Translated material
What we did this summer
To visit the carriers of dialects
Anna Dybo , linguist, Turkologist, comparative, doct. Filol. Sciences, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
In July and early August, I was on an expedition. Back in 2020, we had to finish the “carpet” examination of the Khakass dialects-to record the characteristic features of the dialects of each Khakass settlement. But that year we were afraid to go - the information about the epidemic was fresh, the means of struggle with it, so that we from the "plague" of Moscow not to infect old women in remote settlements, are unknown. And this year we decided that we could not wait more, because the dialects, meanwhile, disappear; But we are all vaccinated and many ill.
We are a rather motley linguistic company that has developed over the past few years. Employees of the department of the Ural-Altai languages of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, densely engaged in the Turkic field since 2006; an employee of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, in recent years living in Novosibirsk and working remotely - the owner of the UAZ and significant experience in field linguistics on the Caucasian and Slavic soils; An employee of the Tomsk State University-a specialist-plur; Lecturer of the Khakass National Gymnasium - candidate of philological sciences, native speaker of the literary Khakass language; Two students who graduated from the 1st Course of the Institute of Linguistics of the RSUSU. We have three expeditionary machines: UAZ for completely romantic roads, a foreign car of a gymnasium teacher and Lada Grant rented in Abakan.
Since 2015, we have been creating a dialectological atlas of Turkic languages of the Z-group. This is part of a more extensive plan - the dialectological atlas of Turkic languages. The project was supported and supported by numerous grants of the 2nd and 3-year duration-it is obvious that such things are not done in two or three years. Therefore, we constantly write applications that mean different parts of this work.
Khakass, more precisely, the Khakass-School-Chulimsky, Atlas in some way represents a model piece of the entire project. The fact is that the Z-lips are a clearly distinguished genealogical group of Turkic languages, clearly not particularly a large time depth (according to the latest calculations-about the 11th century, e.); At the same time, native speakers did not disperse, live on a relatively compact territory, and these languages were all in close contact with each other and with other Turkic (as well as Samoyed and Yenisei-not closely related) languages of Sayano-Altai. Accordingly, on their example, you can observe the extent to which close contacts of related languages can obscure the genealogical relations between them - to rebuild the genealogical tree of the group. Until now, Turkologists doubt the very possibility of accurately determining the genealogy of Turkic languages and dialects, indicating a large number of contact phenomena in these languages, in their opinion, primarily associated with the nomadic lifestyle of native speakers. But in order to correctly determine what linguistic phenomena have a contact origin, and which are due to genealogical proximity (and which accidentally coincide with several idioms, because they are actually typologically natural, that is, simply high-frequency), it is necessary to first collect the language material and put it on a geographical map. Further (in fact at the same time), the analysis of this material is analyzed, the isogram (lines surrounding the coherent piece of the card with the presence of any language attribute in the allocated territory) and the comparative-historical and area 1 analysis of each isoglossa. To do this, we took up the “carpet” examination of settlements with the indigenous Khakass population.
So far, the intermediate results of the study are rather encouraging. We managed to distinguish one previously unknown Khakass dialect (called it Tashtypsky or “dialect of small villages”). The sets of signs that distinguish the Beltyrsky dialect and the old -Russian dialect of the Kachinsky dialect are firmly established. Clear conditions are formulated, in which the most significant differences between the Kachinsky dialect and the Sagai are manifested. It was established that the two idioms, considered the dialects of one “Middle-Chuli dialect of the Chulym language”, in fact do not have specific genealogical proximity: one of them, Tutal, separated from the community first-before the process of nasaling the initial *j-, which in all other dialects is reflected within the same rule; The second, Melets, is the actual descendant of one of the dialects of the Kyzyl dialect of the Khakass language.
