2023, Volume 20, Issue 1

Back to the Table of Contents

Vladimir V. Napolskikh
Ural Federal University
Ekaterinburg, Russia
Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
under the President of the Russian Federation
Moscow, Russia

The Khakas-Altaian Mythonym Ker and the Proto-Yenissean Word for ‘Mammoth’. 2

Voprosy onomastiki, 2023, Volume 20, Issue 1, pp. 29–42 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2023.20.1.002

Received on 10 January 2023
Accepted on 28 February 2023

Abstract: The article continues the research on the names of mammoth or other mammoth-like monsters as characteristic elements of the mythological onomasticon of some Siberian traditions (Turkic, Yenissean, Tungusic). In the first part of the article, the author identified a reconstructed Proto-Yenissean form *čer / *ťèkə́r ‘mammoth (giant horned fish)’ > Ket 1tēľ ~ Yug 1čel ~ Pumpokol *kher (> Altaic, Khakass, Teleut ker, kär ‘a monster, especially a giant fish’) as a possible origin of these names. In this part, the author proposes a pre-Yenissean (Sino-Caucasian) etymology for it: *c̣HírV[ʁ]V (> North-Caucasian *irVχV ‘caterpillar, snail; line’ ~ Sino-Tibetan *čaŋ ‘lizard’ ~ (?) Burushaski hargin ‘dragon, a monster that a snake turns into.’ It is assumed that the image of the mammoth-fish (as opposed to a more widely known and probably more ancient image of mammoth-bull) was formed in the Proto-Yenissean tradition after the speakers of the Yenissean proto-language migrated from the southern ancestral homeland to Siberia. It is based on ideas about the transformation of a snake, fish or similar chthonic animal into a giant dragon-like creature that existed among the Sino-Caucasian ancestors of the Yenisseans spread in the Pamir-Hindukush region, and was known to the ancient Chinese. The formation of the image of the mammoth-fish among the Yenisseans was also influenced by the Iranian motif of the “a belt dissecting a tree.” The Yenissean image of the mammoth-fish reached Siberia, particularly, it was borrowed into the shamanic tradition of the Evenks, which is evidenced by the possible etymology of the Evenki selī ‘mammoth’ (including mammoth-horned fish) from the reconstructed form of the unknown Yenissean language *seĺ (< *čer / *ťèkə́r).

Keywords: mammoth; etymology; mythology and folklore of Siberia; shamanism; Sino-Caucasian languages; Yenissean languages; Tungus-Manchurian languages; Evenki language; Turkic languages.

Acknowledgements
The research funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Federal University Program of Development within the Priority-2030 Program) is gratefully acknowledged.

References

Berezkin, Yu. E., & Duvakin, E. N. (2023). Tematicheskaia klassifikatsiia i raspredelenie fol’klornomifologicheskikh motivov po arealam: analiticheskii katalog [Thematic Classification and Distribution of Folklore and Mythological Motifs by Areas: An Analytical Catalog]. Retrieved from https://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/berezkin/

Ber-Glinka, A. I. (2018). Siuzhetnyi tip ATU411 v skazochnoi traditsii Evrazii: nekotorye zamechaniia k “Tipologicheskomu ukazateliu skazochnykh siuzhetov” G.-I. Utera [Plot Type ATI411 in the Fairy Tale Tradition of Eurasia: Some Remarks on the “Typological Index of Fairy Tale Plots” by H.-J. Uther]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 4, 171–184.

Burnakov, V. A. (2019). Shchuka v verovaniiakh i fol’klore khakasov (konets XIX — seredina XX veka) [Pike in the Beliefs and Folklore of the Khakass (Late 19th — Mid 20th Centuries)]. Vestnik Novosibirskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser. “Istoriia, filologiia”, 18(7: Arkheologiia i etnografiia), 177–186.

Chlenova, N. L. (1969). Sootnoshenie kul’tur karasukskogo tipa i ketskikh toponimov na territorii Sibiri [Correlation of Cultures of the Karasuk Type and Ket Toponyms on the Territory of Siberia]. In Proiskhozhdenie aborigenov Sibiri i ikh iazykov [The Origin of the Natives of Siberia and their Languages] (pp. 143–146). Tomsk: TomGU.

