ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

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’. 1

Voprosy onomastiki, 2022, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp. 65–82 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2022.19.3.030

Received on 5 September 2022

Abstract: The image of a mammoth is well known in folklore and mythological traditions of the peoples of Siberia, since people often found tusks and whole skeletons of this animal. The understanding of the mammoth as a giant fish with horns is specific for central-western Siberia. This image is most characteristic of the culture of the Kets, Selkups, Ob-Ugrians and Evenks. In the epic tales of the Altaians and the Khakas, as well as in their shamanic tradition, there is a notable image of a giant fish, ker balyq, often represented as a giant pike living underwater and underground (similarly to the mammoth-fish known among the peoples of the taiga zone). The term ker is applied in the Altai and Khakas traditions to some other mythological creatures, including mammoth bones found in the ground. The word ker is not explained from the Turkic languages and has no etymology. The epic tales of the Altaians and the Khakas featuring ker balyq reveal very good parallels with the mythological texts of the Kets, Selkups, and Khanty in which the mammoth-fish (Ket tel) appears in the place of ker balyq. Based on the Ket ¹tēľ ~ Yug ¹čel ‘mammoth-fish,’ it is possible to reconstruct Proto-Yeniseian *čer — a form that in the Pumpokol language should have given a regular form *kher which is obviously the source for the Altai and Khakas ker. Thus, the Altaian-Khakas ker should be considered as a borrowing from the Pumpokol *kher, and the reconstruction of Proto-Yeniseian *čer (according to S.A. Starostin) / *ťèkər (according to H. Werner) ‘mammoth-fish’ can be considered quite reliable.

Keywords: mammoth; etymology; languages; mythology and folklore of Siberia; Yeniseian languages; Ket language; Pumpokol language; Altaian language; Khakas language.

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

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

Dulzon, A. P. (1962). Byloe rasselenie ketov po dannym toponimiki [The Former Settlement of the Kets According to Toponymic Data]. In E. M. Murzaev, & V. A. Nikonov (Eds.), Voprosy geografii. Sb. 58: Geograficheskie nazvaniia [Problems of Geography. Vol. 58: Geographical Names] (pp. 50–84). Moscow: Geografgiz.

Dulzon, A. P. (1963). Etnicheskii sostav drevnego naseleniia Zapadnoi Sibiri po dannym toponimiki [Ethnic Composition of the Ancient Population of Western Siberia According to Toponymic Data]. In Trudy XXV Mezhdunar. kongressa vostokovedov [Collected Works of the 25th International Congress of Orientalists] (Vol. 3, pp. 289–295). Moscow: Nauka.

Dyrenkova, N. P. (1949). Materialy po shamanstvu u teleutov [Materials on Shamanism among Teleuts]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Works of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Vol. 10, pp. 108–190). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Helimski, E. A. (2000). Komparativistika, uralistika: lektsii i stat’i [Comparative Studies, Uralistics: Lectures and Articles]. Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul’tury.

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 [Works of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Vol. 11, pp. 133–154). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Ivanov, V. V. (1977). Nazvaniia slona v iazykakh Evrazii. 1–3 [Names of the Elephant in the Languages of Eurasia. 1–3]. In Zh. Zh. Varbot et al. (Eds.), Etimologiia. 1975 [Etymology. 1975] (pp. 148–161). Moscow: Nauka.

Ivanov, V. V. (1982). Ketsko-amerindeiskie sviazi v oblasti mifologii [Ket-Amerindian Сonnections in the Field of Mythology]. In E. A. Alekseenko (Ed.), Ketskii sbornik. Antropologiia, etnografiia, mifologiia, lingvistika [The Kets Collection. Anthropology, Ethnography, Mythology, Linguistics] (pp. 132–143). Leningrad: Nauka.

Mazin, A. I. (1984). Traditsionnye verovaniia i obriady evenkov-orochonov [Traditional Beliefs and Rituals of the Evenks-Orochons]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2010). K probleme rekonstruktsii udmurtskoi epicheskoi traditsii [On the Problem of Reconstruction of the Udmurt Epic Tradition.]. In Ya. V. Vasilkov, & M. L. Kisilier (Eds.), Poetika traditsii [Poetics of Tradition] (pp. 208–230). St Petersburg: Evropeiskii dom.

Nikolaev, R. V. (1985). Fol’klor i voprosy etnicheskoi istorii ketov [Folklore and Issues of Ethnic History of the Kets]. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk University Press.

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

Potapov, L. P. (1949). Buben teleutskoi shamanki i ego risunki [Tambourine of Teleut Shamans and Its Drawings]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Vol. 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 [Collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Vol. 11, p. 159). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Propp, V. Ya. (1928). Morfologiia skazki [Morphology of Fairy-tale]. Leningrad: Academia.

Senkevich-Gudkova, V. V. (1949). Mamont v fol’klore i izobrazitel’nom iskusstve kazymskikh khantov [Mammoth in the Folklore and Fine Arts of the Kazym Khanty]. In S. P. Tolstov (Ed.), Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii [Works of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography] (Vol. 11, pp. 156–159). Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

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

Tikhonov, A., Agenbroad, L., & Vartanyan, S. (2003). Comparative Analysis of the Mammoth Populations on Wrangel Island and the Channel Islands. Deinsea. Annual of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, 9, 415–420.

Werner, H. (2006). Die Welt der Jenissejer im Lichte des Wortschatzes. Zur Rekonstruktion der jenissejischen Protokultur. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.