This year, we could determine the boundaries of the spread of the Kachin dialect and identify the significant differences in its dialects. We considered the northern Kachin dialects in 2015 and 2019; Now we are working with the central, almost around the capital, Abakan. I wanted to distinguish the main features that distinguish the central version from the northern and at the same time not related to the fact that the North is influencing the Kyzyl dialect. The work was difficult: the territory close to Abakan was very angry. Basically, in the settlements it was possible to find no more than 5 indigenous residents, the rest or not at all in at all (often Russians, but there are others: in the aala Domozhaki, for example, there are a lot of Chuvash - Stolypinsky immigrants), or Khakasses who came from other areas, respectively, with other native dialects. The fact that we worked close to the capital did not cancel long trips through dusty mountain primers to the places of amazing beauty and, of course, acquaintances with absolutely wonderful people who have not lost curiosity, despite difficult living conditions.
All Turkic languages of the Z-group are now threatened. In a particularly poor state, Middle School: now there are no more than 5 “full” carriers (those that not only recall individual words, but can give rise to coherent sentences). In second place is Shorsky: about 5,000 carriers. The situation with the Khakass language is best - they even teach it at school (though less and less) and write scientific articles. Nevertheless, young people rarely owns the Khakass, which means that the transfer of the tongue to the next generation can be interrupted. And carriers of dialects are usually people over 60 years old, who communicated in Khakass in childhood-often complain that they have no one to talk to their own language. Therefore, a rather frequent (and, of course, pleasant linguist) is the final chord of the survey - the words of the informant when goodbye: "Well, thanks, I even remembered my tongue with you."
Appendix 1: Synopsis of the collective discussion of the methodology of working with informants in the compilation of a dialectological atlas (participated by E.V. Korovin, V. S. Maltsev, A. V. Sheimovich).
0. To acquire a like -minded person from the midst of local linguists (if possible). If this possibility is not, then any local enthusiast.
1. To get your own transport.
2. Find housing approximately in the center of the region planned to study, so that the road to any planned point does not exceed 2 hours.
3. Did you come to the settlement, where to get informants?
- Turn for help to the village administration, club, library, store.
- In small villages, you can simply turn to people on the streets or knock on their homes and ask where local Khakasses live: as a rule, many are at home.
- The best "guides" are obtained from relatives or acquaintances of local colleagues.
Do not forget to ask relatives and friends in neighboring villages, preferably with the address and phone. Try to cover with polls including men (they are less likely to make contact and are more often busy with business outside); To people under 40 years of age are carefully about-they, as a rule, cannot serve as the main source of information due to the fact that they were very oliterate and were not monolingians in childhood.
4. How to organize a survey site?
It’s good when the team has one of the locals. They are more willing to be invited to the house, while conditionally “Muscovites” can be shy because they are dirty, poor and a hangover. (It seems, however, that when you come to our Honored UAZ, the problem of “Muscovites” closes).
It is desirable that they do not plant on a bench by the gate, where cars, music and animals are heard - even an anti -otter foam cap on a directed microphone is powerless here. Ideally, you need to work in a closed room without extraneous sounds, for example, in a summer kitchen. In rooms such as a village council, libraries are also, as a rule, work well. But in imperfect conditions, you need to try to write down at least something.
5. How to conduct a survey most effectively?
5.1. Elictitation or spontaneous texts?
Both that and another is absolutely necessary: from the text, it is rarely possible to gain enough examples for the phenomena under study; But the grammar is verified by texts, since during elitization, the Russian proposal structure is often copied in the response. In addition, texts often contain unexpected facts.
5.2. Two weeks for 1 settlement or 2 points per 1 day?
Depends on the goal. Since our goal was to figure out what Khakass dialects were, it was necessary to establish the parameters of diversity, which needed a wide space with a carpet survey. At the same time, the settlement in which we stop is the basis for the survey for the studied dialect and in it you need to try to collect as much data as possible.
5.3. The question of the fee informants.
As you know, there are two traditions in domestic field linguistics. Our solution: a) do not spoil the field to local linguists, who usually build communication with informants on a friendly-related basis; b) Do not enter into commander-in-law relations with informants.
