This lengthy introduction is quite indispensable for my subject, the Tungus literary language, since I feel an explanation of the abnormal conditions under which this new language came into existence is quite necessary. It is Vasilevich who is responsible for its creation. Still, some other persons were of importance, so far as the orthography and final shape of the language are concerned.
Now we shall proceed with our inquiry. The first question to be answered is how and on what materials this language has been constructed.
Vasilevich herself investigated the dialects spoken by those Tungus who lived in the basin of the Enissei River, stretching between the confines of the left tributaries of the Ob River to the west and the tributaries of the Lena River to the east, within the northern part of Irkutsk Government [26]. The latter group is of special interest for us, for Vasilevich says the literary Tungus language was based on this dialect. According to her, two Enissei dialects ought to be distinguished, the Northern and the Southern. The latter comprises three subdialects: the Sym (a tributary of the Ob River), the Upper Nepa (a small left tributary of the Lower Tunguska — in its sources within the Kirensk District), and the Lower Nepa [27]. The last two subdialects are spoken by those Tungus living northwest of the Lena, i.e., in the northern part of the Kirensk District of Irkutsk Government. Speakers of the Lower Nepa subdialect are scattered among the Russians and have given up their former occupations of hunting and reindeer breeding [28].
The language of the Nepa River Tungus (the Nep dialect) was selected for promotion to Literary Tungus, for it had satisfied the requirements of the authorities who stipulated that: 1) it should be a dialect of «working” Tungus, i.e., «proletarized” (as opposed to economically independent Tungus), the most advanced economically and politically; 2) it should have a central geographical position; 3) it should be «used by a large group of Tungus”; and 4) it should be the least influenced by other languages [29]. That is the theoretical setting of the problem. However, we find the actual motives are somewhat different if we look at things a little bit closer. The truth is, a large number of these Tungus being Russianized and living together with Russians under the stress of a disorganized life, rushed together with the Russians to the big cities. Some of them went under the pretext of getting an education in such centers of education as Irkutsk and Tomsk, whence they moved on to St. Petersburg, the center for the creation of Literary Tungus. That is why the Nepa River dialect was far better represented than any other dialect.
These Tungus, half-denationalized and without an educational background, had to adjust themselves to the requirements of their new protectors. They accepted uncritically the ideas that might help them to become persons of importance among their own people. For these denationalized proletarians, despised even by their clansmen, promotion to the rank of privileged officials naturally was too big a temptation to be resisted; they became, in the eyes of Vasilevich and others, «the most advanced people”.Actually, these Tungus have followed the line of least resistance, and became assistants in all reforms planned by the authorities. Naturally, these young Tungus men were very accessible for the authorities. Furthermore, the Kirensk Tungus were perhaps the most accessible of all from the viewpoint of means of communication. Living among the Russians, they were the first Tungus group to be «Sovietized”,as Vasilevich asserts [30].
Such were the principal motives for the selection of this Tungus dialect to become the matrix of Literary Tungus [31].
Once the collection of lexical materials and texts was accomplished, the construction of a grammar became the next matter of moment. It did not require too long a time to prepare it, to fix up and complete it with an elaborate system of orthography, since on the one hand, the main principles of Tungus grammar had already been established by M. Castren, and, on the other hand, the new grammar to be constructed was not that of a dialect but that of a language being constructed by the compilers themselves. The whole task had apparently been carried out, owing to the personal energy of G. M. Vasilevich, and it had only to be approved. It was, and the Literary Tungus language was born [32].
The Tungus grammar in general, owing to its agglutinative character, presents none of the difficulties inherent to flective languages. Moreover, contractions are rare, owing to the absence of strong expiratory accent as a stable character, and vowels are rather well preserved, owing to the functional importance of musical melody, inherent in this language. There is, however, a peculiarity in Tungus which produces an opposite effect. Here I have in mind a tendency toward unclearness of the vowels that have no expiratory stress, nor length nor melodic weight functionally important enough to be minutely observed by the speaker. These vowels are subject to variations in individuals and dialects, and in relation to the longer speech units (sentences) as well. This peculiarity especially affects the vowels of transitory types — from narrow to wide, from front to back, from low to high. Moreover, there is another peculiarity to be taken into account: a tendency to syllable association of identic vowels.3 All these phenomena are responsible for the «irregularities” that so strike persons whose linguistic thinking depends too much on school training in literary languages. For these people, certain kinds of orthography ought to be adopted, corresponding to certain «ideal” languages (whether actually used, or imaginary).
