Oriental Studies (Dec 2024)
‘The Messenger to Articulate an Oral Order of Mine’: A Comparative Study of Khan Ayuka’s Oirat-Language (Clear Script) Correspondence Texts and Their Synchronic Russian Translations
Abstract
Introduction. The archived Oirat-language (in Clear Script) letters by Khan Ayuka are also available in their synchronic Russian translations. The seventeenth-eighteenth communication practices could involve oral messages to be transmitted to the addressee by the envoy, and such message would be openly indicated in the letter. To date, this aspect of correspondence has received no special attention, despite the specified structural and substantive element of official Kalmyk narratives — and related translations — is important enough as a marker of records management norms inherent to that era. Goals. The article seeks to identify peculiarities of certain linguistic patterns employed to express there are (were) additional data to be delivered orally — both in a Kalmyk text and its translation. The work shall also consider the practice of including such oral messages into synchronic Russian translations. Materials. The study examines a total of 236 letters (and their translations) by Khan Ayuka from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and Kalmykia’s National Archive dated between 1665 and 1724. The identified scope of official texts contains 41 mentions of oral messages. Results. In Clear Script texts and their synchronic Russian translations, mentions of additionally available messages to be delivered orally are articulated with standard formulas that however do not exclude some lexical and grammatical variability. Oral messages of Khan Ayuka would be regularly included into their Russian translations after 1716, which attests to a gradual change in standard procedures for Clear Script letters, further improvement of records management processes in general — and translation processes in particular. The recorded oral parts may repeat the data given in the letter, explain reasons behind the request contained therein, or essentially supplement the written message. The markers of such once oral fragments are the colloquial particle de, passive constructions, and set formulas that precede any written record of the messenger’s oral speech. Such written narratives may contain graphic indications of thematic sections, the latter’s numerical designations, and confirming signatures of the messenger proper.
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