Влияние средневековых орнитонимов на культуру и язык казахского народа

Полный текст

Introduction

Ornithonyms have always been a source of interest as linguistic units to people. At first glance, they are just bird names, but in a more detailed view, the meanings of those words turn out to be multi-layered. In languages with different structures or even relative languages, the ornithonyms have been assigned various associative and symbolic meanings; this is due to people's attraction to birds. The reason lies in the fact that the ability to fly and the wings – which people have dreamt of possessing for eternity – are attributes given to birds.

The objective of this work is to perform a comparative study of the linguistic units that are part of the ‘ornithonyms’ lexical-semantic group (henceforth referred to as LSG) in the written monument with those in modern Kazakh and other Turkic languages. Also, it aims at taking a closer look at the connotative component, i.e., secondary meaning of ornithonyms in the mentioned languages, their use in a figurative sense; and defining the usage peculiarities of bird names as paremiological units’ components. To achieve this goal there is a need for clarifying the contents of the concepts ‘lexical-semantic field’ and ‘lexical-semantic group’. It is also beneficial to classify and group paremiological units with an ornithonym component in Kazakh ethno-linguistic, explanatory and historical dictionaries. Besides, birds are known to have played an important role in the lives and household of Turkic and other nations. Therefore, there are many fables related to birds in our folklore. Some of them are based on religious knowledge.

According to the ancient Turkic Tanir notion, bird is deemed as the owner of the sky, guardian of the sky, messenger of the heavenly world, the best of all winged creatures. The above-mentioned descriptions are assumed to be about eagle, pigeon, firebird, it can be deduced that in accordance with early Turks’ outlook, reign and governance are derived from the eternal sky. Also, bird was considered the master and guardian of Tanir the Protector. Among them the most revered was eagle for its vigilance and skillfulness for nomads, therefore they decorated their flags with an eagle’s image to symbolize dominance.

Currently, the image of a bird is widely used as a symbol in heraldry, politics, in national currencies. It is not a coincidence that they are depicted in the national symbols of many countries, for instance, the soaring eagle on the national flag of the Republic of Kazakhstan is conceived as the undying sign of freedom and independence. The fact that eagle which has been known as the traditional symbol of imperial and state governance is reflected in the national emblems of Russia, the USA, in the banknotes of states like Albania, Zambia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, necessitates a special study of the use and symbolism of the bird image in heraldry [1].

Thus, it is possible to define the role and importance of bird names in the life of the nation, the collective consciousness of different nations in the world with precision, through paying more attention to their connotative meanings along with their denotative meanings. By intercomparing the number of bird names in certain languages one can discover how well the speakers of those languages got to know the world and universe, by looking into superstitions related to birds — how they cherished the nature, by assessing how efficiently they used bird names while naming babies, bringing up kids, evaluating people’s behavior, their good and bad actions — how closely they communed with nature. All this, at the end of the day, backs up the importance of unraveling the informative data preserved in the historical memory of an ethnos by analyzing the linguistic data manifested in their written monuments. In this regard, the monument ‘Kitab Tarjuman’ written in 14th century and the lexical-semantic group “ornithonyms” in the modern Kazakh have been selected as the targets of research.

Materials and Research Methods

The research work applies such methods as compiling, analyzing as well as historical-comparative, lexical-semantic, component-seme analysis, ethno-linguistic, pragma-linguistic, ethno-cultural analysis.

During the study the comparative method was widely used to identify similarities or differences between objects and phenomena, as well as to find features that are intrinsic to two or more objects.

The semantic framework of linguistic data in the historical archive written for lexicographic purpose was investigated in comparison with modern Turkic language materials. In particular, special attention was paid to the semantic meaning of bird names in modern Kazakh and Turkish languages and the use of particular ornithonyms in a figurative sense.

The methods of pragmalinguistic and linguocognitive analysis were also partly used to define how the pragmatic load applied to actively used bird names that are often found in sources and firmly grounded in the cognitive consciousness of the linguistic community, increasing their semantic potential.

Attention was also paid to the names of birds in works of art (Khorezmi’s ‘Love Letter’) written in the same historical period as ‘Tarjuman’ in order to fully reveal the contextual meaning of figurative uses (‘parrot in the net’), which have already formed in the system of artistic thought of the medieval linguist.

In general, the study of the text is carried out from a different methodological point of view. Here it is important to point out four key approaches that dominate in modern text linguistics:

1) linguistic (‘language-text’ relationship aspect);

2) textual (text as an independent structural and semantic integrity, considered as an entity separate from its author);

3) anthropocentric (‘author-text-reader’ relationship aspect);

4) cognitive (‘author-text-non-textual reality’ relationship aspect). During the study, we tried to use these methods in a complex way. As a result, it was found that the cognitive content of the signs that determine the linguo-semiotic patterns inherent in the structural and semantic organization of a poetic text and its multifaceted features directly depends on such methodological priorities as ‘time’ and ‘space’ and pre-national linguistic traditions.

The discovery of implicit information and semiotic codes in the historical text can be achieved only through cognitive semantics. In the analysis of internal and external connections in the semantic structure of the word, the changes that occur due to the systematic nature of the language and the symbolic nature of language are determined within the semantic field itself. That is to say, if language is a symbolic system characterized by numerous semantic relations, these relations are especially reflected in the historical poetic texts. Therefore, it is essential to refer to the artwork materials during the research.

Literature Overview

There have been many related studies performed in linguistics with regards to bird names (N.Y. Kostina; К.А. Sakhibullina; M.V. Kutyeva; O.B. Simakova, etc.), books written (J. Babalyqov, A. Turdybayev; A. Margulan; Y. Raushanov), research articles published (Kamil Önal; B.M. Suiyerqul, N.N. Bigeldieva;  A.Y. Bolys and others). As this overview illustrates, the bird names system has been considered in the materials of other languages more, however, there have not been many investigations performed from a historical-comparative perspective yet. Therefore, the topicality of this research is related to the following: first, that the lexical-semantic group under analysis plays a big role in the lives of contemporary Turkic nations and is reflected in their languages; secondly, there are few comprehensive researches on the lexical-semantic group ‘ornithonyms’ and bird names as components of phraseological and paremiological units in the Kazakh and Turkic languages; thirdly, the associative and symbolic meanings of ornithonyms in Turkic languages are diverse and they have not been studied diachronically, this might spark interest in ethno-linguistic and linguo-cultural perspectives.

The theory of semantic field founded in the 20th century drew the attention of scholars to the study of systematic relations in languages. Many research works studying semantic fields as well as units (words and word combinations) — lexical-semantic groups (LSG) unified by a common semantic component¹. The categorical-lexical core of the group ‘Ornithonyms’ is a seme ‘bird’ which is identified and clarified by other (differential) semes in bird names. This group accommodates nouns having the general meaning of “winged, feathered, two-legged, beaked … backboned animals”².

Generally, in linguistics there are some difficulties regarding lexical-semantic analyses of words. To perform such analysis, it is required to pay attention to the epidigmatic, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between words, lexis stylistic classification, words recordkeeping based on their stylistic features, complex semantic peculiarities and renovations inherent to lexical units, lexical meanings typology. The lexical-semantic analysis of a linguistic unit covers three dimensions of the word. The identification of the semantic structure of a monosemantic or a polysemantic word is called epidigmatic analysis, and it unravels the internal semantic structure of the word, determines the relations between its lexical-semantic variations (LSV), types of lexical meaning (LM), meanings figurativeness, lexical-semantic variations’ seme structure, the types and methods of their seme-based interactions. Thus, epidigma happens to be a staged comprehensive set of the meanings of a polysemantic word in our language, historically established and derived from each other. The word epidigma includes four meanings: significative, structural, emotive, denotative meanings. The significative meaning of a lexical unit is the holistic picture of objective world fragments. It is the notion signified by the word. In dictionaries it is presented as an explanation. The structural meaning unfolds through the relations of units to each other. Each unit fixed in the system enters into convergent, intercrossed linear (horizontal), networking or syntagmatic relations, and non-linear (vertical) paradigmatic relations with other units. This allows for distinguishing certain lexical-semantic variants of a word. The emotive meaning bears a pragmatic nature and indicates the speaker’s attitude to words, their meanings as well as their impact on people, their relations established in linguistic usage. The denotative meaning (actual meaning) sets various directions of a lexical meaning towards the object it denotes [2].

During the epidigmatic analysis of a word meaning, its integral and differential attributes that differentiate one of its meaning from another and identify the meanings’ derivative in-word causalities, will be reviewed, and it will be defined if they are structures consisting of simple units. E.g., BIRD — noun. zoology.  1. Feathered, winged, two-legged, beaked creatures of different shapes that mostly fly. ... Those who disowned my land, protect my saigas! Do not shoot my birds, do not mow my grass! (M. Maqatayev, The Rock). The bird flies with its wings and lands with its tail ‘proverb). 2. A bird domesticated or hunted for its beauty, feather, meat and eggs. Two systems can be employed for attending swimming birds and turkeys (poultry keeper)³.

