The Buryat language is multi-dialectal. The differences between dialects are largely related to the ethnic divisions of their speakers. The speakers of each group of dialects make up a specific ethnic group - Khorin, Tsongol, Sartul, Khamnigan, Khongodor, Ekhirit and Bulagat. But this is not absolute, since a considerable period (centuries) of interaction between Mongol-speaking ethnic groups - representatives of different tribal associations in the same or adjacent territory could not but affect their language.

Despite the obviousness of such dialectal differentiation of the modern Buryat language, some dialectologists still, probably due to tradition, continue to adhere to the so-called territorial principle of division into western, eastern and southern dialectal groups. This classification of Buryat dialects, firstly, is not terminologically accurate, and secondly, the factual material itself contradicts this. For example, one of the most eastern (geographically) dialects, Barguzinsky, belongs to the Western dialect group.

With this division of the Buryat dialects, the Barguzin and Tunkin dialects appear in one group, which differ both genetically and linguistically, not to mention the purely territorial unification of two large and independent dialect arrays: the Alar and Ekhirit-Bulagat dialects. The speakers of these dialects are not related either by origin or by language. Genetically, the Alar Buryats belong to the Khongodor tribal association, while the genealogy of the Ekhirits and Bulagats extends from the ancient Mongolian tribes of the Ikires and Bulgachins. The most typical phonetic isoglosses for Mongolian languages ​​are the type ž ↔ j and their lexicalization: alar. ž argal- ehirit.-bulag. jargal"happiness", alar. žƐ l- ehirit.-bulag. jel"year", alar. ž ada- ehi-rit.-bulag. jada"spear", etc. do not provide grounds for combining them into one dialect group. Even geographically, the speakers of the Ekhirit-Bulagat and Alar dialects are significantly distant from each other. Until recent years (before the formation of a single autonomous region), they had almost no contacts of any kind; they were separated by the wayward Angara. The Alar Buryats had closer ties with the Tunkin Buryats rather than with the Ekhirits and Bulagats.

This was noted by the outstanding figure of Buryat culture and science Ts. Zhamtsarano, who recorded folklore precisely in the above-mentioned regions of ethnic Buryatia.

Thus, the division of this large Buryat-speaking massif, not entirely justifiably classified as one Western Buryat dialect, into two independent dialect groups will be justified both historically and linguistically. Therefore, the dialects of the Tunkin, Zakamensky, Barguzin and Baikal-Kudarin Buryats, which were previously classified either as some artificially invented intermediate dialects, or purely geographically as the Baikal-Sayan dialects, or were simply mechanically combined with Western -Buryat dialects.

Now the Ekhirit-Bulagat dialect naturally includes the dialects of the Barguzin and Baikal-Kudarin Buryats, and the dialects of the Alar, Tunkinsky, Okinsky, Zakamensky Buryats, according to all their inherent linguistic and, to some extent, territorial criteria, constitute an independent dialect group, which is most appropriately called Alar- Tunkin dialect. The unconditional inclusion of the Unga Buryat dialect in this dialect group just a few decades ago was very problematic. However, at present, thanks to intensive contacts in recent years, associated mainly with external factors of a socio-economic nature, it is already possible to classify the Unginsky dialect as belonging to the Alaro-Tunka dialect group.

The Alar dialect itself is not limited to the current administrative boundaries; it extends to several Buryat villages in the Ziminsky and Ust-Udinsky districts, forming a unique Alar dialect Koine.

The Alar dialect has significant internal differences. They were not recorded at one time by N. Poppe, since his work “Alar dialect” is the result of observations made during the summer of 1928 in only one village. Elzetuye, as the author himself writes. Description of the phonetic features of the dialect p. Elzetuy is given to them in detail, with reasonable generalizations. However, such large and unique areas with the Buryat population as Alyat, Zone, Shapshaltuy, Nelkhay, Baltuy, Kuyty, not to mention the villages of the Ungin Buryats, remained outside the field of view of the researcher.

The expedition of the Department of Linguistics of the Institute of Biology and Technology SB RAS in 1962 covered all areas populated by Buryats. In the “report on the work of the Alar-Unga detachment” it is noted that the dialect of the Unga Buryats is only lexically different from the dialect of the Alar Buryats themselves. The dialect of the Buryats living in the former region has serious internal differences. First of all, the Nelkhai bush stands apart, which includes, in addition to the village itself. Nelkhay, uluses Bakhtai, Kha-dahan, Undur Huang, Abkhayta, Zangei and Kundulun. What is striking is that the inhabitants of these villages use the middle language fricative sonant j at the beginning of words instead of the fricative softened voiced consonant ž, used in the language of other Alar and Unga Buryats. One of the characteristic features is that in the conversation with. Baltuy, located 15 km southeast of the village. Nelkhay, just like in the Baikal-Kudarin dialect, there is a consistent replacement of the common Buryat dialect h at the beginning of a word with a fricative X. The dialect of the Nelkhai Buryats is close to the Bulagat dialect.

To get a complete picture of the dialect differentiation of the Buryat-speaking territory of the western part of the Irkutsk region, one should also say about the dialect of the Nizhneudinsk Buryats. Based on the research of G.D. Sanzheeva, D.A. Darbeeva, V.I. Rassadin, as well as on the expedition materials of the employees of the Department of Linguistics of IMBiT, we can confidently conclude that the separation of the language of the Nizhneudin Buryats into a special dialect is beyond doubt. It should be noted that this dialect was spoken not only by the population of the villages of Kushun and Muntu-Bulak, that is, the Nizhneudinsk Buryats themselves, but also by the population of the villages of Kukshinai and Podsochka in the Tulun region. It is with regret that we have to admit that recently this talk has actually become confined to one village, Kushun, Irkutsk region.

The largest dialect layer in the Buryat-speaking territory of the Irkutsk region is occupied by the Ekhirit-Bulagat dialect, which includes fairly independent dialects of the Idin and Osinsky, as well as Saigut and Kitoi Buryats, which have not yet lost contact with the Idin and Bulagat (Bulagats living in the Irkutsk region) Buryats. The Ekhirits and Bulagats, living compactly in the Ekhirit-Bulagat, Bayandaevsky, Kachug regions, have long formed a kind of koine, based on the most common Ekhirit dialect in this territory, which absorbed the features of the Bulagat dialects common in the current Ekhirit-Bulagat administrative region.

The language of the Olkhon Buryats differs little from the Ekhirit-Bulagat dialect. True, Ts.B. Tsydendambaev clarifies this in a very unique way: “... the language of the Buryats living along the northern coast, west of the village of Kurma, and on the island, is basically the same as the language of the Baikal-Kudarin Buryats... The language of the Buryats living in the more eastern part northern coast of Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island, strongly resembles the language of the Barguzin Buryats... We can already talk, firstly, about the inclusion of the villages of Kacherikovo, Onguryony and Zama in the territory of the Barguzin dialect, and secondly, about the separation of the Olkhon-Kudarin dialect" (from the report ).

The combination of the above-mentioned dialects on such a platform is being expressed for the first time. If the existence of the Olkhon-Kudarin local dialect is quite acceptable, then the unification of the Barguzin dialect with the dialect of the Olkhon people living in the eastern villages of the northern coast of Lake Baikal is very problematic, since there is not and has not been constant contact between them. But it is indisputable that these related dialects have not yet lost their linguistic unity with the indigenous Ekhirit dialect and, accordingly, with each other.

The Ekhirit-Bulagat dialects are noticeably different from each other, but according to a number of significant phonetic features they are combined into one dialect. Moreover, this adverb is quite close in its grammatical structure and other features to the Khorin dialects. It is no coincidence, as mentioned above, Ts. Zhamtsarano, noted that the dialect of the Ekhirits and Bulagats is closer to the Khori-Buryat than to the dialect of the Alar and part of the Balagan Buryats.

One of the characteristic features of this group of dialects in the field of phonetics is yokanye, that is, where in the literary language and some other dialects in Anlaut ž is pronounced, in Ekhirit-Bulagat dialects j is pronounced. For example: lit. ž abar"khius" (wind) - ehirit.-bulag. jabar. lit. ž alga"valley" - ekhirit.-bulag. jalga. lit. ž ada"spear" - ehirit.-bulag. jada, etc.

