THE BURYAT ANNALS IN THE OLD MONGOLIAN SCRIPT

As we know, the invention of writing marked the real beginning of human civilization. The well-known American historian James H. Breasted noted that “the invention of writing and convenient system for recording on paper was of greater importance for the further development of the human race than any sort other of intellectual achievement in human history” [15, P. 53].

Spiritual and material culture of Mongolian peoples, primarily associated with the nomadic way of life of nomads, and many aspects of their written culture have long remained outside the purview of researchers. Meanwhile, the history of writing and book printing of Mongols has a long tradition. The Mongols created original nomadic civilization, one of the achievements and an integral part of this civilization is writing. According to Mongolian scientist L. Chuluunbaatar “in world history, there is no other people as nomadic Mongols, which used for its long history of more than ten varieties of writing” [11, P. 3].

In the era of Chinggis Khan, at the beginning of the XIII century among the Mongols was extended writing borrowed from the Uighurs.

Aspects of the history of the language and script of the Mongolian people were the subject of scientific research of linguists J. Schmidt, O. Kovalevsky, K.F. Golstunskiy, G.I. Ramstedt, B. Laufer, B. J. Vladimirtsov, N.N. Poppe , G.D. Sanzheyev, Kara Dyerd, F.W. Cleaves, E. Haenisch, L. Ligeti, B. Rinchen, Ts. Damdinsuren, Chinggeltei, A. Luvsandendev, H. Luvsanbaldan, Ts. Shagdarsuren, Sh. Bira, D. Tumurtogoo, Ts. B. Tsydendambaev, I.D. Buraev, A.A. Darbeeva, L.D. Shagdarov, V.I. Rassadin, G.Ts. Pyurbeev and others, as well as historians G. Sukhbaatar, W. Heissig, H. Perlee, N. Ser Odzhav, C. Dalai, J. Shuger, L. Chuluunbaatar and other.

The territorial unity and cultural area of settlement of the Mongolian peoples and tribes suggests that the Mongolian alphabet spread among the northern Mongolian tribes, including the Buryats, in the early Middle Ages. Perhaps some Mongolian tribes used Mongolian script before the formation of the Mongol Empire, as in the “Secret History of the Mongols” contains well-established lexical elements from the first advanced written culture, for example, bičik ‘letter’, debter ‘notebook’, ča'alsun ‘paper’ [17, P. 116].

Studying the history of writing of peoples of Central Asia shows that the emergence of a new literary language was associated with the formation of a new state, that this was one of the main manifestations of the idea of the state sovereignty, for example, Chinggis Khan, ascended the throne, he declared the Mongolian writing by the state language of his empire. In this regard, all the affairs of state, official documents, diplomatic messages, recording conversations of Khan and princes with others, wills drawn up in the Mongolian language. In the era of state Ikh Mongol Uls a lot of attention paid to the development of culture, science, development of legislation, the creation of cities. Moreover, in 1237 the program of organization the exam for writing was developed throughout the empire. The exam covers not only scribes. Following the results of the examination have been selected 4030 people who were taken to the civil service or were appointed as scribes. The Philological Academy (bičig-ün küriyelen) was even created, whose function is to compile, maintain chronicles. Also in this era on orders of Ugedei Khan in Karakorum were organized Mongolian schools, created secret archive of kaganate and library [11, P. 14].

Thus, the sources of origin of the written heritage of the Mongolian peoples, including the Buryats, can be attributed to this period, because according to the “Secret History of the Mongols”, the ancestors of the Buryats - Khori tribes and Barguts – protomongol treated and had a close connection with genealogy of the ruling family of Mongols Borjigin that as Khori, descended from Alan-goa and Bodonchar.

