Kalmyk and Khalkha Ethnographica in Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s manuscripts (1871–1873)

Birtalan, Ágnes (2015) Kalmyk and Khalkha Ethnographica in Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s manuscripts (1871–1873). Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 68 (3). pp. 253-267. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

The Hungarian (Székely) Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna (1844–1913) was one of the first researchers of Kalmyk and Khalkha vernacular language, folklore and ethnography. His valuable records are written in a very accurate transcription and include the specimens of Kalmyk and Khalkha spoken languages, folklore material and ethnographic narratives, and a comparative grammar of western and eastern Mongolian languages. Bálint’s manuscripts had not been released until recent years when Ágnes Birtalan published his Comparative Grammar in 2009 and the Kalmyk corpus with a comprehensive analysis in 2011. The present article aims to give an introduction to Bálint’s ethnographic materials recorded among the Kalmyks (1871–1872) and Khalkhas (1873). Despite the similar economic and cultural milieu the two ethnic groups lived in, there is considerable difference between the Kalmyk and Khalkha text corpora. Besides presenting and systematising Bálint’s ethnographic material, I shall try to clarify the reason why this significant divergence emerges between the two text corpora. Specimens of a particular phase of the wedding ceremony are represented as examples from both text corpora.

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