5.4. The value of sociolinguistic data.
It is necessary to collect biographical data (metadata) informants. Make sure that the metadata does not move smoothly into a one and a half hour story about life in Russian (in Khakassky you can, but it is better to use the help of a local linguist, with whom the informant will be easier not to switch to Russian). This is a great help - and in general for the documentation of the language, and especially to determine the dialectic belonging of a person, if it is not immediately obvious in his speech.
5.5. How to behave with an informant during a survey?
Be sure to introduce yourself and briefly talk about the purpose of the work. To emphasize that what your interlocutors say is valuable for us and for them (often the interlocutor is concerned about the problems of preserving the language).
No need people to think that you know their language better than they are. Do not give a peep into your questionnaire if literary forms of words are recorded there (as an option, you can write praturk forms of Latin). From the very beginning, it is not necessary to make it clear that the literary language is not needed - so that the informants do not want to seem more competent.
5.6. How not to overwork the informant? After all, mostly people are over 60 years old.
Take breaks in work. If they offer to drink tea, do not refuse, talk about the economy, about grandchildren. There were cases when grandmothers helped grandmothers to distract the measurement of pressure (and we began to take a tonometer with us). Follow the fatigue of the informant: if he agreed to a long survey, but does not pull - to reduce, asking the most important thing. At the end, thank and ask if it is possible to look again (if it is not too inappropriate). If possible, take a phone number. Next time you can bring the medicine to the grandmother, drops from fleas to a cat, etc.
5.7. How to overcome the absence of an abstract perception of the language (i.e., get the necessary grammatical forms)?
Try to come up with examples with the most familiar contexts of using words - such that are used in everyday life. For example, “climb the poplar” is easier than “climb the door” (although the word “door” in itself is easier to remember). However, it must be accepted that not everyone can take and pronounce for no reason the “door”, or also “their doors”. Even when the contexts are prepared, the survey may be long and tedious (then see paragraph 5.6.). The older and more insecure, the more often you have to abandon grammar and ask only vocabulary - but the elderly often have a greater passive vocabulary. To obtain the necessary grammatical forms, you can try to look for teachers, but not a native language, better than Russian or mathematics. Over the years, the methods and sequence of the survey are worked out and successful contexts accumulate - although it happens that in a new place the old contexts do not work. Therefore, you always need to be prepared to adjust the survey along the way.
5.8. "Good informat" - who is it?
Any carrier is valuable and important. However, for the purposes of dialectology, informants who did not leave for a long time from their area and did not study the literary version of the language at school are best suited. Women who have married about 20 years in another area, as a rule, retain the features of their native dialect and convey it to children. Therefore, if both parents of informant also come from the study area, the features of the dialect of this area are expressed brighter than if his mother from afar.
Our most numerous informants are women of the 1930-1960s with primary or secondary education. As a rule, they have more time for long conversations and good safety of the dialect version of the language.
5.9. What should I have and be able to, going to a survey?
Important methods of preparing a fresh person who is going to conduct a survey. It is desirable that he knew what is expected to receive as a result of survey; To know the words at least in the approximate spelling transcription (even better - by ear), to understand when he “left” to him “came”, and instead of “horse” - “mare”.
We must be able to quickly invent natural contexts and change them in accordance with the situation, so that in Balkaria not to ask the “pork fat”, which went well in Khakassia. If a person seems strange an example “My Summer”, then do not ask him “My Sun” and “My Sun” to avoid philosophical monologues, it is better to use the homonym “Day”.
Before the trip, you need to make sure that everyone has a full set of questionnaires and voice recorders - there are unexpected influxes of informants, when everything is involved for polls, including drivers. As well as a raincoat, a charged phone and a souvenir-donor informant. In advance, we must make sure that in each field group there is a letter about assistance from a scientific organization, especially when traveling to a new place. It is extremely desirable to have more than one recorder per informant - batteries sit down, voice recorders break. Well, a positive attitude.
Appendix 2. Photos from different expeditions.
1 There are some techniques that allow, in the form of an area covered by isoglossa, to establish whether it is reflected by the phenomenon of archaic or innovative.