There are several versions about the time of Old Mongolian language based on the dialect of the tribe and who borrowed it from ancient Uighurs in mongol literature. One of the hypotheses is linking borrowing Uighur script with Naiman and Kereyit. Some scientists as J. Schmidt, A.M. Pozdneyev, B.J. Vladimirtsov, G.D. Sanjeyev, N.N. Poppe and others are shared this point of view. However, last years there is a new version, according to which the old Mongolian script first appeared in the Khidan. Scientists L. Ligeti, D. Kara, Chinggeltei, Ts. Shagdar, E.A. Kuzmenkov are supported this idea [12, P. 4].

Mongols under nomadic lifestyle were able to create, maintain and deliver to our days unique monuments of culture of the Mongolian people, among them a special place is occupied the historical chronicles. The researcher B.Z. Bazarova writes: “The Mongol Chronicles are a special phenomenon in the system of cultural heritage of the Mongolian people. Strikingly, a nomadic people who lived for centuries in incredibly difficult natural conditions, not having fixed centers, managed to create real masterpieces of culture, including written records. This special, specific works created in the steppes and impregnated by “aroma of steppes”, they brought us the artless romance, drama ancient of steppe collisions: brutal tribal wars and bride kidnapping, forcible unification of warring tribes and cattle rustling, the formation and decay of the nomadic empires and touching family scenes” [2, P. 5].

The chronicles of Mongolian peoples have an open system, on the one hand, stored and used the tradition, on the other - updated with new forms, the original text. They from an artistic point of view are the synthesis of various genres as chronicles integrate various ancient sources, written and oral, narrative and documentary.

Actually the Buryat same work on the old Mongolian script began to appear in the eighteenth century in connection with the consolidation of Buryats as an independent nation. Among the monuments of the old Mongolian script chronicles occupy the very important place. Chronicles are not only a valuable source of historical and cultural information, but also significant original literary monuments.

These monuments have enjoyed great popularity among the Buryat readers. They were circulated only in manuscript, which spread ascetics - bibliophiles of Buryat steppes. The Buryat chronicles are not like European or Russian chronicles, even Mongolian. The characteristic feature of the Buryat chronicles is their syncretism, mixing historical and literary genres and styles. The most readable and popular chronicles include chronicles by representatives of the Buryat steppe aristocracy “Khorinsky Chronicle “The legend of Balzhin Khatun” (1760-1770) , published by A.M. Pozdneyev [13, P. 47-55]; “The History of Aga Buryats”, written by the main taisha of Aga Buryats Tugultur Toboev in 1863 [9, P. 5-47]; The History of Selenga Buryats, written by the main taisha of Selenga Buryats Dambi-Jaltsan Lombotsyrenov in 1868 [8]; Tne Annals of Khory- Buryats, written by the head of tsagan tribe Vandan Yumsunov in 1875 [9, P. 49-172]; The Chronicle of Khory-Buryats, written by the assistant of the taisha of Khory-Buryats Shirab-Nimbu Hobituev in 1887 (there are about 30 versions of this chronicle) [10]; The History of Barguzin buryats, written by the main taisha of Barguzin buryats Tsydebzhab Sakharov in 1887 [7] and others.

It should be noted that accurate information about the number of Buryat chronicles and their authors have not yet been identified because the manuscripts are in various archival collections in Ulan-Ude, Irkutsk, Chita, Tomsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ulan-Bator, Peking, Hailer as well as in private collections [1, P. 5-7].

Nowadays are identified about 40 large and small Buryat annals, 20 chronicles of them are published in the modern Buryat language, 11 chronicles are translated into Russian and published, one Chronicle is translated into English, 9 chronicles are published in old-script Mongolian language. The Buryat published chronicles are only one part of the chronicle heritage of Buryats, most of them are still in manuscript.

Researchers have long noted that the Buddhist spiritual writings, the borrowed Buryats from Mongolian, compiled unchanged, whereas in the observed secular works quite noticeable deviations from the classical Mongolian language.  A.D. Rudnev, B.J. Vladimirtsov, N.N. Poppe and V.A. Kazakevitch are written about this. This fact was the basis for B.J. Vladimirtsov and his disciples and followers G.D. Sanzheev and T.A. Bertagaev advance the proposition that in Buryatia became gradually formed a special literary dialect of the Old Mongolian Buryat language, named B.J. Vladimirtsov one of the “dialectical Mongolian script” [6, P. 29].

