Noun Cases in the Language of the Sino-Mongol Glossary Dada Yu/Beilu Yiyu from the Late Ming Period
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NOUN CASES IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE SINO-MONGOL GLOSSARY DADA YU/BEILU YIYU FROM THE LATE MING PERIOD PAVEL RYKIn InSTITUTE FOR LInGUISTIC STUDIES, RUSSIAn ACADEMY OF SCIEnCES Abstract The paper deals with the noun case system of the Dada yu/Beilu yiyu, a little known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 and 1603. Of seven grammatical cases commonly distinguished in Proto-Mongolic, only four are attested in the Mongol language material of the glossary: nominative (the unmarked basic stem), genitive, accusative, and dative. The forms, functions and grammatical meanings of these cases are thoroughly discussed in the paper. Some features may be considered to be linguistic archaisms, e.g. formal coincidence of the accusative marker +i with one of the morphonological allomorphs of the genitive, or the variant ending +in ~ +Un used after consonant stems. However, there are a number of clearly innovative devel- opments, such as the dative ending shape +DU < *+DU/r. In addition, some idiosyncratic features of the glossary can be distinguished as well, e.g. no overt morphosyntactic marking on the dependent in possessive phrases. A conclusion can be made that the case system of the language variety as attested in the Dada yu/Beilu yiyu may have reflected a transitional stage between Middle Mongol and Modern Mongolian. 1. InTRODUCTIOn (Nikiforidou 1991: 159-164), (Lander 2009: 581), (Plung- jan 2011: 174, 238-239). By contrast, the accusative and The Dada yu/Beilu yiyu (further DDY/BLYY) is a the dative endings are found in a few scattered examples poorly known Sino-Mongol glossary dated between 1567 which do not allow their distribution and semantic func- and 1603 and falling into a category of Sino-Mongol tions to be fully characterized. vocabularies from the late Ming period, which have been intensively studied especially over the last decade, see e.g. (Apatóczky 2009), (Apatóczky 2016), (U Čing Quwa 2. NOMInATIVE 2013), (Wuyungaowa 2014), (Bürgüd 2015), (Bürgüd 2017), (Rykin 2016a). A number of linguistic features As in all Mongolic languages, the nominative has no found in this glossary have already been described in my overt morphological expression in the DDY/BLYY and previous publications (Rykin 2012a–b), (Rykin 2013), coincides with the basic nominal stem. In sentences, it (Rykin 2014), (Rykin 2015), (Rykin 2016b), and now a performs the syntactic functions of subject (1), direct critical edition of the monument is being prepared by me. object (2), predicative (nominal part of a predicate) in The present paper will concentrate on the noun case sys- copular constructions (3a) or with zero copula (3b), tem as represented in the DDY/BLYY, a topic which has dependent (possessor) noun in possessive phrases (4). not yet been dealt with in the scholarly literature and thus deserves special attention. (1) χura or-nam (rain enter-nPST.PROG) ‘it rains’ [4]1 It is commonly assumed that there were seven noun mündür oro-[ba] (hail enter-PST.FC) ‘it started hailing’ cases in Proto-Mongolic: nominative (the unmarked basic [18] χ stem) and six suffixally marked oblique cases: genitive, sara ar-ba (moon come.out-PST.FC) ‘the moon has risen’ [8] accusative, dative, ablative, instrumental, and comitative teŋgeri ari[l]-ba (sky clear.up-PST.FC) ‘the sky has (Poppe 1955: 185-187), (Janhunen 2003a: 13). Only four cleared up’ [22] of them are attested in the Mongol language material of the üde bol-bo (noon become-PST.FC) ‘it is noon’ [31] glossary: nominative, genitive, accusative, and dative. Apart from the nominative, the most frequently occurring case is the genitive, a basic adnominal case whose core 1 Here and elsewhere the figures in square brackets refer to the function is the expression of various possessive relations entry numbers in a critical edition of the glossary prepared by us. Journal Asiatique 306.2 (2018): 229-234 doi: 10.2143/JA.306.2.3285613 230 PAVEL RYKIN (2) a. ger üǰe-Ø (house see-IMP) ‘look after the house’ (DOM) commonly present in the Mongolic languages, [654] where all direct objects can be either marked with the mini üge sonas-Ø (1SG.GEn word listen-IMP) ‘listen to accusative case ending or have an unmarked (= nomina- my words’ [660] tive case) form. The choice between two types of object mori bari-[l]ǰa-Ø (horse catch-SOC-IMP) ‘catch the marking depends primarily on such feature as definite- horse’ [658] ness (definite vs. indefinite), with the secondary role üker-ün e[b]čeü e[s]ke-ǰi ire-Ø (ox-GEn chest cut-CVB. IPFV come-IMP) ‘slice the beef brisket’ [392] played by some other factors, most notably specificity