When Vasilevich began to sense these peculiarities (true, without realizing their nature), she had to find, in line with her inclination to follow any orthographic preconception, a simple and efficient way to get rid of the above-mentioned «irregularities”.The solution was easily found by Koshkin/Alkor, who, having learned from linguists about the existence of the so-called vocalic harmony, raised the latter to the status of a linguistic law and made it, together with the whole of the old theory of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, a theory compulsory for all those who were working under his direction on the Tungus languages. We have seen that in this respect he was a man of decision. He did not hesitate to appeal to the authorities when attempts seemed to be made at questioning the competence of the Communist Party, which had taken it upon itself to define «linguistic policy” (see above).
As soon as the simple solution was arrived at, the rest of the task became a simple matter of automatic orthographic adjustment, claimed to be based on «phonetic laws» [34]. The essence of the constructed principles is that the vowels are divided into «soft” and «hard” in the stems and demand corresponding vowels in the suffixes. However, although it is stated that there are two kinds of /u/ and /i/, they are not distinguished, and those interested in finding a distinction are recommended to look in the dictionary, where the distinction between the «soft” and the «hard” vowels is indicated by diacritic marks. The second principle is that the short and long vowels are not always followed by the same vowels in the suffixes. Then special «rules” are formulated and shown in tables. Here we may note that /u/ and /i/ are taken as «neutral” in suffixes. The short vowel /ă/ may be followed only by / ă / and /ā/, but not by /o/ and /è/, whereas the long vowel /ā/ can be followed by any vowel; the long vowel /ō/ can be followed only by /a/ and not by /o/, /è/, etc. It is impossible to make out on what kind of facts all these «rules” are based, for the published materials (her texts and dictionary) are already adapted to the «rules”.Anyway, such regularities are found in no dialects known to me, and the inventor of these rules not infrequently comes into conflict with her own «rules”,as is seen in her dictionary, especially in those cases she failed to foresee. The reason for giving such rules is evident. It is an imitation of M. Castren's grammar, in which the famous linguist theoretically constructed all possible forms that accorded with his supposition that there exists vocalic harmony in Tungus (the Urulga and Mankova dialects) [35].
Vasilevich’s rules are adjusted to the requirements issued by the special political organs under Koshkin/Alkor's direction [36].
The orthographic «rules” thus created affect the whole morphological part of the grammar. But this is not all that makes the grammar an artificial construction that is especially affected by two more phonetic peculiarities proper to the dialect chosen as the matrix of Literary Tungus. Here I have in view a strong tendency towards the assimilation of consonants, and the aspiration of initial vowels. As for assimilation — for instance, <nanna> <- <nanda> (skin), <abdanna> <- <abdanda> (leaf); and in suffixes: /nni/ <- /ndi/ etc. — this peculiarity does not equally affect all Tungus dialects, but only some of them. Perhaps there are more dialects that avoid such an assimilation, yet many dialects show the interesting phenomenon of fortifying the assimilable consonants, e.g. <nanda> -> <nandra>, <abdanda> -> <abdandra>, etc., thus protecting /d/ from assimilation.
As I have shown elsewhere [37] the aspiration of initial vowels was only a certain «fashion” that had affected a limited number of dialects. Its introduction into Literary Tungus turns this «fashion” into a stable characteristic of the Tungus language. This is quite misleading.
As for the consonants, we may note here the «remarkable absence” of the dento-labial /v/-which is found in most, if not all, Tungus dialects. Distinction between /w/ and /v/ is quite essential, since these consonants show different behaviors in alternations. The consonant /w/ is often met with as a derivative of /u/ or /γ/, etc., while /v/ remains rather stable. The absence of /v/ seems to be very doubtful [38]. The alternations of consonants, as shown in the Appendix [39] are not so strict in the living dialects. This makes all the paradigms of Literary Tungus quite artificial.