Scientist G. Rumyantsev wrote that “the Buryats during one century created a rich historical literature, mainly of chronicle character. In his works, the authors tested the Buryat dual effect: on the one hand, the old tradition has influenced from Mongolian historiography, mainly two chronicles, had a great reputation in Buryatia - chronicle of Sagan Sechen and “Altan tobchi”; on the other hand, knowledge of  the Russian literature reflected more critical approach to the sources” [14, P. 13].

The Buryat historical chronicles, being part of the cultural heritage of the Buryats, reflect many aspects of their social life, so they deserve a special study. In the era of totalitarian regime data monuments of historiography of Buryatia XVII-XIX centuries, like all literary heritage is drilled on old Mongolian script, were forgotten, thrust into the background, and moreover, many valuable artifacts were barbarously destroyed.

The Old Mongolian language for a long time was the only literary form of the Mongolian languages. Buryats used this letter until the thirties of XX century. In 1931, the transition to the Latin alphabet in 1939 – to the Cyrillic alphabet . However, until 1936 the newspaper, clerical partially printed on the old Mongolian language, which served as the book-written language. Later Russian graphic basis of the Buryat language gradually replaced the Old Mongolian vertical script.

As we know, the language is having oral and written forms of existence, more viable as compared with non-literate languages, and the languages that have writing, but no longer in the oral ( Latin, Greek , etc.).

Impossible to evaluate the role of writing in the old Mongolian cultural and historical development of the Buryat nation and civilization of its importance for the Buryat people. And it seems to us that the change in types of visual communication entailed oblivion The Old Mongolian script, which has a negative impact on the further development of the Buryat language and culture, as a result of this process, the Buryat people lost access to the unique monuments of history, medicine, linguistics, ethnography, folklore, literature, philosophy, which were fixed on the Old Mongolian script. As we see, the new writing often occurs during the formation of the new state, being one of the main manifestations of the idea of state sovereignty.

As shown by studies of the Buryat language chronicles works of Buryat authors have different deviations from the norms of classical Mongolian written language [1]. Meanwhile deviation from norms of classical Mongolian written language are found not only in the monuments of Buryat chronicles, but in Mongolian chronicles, for example, in the Mongolian chronicles XVIII century “Altan tobchi” written by  Mergen Gegen. Researcher of this monument P. Baldanzhapov notes: “On the whole chronicle “Altan tobchi” Mergen Gegen’s written in classic Mongolian written language. However, it found deviations from the norms of the language” [3, P. 55].

B.J. Vladimirtsov on this occasion said: “circulated among various Mongolian tribes, speaking on different dialects, Mongolian written language began to assimilate to a certain extent, these dialects. The influence of folk speech was detected and spelling, because it has become reflect phonetic features of dialects and morphology, also changing under the influence of borrowing from folk dialects, and dictionary. Classic rules, reflected mainly in the print media, had nothing to do with the natural movement: written language began increasingly to serve the vital needs of the Mongols, was closer to a living national language” [6, P. 28]. Moreover, B.J. Vladimirtsov thought possible even speak “about the distinct Mongolian written dialects, wearing the scars of adverbs that say the traditions of media which they arose” [Ibid, P. 29].

Availability of loan words from the Russian language is the main difference the historical texts of the Buryats from the Mongol chronicles.

Baikal region since ancient times is represented as zone ethnocultural relations between peoples of Central Asia, Western and Eastern Siberia, which influenced the formation of a special culture of open type capable of cultural innovation, tolerant of other ethnic presence. The fact of entering peoples of Siberia to the Russian state had historic significance for the Buryats, not only in social and cultural terms, but also linguistically. In connection with the penetration of Russian elements of material and spiritual culture in the Buryat language poured a huge amount of loanwords from Russian. Some tokens were influenced spoken Buryat language which does not suffer in the beginning and end of a word in one syllable confluence of several consonants, characteristic for the Russian language.