From this explanation it can be inferred that the bird LSG is divided into the two groups of ‘wild birds’ and ‘domestic birds’. As hunters define, birds are divided into two big groups, created opposite to each other. The first is permissible birds, the other is hoofed birds⁴. Permissible birds are a group of useful birds whose meat, eggs can be eaten and soft fur can be utilized. Hoofed birds — as they are intuitive, sensitive by nature, they were deemed as the most valuable for hunting with. The birds like eagle, hawk, falcon also belong in this group. The Kazakh people classified birds depending on what they eat as ‘birds of prey’ ‘eagle, black kite, eagle-owl, owl, etc.,), used in hunting animals, that eat meat and are not edible, and ‘permissible birds’ that eat fodder and feeding stuff, i.e., domestic birds like hen, goose, duck, turkey and wild birds.

Also, interesting facts can be encountered in various legends and tales about the ornithonyms like swan, pigeon, eagle, owl, swallow, labelled as revered birds according to the people’s mentality. Apart from these, word combinations like ‘bird of luck’, ‘bird of mood’, ‘bird of dream’ associated with flying/alighting activities of the bird, have many connotative meanings. In use they are conceived based on their associative meanings. If we consider fixed linguistic units formed with the involvement of the word ‘bird’ within a lexical-semantic field, the following is how they are manifested in the modern Kazakh:

Bird of dream. One’s thought, dream.  

Birds in the sky ceased to fly, wind ceased to blow. It was very quiet, deafening silence was set.

One had a dog run and a bird fly from beneath of someone. One scared, freightened someone.

(stallion) that bit a bird ‘bird’s tail).

а) Fast, mobile;

b) Eloquent, sharp-tongued, impetuous;

c) well-spoken, knowledgeable, articulate.

Bird of luck. poetic. Luck is like a bird, it comes flying and lands on one’s hands, happiness, rejoice.

Bird of luck landed on his head. He has been bestowed with luck and prosperity.

One did not let a bird fly over someone. One brought someone up cherishing and indulging him/her.

One’s bird left/flew off his head. His is no longer lucky, lacks fortune.

Bird of peace. Symbol of a peaceful life; dove.

Bird of wealth. Wealth, luck.

Bird of will. poetic. Power of will, tenacity.

The rambling/running animal, flying bird. All animals on earth.

Permissible birds. hunting. A group of useful, halal birds the meat and eggs of which can be eaten, soft fur can be utilized.

Bird of year. а) Birds which fly away to warm places in autumn and return in spring. b) Someone who comes rarely, thus is missed ‘guest).

Bird of poem. Poetic. An inspiration for a poem; muse.

One ran the dog and flew the bird. Entertained and enjoyed.

The bird flew off his soul. One lost his grace, bliss.

Bird of spirit. poetic. Precious secret, deeply rooted feeling.

Bird of reverie. Dream, thought, goal.

Congratulations on (winning) your bird. A wish to a newly married man in the sense of ‘Happy wedding!’.

Hoofed bird. hunting. Hunter birds, eagle birds⁵.

This list can go on meaning that phraseologisms fixed linguistic units pertaining to birds especially poetical usages are not limited by these. However, our goal is not identifying their quantity, but looking into the content and analyzing their meanings.

The Results of the Study

Bird names were covered to some extent in the work deemed as shared heritage for the modern Turkic nations ‘Kitabu majmu’ tarjuman turki ua a’djami ua mughuli ua farsi’ too. In regard to when the work was written, in its end it is stated it was completed in 1245 on January 28 (in some sources — 1343). The dictionary was written to be placed in Haji Kemal ad-Din’s library. The original is kept at the Leiden Academic Library, Netherlands  (№ 517)⁶.

In 1970 A. Kuryshanov, a Kazakh scholar, in his work “Research on the lexis of the ancient Kipchak written monument of XIII century — the Turkic-Arabic dictionary” based on M.T. Houtsman’s study, comprehensively studied the above-mentioned dictionary and translated into Russian [3].

The lexical content of the monument ‘Kitab Tarjuman’ was classified by the author according to the then template as ‘nouns/names’ and ‘verbs’ in two big groups. The first part of the dictionary dedicated to nouns is considerably hefty and as mentioned above, it consists of names classified to 26 chapters based on lexical-semantic meanings. The second part consists of verbs that come by the order of the 27 letters of the Arabic alphabet (no examples forة  andى ). Therefore, it can be asserted that the first part of the dictionary is systematized based on thematic groups while the second part is alphabetized. In both parts Arabic words precede their equivalents in the Turkic language [4]. Only in the part devoted to proper nouns (part 22), vice-versa, the Turkic words follow their Arabic versions.