In the eastern part of the Buryat-speaking territory, the predominant place is occupied by the vast region of the Khorinsky dialect itself, which formed the basis of the literary Buryat language. Speakers of the Khora dialect also numerically significantly predominate over representatives of other dialect subdivisions of the Buryat language. The Khorin people themselves are representatives of 11 Khorin clans living in the Republic of Buryatia and the Chita region. The Khorinsky dialect is the largest dialect subdivision of the Buryat language, which includes the Khorinsky dialect itself, widespread in the territory of the current three large administrative regions of the Republic of Buryatia: Eravninsky, Khorinsky and Kizhinginsky. In this part, the Khora dialect forms a kind of Koine, taken as the basis for literary pronunciation. This dialect also includes the Aginsky dialect, widespread in the Chita region (with the exception of the dialect of the Onon Khamnigans), the Tugnui dialect, the main feature of which is the phonetic sign of okanya. This pronunciation feature extends over a fairly vast territory, reaching in the east to Doda-Gol along the Uda, to Oybontuy along the river. Courbet. In Kodun and Kizhinga, only sporadic fishing has been observed. The Mukhorshibirs and Zaigraevites are completely surrounded. The Ocaña strip runs along the valleys of the Tugnuya and Kurba rivers and the middle reaches of the river. Ouds.

A noticeable phonetic peculiarity of the Khorin dialect itself, which distinguishes it both from other dialects and from the literary language, is the softened pronunciation of consonants in words such as Ɛ rdƐ m"the science", xƐl` iŋ "tongue" instead Ɛ rdƐ m, xƐ lƐ n with the same meanings in other dialects. The latest standards have been adopted in the literary language. Or, for example, words based on a soft r`, such as mor" iŋ “horse”, ϋr`i “debt” in the joint case in the Khorin dialect take the form: mor" t"Ɛ: ϋ rit"Ɛ: instead of mor" itoe: ϋ r" itƐ : in other dialects and literary languages.

Vowels ɵ, y exist in the Khorin dialect, but they are not independent phonemes, but are only allophones of the same phoneme. Adjacent to the Khorin dialect are the dialects of the Ivolga and North Selenga (or Near Selenga) Buryats, which in their origin belong mainly to the Bulagat and partly Ekhirit clans. It must be assumed that the linguistic assimilation of the Ekhirit-Bulagat Buryats, who settled over a fairly vast territory along the Selenga valley, is associated with direct and constant linguistic contact with speakers of the Khorin dialect. Perhaps the influence of the Buryat literary language, which was based on the same Khorinsky dialect (school education, print, radio and television), played a significant role here. This assimilation process was undoubtedly accompanied by a religious factor. Nevertheless, the main cause-and-effect factor in the transition of the Ekhirits and Bulagats to the Khorin speech norm is live language contact, which was not the case between the speakers of the Barguzin dialect and the Khorin people, between the Khorin people and the Baikal-Kudarin people. The Barguzin and Baikal-Kudarin Buryats lived to some extent in isolation from the main population of the region - the Khorin Buryats. Even smaller linguistic branches retain their primary appearance when isolated from other related linguistic communities. For example, the westernmost “outpost” of the Buryat-speaking area - the dialect of the Nizhneudin Buryats remains an independent isolated dialect. As mentioned above, now it is actually saved, only in one s. Kushun. The opposite picture is presented by the linguistic evolution of the Olkhon and Baikal-Kudarin Buryats, who settled among the indigenous Khorin people in the Eravninsky and Kizhinginsky regions of Buryatia. Olkhon settlers who settled near the village. The Mozhaikas, although they live compactly, already speak the literary Buryat language. And the Baikal-Kudarin Buryats from several coastal villages that were affected by a natural disaster (the Baikal failure) moved to the Kizhinginsky district and, despite a relatively short period of time, already speak the Khorin dialect.

In the dialectological literature, the dialect of Tsongols and Sartuls, widespread in the southern part of ethnic Buryatia, is called differently: southern, Tsongolo-Sartul, Tsokal, etc. Probably, each name reflects the essence of the problem in its own way. Indeed, representatives of this dialect are relatively recent immigrants from Mongolia (late 17th - early 18th centuries) and have not yet lost the features of the Mongolian language. The use of affricates is still preserved; instead of the common Buryat pharyngeal sound h, the strong spirant s is pronounced, etc.

Recently, the dialect of the Onon Khamnigans, scattered throughout the Kyrensky, Duldurginsky, Akshinsky, Mogotuysky, Shilkinsky and Karymsky districts of the Chita region, has also been included in this group of dialects. If in terms of language there really are a number of unifying points between the Tsongols, Sartul and Khamnigan dialects, then in all other respects the Khamnigans have nothing in common with the Tsongols and Sartuls. There are various hypotheses regarding the origin of hamnigan. Some believe that the current Khamnigans come from Inner Mongolia and are of Mongolian origin (Damdinov. 1993. P. 28); others believe that they are of Tungus origin, linguistically assimilated with the Mongols (Tsydendambaev. 1979. P. 155).

In territorial terms, the Tsongols and Sartuls are close to each other, occupying adjacent regions, but the Khamnigans are significantly distant from them and do not have and never had any contacts with them.

One way or another, these dialects have been in direct interaction with adjacent Buryat dialects over the last 200-300 years. From the point of view of phonetic characteristics, they can be classified as the Buryat language only conditionally. True, a significant period of interaction between these dialects and the Buryat dialects left noticeable traces in them. Currently, these dialects represent a transitional type between the Mongolian and Buryat languages.

The composition of phonemes in tsaka dialects and other Buryat dialects does not coincide. In all three dialects (Tsongol, Sartul and Khamnigan), affricates are widely used t"š. d"ž, ts, dz, pharyngeal is not used h, a dull strong stop sound is used To, which in the Khamnigan dialect acts as an independent phoneme, and in other dialects the sound To occurs much less frequently and acts as an optional variant of the phoneme X.

However, when classifying Buryat dialects, it is more expedient to abandon the artificial attribution of the dialect of the Onon Khamnigans to the Tsongolo-Sartul dialect group, leaving it as an independent isolated dialect in the eastern part of the Buryat dialect area, similar to how in the westernmost part of the Buryat-speaking territory the isolated Lower Udin dialect remained on its own .

The results of the analysis of various classification systems of Buryat dialects proposed by leading Mongolian linguists over the past decades show that the Buryat language is currently divided into four dialect groups.

The first - the Khorinsky group of dialects, or the Khorinsky dialect, consists of the Khorinsky dialect itself, Aginsky, Tugnuisky (or Tugnui-Khiloksky), North Selenginsky (or Near Selenginsky) dialects.

The second is the Ekhirit-Bulagat dialect. These are the Ekhirit-Bulagat dialect itself, the Bokhan and Olkhon dialects, as well as the dialects of the Barguzin and Baikal-Kudarin Buryats.

The third is the Alaro-Tunka dialect. This includes the Alar dialect, the Tunkino-Oka and Zakamensky dialects, as well as the dialect of the Unga Buryats.

The fourth is the Tsongolo-Sartul dialect, consisting of two dialects: Tsongolo and Sartul.

The dialect of the Lower Udinsk Buryats, which remained on the westernmost outskirts of the Buryat-speaking territory, as well as the dialect of the Onon Khamnigans in the Chita region, do not fit into this clear dialect system of the modern Buryat language. They are included in the classification system of dialects of the Buryat language as independent isolated dialects, not related to any of the dialects listed above, distributed among four dialect groups.

Mongolian branch Northern Mongolian group Central Mongolian subgroup Writing: Language codes GOST 7.75–97: ISO 639-1: ISO 639-2: ISO 639-3:

bua - Buryat (general)
bxr - Buryat (Russia)
bxu - Buryat (China)
bxm - Buryat (Mongolia)

See also: Project: Linguistics

Buryat language (Buryat-Mongolian language, self-name Buryaad-Mongol Helen, from 1956 - Stormy Helen) - the language of the Buryats and some other peoples of the Mongolian group. One of the two (together with Russian) state languages ​​of the Republic of Buryatia.

About the name

Previously called Buryat-Mongolian language. After the renaming of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1923) into the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1956), the language received the name Buryat.

Classification issues

Belongs to the Northern Mongolian group of Mongolian languages.

Linguogeography

Range and numbers

The Buryats inhabit the taiga and subtaiga belt of northern Mongolia along the Russian border in Dornod, Khentii, Selenge and Khuvsgel aimaks, and the Barguts inhabit the Hulun Buir Prefecture of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northeastern China (some sources classify the Bargut language as a dialect of the Mongolian language).

