Upon a perusal of all these publications, one gets the impression that the Tungus linguistic complex cannot respond to all the requirements necessary for expressing alien complexes in the Tungus idiom. This will be hindered not only by the lack of technical terms, but also by semantic limitations (which greatly depend on the volume of a cultural complex in general and its constructive complexity). Of course, it is not very difficult to enrich vocabulary. It can always be done either by the «Tungusation” of alien words or even by the introduction of neologisms formed out of Tungus stems. But it is far more difficult to adapt the language for the expression of complex ideas. The first difficulty has been rather successfully overcome by Vasilevich [4l] so that we may expect in the future, should this language survive, the lexical content will gradually be so augmented by the alien elements and neologisms that the original stock will be entirely submerged. (This is what has already happened with a number of other languages.) But as for the second difficulty, the inadequacy of Tungus for secondary semantic combinations and complex starters in general, Vasilevich has chosen a dangerous path. She and her collaborators have obviously made the choice of imitating the style of folk-story language, and the question-and-answer style suitable for mentally immature or even feebleminded individuals, and also children's speech, on the supposition that such a language will be better understood by the Tungus, as if they were a kind of mentally inferior people. However, I have shown that the Tungus are very good speakers whose speech abounds in very rich syntactic forms, semantic variations, and allusions [42]. Why not introduce the best forms of Tungus? The reason is, of course, simple. It requires much more time than G. M. Vasilevich had at her disposal to study a language to that extent; it would require her to meet many friendly people (not everyone is a good speaker) and to master the language [43].
Probably the Tungus have to wait a long time before one of them, or some outsider, will put good specimens of Tungus language into a written form. To do this is a genuine art, which is apparently lacking among the creators of Literary Tungus. This language, as it has emerged from the hands of its creators, looks very much like a language unsuitable for a full expression of human thought. This is true of any artificially created language, as opposed to languages grown historically on native soil. This newly created language, ethnologically speaking, is an interesting example of how the psychology of the creators may be reflected in their works. We have seen that the authorities have theoretically assumed Tungus «inferiority” from the viewpoint of their economic organization and social differentiation. From this, the cultural-mental inferiority of the Tungus is, as is usual for vulgar evolutionists with a materialistic trend of ideas, nothing but a logical inference — that does not need to be confirmed or investigated. Furthermore, the theoretically inferred cultural-mental inferiority of the Tungus has been taken as evidence of their inborn mental inferiority, and for this reason a simplified children's language had to be created [44]. The whole situation surrounding Literary Tungus presents a particular case of the self-confidence that is inherent in an imperfect knowledge of realities and that is stimulated by a strong ethnocentric behavior. The Literary Tungus language has no scientific value, nor any future.
Bibliography of Works of Sergei Mikhailovich Shirokogorov
41. Nevertheless, she has introduced some Russian words even though their equivalents exist in other Tungus dialects, though they are lacking in the dialects with which she was familiar. For instance, she adopted Russian
42. Social Organization of the Northern Tungus, Ch. VIII; also Psychomental Complex of the Tungus, Ch. VIII, Section 33 et seq.
43. I have already pointed out the exclusive part played by Vasilevich in the creation of Literary Tungus. What she has done personally and through directing the work of collaborators really appears enormous. She was universal in her work — she collected the materials needed herself, attracted the Tungus and taught them herself, compiled a number of textbooks, translated a long series of pamphlets, etc. It is evident that to carry out such a work means much more than common impulses have motivated her. What animates her work apparently is the love for the Tungus, whom she wants to help in their tragic position of a people doomed to become either extinct or swallowed by a wholesale levelling. I fully realize how any person who comes into long contact with the Tungus is gradually captivated by their open-hearted and humane attitude of a kind of personal disinterestedness and self-denial, in which the personality receives its full development as a member of a higher social formation (particularly clan and small ethnic units), while the totality of the conditions of Tungus existence impose a great demand upon the individual, especially in hunting. This Tungus power of attracting sympathy has been noted by so many travellers that in Siberian ethnography it has become a commonplace. Vasilevich did not seem to have escaped this influence. One feels that behind her activity there are stimuli of an «irrational” nature, a sort of hatred for the mutual destruction of classes and the merciless exploitation of human beings, expressed in an extraordinary form of idealism in the name of a messianic idea. What will happen to her personally, when, rather sooner than later, the reality will prove the futility of her effort and the collapse of the whole construction in which her part was not minimal? It will become a personal tragedy for her when her emotional complex clashes with the realities. Such is the waste of human energy when the direction of a nation is given over to the hands of ignorant fanatics and dishonest individuals.
44. Here the psychology of the creators is most complicated, for theoretically they deny the idea of hereditary «inferiority” and «superiority”,whereas they behave as if they recognized it. This presents a case of subconscious recognition, hidden from outsiders, as is typical of the so called inferiority complex. I must emphasize again the fact that an inadequate knowledge of the Tungus psychomental complex, curiously interwoven with an uncontrollable fear of losing control over the Tungus, is plainly demonstrated in all the practical measures of the Soviet authorities. This is exemplified by the measures taken against the shamans, who were imagined to be one of the backbones of the kulak-capitalist-clan organization of the Tungus.