The bird names targeted in our research are covered on page 6 of the dictionary. It comprises 30 ornithonyms actively used in Turkic languages in the middle ages:

qush — قُوش — qus ‘bird’;

atmacha toghan — اَطْمَاچَا طُغَانْ — aq tuyghyn ‘white hawk’;

baiqush — بَايْ قُشْ — baighyz ‘owl’;

balaban — بَلَبَانْ — qarshygha ‘goshawk’;

büldirchin — بُلْدِرْچِينْ — bödene ‘common quail’;

daghyq — دَغِقْ,  daquq — دَقُقْ — tauyq ‘hen’;

deglükech — دَكْلُوكَچ — kezquyryq ‘black kite’;

yabalaq — يَبَلَقْ — japalaq ‘eagle owl’;

yarasa — يَرَسَا — jarghanat ‘bat’;

köverchin — كُوَرْچِينْ — kögershin ‘dove’,

küchigen — كُچْكَنْ  — küshigen ‘black vulture’,

qaz — قَازْ — qaz ‘goose’,

qaraqush — قَرَاقُشْ — qaraqus, quzghyn ‘common raven’,

qargha — قَرْغَا — qargha ‘crow’,

qarlaghach — قَرْلَغَاچْ — qarlyghash ‘swallow’,

qartal — قَرْطَلْ — bürkit ‘eagle’,

qylquyryq — قِلْ قُيّرُقْ — qaraquyryq, qylquyryq ‘Palas’s sandgrouse’,

lachyn — لَچِيْن — lashyn ‘peregrine falcon’,

ögeyik — اُكَايِكْ — kepter ‘pidgeon’,

ördek — اُورْدَكْ — üirek ‘duck’,

saghyzghan — صَاغِزْغَان — sayusqan ‘common magpie’,

sercha — سَرْچَا, — sarsha ‘sparrow’,

sunqur — سُّنْقُرْ — sunqar ‘falcon’,

syghyrchuq — صِغِرْچُقْ — qara torghay ‘common starling’,

tavshanchyl — طَوْشَانَچِيْلَ, tyshqanshyl ‘keen on mice’ /when the eagle grows old, it hunts on mice;

toghan — طُغَان — tuyghyn ‘hawk’, bird of prey’;

toy — طُيْ — duadaq ‘great bustard’,

turna — طُرْنَا — tyrna ‘grus’,

horus — خُرُوْسْ — qoraz, atesh ‘rooster’

chypchuq — چپْچُوق — shymshyq ‘siskin’ [5].

Most of the mentioned birds are currently used in the modern Turkic languages with some minor peculiarities. It can be proven by their versions presented in the 15-volume Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language⁷ as well as in the dictionaries of relative Turkic languages.

Baiqush ‘baighyz ‘little owl’’ — a nocturnal bird with a spotty brown back, whitish motley front, pointed and hooked beak. It is a cavity nester with its nest found in cliff holes and caves ⁸.

If the peculiarities of ornithonym ‘Baighyz’ in Turkic languages were to be exhibited according to E.V. Sevortian’s etymological dictionary: “1. owl — in all sources except Kabardino-Balkarian, Kyrgyz., Karakalpak, Tatar, Bashkir; eagle-owl — Tatar; small owl — Tatar; 2. Jar-owl ‘bird’ — Kyrgyz, Karakalpak;  3. Barred owl — Bashkir; 4. Poor thing — ‘metaphor’ Kabardino-Balkarian, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Karakalpak, Tatar, Bashkir” ⁹. Traditionally small owl’s crowing was conceived as a bad luck, therefore there have been established different superstitions vis-à-vis this bird. As per ethnographers’ writings, the Kazakhs would move the house if a small owl perched on it and re-build it somewhere else, or take it as a bad luck and go so far as to burn down that house or even burn it down.  “E, baighus-ai (oh, poor thing)”, an expression the Kazakhs say when they feel for someone, must have stemmed from this. Another bird which is mentioned in “Kitab Tarjuman”, pictured positively in the collective consciousness of the modern Turkic nations is a swallow.