The total number of speakers of the Buryat language is about 283 thousand people (2010), including in Russia - 218,557 (2010, census), in China approx. 18 thousand, in Mongolia 46 thousand.

Sociolinguistic information

The Buryat language performs the functions of communication in all spheres of everyday speech. Fiction (original and translated), socio-political, educational and scientific literature, republican (“Buryaad Unen”) and regional newspapers are published in literary Buryat, opera and drama theatres, radio and television operate. In the Republic of Buryatia, in all spheres of linguistic activity, the Buryat and Russian languages ​​functionally coexist, which have been the state languages ​​since 1990, since the bulk of the Buryats are bilingual. The Charter of the Trans-Baikal Territory establishes that “in the territory of the Aginsky Buryat Okrug, along with the state language, the Buryat language can be used.” The Charter of the Irkutsk Region establishes that “state authorities of the Irkutsk Region create conditions for the preservation and development of languages, cultures and other components of the national identity of the Buryat people and other peoples traditionally living in the territory of the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug.”

Dialects

Dialects are distinguished:

The Nizhneudinsky and Onon-Khamnigan dialects stand apart.

The principle of differentiation of dialects is based primarily on differences in vocabulary, partly in phonetics. There are no significant differences in morphology that prevent mutual understanding among speakers of different dialects.

The Western and Eastern dialects represent the earliest and long-established dialect groups that had different written traditions. The boundaries of their distribution are quite clear. These dialects were influenced by different cultural traditions, which was reflected primarily in their lexical composition.

The southern dialect, being of later origin, was formed as a result of the mixing of Buryat and Khalkha-Mongolian clans. The latter settled among the eastern Buryats in the 17th century.

Writing

From the end of the 17th century. classical Mongolian writing was used in office work and religious practice. Language of the late XVII-XIX centuries. conventionally called the Old Buryat literary and written language. One of the first major literary monuments is “Travel Notes” by Damba-Darzha Zayagiin (1768).

Before the revolution, Western Buryats used the Russian written language; they were not familiar with the classical Mongolian language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first attempts were made to create a Buryat writing system based on the Latin alphabet. Thus, in 1910, B.B. Baradin published the brochure “Buriaad zonoi uran eugeiin deeji” ( Excerpts from Buryat folk literature), which used the Latin alphabet (without letters f, k, q, v, w) .

In 1926, the organized scientific development of the Buryat Latinized writing began. In 1929, the draft of the Buryat alphabet was ready. It contained the following letters: A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ә ә, Ɔ ɔ, G g, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p , R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Y y, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, H h, F f, V v. However, this project was not approved. In February 1930, a new version of the Latinized alphabet was approved. It contained letters of the standard Latin alphabet (except h, q, x), digraphs ch, sh, zh, as well as the letter ө . But in January 1931, its modified version, unified with other alphabets of the peoples of the USSR, was officially adopted.

Buryat alphabet 1931-1939 :

A a	B b	C c	Ç ç	D d	E e	F f	G g
H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m	Nn	O o
Ө ө	P p	R r	Ss	Ş ş	T t	U u	Vv
X x	Y y	Z z	Ƶ ƶ	b

In 1939, the Latinized alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet with the addition of three special letters ( Ү ү, Ө ө, Һ һ ).

Modern Buryat alphabet:

A a	B b	In in	G g	D d	Her	Her	F
Z z	And and	Thy	K k	L l	Mm	N n	Oh oh
Ө ө	P p	R r	With with	T t	U y	Ү ү	F f
X x	Һ һ	Ts ts	H h	Sh sh	sch sch	Kommersant	s s
b b	Uh uh	Yu Yu	I I

The Buryats changed the literary base of their written language three times in order to get closer to the living spoken language. Finally, in 1936, the Khorinsky dialect of the eastern dialect, close and accessible to most speakers, was chosen as the basis of the literary language at a linguistic conference in Ulan-Ude.

Wikipedia in Buryat language

History of the language

The history of the Buryat language is traditionally divided into two periods: pre-revolutionary and Soviet, which characterize fundamental changes in the social functions of the written language, due to a change in social formation.

Influence of other languages

Long-term contacts with Russians and mass bilingualism of the Buryats influenced the Buryat language. In phonetics, this is associated with the sound appearance of Russianisms, Sovietisms, internationalisms, which entered the literary Buryat language (especially its written form) while preserving the sound structure of the source language.

Along with new words, the sounds [v], [f], [ts], [ch], [sch], [k], which were absent in the phonological system of the literary Buryat language and introduced something completely new into the sound organization of the word, penetrated into the borrowing language. to the norm of compatibility of vowels and consonants. Consonants began to be used in Anlaut r, l, p, which were not used at the beginning of the original words. Consonant P found in Anlaut of figurative words and borrowings, but early borrowings with Anlaut P were replaced by a consonant b like “pud/bud”, “coat/boltoo”.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonetics and phonology

In the modern literary language there are 27 consonants, 13 vowel phonemes, and four diphthongs.

The phonetics of the Buryat language is characterized by synharmonism - palatal and labial (labial). Softened shades of hard phonemes are used only in words of a soft series, unsoftened shades of hard phonemes are used in words with hard vocalism, that is, synharmony of consonants of a phonetic nature is observed.

In some dialects there are phonemes k, ts, ch. The phonemes v, f, ts, ch, shch, k in the literary language are used only in borrowed words. The articulation of these consonants is mastered mainly by the bilingual population.

Morphology

The Buryat language belongs to the languages ​​of the agglutinative type. However, there are also elements of analyticism, the phenomenon of fusion, and various types of doubling of words with a change in their morphological appearance. Some grammatical categories are expressed analytically (with the help of postpositions, auxiliary verbs and particles).

Name

In the 1st person plural. Among personal pronouns, there are differences between inclusive (bide, bidener/bidened) and exclusive (maanar/maanuud). Exclusive form of the 1st person plural pronoun. numbers are rarely used.

• Singular
  • 1 l. -m, -mni, -ni: aham, ahamni (my brother), garni (my hand)
  • 2 l. -sh, -shni: akhash, akhashni (your brother), garshni (your hand)
  • 3 l. -ny, -yn (yin): akhan (his brother), garyn (his hand)
• Plural
  • 1 l. -mnay, -nay: akhamnay (our brother), kolkhoznay (our collective farm)
  • 2 l. -tnay: akhatnay (your brother), kolkhoztnay (your collective farm)
  • 3 l. -ny, -yn (yin): akhanuudyn (their brothers), kolkhozudyn (their collective farms)

Particles of personal attraction are added to all case forms of names. Impersonal attraction indicates the general belonging of the object and is formalized by the particle “aa”, attached to various stems of names in the form of indirect cases.

Adjective

Syntax

• Buryat-Mongolian-Russian dictionary / Comp. K. M. Cheremisov; Ed. Ts. B. Tsydendambaeva. - M.: State. Publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1951.
• K. M. Cheremisov. Buryat-Russian dictionary. - M.: Sov. encyclopedia, 1973. - 804 p.
• Russian-Buryat-Mongolian dictionary / Ed. Ts. B. Tsydendambaeva. - M.: State. Publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1954. - 750 p.
• Shagdarov L. D., Ochirov N. A. Russian-Buryat dictionary. - Ulan-Ude: Buryaad unen, 2008. - 904 p.

Links

State and official languages ​​in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation
State language of the Russian Federation	Russian
Languages ​​of the federal subjects	Abaza Avar Agul Adyghe Azerbaijani Altai Bashkir Buryat Dargin Ingush Kabardino-Circassian Kalmyk Karachay-Balkar Komi Kumyk Lak Lezgin Nogai Mari Moksha Ossetian Rutul Tabasaran Tatar Tat Tuvan Udmurt Khakass Tsakhur Chechen Chuvash Erzya Yakut
Languages ​​with official status	Vepsian Dolgan Kazakh Karelian Komi-Permyak Mansi Nenets Selkup Finnish Khanty Chukchi Evenki Even Yukaghir

Mongolian languages
Northern Mongolian group	Old written Mongolian: Buryat † Middle Mongolian † modern literary language of Inner Mongolia (China) Western Mongolian subgroup: literary Oirat Kalmyk Oirat dialects of China and Mongolia Central Mongolian subgroup: Buryat Mongolian (dialects, Ordos, Khalkha-Mongolian) Khamnigan
South Mongolian group	Bao'an-Dongxiang subgroup: Bao'an Dongxiang Kanjia Mongolian (Tu, Shirongol-Mongolian) subgroup: Minghe Huzu

Writing: Language codes GOST 7.75–97:

ISO 639-1:

ISO 639-2:

ISO 639-3:

bua - Buryat (general)
bxr - Buryat (Russia)
bxu - Buryat (China)
bxm - Buryat (Mongolia)

See also: Project: Linguistics

Buryat language (Also Buryat-Mongolian language( - yrs.), Bargu-Buryat dialect of the Mongolian language self-name Stormy Helen listen)) - the language of the Buryats and Barguts. One of two, along with Russian, state languages ​​of the Republic of Buryatia.

