The Friday Circle

The second Khanty dialect we studied was an Eastern variant, Pim; the text is available in László Honti, Chrestomathia Ostiacica, Budapest, 1984, pp. 166-7. It is the story of a wife-hunt, one of the favourite activities in Uralic folk tales. Three women sing while they fish:

ěj kimλem räp-räp-räp, pä kimλem räp-räp-räp

egyik ruhaalj-am, rep-rep-rep, másik ruhaalj-am rep-rep-rep

They are noticed by a man:

ěj-λätnə måńť-konə ťě wär ŏjəγti

egy-kor-ban férfi-tól ez dolog észrevétetett

As in the story of the mouse, the object becomes seen to the viewer. The women return home to cook, and put death-cap mushrooms in the pot. The man watches as they become inebriated from eating the poisoned fish. The largest woman (ěnəλ păr-ne), a shoe-mender, sings:

pįkəm ńįrət jånttə ne, jånttə ne, jånttə ne
čăkəm ńįrət jånttə ne, jånttə ne, jånttə ne

szétrohadt cipő-k foltoz-ő nő,
tönkrement cipő-k foltoz-ó nő

The middle woman (kötəp păr-ne), a wood gatherer, sings:

jukəŋ äwi, jukəŋ ne,
jukəŋ äwi, jukəŋ ne

fá=s [= fából való] lány, fá=s nő

The third woman (koλəmət păr-ne), a roofer, sings:

jom-juγ tŏjnə λåjəγtam wuλəm,
pěťar-juγ tŏjnə λåjəγtam wuλəm

zelnice-fa tető-n lóg-vá-m lát-om [sc. magamat],
berkenye-fa tető-n lóg-vá-m lát-om

A storm lifts up the house and the women in it; the large woman ends up stuck in the reeds in the middle of the river, the middle woman ends up in a tree, and third woman is stuck to the roof by her plaits. Once the storm dies down, the man appears, and brings the large woman to the shore, sits the middle woman next to him, and extracts the third woman and her plaits from the roof. They take him into the house, where he marries the third (small) woman, takes the middle woman as his seamstress, and the large woman as his wood-carrier.

(Photo of Khanty houses in the Finnugor Néprajzi Park, Göcsej Falumúzeum, Zalaegerszeg, by Eszter Tarsoly.)

The present tense marker is λ, whereas the past is unmarked, e.g.:

wĕ(j) (to take):

wĕ-ø-λ-ət	vitték	1 direct object, 3rd person plural
wĕj-ø-təɣ-ø	vitte	1 direct object, 3rd person singular
wĕj-ø-ø	vitt	1 direct object, 3rd person singular

or wu (to see, find): wu-λ-λ-el (HU: látja); wu-λ-ø-əm (HU: látok).

The passive marks s3 forms with -į/-i word-finally (i.e. without any further person suffix), while the agent takes the loactive -nə.

kåt iλm-i	ház emel-tet-ett	house was lifted
-ne jăwən jäčəγ-a iλm-i	nő folyó közép-be emel-tet-ett	woman into river-middle was lifted
-ne wåt-nə iλm-i	nő szél-től emel-tet-ett	woman by wind was lifted

Similarly:

måńť-ko-nə ťě wär ŏjəγt-i	férfi-tól ez dolog észrevétetett	by man this thing was noticed
pom-ət köt-nə tŏγə-jăγr-i	hínár köz-ben bele-gabalyod-tat-ott	by mid-reed-s she was entangled

Further reading: an article on the sacrificial rituals of the Pim, by Anzori Barkalaja, is here.

Posted on March 22nd, 2008 under Ob-Ugric • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback