Monumenta Altaica

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Liu Ge. 'Three issues and three ways of studying the Old Uigur Contracts' ...Quite a number of predecessors have already tried to date the Old Uygur contracts. Yamada Nobuo's conclusion is rather general, that is, the dates are from the 9th to the 14th century. I consider the dates between 13th and 14th century as more precise, based on my long research on these documents and study of their features.
L.M. Ivshin. 'J.E. Fischer's materials on Udmurt Language: linguistic description' … In 1995 J.E. Fischer's linguistic materials on Udmurt Language were published in Germany by Janos Gulya in a separate book 'Vocabularium Sibiricum: (1747); der etymologisch-vergleichende Anteil' [Gulya 1995]. In the present work we have tried to give a more detailed treatment of orthographic, phonetic, and lexical features of the Udmurt part of 'Siberian Vocabulary' by J.E.Fischer.
L.Hofirkova. 'Saami loanwords in Finnish language' ...We do not agree with Aikio's interpretation of sound correspondences of Saami loanwords in Finnish as etymological and phonetic nativization. Instead, we follow the traditional method of describing such different correspondences as different levels of loan. In this article we have collected all Saami loanwords in Finnish, which were described in dictionaries [SSA; SKES] and in PhD thesis by A.Aikio [Aikio 2009]. We have analyzed these examples from etymological point of view and have divided the words into three groups.
N.V.Kondratieva. 'Expressing spatial relationships in Modern Udmurt' … Substituting postpositive constructions with case affixes is permitted only in some cases of named localizations. In this respect, type of surface on which the movement takes place, and also, in some cases, physical and geometrical properties of the reference object are significant.
E.P. Matochkin, L.N. Tybykova, I.A. Nevskaya, M. Erdal. 'Petroglyphs and runic inscriptions on the stones from Kezek-Elani' It was recently reported that ancient Turkic and Scythian cave paintings were found in the lower Inegen valley, rich in ancient monuments. In the fall of 2005 E.P. Matochkin discovered two stones with petroglyphs on the same site. We offer a first attempt to read them.
E.M.Napolnova 'Spatial directionality in the worldview of the Turks' The situation in Turkic is analogous to that in Russian or Chinese, i.e. the Turks, evidently, had 'planar' mentality: native speakers of Modern Turkic indicate that adverbs uzak 'far' и yak?n 'close' can be used only in relation to objects situated at the same level as the speaker, i.e. at the ground level. To test this hypothesis we offered the following situation to the speakers: someone is climbing up the mountain and seeks a certain house. (S)he asks a passer-by, if it is a long way ahead. What could be the answer, if the house is far? We had the following answers: Daha ?ok ??kacaks?n , Daha ?ok y?r?yeceksin , Daha var , Daha yukar?+da . Use of uzak was unacceptable. If the house is close, the following answers are possible: ?ok az kald? , Hemen ?urada , but not yak?n.
E.D. Polivanov …A previously unpublished altaistic paper by E.D. Polivanov was found in 2009 in the Prague archive of R. Jacobson (earlier within the Archive of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, currently in the Museum of Czech Literature - Pam?tn?k n?rodn?ho p?semnictv?); it had been accidentally kept together with the accentuation patterns of Tosa dialect ('Materials on accent in Tosa dialect').
Discussions

I. Discussion

S.V. Onina 'Lexico-semantic groups of reindeer-naming words in Khanty Language' … We have studied Khanty reindeer-breeding vocabulary which is in common usage due to established historical relationship between reindeer-breeders of Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets autonomous areas.
Yu.V.Normanskaja 'Origin of reindeer breeding among Khanty'. (Comments on the article by S.V.Onina 'Lexico-semantic groups of reindeer-naming words in Khanty Language'). …The fact, that most Khanty words for reindeer are borrowed from the Nenets Language should indicate, that reindeer breeding itself formed among Khanty under the influence of Nenets people. But then, how to explain archaeological finds of Ob-Ugrian reindeer harnesses, which testify irrefutably for the original character of Khanty reindeer breeding? A conclusion on this question would be very important not only for linguists, ethnographers, cultural studies specialists, historians, palaeobiologist, but also for the native speakers of Khanty language, who are proud of their traditional craft. In the present work we will try to give a final answer to the question.
II. Discussion

V.I. Rassadin. 'Nomad cattle-breeding lexical complex in Mongolian languages in the light of Turkic-Mongolian linguistic relationship' Nomad cattle-breeding vocabulary in Mongolian languages gives sufficient evidence for borrowing the corresponding Turkic terms. The appearance of the Turkisms can be explained by the following. A part of proto-Bulgar tribes (with self-name ogur, and features of lambdaism and rotacism in the language), who were occupied with dairy-cattle breeding, roamed the steppes of Central Asia in ancient times. Later, they were conquered by Mongols, who incorporated them into Mongolian ethnic structure; Ogurs formed a separate ethnic group with hybrid name *ogur mongol (cf. modern Khalkha оор монгол 'true mongol'). After some time Ogurs have adopted Mongolian language, but preserved many elements of their proto-bulgarian substrate language, including nomad cattle-breeding vocabulary. They have incorporated these elements into ancient Mongolian language which, in turn, acquired a mixed character.
A.V.Dybo 'A remark on the article by V.I. Rassadin' Cattle-breeding vocabulary common for Turkic and Mongolian languages can be divided into several groups: 1) Late borrowings of horse-breeding and sheep-breeding terms from Mongolian languages into separate groups of Turkic languages; 2) Several groups of borrowings of camel-breeding and livestock-breeding terms during the period between III and XII centuries (starting from Xianbei till ancient Uigur times); 3) Original Altaic words pertaining to horse-breeding and some domestic animals. A number of Turkic words from the second group for domestic animals have parallels of the Altaic level in Mongolian, designating wild animals.
Reviews

Dobzhanskaya rev. of: Jarkko Niemi, Anastasia Lapsui. Network of songs. Individual songs of the Ob' Gulf Nenets: Music and local history as sung by Maria Maksimovna Lapsui. - Société Finno-Ougrienne, Helsinki 2004. - 202 p.
Bela Kempf. Rev. to: (ed.) Tumurtogoo, D. with the collaboration of G. Cecegdari Mongolian monuments in Uigur-Mongolian script (XIII-XIV centuries). Introduction, transcription and bibliography. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. 2006. [Language and Linguistics Monograph Series A-11]
G.Ts.Purbeev. Rev. of: Монгол хэлний дэлгэрэнг?й тайлбар толь. Таван боть: 1 (А-Г), 11 (Д-Л), Ш (М-С), 1V (Т-Х?), V (Х-Я), 3238 х., Ер?нхий редактор Л.Болд. Улаанбаатар, 2008 (Academic Defining Dictionary of Mongolian Language. Vs.1-V, 3238 p. Chief editor L.Bold. Ulan-Bator, 2008)