Classification issues

Belongs to the northern group of Mongolian languages. The modern literary Buryat language was formed on the basis of the Khorin dialect.

Linguogeography

Range and numbers

In Russia, the Buryat language is widespread in Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Irkutsk region.

In Northern Mongolia, Buryats inhabit the taiga and subtaiga zone along the Russian border in the aimags of Dornod, Khentii, Selenge and Khuvsgel.

The total number of speakers of the Buryat language is approx. 283 thousand people (2010), including in Russia - 218,557 (2010, census), in China - approx. 18 thousand, in Mongolia - 48 thousand (including 45.1 thousand Buryats and 3.0 thousand Barguts registered in the census separately from the Buryats).

Sociolinguistic information

The Buryat language performs the functions of communication in all spheres of everyday speech. Fiction (original and translated), socio-political, educational and scientific literature, republican (“Buryaad unen”) and regional newspapers are published in literary Buryat, opera and drama theatres, radio and television operate. In the Republic of Buryatia, in all spheres of linguistic activity, the Buryat and Russian languages ​​functionally coexist, which have been the state languages ​​since 1990, since the bulk of the Buryats are bilingual. The Charter of the Trans-Baikal Territory establishes that “in the territory of the Aginsky Buryat Okrug, along with the state language, the Buryat language can be used.” The Charter of the Irkutsk Region establishes that “state authorities of the Irkutsk Region create conditions for the preservation and development of languages, cultures and other components of the national identity of the Buryat people and other peoples traditionally living in the territory of the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug.”

Dialects of Buryat and Bargut

Dialects are distinguished:

The principle of differentiation of dialects is based on the peculiarities of the grammatical structure and the main vocabulary. There are no significant differences in the Buryat language that prevent mutual understanding between speakers of different dialects.

The dialects of Western and Eastern Buryats were influenced by different cultural traditions, which was reflected primarily in their lexical composition.

The Songolo-Sartul dialect, being of later origin, was formed as a result of mixing and (or) contact between Buryat and Khalkha-Mongolian ethnic groups. The latter settled to the southeast of the eastern Buryats starting in the 17th century. Some researchers consider it a dialect of the Mongolian language rather than Buryat.

Writing

Since the end of the 17th century, classical Mongolian writing was used in office work and religious practice. The language of the late 17th-19th centuries is conventionally called the Old Buryat literary and written language. One of the first major literary monuments is “Travel Notes” by Damba-Darzha Zayagiin (1768).

Among the Western Buryats, before the October Revolution, office work was carried out in Russian, and not by the Buryats themselves, but initially sent by representatives of the tsarist administration, the so-called scribes, the old Mongolian writing was used only by the clan nobility, lamas and traders who had trade relations with Tuva, External and Internal Mongolia.

In 1905, based on the old Mongolian letter, Agvan Dorzhiev created a written language Vagindra, on which at least a dozen books were printed before 1910. However, Vagindra is not widely used. During these same years, the first attempts were made to create a Buryat writing system based on the Latin alphabet. Thus, in 1910, B.B. Baradiin published the brochure “Buriaad zonoi uran eugeiin deeji” ( Excerpts from Buryat folk literature), which used the Latin alphabet (without letters f, k, q, v, w) .

Buryat alphabet 1931-1939 :

A a	B b	C c	Ç ç	D d	E e	F f	G g
H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m	Nn	O o
Ө ө	P p	R r	Ss	Ş ş	T t	U u	Vv
X x	Y y	Z z	Ƶ ƶ	b

In 1939, the Latinized alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet with the addition of three special letters ( Ү ү, Ө ө, Һ һ ).

Modern Buryat alphabet:

A a	B b	In in	G g	D d	Her	Her	F
Z z	And and	Thy	K k	L l	Mm	N n	Oh oh
Ө ө	P p	R r	With with	T t	U y	Ү ү	F f
X x	Һ һ	Ts ts	H h	Sh sh	sch sch	Kommersant	s s
b b	Uh uh	Yu Yu	I I

The Buryats changed the literary base of their written language three times in order to get closer to the living spoken language. Finally, in 1936, the Khorinsky dialect of the eastern dialect, close and accessible to most native speakers, was chosen as the basis of the literary language at a linguistic conference in Ulan-Ude.

Wikipedia in Buryat language

History of the language

The history of the Buryat language is traditionally divided into two periods: pre-revolutionary and Soviet, which characterize fundamental changes in the social functions of the written language, due to a change in social formation.

Influence of other languages

Long-term contacts with Russians and mass bilingualism of the Buryats influenced the Buryat language. In phonetics, this is associated with the sound appearance of Russianisms, Sovietisms, internationalisms, which entered the literary Buryat language (especially its written form) while preserving the sound structure of the source language.

Along with new words, the sounds [v], [f], [ts], [ch], [sch], [k], which were absent in the phonological system of the literary Buryat language and introduced something completely new into the sound organization of the word, penetrated into the borrowing language. to the norm of compatibility of vowels and consonants. Consonants began to be used in Anlaut r, l, p, which were not used at the beginning of the original words (found in borrowings from the Chinese and Tibetan languages). Consonant P found in Anlaut of figurative words and borrowings, but early borrowings with Anlaut P were replaced by a consonant b like “pud/bud”, “coat/boltoo”.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonetics and phonology

In the modern literary language there are 27 consonants, 13 vowel phonemes, and four diphthongs.

The phonetics of the Buryat language is characterized by synharmonism - palatal and labial (labial). Softened shades of hard phonemes are used only in words of a soft series, unsoftened shades of hard phonemes are used in words with hard vocalism, that is, synharmony of consonants of a phonetic nature is observed.

In some dialects there are phonemes k, ts, ch. The phonemes v, f, ts, ch, shch, k in the literary language are used only in borrowed words. The articulation of these consonants is mastered mainly by the bilingual population.

Morphology

The Buryat language belongs to the languages ​​of the agglutinative type. However, there are also elements of analyticism, the phenomenon of fusion, and various types of doubling of words with a change in their morphological appearance. Some grammatical categories are expressed analytically (with the help of postpositions, auxiliary verbs and particles).

Name

In the 1st person plural. Among personal pronouns, there are differences between inclusive (bide, bidener/bidened) and exclusive (maanar/maanuud). Exclusive form of the 1st person plural pronoun. numbers are rarely used.

• Singular
  • 1 l. -m, -mni, -ni: aham, ahamni (my brother), garni (my hand)
  • 2 l. -sh, -shni: akhash, akhashni (your brother), garshni (your hand)
  • 3 l. -ny, -yn (yin): akhan (his brother), garyn (his hand)
• Plural
  • 1 l. -mnay, -nay: akhamnay (our brother), kolkhoznay (our collective farm)
  • 2 l. -tnay: akhatnay (your brother), kolkhoztnay (your collective farm)
  • 3 l. -ny, -yn (yin): akhanuudyn (their brothers), kolkhozudyn (their collective farms)

Particles of personal attraction are added to all case forms of names. Impersonal attraction indicates the general belonging of the object and is formalized by the particle “aa”, attached to various stems of names in the form of indirect cases.

Adjective

Syntax

• Buryat-Mongolian-Russian dictionary / Comp. K. M. Cheremisov; Ed. Ts. B. Tsydendambaeva. - M.: State. Publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1951.
• Russian-Buryat-Mongolian dictionary / Ed. Ts. B. Tsydendambaeva. - M.: State. Publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1954. - 750 p.
• Cheremisov K. M. Buryat-Russian dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - 804 p.
• Buryat-Russian dictionary / L. D. Shagdarov, K. M. Cheremisov. M.: Belig, 2006. T. 1. 636 p.
• Buryat-Russian dictionary / L. D. Shagdarov, K. M. Cheremisov. M.: Belig, 2008. T. 2. 708 p.
• Shagdarov L. D., Ochirov N. A. Russian-Buryat dictionary. - Ulan-Ude: Buryaad unen, 2008. - 904 p.

