Verbal Analytical Constructions in Shor Folklore: Specifics of Phonetic Transformations

The article examines verbal analytical constructions (VAC) in Shor, one of the Southern Siberian Turkic languages. The aim of the study is to identify the phonetic transformation specifics in VAC synthesizing in the Shor folklore language in comparison with the standard language and to determine the uniqueness of these transformations as a component of the ethnic cultural code. The research of VACs the authors of the article performed earlier on the material of three literary languages - Shor, Chalkan and Tuvan - indicates the typological universality of the structural transformations in the Altai-Sayan languages, which is determined by the common regional archetype of the ethnic genetic memory. This is the first research on VAC synthesis processes conducted on the basis of sounding folklore texts of the Southern Siberian Turkic peoples. The material was the Shor heroic tale “Kunu korgen Kun Kook” [Having Seen the Sun Kun Kook] performed by the outstanding Shor kaichi V.E. Tannagashev, a representative of the Mrass storytelling school. The study was carried out by auditory and instrumental acoustic analysis methods using Audacity and SpeechAnalyzer 3.0.1 computer programs. The results of the adverbial bi-verbal construction analysis of the Shor heroic epic indicate the processes of analytical complexes’ transformations into synthesized units to be actively developing. The phonetic transformations that accompany the VAC contraction processes touch upon all the structural and semantic types of constructions, although being realized with varying degrees of occurrence. At the suprasegmental level, the transformations are not as intensive as at the linear one: there is no vowel palatal and labial harmonization of the auxiliary components in the bi-verbal combinations. Failure to comply with the laws of Shor distant assimilation within the sound chains of the VACs signals the incompleteness of the synthesis processes and the preservation of the residual status of analytical structures. The comparison of the results of the study of the phonetic transformations under consideration in the Shor epic tales and literary texts indicates a common character of phonotactic transformations: the loss of meaning by VAC components and their status weakening cause the elimination of inter-word pauses, the merging of construction elements into a single phonetic word, the transformation of external sandhi positions into internal ones, and the activation of assimilative processes due to the newly formed phonetic context. In the epic, the speed of phonetic modifications slows down due to tradition, stereotypes, preservation of language archaics and archetypal patterns. The planned study of the VAC synthesis processes in the folklore languages of the Altai-Sayan Turkic peoples, the identification of unique traits in each of them will expand the scope of knowledge about the interaction and mutual influence of language and folklore as the main components of verbal cultures.

Keywords

Authors

References