LATVIJAS - DSpace

developed into Negidal and Oroche j ( English y), c. g.: Manchu
morin, Oroche moji, Negidal mojin a horse; Manchu orin, Oroche oji,
Negidal ojin twenty; Manchu beri, Oroche and Negidal böji an arrow;
Tungus and Manchu bira, Oroche bijaka, Negidal bijaxan a river.
The advancement of the Goldis and Olchas, the nearest relatives of
the more civilized Manchus, is quite natural and there is no doubt
that they have absorbed some Tungus, Oroche and Gilyak tribes.
Goldi is still now-a-days the international language
different local peoples of the lower Amoor basin.
between the
The influence of the western culture on the Negidals is characte-
rized by the following loan-words: dausun salt, boso linen, boga
heaven and god, bitxö a book, ajaki spirits, tumö ten thousand.
Chinese words have reached the Negidals only through
of the Manchus, c. g.: džangin a superior, bögin
master, tungse
the mediation
a host, pakčin a
an interpreter, gan steel, geda a lance, čeu a shovel,
döngsö a balance, josoloxöl a key, pöngsöku a jar, daji
the tea, sjata the sugar. The driving dog (enakin)
(ala), sledge (tolgoki) and stopper (kauri)
a pipe, čai
with his harness
are typical objects of the
Palaeo-Asiatic culture. To the same origin seem to belong
the names
of some northern animals as: the reindeer (ojon), the elk (toki), the
squirrel (oļuki), the swan (huksi) and the goose (ņungnaki). Likewise
some primitive utensils may be Palaeo-Asiatic, e. g.: čabgi
džabgo a harpoon, kambo a spoon, longo
a bore,
an anchor,
luxi an arrow. The
Gilyak tux and Yenisei-Ostiak tuk, an axe, are probably older forms
than the corresponding Negidal suxö, Manchu suxe, Mongolian siixe,
but it is doubtful, if the Altaic peoples
with their old metallic culture
borrowed axes from the Palaeo-Asians, who even now have not yet
entirely abandoned the stone age.
The Negidal vocabulary gives us many
new materials for the
etymologic study of the Altaic languages. The Manchu verb gabtambi,
to shoot with a bow, seems to be changed by metathesis,
while the
Negidal gatpani has preserved the old form, from which we may
explain the Tungus garpam, Goldi garpai, Oroche hapai
and Mon-
golian xarbuxu. The consonant gin the Mongolian numeral nigen,
one,
is developed from ng, which we find in Okhotsk Tungus ņongon
(Negidal ņogu), the first. To the same root belongs probably the
Manchu word ningu, the top, from which seems to be derived also the
later numeral "six" (Manchu ningun, Tungus, Negidal
and Goldi
ņungun) as the next higher number over the former five. The Negidal
word sögöb, a sable, is regularly shortened to söp,
5
in the same way