Links

State language of the Russian Federation Official languages subjects of the Federation Languages ​​with official status

Northern Mongolian group Southeastern Mongolian group Mughal group Northeast group Xianbei Group †

An excerpt characterizing the Buryat language

The captured officers, released from other booths, were all strangers, were much better dressed than Pierre, and looked at him, in his shoes, with distrust and aloofness. Not far from Pierre walked, apparently enjoying the general respect of his fellow prisoners, a fat major in a Kazan robe, belted with a towel, with a plump, yellow, angry face. He held one hand with a pouch behind his bosom, the other leaned on his chibouk. The major, puffing and puffing, grumbled and was angry at everyone because it seemed to him that he was being pushed and that everyone was in a hurry when there was nowhere to hurry, everyone was surprised at something when there was nothing surprising in anything. Another, a small, thin officer, spoke to everyone, making assumptions about where they were being led now and how far they would have time to travel that day. An official, in felt boots and a commissariat uniform, ran from different sides and looked out for the burned-out Moscow, loudly reporting his observations about what had burned and what this or that visible part of Moscow was like. The third officer, of Polish origin by accent, argued with the commissariat official, proving to him that he was mistaken in defining the districts of Moscow.
-What are you arguing about? - the major said angrily. - Whether it’s Nikola, or Vlas, it’s all the same; you see, everything burned down, well, that’s the end... Why are you pushing, isn’t there enough road,” he turned angrily to the one walking behind who was not pushing him at all.
- Oh, oh, oh, what have you done! - However, the voices of prisoners were heard, now from one side or the other, looking around the fire. - And Zamoskvorechye, and Zubovo, and in the Kremlin, look, half of them are gone... Yes, I told you that all of Zamoskvorechye, that’s how it is.
- Well, you know what burned, well, what’s there to talk about! - said the major.
Passing through Khamovniki (one of the few unburned quarters of Moscow) past the church, the entire crowd of prisoners suddenly huddled to one side, and exclamations of horror and disgust were heard.
- Look, you scoundrels! That's unchrist! Yes, he’s dead, he’s dead... They smeared him with something.
Pierre also moved towards the church, where there was something that caused exclamations, and vaguely saw something leaning against the fence of the church. From the words of his comrades, who saw better than him, he learned that it was something like the corpse of a man, stood upright by the fence and smeared with soot on his face...
– Marchez, sacre nom... Filez... trente mille diables... [Go! go! Damn it! Devils!] - curses from the guards were heard, and the French soldiers, with new anger, dispersed the crowd of prisoners who were looking at the dead man with cutlasses.

Along the lanes of Khamovniki, the prisoners walked alone with their convoy and carts and wagons that belonged to the guards and were driving behind them; but, going out to the supply stores, they found themselves in the middle of a huge, closely moving artillery convoy, mixed with private carts.
At the bridge itself, everyone stopped, waiting for those traveling in front to advance. From the bridge, the prisoners saw endless rows of other moving convoys behind and ahead. To the right, where the Kaluga road curved past Neskuchny, disappearing into the distance, stretched endless rows of troops and convoys. These were the troops of the Beauharnais corps who came out first; back, along the embankment and across the Stone Bridge, Ney's troops and convoys stretched.
Davout's troops, to which the prisoners belonged, marched through the Crimean Ford and had already partly entered Kaluzhskaya Street. But the convoys were so stretched out that the last convoys of Beauharnais had not yet left Moscow for Kaluzhskaya Street, and the head of Ney’s troops was already leaving Bolshaya Ordynka.
Having passed the Crimean Ford, the prisoners moved a few steps at a time and stopped, and moved again, and on all sides the crews and people became more and more embarrassed. After walking for more than an hour the few hundred steps that separate the bridge from Kaluzhskaya Street, and reaching the square where Zamoskvoretsky streets meet Kaluzhskaya, the prisoners, squeezed into a heap, stopped and stood at this intersection for several hours. From all sides one could hear the incessant rumble of wheels, the trampling of feet, and incessant angry screams and curses, like the sound of the sea. Pierre stood pressed against the wall of the burnt house, listening to this sound, which in his imagination merged with the sounds of a drum.
Several captured officers, in order to get a better view, climbed onto the wall of the burnt house near which Pierre stood.
- To the people! Eka people!.. And they piled on the guns! Look: furs... - they said. “Look, you bastards, they robbed me... It’s behind him, on a cart... After all, this is from an icon, by God!.. These must be Germans.” And our man, by God!.. Oh, scoundrels!.. Look, he’s loaded down, he’s walking with force! Here they come, the droshky - and they captured it!.. See, he sat down on the chests. Fathers!.. We got into a fight!..
- So hit him in the face, in the face! You won't be able to wait until evening. Look, look... and this is probably Napoleon himself. You see, what horses! in monograms with a crown. This is a folding house. He dropped the bag and can't see it. They fought again... A woman with a child, and not bad at all. Yes, of course, they will let you through... Look, there is no end. Russian girls, by God, girls! They are so comfortable in the strollers!
Again, a wave of general curiosity, as near the church in Khamovniki, pushed all the prisoners towards the road, and Pierre, thanks to his height, saw over the heads of others what had so attracted the curiosity of the prisoners. In three strollers, mixed between the charging boxes, women rode, sitting closely on top of each other, dressed up, in bright colors, rouged, shouting something in squeaky voices.
From the moment Pierre became aware of the appearance of a mysterious force, nothing seemed strange or scary to him: not the corpse smeared with soot for fun, not these women hurrying somewhere, not the conflagrations of Moscow. Everything that Pierre now saw made almost no impression on him - as if his soul, preparing for a difficult struggle, refused to accept impressions that could weaken it.
The train of women has passed. Behind him were again carts, soldiers, wagons, soldiers, decks, carriages, soldiers, boxes, soldiers, and occasionally women.
Pierre did not see people separately, but saw them moving.
All these people and horses seemed to be being chased by some invisible force. All of them, during the hour during which Pierre observed them, emerged from different streets with the same desire to pass quickly; All of them equally, when confronted with others, began to get angry and fight; white teeth were bared, eyebrows frowned, the same curses were thrown around, and on all faces there was the same youthfully determined and cruelly cold expression, which struck Pierre in the morning at the sound of a drum on the corporal’s face.
Just before evening, the guard commander gathered his team and, shouting and arguing, squeezed into the convoys, and the prisoners, surrounded on all sides, went out onto the Kaluga road.
They walked very quickly, without resting, and stopped only when the sun began to set. The convoys moved one on top of the other, and people began to prepare for the night. Everyone seemed angry and unhappy. For a long time, curses, angry screams and fights were heard from different sides. The carriage driving behind the guards approached the guards' carriage and pierced it with its drawbar. Several soldiers from different directions ran to the cart; some hit the heads of the horses harnessed to the carriage, turning them over, others fought among themselves, and Pierre saw that one German was seriously wounded in the head with a cleaver.
It seemed that all these people were now experiencing, when they stopped in the middle of a field in the cold twilight of an autumn evening, the same feeling of an unpleasant awakening from the haste that gripped everyone as they left and the rapid movement somewhere. Having stopped, everyone seemed to understand that it was still unknown where they were going, and that this movement would be a lot of hard and difficult things.
The prisoners at this halt were treated even worse by the guards than during the march. At this halt, for the first time, the meat food of the prisoners was given out as horse meat.
From the officers to the last soldier, it was noticeable in everyone what seemed like a personal bitterness against each of the prisoners, which had so unexpectedly replaced previously friendly relations.
This anger intensified even more when, when counting the prisoners, it turned out that during the bustle, leaving Moscow, one Russian soldier, pretending to be sick from the stomach, fled. Pierre saw how a Frenchman beat a Russian soldier for moving far from the road, and heard how the captain, his friend, reprimanded the non-commissioned officer for the escape of the Russian soldier and threatened him with justice. In response to the non-commissioned officer's excuse that the soldier was sick and could not walk, the officer said that he had been ordered to shoot those who lag behind. Pierre felt that the fatal force that had crushed him during his execution and which had been invisible during his captivity had now again taken possession of his existence. He was scared; but he felt how, as the fatal force made efforts to crush him, a life force independent of it grew and strengthened in his soul.
Pierre dined on a soup made from rye flour with horse meat and talked with his comrades.
Neither Pierre nor any of his comrades talked about what they saw in Moscow, nor about the rudeness of the French, nor about the order to shoot that was announced to them: everyone was, as if in rebuff to the worsening situation, especially animated and cheerful . They talked about personal memories, about funny scenes seen during the campaign, and hushed up conversations about the present situation.
The sun has long since set. Bright stars lit up here and there in the sky; The red, fire-like glow of the rising full moon spread across the edge of the sky, and a huge red ball swayed amazingly in the grayish haze. It was getting light. The evening was already over, but the night had not yet begun. Pierre got up from his new comrades and walked between the fires to the other side of the road, where, he was told, the captured soldiers were standing. He wanted to talk to them. On the road, a French guard stopped him and ordered him to turn back.
Pierre returned, but not to the fire, to his comrades, but to the unharnessed cart, which had no one. He crossed his legs and lowered his head, sat down on the cold ground near the wheel of the cart and sat motionless for a long time, thinking. More than an hour passed. Nobody bothered Pierre. Suddenly he laughed his fat, good-natured laugh so loudly that people from different directions looked back in surprise at this strange, obviously lonely laugh.
- Ha, ha, ha! – Pierre laughed. And he said out loud to himself: “The soldier didn’t let me in.” They caught me, they locked me up. They are holding me captive. Who me? Me! Me - my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha!.. Ha, ha, ha!.. - he laughed with tears welling up in his eyes.
Some man stood up and came up to see what this strange big man was laughing about. Pierre stopped laughing, stood up, moved away from the curious man and looked around him.
Previously loudly noisy with the crackling of fires and the chatter of people, the huge, endless bivouac fell silent; the red lights of the fires went out and turned pale. A full moon stood high in the bright sky. Forests and fields, previously invisible outside the camp, now opened up in the distance. And even further away from these forests and fields one could see a bright, wavering, endless distance calling into itself. Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the receding, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me! - thought Pierre. “And they caught all this and put it in a booth fenced off with boards!” He smiled and went to bed with his comrades.

