Vlada V. Baranova
National Research University «Higher School of Economics»
Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation.
Abstract
The paper deals with the results of language contact between closely related languages. Kalmyk and Buryat, Mongolic languages in Russia, were separated from other Mongolic varieties during the Soviet time. In post-Soviet time, language contact is an important factor for a changing of terminology and other applied issues of language planning. The paper focuses on the perceptual relatedness of languages and attitudes to the new borrowings among speakers. This study is based on interviews with teachers, language activists and speakers of Kalmyk and Buryat and on observations of online communication. The paper discusses the development of terminology in Kalmyk and, for comparison, in Buryat. In particular, the respondents comment the replacement of old Russian loanwords to Mongolian root borrowed from close-related languages, i.e. from Oirat for Kalmyk and Khalkha Mongolian for Buryat. According to the ideology of purism, such development is considered as a return to authentic Oirat or Mongolian words. At the same time, the part of speakers is not agree with measures of the language planning and criticize the change of terminology.
Keywords: language contact, closely related languages, Kalmyk, Buryat, perceived similarity
For citation: Baranova V.V.New language contact of closely-related languages: the Mongolic-speaking groups in search of authenticity. Sociolinguistics, 2021, no. 1(5) [online], pp. 78–90. (In Russ.) DOI:10.37892/2713-2951-2021-1-5-78-90