Qarlaghach (qarlyghash (swallow)) —

1. A small black-white bird with long and pointy wings and forked tails.
2. fig. Herald, beginning of the new. This mountain is Marusya’s mountain. The eternal land of the first swallow of a good life.
3. fig. An initiator of something new, business. One of the first swallows of the Europea science is the famous Roger Backon (D. Kobesov, Undying star). The members of our youth komsomol squad “Edelweiss”, too, are one of first swallows who took an initiative in our republic (Knowledge and labor).
4. Fig. expr. Offspring, child, posterity. On his way he stopped by his house and took Sunqar and Mirash (boy name), his two swallows with himself. “My two swallows came, I am thrilled to bits”, — saying that Aisha shed tears (Q. Jumaghaliev, White grain).
5. A pen, pencil. Darling, could you lend your swallow (pencil) to our boy (Qyzylorda, Aral dialect).
6. An exercise performed while galloping on horseback.
7. A name originated from the bird’s name ¹⁰.

Swallow — a character of many myths and fairy tales. Our people consider the swallow as sacred to the present. There are legends among people as to why its tail is forked. The swallow is a heavenly bird for Kazakhs. According to those in the know, the chirping swallow appears to sing surahs of the holy Qur’an. The beautiful bird that flies hissing and breaking through air cannot be shot down either with a bullet or with an arrow. If swallows arrive in a rural community, people expect that year to be blessed, prosperous and peaceful. The seniors would forecast weather judging by the way swallows fly. They tend to fly high when the weather is clear and fly low when it is expected to rain. The swallow flying beautifully in the clear sky in an irregular, zigzag pattern is magnificent. They are agile, they hunt and eat their prey that is tiny insects while flying. The person in whose house swallows build nests, does not dismantle it. In old days during one of the Dzungar invasions Tole Biy exposed himself to a risk and would not break down his home to save swallows in it, for which he has been inspiration to this day and he has been honored with the names ‘Swallow byi’, ‘Saint Swallow’ by our people. The swallow is also a symbol of beauty [6. Р. 282–291].

There are many epithets, metaphors and linguistic units with the presence of the ornithonyms ‘swallow’ in the Kazak phraseological stock. We have decided to give some examples below:

Swallow brows — beautiful curved brows like swallows’ wings. I am always ready to go wherever you send me, how can I not be over the Moon?! Good bye, my gallant elder brother, my confidante younger brother, my dear swallow-browed sister! (Т. Aibergenov, I tell you.).

Swallow-voiced — singing well, with good songs.

Oh, my swallow-voiced belle friend,

Many a curve are you shaped with.

When and who begot you, dear,

To the luck of the nation?!

Like a swallow’s wing — fig. With a pointed-end shape ‘of brows). Her eyes must have gotten tired as Janat keeps raising her thin brows shaped like a swallow’s wings and high forehead (G. Mustafin, Millionaire).

Swallow’s friendship — (Turkmen) negligibly minor help, good deed.  To give at least a tiny help to the best of one’s abilities.

It is just a swallow’s friendship from me (Turkmen).

It is worth mentioning that in our language there is an epithet “like sprinkling water with a swallow’s wings” as an alternative to this figurative phrase.

The swallow copy — the first published copy of a book. In 1981 in February “Kokpar” was released to production. It was approved and signed for publishing. After a month the swallow copy came out (Qadyr Myrza-Ali, Whirlpool).

The next ornithonym that is encountered in “Kitab Tarjuman”, used almost in all modern Turkic languages is ördek//üirek ‘duck’.

Ördek (üirek) — an aquatic bird with palmate feet with the toes being webbed, with a wide beak; dwell both on land and in water [4].

Its equivalent in the Turkmen, Karayim, Karakalpak languages is ördek, in Tatar — ürdak, in Bashkir — öirak, in Kazakh — üirek.

The following examples can be given regarding its use in the modern Kazakh:

The duck flew and goose alighted — implies a place abundant with water, a free life. Even a harrier will not stay in a barren land, where there is a lake, there will be ducks flying and geese alighting (Bazar Jurau).

The slow duck flies off first — meaning a person who realizes his plight acts earlier.

The baffled duck dives back to front — a baffled person does not know what to do, hence behaves awkwardly. A duck in a hurry swims back to front.

Relative with a crow’s feather, messmate with a duck’s feather — siblings with a year apart, relatives. Having gone past it, Reached the pasture, My relative with a crow’s feather, Messmate with a duck’s feather, Who I was fed from the same breast with... (‘The Belle Jibek’)¹¹.

Another bird name encountered in “Kitab Tarjuman” is toi//duadaq (bustard).

Toi ‘duadaq’ — a bird with big wings, thick neck inhabiting desert, steppe areas. Bustards predominantly dwell on river banks or in lakes or ponds. Kazakh hunters would hunt bustards using nets, snares and with peregrines, falcons. The bustards’ meat is delicious, it was valued as fancy food.