In the first days of October, another envoy came to Kutuzov with a letter from Napoleon and a peace proposal, deceptively indicated from Moscow, while Napoleon was already not far ahead of Kutuzov, on the old Kaluga road. Kutuzov responded to this letter in the same way as to the first one sent with Lauriston: he said that there could be no talk of peace.
Soon after this, from the partisan detachment of Dorokhov, who went to the left of Tarutin, a report was received that troops had appeared in Fominskoye, that these troops consisted of the Broussier division and that this division, separated from other troops, could easily be exterminated. The soldiers and officers again demanded action. The staff generals, excited by the memory of the ease of victory at Tarutin, insisted to Kutuzov that Dorokhov’s proposal be implemented. Kutuzov did not consider any offensive necessary. What happened was the mean, what had to happen; A small detachment was sent to Fominskoye, which was supposed to attack Brusier.
By a strange coincidence, this appointment - the most difficult and most important, as it turned out later - was received by Dokhturov; that same modest, little Dokhturov, whom no one described to us as drawing up battle plans, flying in front of regiments, throwing crosses at batteries, etc., who was considered and called indecisive and uninsightful, but the same Dokhturov, whom during all Russian wars with the French, from Austerlitz until the thirteenth year, we find ourselves in charge wherever the situation is difficult. In Austerlitz, he remains the last at the Augest dam, gathering regiments, saving what he can, when everything is running and dying and not a single general is in the rearguard. He, sick with a fever, goes to Smolensk with twenty thousand to defend the city against the entire Napoleonic army. In Smolensk, as soon as he dozed off at the Molokhov Gate, in a paroxysm of fever, he was awakened by cannonade across Smolensk, and Smolensk held out all day. On Borodino Day, when Bagration was killed and the troops of our left flank were killed in a ratio of 9 to 1 and the entire force of the French artillery was sent there, no one else was sent, namely the indecisive and indiscernible Dokhturov, and Kutuzov hurries to correct his mistake when he sent there another. And small, quiet Dokhturov goes there, and Borodino is the best glory of the Russian army. And many heroes are described to us in poetry and prose, but almost not a word about Dokhturov.
Again Dokhturov is sent there to Fominskoye and from there to Maly Yaroslavets, to the place where the last battle with the French took place, and to the place from which, obviously, the death of the French already begins, and again many geniuses and heroes are described to us during this period of the campaign , but not a word about Dokhturov, or very little, or doubtful. This silence about Dokhturov most obviously proves his merits.
Naturally, for a person who does not understand the movement of a machine, when he sees its action, it seems that the most important part of this machine is that splinter that accidentally fell into it and, interfering with its progress, flutters in it. A person who does not know the structure of the machine cannot understand that it is not this splinter that spoils and interferes with the work, but that small transmission gear that silently turns, is one of the most essential parts of the machine.
On October 10, the same day that Dokhturov walked half the road to Fominsky and stopped in the village of Aristov, preparing to exactly carry out the given order, the entire French army, in its convulsive movement, reached Murat’s position, as it seemed, in order to give The battle suddenly, for no reason, turned left onto the new Kaluga road and began to enter Fominskoye, in which Brusier had previously stood alone. Dokhturov at that time had under his command, in addition to Dorokhov, two small detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
On the evening of October 11, Seslavin arrived in Aristovo to his superiors with a captured French guardsman. The prisoner said that the troops that had entered Fominskoe today constituted the vanguard of the entire large army, that Napoleon was right there, that the entire army had already left Moscow for the fifth day. That same evening, a servant who came from Borovsk told how he saw a huge army entering the city. Cossacks from Dorokhov's detachment reported that they saw the French Guard walking along the road to Borovsk. From all this news it became obvious that where they thought they would find one division, there was now the entire French army, marching from Moscow in an unexpected direction - along the old Kaluga road. Dokhturov did not want to do anything, since it was not clear to him now what his responsibility was. He was ordered to attack Fominskoye. But in Fominskoe there had previously only been Broussier, now there was the entire French army. Ermolov wanted to act at his own discretion, but Dokhturov insisted that he needed to have an order from His Serene Highness. It was decided to send a report to headquarters.
For this purpose, an intelligent officer was elected, Bolkhovitinov, who, in addition to the written report, had to tell the whole matter in words. At twelve o'clock at night, Bolkhovitinov, having received an envelope and a verbal order, galloped, accompanied by a Cossack, with spare horses to the main headquarters.