b. miχa a[b]čira-Ø bi ide-sü (meat bring-IMP 1SG eat-OPT) (specific vs. non-specific), topicality (topicalized vs. ‘bring [me] meat and let me eat [it]’ [400] non-topicalized), and animacy (animate vs. inanimate) budā a[b]čira-Ø ire-Ø ide-sü (porridge bring-IMP (Guntsetseg 2008), (Guntsetseg 2009), (Guntsetseg 2016: come-IMP eat-OPT) ‘bring [me] porridge, come [here] 68-134), (Konošenko 2009). However, since the accusa- and let [me] eat [it]’ [402] tive markers are extremely rare in the DDY/BLYY (see seriwün šira usu a[b]čira bi ū-[su] (cool yellow water Section 4), the unmarked form can refer both to the defi- bring-IMP 1SG drink-OPT) ‘bring [me] cool tea and let nite/specific objects (2a) that require accusative marking me drink [it]’ [403] in Modern Mongolic, and, more expectedly, to what (3) a. ene ödür χala’un bol-ba (this day hot become-PST.FC) seems to be indefinite/non-specific contexts (2b). ‘it is hot today’ [173] teŋgeri küitön bol-bo (weather cold become-PST.FC) ‘the weather has turned cold’ [167] 3. GEnITIVE teŋgeri sayin bol-bo (weather good become-PST.FC) ‘the weather has improved’ [170] The genitive has the following allomorphs in the lan- b. ene ödür küitön (this day cold) ‘it is cold today’ [172] guage of the glossary: χ (4) arātu mi a (water.deer meat) ‘water deer venison’ –– +in ~ +Un after stem-final liquids /r l/ (6) [386] –– +yin after stem-final vowels and diphthongs aula toloχai (mountain peak) ‘peak of a mountain’ [63] (7) buγu miχa (deer meat) ‘venison’ [393] –– +i after stem-final /n/ (8) čino arasu (wolf skin) ‘wolfskin’ [290] χalau miχa (goose meat) ‘goose meat’ [394] (6) Genitive marker +in ~ +Un χoni ūča (sheep sacrum) ‘posterior part of a sheep’s a. After stem-final /r/ back’ [399] ger-in nurū (house-GEn beam) ‘house beam’ [91] kitoχa bariul (knife handle) ‘handle of a knife’ [479] ger-in uni (house-GEn rafter) ‘house rafter’ [92] mori miχa (horse meat) ‘horse meat’ [380, 397] üker-ün e[b]čeü (ox-GEn chest) ‘beef brisket’ [398] takia miχa (chicken meat) ‘chicken meat’ [395] üker-ün miχa (ox-GEn meat) ‘beef’ [392] taulai miχa (hare meat) ‘hare meat’ [396] b. After stem-final /l/ üker miχa (ox meat) ‘beef’ [379] übül-in γawun (winter-GEn melon) ‘winter melon, wax gourd’ [422] Special attention should be paid to the examples given in (4) where we would expect the dependent nouns to be (7) Genitive marker +yin marked by the genitive case which is obligatory in a. After stem-final vowels γ χ inalienable possession constructions in both Middle bu u-yin mi a (deer-GEn meat) ‘venison’ [381] ǰida-yin toloγai (spear-GEn head) ‘spearhead’ [471] Mongol and the Modern Mongolic languages (Pjurbeev kitoχa-yin qui (knife-GEn sheath) ‘knife sheath’ [483] 1993: 24-26). The absence of morphological marking of süke-yin caiǰa (hatchet-GEn fort) ‘Jinglu Fort 靖虜堡’, the possessor in (4) thus constitutes an idiosyncratic fea- lit. ‘Hatchet Fort’ [354] ture of the Mongol idiom as attested in the DDY/BLYY. b. After stem-final diphthongs It is noteworthy that in some contexts the zero-marked taulai-yin bȫrö (hare-GEn kidney) ‘chestnut’, lit. ‘hare possessor (5a) appears to be in free variation with the kidney’ [410] genitive-marked one (5b). taulai-yin miχa (hare-GEn meat) ‘hare meat’ [385] (5) a. χoni miχa kerči-ǰi ire-Ø (sheep meat chop-CVB.IPFV (8) Genitive marker +i come-IMP) ‘slice the mutton’ [391] dūlχan-i *ʨi[beg]ǰin (helmet-GEn earmuffs/visor) ‘hel- b. üker-ün miχa kerči-ǰi ire-Ø (ox-GEn meat chop-CVB. met earmuffs or visor [?]’ [438] IPFV come-IMP) ‘slice the beef’ [392] χalaun-i miχa (goose-GEn meat) ‘goose meat’ [382] kö[b]čin-i kečir (bowstring-GEn ends.of.a.bow) It should also be noted that the language of the glossary ‘notches at the ends of the bow limbs to which the does not have any traces of differential object marking bowstring is attached’ [?] [450] NOUN CASES IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE SINO-MONGOL GLOSSARY DADA YU/BEILU YIYU FROM THE LATE MING PERIOD 231 noγosun-i miχa (duck-GEn meat) ‘duck meat’ [384] b. numun-i helike (bow-GEn belly) ‘belly (inside bend) of numun-i te[b]ke (bow-GEn bone.knob.on.the.bow-tip. a bow’ [449] for.the.bowstring) ‘bone knob on the bow-tip for the numun-i kö[b]či (bow-GEn bowstring) ‘bowstring’ bowstring’ [451] [447] sumun-i hödü (arrow-GEn feather) ‘arrow feathers’ numun-i tašūr (bow-GEn whip) ‘whip end (thin or [469] weak tip) of a bow’ [446] takian-i miχa (chicken-GEn meat) ‘chicken meat’ [383] Most of the genitive constructions found in the glos- Genitives formed from the stems ending in conso- sary (19 out of 24 occurrences) are used to express nants other than /r l n/ are unattested in the DDY/BLYY, inalienable possession, more specifically part-whole rela- but according to Mongolic comparative data they should tions, cf.