August to BBS
Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya , Dok. Biol. sciences, member. RAS:
Almost all of August I spent at the Biomhorsky Biological Station of Moscow State University with third-year microbiologists. I myself visited the BBS for the first time at their age, and since then I dreamed of getting here again. The dream came true only two years ago, when I, becoming the head of the Department of Microbiology of Moscow State University, came to the White Sea with a group of students. Last year, the practice was canceled due to the epidemiological situation, and this year we again ended up at the station.
Students have been undergoing BBS practice on microbial ecology, namely in this area of our science in recent decades, incredible shifts have occurred: with the help of various molecular methods, it has become possible to obtain quick and reliable data on the composition and functions of natural microorganism communities. On the White Sea, very few such studies have so far been conducted, but it is very different from other northern seas. This internal, relatively shallow sea is covered with ice in winter, it has a huge variety of invertebrates and algae, but almost nothing is known about microorganisms, the most important link in the trophic chain. Therefore, we want students to not only get acquainted with the methods of modern microbial ecology, but also make small but real scientific works, and most importantly-we realized how interesting it is to learn something really new, what no one knew before you.
It must also be added that BBS is an amazing place where it is incredibly beautiful: forest, sea, stones and some special light and air. And very calm: despite a large number of people (now there are about 300 people - students of several faculties of Moscow State University, scientists who carry out their projects), everything is so well organized that no one bothers anyone. So this is also an opportunity to gather thoughts and think about fundamental and important things - something that there is never enough time in urban life.
Online regime
Mikhail Katsnelson , Dok. physical. Sciences, professor of the theory of the condensed state of the University of Radbaud (Netherlands), member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Netherlands and the European Academy:
В июне и июле в основном доделывали многочисленные работы с моими многочисленными коллабораторами. Вообще, онлайновый режим без поездок и живого общения оказался совсем неплох для того, чтобы довести до конца начатое. С новыми идеями похуже, потому что они обычно возникают в результате каких-то исходно незапланированных обсуждений на неожиданные темы. Ну, задел был в предыдущие годы такой, что полтора года на разгребание завалов оказалось совсем немного. И почему-то у всех сразу возник настрой закончить всё до отпусков, и почему-то отпуска у всех в августе. Поэтому за июнь — июль выложили в архив целых двенадцать препринтов с моим участием. Это очень, очень много (и тяжело).
Большая часть сделанного относится к двумерным материалам — нашей главной теме уже многие годы, начиная с открытия графена. И графен по-прежнему неисчерпаем (Ленин сказал бы, что графен неисчерпаем как электрон, а электрон — как атом), и активное сотрудничество с нашими местными экспериментаторами по черному фосфору успешно продолжается, ну а, кроме того, последние годы мы много занимаемся двумерными магнетиками (в основном соединениями хрома с хлором, бромом или йодом), а также очень интересной двумерной формой известного полупроводника индий-селен.
Из других дел: последние годы меня очень интересует физика сложности, где наметился определенный прорыв. Очень важную роль в этой деятельности играет мое сотрудничество с Уральским федеральным университетом, с группой Владимира Мазуренко. Особо нужно отметить совсем недавно законченную работу по применению нашего понимания сложности к проблемам квантовых вычислений. К тому же я всё глубже и глубже залезаю в изучение нейросетей и машинного обучения. Там тоже происходят захватывающие вещи.
Ну и, наконец, последние пять лет у нас с гамбургской группой Александра Лихтенштейна, моего давнего друга и постоянного соавтора, очень активно идет работа по теории высокотемпературной сверхпроводимости в купратах. После тридцати с лишним лет интенсивных усилий очень серьезных людей проблема всё еще не решена, но, кажется, мы все-таки поняли, в чем там главный секрет. Очередная работа в этом направлении тоже только что закончена и выложена в архив.
В общем, находим, чем себя развлечь без дискотек, музеев и ресторанов.