The night was dark, warm, autumn. It had been raining for four days now. Having changed horses twice and galloping thirty miles along a muddy, sticky road in an hour and a half, Bolkhovitinov was in Letashevka at two o'clock in the morning. Having dismounted from the hut, on the fence of which there was a sign: “General Headquarters,” and abandoning his horse, he entered the dark vestibule.
- The general on duty, quickly! Very important! - he said to someone who was getting up and snoring in the darkness of the entryway.
“We’ve been very unwell since the evening; we haven’t slept for three nights,” the orderly’s voice whispered intercessively. - You must wake up the captain first.
“Very important, from General Dokhturov,” said Bolkhovitinov, entering the open door he felt. The orderly walked ahead of him and began to wake someone up:
- Your honor, your honor - the courier.
- I'm sorry, what? from whom? – said someone’s sleepy voice.
– From Dokhturov and from Alexey Petrovich. “Napoleon is in Fominskoye,” said Bolkhovitinov, not seeing in the darkness who asked him, but by the sound of his voice, suggesting that it was not Konovnitsyn.
The awakened man yawned and stretched.
“I don’t want to wake him up,” he said, feeling something. - You're sick! Maybe so, rumors.
“Here’s the report,” said Bolkhovitinov, “I’ve been ordered to hand it over to the general on duty immediately.”
- Wait, I’ll light a fire. Where the hell do you always put it? – turning to the orderly, said the stretching man. It was Shcherbinin, Konovnitsyn's adjutant. “I found it, I found it,” he added.
The orderly was chopping the fire, Shcherbinin was feeling the candlestick.
“Oh, disgusting ones,” he said with disgust.
In the light of the sparks, Bolkhovitinov saw the young face of Shcherbinin with a candle and in the front corner a still sleeping man. It was Konovnitsyn.
When the brimstones lit up with a blue and then a red flame on the tinder, Shcherbinin lit a tallow candle, from the candlestick of which the Prussians ran, gnawing it, and examined the messenger. Bolkhovitinov was covered in dirt and, wiping himself with his sleeve, smeared it on his face.
-Who is informing? - said Shcherbinin, taking the envelope.
“The news is true,” said Bolkhovitinov. - And the prisoners, and the Cossacks, and the spies - they all unanimously show the same thing.
“There’s nothing to do, we have to wake him up,” said Shcherbinin, getting up and approaching a man in a nightcap, covered with an overcoat. - Pyotr Petrovich! - he said. Konovnitsyn did not move. - To the main headquarters! – he said, smiling, knowing that these words would probably wake him up. And indeed, the head in the nightcap rose immediately. On Konovnitsyn’s handsome, firm face, with feverishly inflamed cheeks, for a moment there remained the expression of dreams of a dream far from the present situation, but then suddenly he shuddered: his face took on its usually calm and firm expression.
- Well, what is it? From whom? – he asked slowly, but immediately, blinking from the light. Listening to the officer’s report, Konovnitsyn printed it out and read it. As soon as he had read it, he lowered his feet in woolen stockings onto the earthen floor and began to put on his shoes. Then he took off his cap and, combing his temples, put on his cap.
-Are you there soon? Let's go to the brightest.
Konovnitsyn immediately realized that the news brought was of great importance and that there was no time to delay. Whether it was good or bad, he did not think or ask himself. He wasn't interested. He looked at the whole matter of war not with his mind, not with reasoning, but with something else. There was a deep, unspoken conviction in his soul that everything would be fine; but that you don’t need to believe this, and especially don’t say this, but just do your job. And he did this work, giving it all his strength.
Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, just like Dokhturov, only as if out of decency was included in the list of so-called heroes of the 12th year - the Barclays, Raevskys, Ermolovs, Platovs, Miloradovichs, just like Dokhturov, enjoyed the reputation of a person of very limited abilities and information, and, like Dokhturov, Konovnitsyn never made plans for battles, but was always where it was most difficult; he always slept with the door open since he was appointed general on duty, ordering everyone sent to wake him up, he was always under fire during the battle, so Kutuzov reproached him for this and was afraid to send him, and was, like Dokhturov, alone one of those inconspicuous gears that, without rattling or making noise, constitute the most essential part of the machine.
Coming out of the hut into the damp, dark night, Konovnitsyn frowned, partly from the intensifying headache, partly from the unpleasant thought that came into his head about how this whole nest of staff, influential people would now be agitated at this news, especially Bennigsen, who was after Tarutin at knifepoint with Kutuzov; how they will propose, argue, order, cancel. And this premonition was unpleasant for him, although he knew that he could not live without it.
Indeed, Tol, to whom he went to tell the new news, immediately began to express his thoughts to the general who lived with him, and Konovnitsyn, who listened silently and tiredly, reminded him that he needed to go to His Serene Highness.

Kutuzov, like all old people, slept little at night. He often dozed off unexpectedly during the day; but at night, without undressing, lying on his bed, he mostly did not sleep and thought.
So he lay now on his bed, leaning his heavy, large, disfigured head on his plump arm, and thought, with one eye open, peering into the darkness.
Since Bennigsen, who corresponded with the sovereign and had the most power in the headquarters, avoided him, Kutuzov was calmer in the sense that he and his troops would not be forced to again participate in useless offensive actions. The lesson of the Tarutino battle and its eve, painfully memorable for Kutuzov, should also have had an effect, he thought.

According to UNESCO classification, four languages ​​of Buryatia are included in the so-called “Red Book of Endangered Languages”. The interactive atlas on the organization’s website highlights the Soyot, Evenki, Khamnigan and Buryat languages. Moreover, the latter was introduced recently and, as scientists note, is in more or less good condition.

It is worth noting that, unlike UNESCO experts, the Soyot and Khamnigan languages ​​are considered by Buryat scientists as dialects of the Buryat language, and not as independent languages, while recognizing the enormous influence of the ancient writing and culture of these peoples on the formation of the Buryat language. Let us remember that the UNESCO atlas is based on open data, similar to Wikipedia. Today, one of the main sources of data on the languages ​​of Buryatia is the work of the Finnish researcher Juha Janhunen.

Buryat language

This language is considered definitely endangered; according to the five-level classification of the UNESCO atlas, it has a fourth degree, which in principle is not considered so bad. There are about 300 thousand native speakers of this language in the republic, and the total number of speakers of the Buryat language is 368,807 people, such data was obtained based on the 2002 population census. This figure includes, along with residents of Buryatia, Baikal speakers (Irkutsk region, Ust Orda, Olkhon), Transbaikal speakers (Aga, Trans-Baikal Territory), and a small number of Manchurian Buryats.

The main part is still the older generation living in the ethnic regions of Buryatia. Young people speak their native language less and less, about 20% of Buryats are completely Russian-speaking, and 60% are bilingual.

The Buryats, unlike the Turkic-speaking peoples (Yakuts, Tuvans), adapt very quickly, both in terms of linguistic assimilation and socially, says Galina Dyrkheeva, Doctor of Philology, chief researcher of the Department of Linguistics of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies SB RAS, - therefore The group of bilinguals today is a risk group; if we most likely will not teach Russian speakers to speak (although we interviewed only the adult population), then we still hope for this group, they will either be able to pass on the language to their children, or they will learn the Buryat language separately families will “end”, since the family is one of the most important linguistic environments.

In addition to learning the language in the family, philologists consider the lack of an external language environment to be a big problem; there are no children's illustrated books that can interest children; over the past twenty years, not a single major novel has been written that reflects modern reality through the prism of the Buryat mentality and philosophy.

We have concerns about the state of the Buryat language, primarily due to the narrowing of areas of use, both at the level of everyday communication and in the field of education,” says Babasan Tsyrenov, Candidate of Philological Sciences, head of the Department of Linguistics at the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies SB RAS ,-the language of teaching is Russian, the sphere of social and political life is connected with the Russian language, and of course the media, very poorly developed in the Buryat language. The issue that needs to be resolved urgently is the issue of promoting the Buryat language, based on modern conditions, technologies and the financial situation of our republic.

Despite the obvious processes of disappearance of the Buryat language, an important point is its status as one of the two state languages ​​in the republic, this is noted by all experts. In Buryatia, there is also compulsory language teaching in primary schools. For comparison, after two Buryat autonomous okrugs became part of the neighboring federal subjects, the teaching of the Buryat language was canceled, which led to sad consequences: not a single Buryat resident of the Irkutsk region was able to fill out a questionnaire in the Buryat language during a linguistic study.

Evenki language

Evenki are one of the most ancient and mysterious peoples of Siberia and the Far East. The total number according to the 2002 census is 35,357 people, of which 7,584 speak the Evenki language.

Historically, the Evenks are widely dispersed throughout the country. Evenks live compactly in 11 subjects of the Russian Federation, the largest number, about 13 thousand, live in Sakha Yakutia. Such resettlement interferes with the creation of a unified Evenki literary base, which also does not contribute to the preservation of the language. According to the UNESCO classification, the Evenki language is in an extremely serious situation of extinction - third degree.

In Buryatia, the Evenks live mainly in the Bauntovsky district in the North-East, on the border with the Trans-Baikal Territory.

In the early 90s, research was carried out in the Bauntovsky district, says Elizaveta Afanasyeva, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of languages ​​of indigenous peoples of Siberia at the Buryat State University, which showed that 29% of young people and 100% of the older generation spoke the Evenki language . But that was almost twenty years ago, since then, unfortunately, no research has been carried out, there are no recent data, but it is impossible to say that the language is dying! Yes, assimilation is happening, the Evenks are assimilating with the Buryats and Russians, many speak three languages, but as long as at least one Evenk is alive, the language will live.

Since 1991, the Buryat State University has opened a specialty - teaching the Evenki language; today 32 students study there. This specialty is in great demand; after graduation, students work in all corners of Russia where there is at least a small Evenk diaspora. In St. Petersburg, books are published in the Evenki language, mainly, of course, textbooks and manuals for learning the language.

Hamnigan language

According to the UNESCO classification, the Khamnigan or Khamnigan-Mongolian language is in the fourth degree of danger, that is, definitely in danger of extinction. According to data provided by Finnish researcher Juha Janhunen, about 2,000 people speak this language.

Buryat scientists have no doubt that the Khamnigan language does not exist, and the UNESCO Red Book simply designates a dialect of the modern Buryat language, which once upon a time was the ancestor and progenitor of the modern Mongolian language.