However, the bustard is not an easy prey to hunt on. In our language there is a set expression pertaining to its cunningness:

A bustard dunged on one’s head (face) — hunting. The bustard defecating on an eagle trying to hunt it and escaping from it by confusing it.

A bustard happens to have dunged on his head. Oh boy, what an ugly sign from the evil bird during the good event, Shubar! — he laughed again (M. Auezov’s work).

With rare exceptions, the bird which cannot be hunted by peregrines is a bustard. It does not escape through its mobility, nor does it fight like geese. Its method of defense is that it waits for the peregrine to approach it to seize and dung on its head and mostly it hits the peregrine’s eyes. Having experienced this, the peregrine will not approach it any more (S. Muqanov, the Kazakh community)¹².

This ornithonym has also been utilized in pieces of folk literature.

Flaunted like a bustard — folklore. A figurative fixed expression to describe the swaying walk of a beautiful girl dressed in decorative clothes that cannot go unnoticed.

A girl with a choker on

Before a morning prayer,

Holding a golden jug 

Walking like a goose with chicks

Flaunting like a bustard,

Putting a fur-coat on her shoulder,

With her face blushing,

Wearing an amulet (the epos Qambar Batyr).

According to a traditional understanding, it was forecasted winter would be mild and warm if bustards stayed in their habitat for winter. In this regard, there is an expression regarding an uncomfortable land to inhabit, used among people:

Not habitable for people, unless bustards will dwell in it — in the meaning of an inconvenient, semidesert, dry land, bare land. A place with no grassland, field, high mountain, lake or river, uneven bare ground with some feather-grass, saline, semidesertic pale road is not habitable for people, unless bustards will dwell in it (J. Aimauytov’s pieces of work).

Through the comparison of the Turkish and Kazakh equivalents of the bird names mentioned in the monument “Kitab Tarjuman…”, we realize that they are mostly similar with some minor phonetic differences:

ba la ba n — qarshygha ‘goshawk’ — şahin;

da ġıḳ — tauyq ‘hen’ — ta vuk;

ya ba la ḳ — japalaq ‘eagle-owl’ — ba ykuş;

ka rġa — qargha ‘crow’ — ka rga ;

ka rla ġa ç — qarlygash ‘nightingale’ — kırla ngıç;

ka z — qaz ‘goose’ — ka z;

köçken — bürkit ‘eagle’ — ka rta l;

köverçin — kögershin ‘dove’ — güvercin;

ördek — üirek ‘duck’ — ördek;

sunḳur — sunqar ‘falcon’ — do ğa n;

turna — tyrna ‘crane’  — vinç;

ho rus — qoraz ‘rooster’ — ho ro z;

çıpçuḳ — shymshyq/torghay ‘sparrow’ — serçe.

Let us now dwell upon the way the ornithonyms shared by the two languages are used within proverbs. For instance:

A crow calls its chick “my snow-white”, a hedgehog calls its chick “my silky soft”.

The meaning: every person tend to overlook the shortcomings of their offspring, too highly evaluates them. There is a saying in our language with a similar meaning: “Everyone sees theirs (near and dears) as if they are the Moon”. This meaning is reflected in Turkish by contrasting the ornithonyms vulture and falcon:

Kuzguna  yavrusu şahin görünür // a crow/vulture sees its chick as a  falcon [7].

A crow never pecks another crow in the eye.

This saying tells us that people who are colleagues, accomplices, companions and those who share an interest never betray; cover each other’s shortcomings and mistakes. In this connection, the following Turkish saying with a similar meaning comes to mind:

It iti ısırma z.

Kurt kurdu yemez / A dog does not bite a dog.

A wolf does not eat a wolf [7].

Mehmet Yazgan, a Turkish professor studied the proverbs and sayings in Turkish related to ornithonyms and published a book called “Türk a ta sözleri, deyimleri ve bilmeceleri” (The Turkish proverbs and sayings) [8]. The work offers Turkish proverbs and sayings with their translations and equivalents in Kazakh.

Bildircinin beyliği, a rpa  biçilene kadar.

A quail is well-mannered only unti barley is harvested .

As we notice, the version of the naming unit quail from the monument ‘Tarjuman’ is preserved in the modern Turkish: Büldirchin / Bildircin.

If we delve into the saying meaning, it insinuates that people behave absolutely differently in good, peaceful times from how they would behave in difficulties or poverty. When barley is growing in the field, there is plenty of food for a quail and other birds, there is no contention. However, when barley is ripe and harvested, birds have to eat what is left in the field, so when food shortage comes, birds start fighting with each other to survive. This, kind of, indicates that people’s relationships might be different in peaceful times as compared to the times of famine, droughts, war and other crises.