Dyrenkova, N. P. (1949). Materialy po shamanstvu u teleutov [Materials on Shamanism among Teleuts]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 11, pp. 108–190). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Grigorovsky, N. P. (1882). Ocherki Narymskogo kraia [Essays on the Narym Territory]. Zapiski Zapadnosibirskogo otdeleniia Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva, 4, 1–60.

Ivanov, S. V. (1949). Mamont v iskusstve narodov Sibiri [Mammoth in the Art of the Peoples of Siberia]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 11, pp. 133–154). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Janhunen, J. (2011). Unicorn, Mammuth, Whale. Mythological and Etymological Connections of Zoonyms in North and East Asia. In T. Osada, & H. Endo (Eds.), Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past (pp. 189–222). Kyoto: Indus Project.

Jettmar, K. (1986). Religii Gindukusha [Religions of the Hindu Kush]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Kasyan, A. S., & Starostin, G. S. (2017). Avtomaticheskoe sravnenie eniseisko-burishskoi bazisnoi leksiki i veroiatnostnaia otsenka skhozhdenii [Automatic Comparison of Yenissean-Burushaski Basic Vocabulary and Probabilistic Estimation of Convergence]. In XII traditsionnye chteniia pamiati S. A. Starostina (23–24 marta 2017 g., Moskva) [12th Traditional Readings in Memory of Sergey Starostin (March 23–24, 2017, Moscow)]. Retrieved from https://starlingdb.org/confer/Kassian-2017.pdf

Mazin, A. I. (1984). Traditsionnye verovaniia i obriady evenkov-orochonov (konets XIX — nachalo XX v.) [Traditional Beliefs and Rituals of the Evenki-Orochons (Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries)]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2022a). Nazvaniia soli v ural’skikh iazykakh [Names of Salt in the Uralic Languages]. St Petersburg: Mamatov.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2022b). Khakassko-altaiskii mifonim ker i praeniseiskoe nazvanie mamonta [The Khakas-Altaian Mythonym Ker and the Proto-Yenissean Word for ‘Mammoth’]. I. Voprosy onomastiki, 19(3), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2022.19.3.030

Nikolayev, S. L., & Starostin, S. A. (1994). A North-Caucasian Etymological Dictionary. Moscow: Asterisk Publ.

Novikov, A. I. (1949). Nekotorye analogii k mamontu iz oblasti altaiskoi etnografii [Some Analogies to the Mammoth from the Field of Altai Ethnography]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 11, pp. 160–161). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Potapov, L. P. (1949). Buben teleutskoi shamanki i ego risunki [Tambourines of Teleut Shamans and their Drawings]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 10, pp. 191–200). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Prokofyeva, E. P. (1949). Mamont po predstavleniiam sel’kupov [Mammoth According to the Ideas of the Selkups]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 11, p. 159). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Rastorgueva, V. S., & Edelman, D. I. (Eds.). (2000–). Etimologicheskii slovar’ iranskikh iazykov [Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Languages] (Vols. 1–). Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Starostin, S. A. (1982). Praeniseiskaia rekonstruktsiia i vneshnie sviazi eniseiskikh iazykov [Proto-Yenissean Reconstruction and External Relations of the Yenissean Languages]. In E. A. Alekseenko (Ed.), Ketskii sbornik. Antropologiia, etnografiia, mifologiia, lingvistika [The Kets Collection. Anthropology, Ethnography, Mythology, Linguistics] (pp. 144–237). Leningrad: Nauka.

Starostin, S. A., & Starostin, G. S. (2022). The Tower of Babel. Etymological Database Project. Retrieved from https://starling.rinet.ru/babel.php?lan=en

Steblin-Kamensky, I. M. (1999). Etimologicheskii slovar’ vakhanskogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Wakhan Language]. St Petersburg: Vostokovedenie.

Toporov, V. N. (1969). K voprosu o tipologicheskoi blizosti eniseiskikh iazykov i burushaski [To the Typological Proximity of the Yenissean Languages and Burushaski]. In Proiskhozhdenie aborigenov Sibiri i ikh iazykov [The Origin of the Natives of Siberia and their Languages] (pp. 217–220). Tomsk: TomGU.

Toporov, V. N. (1971). Burushaski and the Yenissean Languages: Some Parallels. Travaux lunguistiques de Prague, 4, 107–125.

Vasilevich, G. M. (1949). Iazykovye dannye po terminu khel ~ kel [Language Data Related to the Term khel ~ kel]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collected Papers of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Iss. 11, pp. 154–156). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.