Famous researcher and “Chief Khamnigan” of Buryatia, Dashinima Damdinov, Doctor of Philology and Honored Scientist of the Republic of Buryatia, author of twenty-four books, textbooks, monographs and over one hundred and fifty scientific articles on problematic issues of Mongolian languages, history, ethnography, cultural and spiritual population of Khamnigan- one of the Khitan-Mongol tribal associations, which will celebrate its 85th anniversary next year, says the following:

As a language, Khamnigan no longer exists; in its written form it was preserved in the form of old Mongolian texts (vertical script), as a pure archaic Mongolian language, and in spoken form, only as a dialect of the Buryat language. Nowadays little is spoken in Khamnigan, this is directly related to the Buryat language, as we know its teaching was canceled in the Trans-Baikal Territory, in the former Agin Autonomous Okrug. The lack of a religious basis plays a big role, datsans are not built there, customs are forgotten. The Khamnigan language has few prospects, even the Buryat language has ghostly prospects, let alone the prodialect. At the same time, the roots of the Zakamensky, Ivolginsky, Selenginsky Buryats are from Khamnigan, this is the progenitor language.

The Khamnigan language is a dialect,” agrees Galina Dyrkheeva, “and this definition arose in our department, we, as representatives of the Soviet linguistic school, define for ourselves what a spoken language is, what a written language is, a dialect, an adverb, a jargon, and so on, according to the classification which we were taught. The description has already been given, grammatical and lexical.

Soyot language

Two interesting situations are connected with the Soyot language: firstly, as in the case of Khamnigan, in Buryatia it is not considered a language, but just a dialect of the Buryat language, and secondly, the Soyots did not have a written language, which is considered one of the main characteristics of the language until the 60-70s of the 20th century.

According to the classification of the interactive atlas of endangered languages ​​of the world by UNESCO, the Soyot language is considered completely extinct, first degree. This language was once spoken by the inhabitants of the mountainous Oka (Okinsky district of the Republic of Buryatia).

I don’t know who initiated this problem,” says Galina Dyrkheeva, “but it is believed that there was some kind of official document regarding small peoples, benefits and privileges appeared. People who were officially considered Buryats began to classify themselves as Soyots according to their ancestors. The recognition of them as an independent nationality was nevertheless initiated by someone, by whom, I cannot say. Later, one of the points of recognition, of course, was an independent language, and then they began to say that someone spoke Soyot, but in fact no one spoke. Valentin Ivanovich Rassadin, our greatest scientist, who now lives in Elista, traveled in the 60-70s, collected material, he wrote a lot of material from that period, because then there were still native speakers.

Then the following happened: thanks to the experience of writing textbooks and primers on the Tofalar language, Rassadin was asked to do the same on Soyot. That is, we can say that he practically invented writing, relying on the spoken dialect. There was nothing before this. For UNESCO, the definition of the Soyot dialect as an independent language is most likely important for determining the significance of its Red Book. In any case, even the Soyot dialect of the Buryats practically does not exist today.

Is it necessary today to revive the Buryat language on the basis of dialects? Is the Buryat literary language replacing dialect forms? About this interview with a candidate of philological sciences, a teacher at Buryat State University Irina Bulgutova.

Irina Vladimirovna, recently, in my opinion, many Buryats have become interested in their native language. Explain what literary language means today?

The formation of a literary language is an important and significant moment in the life of every nation. It marks a new stage in the development of the culture of the people and is associated with the further development of writing in this language. The concept of “literary language,” which means a normative language (with a set of rules establishing generally accepted norms), should not be confused with the concept of “language of fiction,” which includes all the richness of the national language, including historicisms, dialectisms, jargon, etc. . Fiction plays an extremely important role in the development of a literary language. It is well known that the modern Russian literary language is established in the works of Alexander Pushkin, and the origins of the Italian literary language, which is based on the so-called folk Latin, are the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. This is a very important moment when a living spoken language becomes written.

- Let's talk a little about the formation of the Buryat literary language.

Speaking about the history of the Buryat literary language, we should turn to the history of writing. In the pre-revolutionary period, the Buryats had a vertical old Mongolian script, which recorded many remarkable monuments of artistic creativity (it was not common among the Western Buryats). After the revolution, the Latin alphabet was adopted, which existed until 1939, then the transition to the Cyrillic alphabet was made.

The Buryat literary language is based on the Khora dialect; for many decades, socio-political, educational and scientific literature has been recorded in it, and republican and regional media have functioned. Literary language is a standardized language, necessary for communication and mutual understanding, it should be studied at school.

- Does the literary language, which regulates generally accepted norms, interfere with the existence of dialect forms?

Today, when the sphere of functioning and use of the Buryat language in the urban environment has significantly narrowed, the question of the further development of the Buryat language and the role of dialects in this process has arisen in a new way.

It is in dialect forms that the Buryat language functions among village residents in the regions of the republic. This is oral speech, colloquial. Are the rights of speakers of dialect forms limited by the very fact of the existence of a literary language? Is the Buryat literary language replacing dialect forms? We must understand the dialectics in this process: it is the living spoken language that becomes the basis of the literary language, then the rules are established, and the grammar of the language is built. Language is a living, developing phenomenon; it has its own laws of functioning that are not subject to anyone’s personal will. A significant layer of enrichment of the Buryat language over the course of several centuries is Russisms - borrowings from the Russian language. For example, the literary word “hartaabha” is a derivative of potato, the Tunka dialect word “yaabalkha” is a derivative of an apple - this is how Russian peasants at first called potatoes “earth apples”. Should the Tunka Buryats now dictate their word usage to residents of other regions of the republic who eat “hartaabha” in the wake of the preservation and development of dialects, which has been observed recently? There is a concept of conventionality in science, when people agree on the designation of certain phenomena; it also takes place in the functioning of language.

- As far as we know, the Buryat language is also enriched by borrowing from the Mongolian language?

This is true. “My grandmother Mongolia...” (as the national poet of Buryatia Bair Dugarov writes in his poem) nourishes the Buryat language with both new words and meanings, as well as seemingly forgotten ones, and in this beneficial process the dialects of Songol and Sartul could play their role, close to the Mongolian language. But these are also objectively occurring processes. What would happen if the poet Galina Radnaeva, a native of Dzhida, wrote down her wonderful works only in her dialect? The reader would have to first learn the grammar of the Mongolian language in order to understand the full depth and artistic value of her work. Is it necessary today to expend effort so that the regions of the republic create their own grammatical codes and rules, as, for example, in the Kyakhta region they decided to create their own alphabet? Why reinvent the wheel again and again, and from scratch? Do so many creative people in the regions write in their native language today? Dialects have, first of all, oral existence, and writing and literature are the sphere of functioning of the national literary language. Moreover, I consider it necessary to repeat once again: in fiction, dialect words can be used for aesthetic purposes, if this carries artistic meaning and is necessary for the realization of the author’s intention. The Tunka poet Lopson Taphaev uses the dialect word “shagaabari” (window) instead of the literary “sonkho” in the poem “Children of the Farm”, but this word in the poem is inscribed in the picture of unity of command - “tolgoy kholbolgo”, and no one blames the author, since this is a word usage does not reduce the artistic effect, and we perceive his work as genuine art of words - literature.

- How do you feel about newspapers that are published in Buryat dialects?

Dialects are the sphere of living speech, and this is wonderful. But is it worth neglecting the rules of grammar of the Buryat language? What has the case system of the Buryat language done to the residents of our regions? From century to century, people of different nations have been memorizing the basics of the grammar of their native language, why should the Buryats today suddenly cut themselves some slack? It’s wonderful that today we are all united by an extensive fund of artistic works already created by masters of words in the literary language - truly a storehouse of riches of the Buryat language. If the newspaper revives the living springs of folk art and serves the development of literature, it would be very good, but worthy works of authors from the regions should be accessible to all Buryats, that is, written down in the literary language in compliance with all the rules. The rules were not invented to ruin the life of Badme's student, but so that people could understand each other.

Our ancestors did not preserve the wisdom and experience of the people in the language from century to century so that we today neglect the meanings. Let's appreciate what we have, let's learn to listen to each other and listen to each other.

I’ll end our conversation with wonderful words from Dondok Ulzytuev’s poem “Buryat Language”:

Silvering with crystal clear Baikal water,

Warmed by a melodiously tender girlish smile

Native language.

And hugging a white veil of fog,

As if caressing with a mother's palms

Our native language.

It sparkles with the purity of a spring

Beautiful view of nature itself -

This is our language.

Photo courtesy of Irina Bulgutova