyk, provide valuable insights into phonetic processes and language structures at large. Goals. The article attempts an analysis of grapho-phonetic features inherent to the vowels а and ä in Kalmyk words (and wordbooks) recorded from the Olot on the Volga and in Dzungaria by the German researcher Julius Heinrich von Klaproth. Materials. The study focuses on J. H. Klaproth’s word list contained in his Asia Polyglotta (1831) and republished by Gerhard Dörfer in Ältere Westeuropäische Quellen zür Kalmückischen Sprachgeschichte (1965). The to be analyzed wordbook in the form of a MS Excel table supplemented with modern Kalmyk spelling patterns and Russian translations was uploaded onto the LingvoDoc platform for subsequent investigation. Results. Our analysis of the graphemes a and ä in J. H. Klaproth’s wordbook resumes the vocabulary of Dzungaria’s Olots is closer to Proto-Mongolian forms, since it preserves those patterns that had undergone changes in the dialect spoken by Olots on the Volga. The vocabulary of Dzungaria’s Olots is characterized by that the law of vowel harmony is observed in most cases, though a number of isolated deviations from the norm can still be traced. Lexemes with the analyzed graphemes reflect both regular and innovative processes in the dialects, which indicates two separate dialects in the Oirat language used to co-exist, the latter be relatively close to each other but distinguished by specific features that generally distance them from modern Kalmyk dialects. Some design attributes attest to J. H. Klaproth devoted more time to the dialect of Dzungaria’s Olots, which is manifested in detailed stress marks and somewhat complete list of lexemes included, despite many of the latter are present in modern Kalmyk.

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