One thing is evident: should the dialect which was chosen for the basis of Literary Tungus be reproduced, there could not be formulated all the «rules” of Vasilevich's grammar. Hence this is not a Tungus grammar at all, but the grammar of an invented language. As such, this language has no value as a scientific source for knowledge of the Tungus language and, therefore, cannot be used for scientific reference.
26. The Enissei Tungus dialects have been recorded by G. Huth; by M. Czaplicka during the first years of the Great War (her material is still unpublished); by a local missionary, Father Kozhevnikov; and by A. A. Makarenko and V. N. Vasiliev (in manuscripts). Very copious material was collected by K. M. Rychkov before the Great War, but this is still unpublished, too. As for the Tungus of the Baikal region, their dialect was investigated by A. Czekanowski (the material was published by A. Schiefner), by Ptitsyn, and by E. I. Titov between the years 1919 to 1929 and published (lexical material is found in his Tungus-Russian Dictionary, 1926, Irkutsk, while texts were published by G. M. Vasilevich, 1936, Leningrad).
27. The sources of the Lower Tunguska, located several kilometers from the Lena, are also inhabited by some Tungus population. However, Vasilevich did not personally investigate the Tungus group who lived southeast of the Lena (investigated by E. I. Titov), who were known as the Tungus of Kirensk District, according to Patkanov.
28. According to Patkanov, the total number of Kirensk Tungus in 1879 was 1,358, of whom 16.2 percent spoke Russian as their mother tongue. A great majority of these Tungus also knew Russian, and 9 percent were settled, engaging in agriculture. Thus, forty years ago this was one of the Tungus groups strongly influenced by the Russians. Apparently the process of assimilation of these Tungus has continued since then. Therefore, at the beginning of the Soviet era Titov found the group living in the basin of the Kirenga River, southeast of the Lena River, numbering fewer than four hundred people, partly intermingled with the Russians and partly still practising hunting, fishing, and, on a smaller scale, reindeer breeding. Moreover, the process of Russianization had gone so far that some of them were not included among the Tungus communities.
29. It is superfluous to enter into a detailed discussion of these requirements. Nevertheless, I deem it necessary to make some remarks. As to the central position of these Tungus, it may seem so only from an egocentric point of view. In fact, in reference to the entire body of Tungus these Tungus form one of the fringe southwestern groups, whereas the actual Tungus centre is situated about 1,000 kilometres northeast, where, it is true, 95.7 percent of the Tungus population speak the Yakut language. The dialect selected for Literary Tungus is not the one which is spoken by the majority of Tungus, unless only the Enissei Tungus are taken into consideration. As for the alien influences, these dialects are rich enough in Russian elements, but the Buriat and Yakut elements are much less represented.
30. In her Explanatory Note to the Tungus ABC, p. 4.
31. I omit here a motive of personal nature, namely, the fact that this dialect was by far more familiar to the chief actor in this drama than the other dialects.
32. This is the picture one gets from what has been published. I presume some other specialists in Tungus had been involved, e.g., N. N. Poppe and V. I. Cincius, who perhaps provided not only the materials (as a lot of Tungus were then getting their education under Koshkin's protection and direction), but also some other useful information. However, the names of all collaborators are left in the dark.
33. «Vocalic Harmony and Vocalic Associations in Tungus”, in Monumenta Serica, Vol. IV, 1939, Peking. [This article did not appear in Monumenta Serica.]
34. See Manual of Tungus Language, Lesson 5, pp. 23-24.
35. M. Alexander Castren, Grundziige einer Tungusischen Sprachlehre, etc., edited by A. Schiefner, St Petersburg, 1856. I have just stated that his tables are theoretically constructed. In fact, first of all, he stayed only for three or four months among the Tungus (1848), for weeks lying seriously ill in bed. Naturally he could not prove his statements by his own texts, as he had no time, indeed, to record them. I have found no vocalic harmony in Mankova as described by Castren. Moreover, there are many things to be corrected in his grammar. Hence his records, adapted to the theory (it is difficult to say to what degree by himself and to what degree by Schiefner), cannot now be accepted with perfect confidence.