Список препринтов
1. arXiv:2107.11344 [pdf, other] cond-mat.str-el cond-mat.supr-con
Local Plaquette Physics as Key Ingredient of High-Temperature Superconductivity in Cuprates
Authors: M. Danilov, EGCP van Loon, S. Brener, S. Iskakov, MI Katsnelson, AI Lichtenstein. Submitted 23 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021. Comments: 25 pages, 28 figures.
2. arXiv:2107.09894 [pdf, other] quant-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.str-el
Certification of quantum states with hidden structure of their bitstrings
Authors: OM Sotnikov, IA Iakovlev, AA Iliasov, MI Katsnelson, AA Bagrov, VV Mazurenko. Submitted 21 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021.
3. arXiv:2107.08193 [pdf] cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.stat-mech
Distribution of ripples in graphene membrane. Authors: Jin Yu, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Shengjun Yuan. Submitted 17 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021.
4. arXiv:2107.08017 [pdf, other] cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci
Plasmonic Quantum Dots in Twisted Bilayer Graphene. Authors: Tom Westerhout, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Malte Rösner. Submitted 16 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021. Comments: 9 pages, 8 figures.
5. arXiv:2107.07143 [pdf] cond-mat.mes-hall
Gating orbital memory with an atomic donor. Authors: Elze J. Knol, Brian Kiraly, Alexander N. Rudenko, Werner MJ van Weerdenburg, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Alexander A. Khajetoorians.
Submitted 15 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021.
6. arXiv:2107.05014 [pdf, ps, other] cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.mes-hall
Dislocation structure and mobility in the layered semiconductor InSe: A first-principles study. Authors: AN Rudenko, MI Katsnelson, Yu. N. Gornostyrev. Submitted 11 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021. Comments: 7 pages, 5 figures.
7. arXiv:2107.03402 [pdf, other] cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.dis-nn cs.LG
Self-organized criticality in neural networks. Authors: Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Vitaly Vanchurin, Tom Westerhoutю Submitted 7 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021. Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures.
8. arXiv:2107.01132 [pdf, other] cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.str-el
Coexisting charge density wave and ferromagnetic instabilities in monolayer InSe. Authors: EA Stepanov, V. Harkov, M. Rösner, AI Lichtenstein, MI Katsnelson, AN Rudenko. Submitted 2 July, 2021; originally announced July 2021.
9. arXiv:2106.12462 [pdf, other] cond-mat.str-el
Spin dynamics of itinerant electrons: local magnetic moment formation and Berry phase. Authors: EA Stepanov, S. Brener, V. Harkov, MI Katsnelson, AI Lichtenstein.
Submitted 23 June, 2021; originally announced June 2021.
10. arXiv:2106.12090 [pdf, other] cond-mat.str-el cond-mat.mtrl-sci
First principles vs second principles: Role of charge self-consistency in strongly correlated systems. Authors: Swagata Acharya, Dimitar Pashov, Alexander N. Rudenko, Malte Rösner, Mark van Schilfgaarde, Mikhail I. Katsnelson. Submitted 22 June, 2021; originally announced June 2021. Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures.
11. arXiv:2106.06564 [pdf, other] cond-mat.str-el
Electronic Structure of Chromium Trihalides beyond Density Functional Theory. Authors: Swagata Acharya, Dimitar Pashov, Brian Cunningham, Alexander N. Rudenko, Malte Rösner, Myrta Grüning, Mark van Schilfgaarde, Mikhail I. Katsnelson. Submitted 11 June, 2021; originally announced June 2021.
12. arXiv:2106.00398 [pdf, ps, other] cond-mat.str-el
doi: 10.1134/S1063776121040178
A DMI guide to magnets micro-world. Authors: VV Mazurenko, YO Kvashnin, AI Lichtenstein, MI Katsnelson. Submitted 1 June, 2021; originally announced June 2021. Comments: Contribution for the JETP special issue in honor of IE Dzyaloshinskii's 90th birthday. Journal ref: J. Exp. Theor. PHYS. 132, 506-516 (2021).