Let us review another Turkic saying:

Bügünkü ta vuk ya rınki ka zda n iyidir.

The today’s hen is better than the yesterday’s goose.

The primary idea here is: there is no telling how tomorrow is going to be, therefore we need to do all good deeds today without delay. The second meaning covered in the proverb semantic field is: the earth is round, any deed has a return. The third implication of this proverb is that one should be content with what he has without living in a dream.

One more saying of the Turkic nations containing ornithonyms:

Bülbüle altın ka fes zinda ndır.

It translates into Kazakh like: A golden cage is like prison to the nightingale. The bottom line is freedom that is the state which is always craved by people, their nature. It is the eternal aspiration of humans they strive for till death. Freedom is the ability to live as one wishes in accordance with his established life style and times. There is a simile in Kazakh which shares this meaning and goes like “like the parrot in a /golden/cage”. It means that “a person, usually woman who has no freedom of action will not be happy with their lives even if they are provided for with everything”. E.g., “like a parrot in the cage” and “parrot in the cage”: 1) someone who is not independent and shackled by something; 2) a cooped up enemy who is easy to catch.

The image “a parrot in the cage” ties the expression plane of this linguistic unit with the content plane “like a parrot in the cage”. The reasoning behind this connection comes from the similarity of the locked up person and the cooped up bird in their behaviors and actions [9].

The following saying is of great importance to the two nations who knew the power of words:

Bülbül çektiği dili belasıdır.

The nightingale’s disaster is its singing.

This is a proverb corresponding to the Kazakhs’ “nine of ten troubles are caused by the tongue” or its shorter version “Trouble is caused by the tongue”. The bottomline here is: nowadays there is an enemy which has been setting lands on fire, devastating countries, ruining settlements, and the name for that is the tongue. It is known that Allah granted the tongue to humanity as a great blessing [10]. Just like anything has benefits as well as harm, the “uncontrolled tongue” is also known for exposing its owner to big conflicts and hardships. This thought is incorporated in Kazakh proverbs like “The tongue breaks a stone, otherwise it breaks a head”, “A rooster crowing unduly ends up with his head severed”.

If we gain insight into our past history, we discover numerous proverbs and sayings in the work “Diuani lughat at-Turk” of the ethnographer, Turkology expert, first encyclopedist, scholar Makhmud Qashqari who lived in 11 century.  Some of them are still in use. 

If the goose flies away, the lake will be settled by the duck [11].

Goose — a bird bigger and fatter than a duck. With regards to people, this saying means that if a prominent, high-ranking official leaves, a settlement or region will be governed by someone who is younger, less experienced and less ranked in all aspects.

In this respect, we should dwell upon the proverb “If you eat someone’s duck, prepare your own goose”, composed with the participation of these ornithonyms, that is currently in use.

Another wise expression from the past:

Though you are on the watch for a pheasant ,

Do not forget your hen at your house [12].

The meaning of this proverb is concordant with the above-mentioned saying “a crow lost his way of walking / broke his legs trying to copy a goose”. This fixed expression implies concepts like someone doing things that are not natural to himself by imitating someone else, also not valuing what one has. Humans tend to neglect what they have and realize its value, importance after losing it and regret afterwards.  This proverb is employed to prevent people from unnecessary copying, rivalry.

Thus, the linguistic units, concepts, stereotypes, templates and symbols exhibiting cultural-national peculiarities are the signs reflecting the universal human culture acquired by a native speaking nation [13].

The language through its cumulative property has ensured a dialogue between ancestors and their current descendants. In this regard, the language phraseological units also play the role of cultural stereotypes. Researchers also include paremiological stock in them, because proverbs and sayings can be deemed as the nation’s stereotypical consciousness. Proverbs can be asserted as the language of an ordinary, regular culture established throughout centuries, they cover the native speakers’ life principles, main categories and perspectives of their philosophy in a nutshell.