36. See above. Koshkin is inclined to formulate «phonetic laws” without consulting facts. In his contribution to a special publication of the Academy of Sciences, To the Memory of M. A. Castren (Leningrad, 1927), he speaks about the phonetic law of Altaic languages according to which «voiced consonants cannot stand at the final” in a word, whereas as a matter of fact we frequently meet with final /n/, /m/, /l/, /ł/, /w/, /r/, /γ/. In the same easy manner he formulates the «phonetic law” of vocalic harmony in Tungus. It is interesting to note here that in 1927 N. N. Poppe, when he published some materials gathered among the Nomad Barguzin Tungus (Materials for Investigation of the Tungus Language. Dialect of Barguzin Tungus, Publ. Acad. of Sciences, 1927, in 8», 60 pp.), states that he did not discover vocalic harmony, as had other investigators of Tungus dialects (practically, only M. Castren). A few years later he published another study on the Solon dialect, a typical Northern Tungus language (Materials on the Solon Language, Publ. Acad. of Sciences, 1931, 142 pp. in 8»). Here Poppe makes a special effort to demonstrate the existence of vocalic harmony, even though he admits that it was not always observed. Although he introduces a series of vowels and quite unconvincing explanations to make his statement more credible, it cannot stand up under objective criticism. I must say that, when I first read this work, I was surprised at how an author of numerous publications on different linguistic subjects could produce such a vulnerable and artificially built-up study. I did not know then what was really going on behind the scenes. Having learned how the manufacturing of Literary Tungus was going on, I realized that, so far as vocalic harmony was concerned, Poppe's work was needed in order to prepare the ground, to facilitate everybody's adhesion to Koshkin's point of view, which in turn, thus given the stamp of approval by the specialist, could give support to Vasilevich to speak about «phonetic laws” as the basis of her grammar.
37. «Notes on the Bilabialization and Aspiration of the Vowels in the Tungus Languages”,in Rocznik Orjentalistyczny VII [1931] : 235-263; also, Ethnological and Linguistical Aspects of the Ural-Altaic Hypothesis, Peking 1931, especially pp. 102-121.
38. Perhaps the source of this idea is Castren's grammar, where v does not figure at all. However, Castren does not explain how to pronounce w, whether in the German manner (dento-labial), or the English manner (bilabial) as Vasilevich wants it. It may be remarked here that /w/ (bilabial) is rather typical of Mongol and Buriat, whereas /v/ (dento-labial) is typically Tungus. Particular adherence to Castren's ideas has still deeper, even political, reasons. In fact, Castren used to be one of the greatest supporters of the Ural-Altaic hypothesis and all its premises. This hypothesis also played an important part in the history of the theory of evolution, since at that time philosophers' minds were busy finding genetic relationships among various languages as the best proof of evolution as a general law of nature. The theory of evolution was accepted by Marxists as their credo; under the Soviets it became a compulsory theory, officially recognized and supported, as we have seen, by the power of public force. Therefore, to deny phonetic laws and other Castren aberrations means to undermine the Ural-Altaic hypothesis (also promoted to an officially recognized «law”); to deny the value of the Ural-Altaic «law” means to undermine the theory of evolution; to deny the theory of evolution means to undermine Marxism-Stalinism; to deny Marxism-Stalinism means a political crime. This explains Koshkin's energetic activity in such peripheral problems as «vocalic harmony”,the Ural-Altaic hypothesis, etc., where he finds bitter enemies. In the whole structure there is a point which may seem to be inconsistent, namely, how is evolutionism consistent with «revolutionism”? The founder of Marxism has found a very good solution. According to him, the historical process proceeds in accordance with the theory of evolution and at a certain moment reaches an impasse. To get out of the impasse the intervention of a midwife is needed, and she by an act of violence produces a child. So Karl Marx imagined himself to be such a midwife; he did not succeed, however, in getting clients. In the same way, Joseph Stalin and his collaborators, such as J. P. Koshkin, apparently feel they belong to that class of midwives who live on the illicit practice of abortion.
39. Manual of the Tungus Language, pp. 138 et seq.