For example, the Chronicle of Khory-Buryats written by Vandan Yumsunov is one of the reliable sources, which reflects the written forms of writing borrowed words from the Russian in XVIII-XIX centuries: ökrüg (p. 57) < округ ‘district’, ca-ari (p. 57) < царь ‘king’, storoγ ( p. 60) < острог ‘fort’, γourud (p. 60) / γorud  (p. 66) < город ‘town’, kiris (p. 61) / keris (p. 85) < крест  ‘cross’, celiini (p. 61) < селение ‘village’, imperaturica (p. 66) < императрица ‘queen’, diputad (p. 68) < депутат ‘deputy’, gübirnatur (p. 75) < губернатор ‘gubernator’, cinatur (p. 76) < сенатор ‘senator’, qangtoora (p. 77) < контора ‘office’, karab (p. 78) < граф ‘lord, count’, pomoošnig (p. 80) < помощник ‘help, assistant’, midal (p. 80) < медаль ‘medal’, qavaliir (p. 81) < кавалер ‘cavalier’, sobiidnig (p. 82) < советник ‘adviser, councillor’, miniistar (p. 82) < министр ‘minister’, circuliir (p. 84) < циркуляр ‘circular’, roos misioniir (p. 85) < русский миссионер ‘Russian missionary’, našilniγ (p. 87) < начальник ‘chief’, qoopi (p. 90) < копия ‘copy’, biiburnui (p. 119) < выборный ‘elective’ and etc.

However, it should be noted that the author of the Khory-Buryat chronicle quite competently in writing reflects Russian borrowing. This suggests that the Buryat chronicler V. Yumsunov had a good command of the Russian language spoken one, for example, he writes: qangtoora ‘office’, diputad ‘deputy’, imperator // impiratur ‘imperator’, pomošniγ ‘assistant’, polqobniγ // bolqobniγ ‘Colonel’, giniral // geniral ‘General’, etc., which is adequately written forms of the Russian language and norms of oral pronunciation of Russian speakers.

With the arrival of Russian qazaks a flood of borrowings from Russian is pouring in speech of Aboriginals of Siberia, including the Buryats. Borrowings from Russian business vocabulary are reflected in all the annals of the Buryats, for example, in the Annals of Barguzin Buryats written by Ts. Sakharov are identified the following Russian words: qantor ‘office’, qortiγ ‘cutlass’, čelin ‘member’, prikodska surγuli ‘parochial school’, jemske süd ‘district court’, podpiske ‘subscription’, obšistau-a ‘society’, qoolus ‘ear’, činobniγ ‘official’, qangdad ‘candidate’, γalabnui tayiša-a ‘main taisha’, general gübirnatur ‘Governor-General’, yepiskob ‘bishop’, adyutant ‘adjutant’, jasidatil ‘assessor’, statističiske ‘statistical’ and etc. Ts. Sakharov had a good command of the Russian language as a written one, and oral form, so foreign-language Russian words adequately almost original form given to them by the Old Mongolian language.

In general, overlooking texts of the Khory-Buryats chronicles, we should note that it is written with reliance on people's spoken language. The language of the Buryat chronicles is closed to the spoken Buryat language. We must to note, that the Buryat language background of chronicles written version is intermediate between the classical Mongolian written language and the spoken form of the Buryat language that’s why we can consider that the Chronicles of Khory-Buryats are the monuments of the Buryat written culture.

The materials contained in the texts of the Buryat annals are of great interest to linguists, lexicographers, writers, anthropologists, especially for historians, as the authors of the Buryat chronicles were created his works based on ancient traditions collected personally, own memories, as well as on the basis of original archival affairs of Steppe Dooms, datsans, of Chancery of Irkutsk governor-generals with the number and date of the relevant document.