Toponyms in the Kalmyk folklore

Abstract

The article analyses the toponyms of Kalmykia as they appear in Kalmyk folklore, where many of the phonetic, morphological and lexical features of the Kalmyk language has been preserved - the ones that slipped out of active use by contemporary native speakers. This can help shed a new light on the history of the Kalmyk language, and underscore the need for its further preservation and development. The article examines the materials collected by the authors during the expeditions in search of folklore, ethnographic and linguistic material in Kalmykia during 2012-2017. We also focus on the text of the heroic epic'Djangar', tales, songs, legends, ritual texts, samples of everyday speech, phraseological units and special vocabulary. Also included are popular interpretations of placenames, which reflected the Kalmyks' views on clan movements, cult places, and special features of the inhabiting areas. The toponyms are not only the names of the territory of their modern residence, but also the names of the locations associated with Altai, which is the historical ancestral homeland of the Kalmyks, the space between the Volga and the Urals (in the period of the Kalmyk Khanate), the foothills of the North Caucasus. There are folklore samples containing the name of the mythical Sumeru mountain. Micro-toponyms and their derivatives, known by a limited group of people, are used in small genres of folklore. Ethnotoponyms are typical for magtal-ura (a kind of praise), an original genre of Kalmyk folklore. Place names and terms of geography harmoniously appear in Kalmyk proverbs, which reflect a wide variety of orientation in space. There are many lexical units referring to the fauna of the steppe area. In this case, toponyms with the names of plants and animals often have a grammatical component, which is the suffix of possession (-ta). Colors play an important role in describing and distinguishing geographical objects. Toponyms may also contain numerals with a specific meaning: three, five, six, seven, twenty, one hundred, etc., mostly denoting the number of wells. Folklore toponyms are the richest and most unique material that is important for further study of the toponymical system of Kalmykia and the regions of Central Asia.