Henryk Jankowski,
Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Polska),
al. Niepodległości 24, Poznań, 61-714, Polska,
henko@amu.edu.pl.
The aim of this paper is to present another copy of Ramstedt’s Noghai texts which were found in Kotwicz’s collection in Cracow in addition to a master copy edited by Harry Halén in Finland2. The author carries out a comparative study of Noghai or Noghay Tatar with other Turkic languages of the Aralo-Caspian group and, on the basis of both copies he discusses the phonetic features and phonological processes typical of Noghay. Conclusions are made about the features of the Noghai spoken language which were not previously documented in a classical study of N.A.Baskakov. The paper notes the fact that Ramstedt failed to master the Noghai language at the appropriate level which caused certain inaccuracies and misinterpretation of words. The text contains examples illustrating the differences in the interpretation of linguistic phenomena in the analyzed copies.
Key words: Kotwicz’s collection, Ramstedt’s Noghai texts, Noghay Tatar, Halén’s edition, phonetic features, long vowels, rounded-unrounded vowel harmony, consonant lenition.