Conclusions

Summing up the above-mentioned information and opinions, based upon the studies of bird names, the study leads to the following findings: 1) ‘Bird names’ is a special group that has attributes in terms of meaning, etymology as well as specific functionality and style within the macro-group ‘Animals’; 2) The widely spread ornithonyms have entered permanent word stocks and contribute to the creation of ‘the linguistic picture of the world’; 3) Reviewing ethno-linguistic research matters in conjunction with the nation’s background knowledge built on centuries-old experience, will be prioritized in identifying and expounding the attributes of the linguistic picture of the world and national identity as well as mentality; 4) When reviewing the language from a cognitive viewpoint, a semantic unit is recognized not as a certain meaning of a word, but as a semantic field structured and systematized as per linguistic gestalt (frame); 5) Given that the Turkic nations acquired the hunt, domestication and care of wild birds in household from old ages, breeding birds of prey was considered a type of very important craft. Precedent names in the Kazakh history (the names of famous bird breeders, precedent texts established in association with them, inclusion of eagles in seven treasures); 6) The phraseological and paremiological units created with bird names which involve assessment and a system of values are the essential linguistic material constituting the picture of the world; 7) ‘Kitab Tarjuman’ is a valuable heritage that depicts the daily lives of the medieval Turkic nations, and provides information about bird names illustrating close connection between the ethnos and nature. By performing a linguistic analysis of certain lexical-semantic groups in it, we can re-create the picture of the world established in the collective consciousness of our forefathers with relative precision, that, in turn, will significantly contribute to the development of diachronic linguistics; 8) Through analyzing the inner form of a language, scrutinizing linguistic and extralinguistic data altogether, it is possible to identify the peculiarities of ethno-specific phraseological units in the language in conjunction with the native speakers’ national-cultural peculiarities; 9) Proverbs and sayings containing ornithonyms are part of priceless values as linguistic units describing the paremiological picture of the world in the consciousness of Turkic nations. Their scrutiny in comparison with the materials of other languages and written heritage is yet to be carried out.

 

_{¹ Akhmanova, O.S. (2004). Dictionary of Linguistic Terms. Moscow: Edititorial URSS. (In Russ.). EDN: QQUQNX}

_{² Ozhegov, S.I. (1984). Russian Dictionary. Moscow: Russkiy yazyk. (In Russ.).}

_{³ Kuderinova, K., & Uderbayev, A. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 15). Almaty : Dauir; Malbakov, M., Ongarbayeva, N., Uderbayev, A., etc. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 10). Almaty : Dauir.}

_{⁴ Margulan, A. Birds of prey and their natural features. URL: https://el.kz/content-3317_2578/ (accessed: 5.01.2022). (In Turk.).}

_{⁵ Malbakov, M., Ongarbayeva, N., Uderbayev, A. & et al. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 10). Almaty : Dauir. (In Kazakh).}

_{⁶ Houtsma, M. T. (1894). Turkish-Arabic Glossary. Leiden. (In Germ.).}

_{⁷ Kuderinova, K., & Uderbayev, A. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 15). Almaty : Dauir. (In Kazakh).}

_{⁸ Kaliyev, G., Bizakov, S., & Nakysbekov, O. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 2). Almaty. (In Kazakh).}

_{⁹ Sevortyan, E.V. (1974, 1978). Etimological Dictionary of Turkic Languages. ‘Vols. 1–2). Moscow: Nauka. (In Russ.).}

_{¹⁰ Ybyrayim, A., Zhanabekova, A., & Rysbergenova, K. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 9). Almaty. (In Kazakh).}

_{¹¹ Kuderinova, K., & Uderbayev, A. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vol. 15). Almaty : Dauir. (In Kazakh).}

_{¹² Ashimbayeva, N., & Rysbergenova, K. (2011). Dictionary of the Kazakh Literary Language (Vols. 4). Almaty. (In Kazakh).}

Об авторах

Ботагоз Мырзабайкызы Суйеркул

Международная образовательная корпорация

Email: akbotakoz@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0472-8686
Scopus Author ID: 57203212949

доктор филологических наук, ассоциированный профессор

050043, Республика Казахстан, г. Алматы, ул. Рыскулбекова, д. 28

Калдыбай Арыстанбекулы Кыдырбаев

Египетский университет исламской культуры Нур-Мубарак

Автор, ответственный за переписку.
Email: afira-62@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9958-520X
Scopus Author ID: 57191898782

кандидат филологических наук, и.о. доцента кафедры арабского и английского языков

050012, Республика Казахстан, г. Алматы, пр. Аль-Фараби, д. 73

Анар Абдикадиевна Мустафаева

Казахский национальный университет имени аль-Фараби

Email: mustafayeva.anar@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6878-4946
Scopus Author ID: 56719791900

кандидат филологических наук, ассоциированный профессор факультета востоковедения

50040, Республика Казахстан, г. Алматы, пр-т. аль- Фараби, д. 71

Мергуль Сабитовна Кулахметова

Маргулан университет

Email: kmergul@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0009-0003-9357-415X
Scopus Author ID: 57189065212

кандидат филологических наук, профессор Высшей школы гуманитарных наук

140000, Республика Казахстан, г. Павлодар, ул. Олжабай батыра, д. 60

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