It is known that the Sakha ethnonym 'yakut' is considered by some scholars to be an Evenk borrowing, namely, it is associated with the Evenk ethnonym yako 'yakut' [Barashkov, 1985, p. 6; Janhunen, 1982, p. 73-77]. E. I. Ubryatova and a number of other Turkologists point to the process of transition of the Proto-Turkic *y - to Yakut s- through the steps * y - > d- > h - > s -, which occurred, in their opinion, before mass borrowing from the Mongolian and Evenk languages [Ubryatova, 1960, p. 68].

This assumption gives rise to the hypothesis of early medieval contacts between the ancestors of the Yakuts and Evenks, which leads to the hypothesis of the formation of the Yakut language as a result of a language shift among the Evenks, who, due to Turkic influence, switched to a new language and adopted the culture of newcomers.

E. I. Ubryatova speaks about the language shift among the Evenks. From her point of view, in the early Middle Ages, at the first stage of the formation of the Yakut language, there was "a joint life of some ancient people, a native speaker of the Turkic language, close to the Orkhon Turkic languages, with some group of Mongols and Evenks" (Ubryatova, 1960, p.12). At the second stage, after the migration of the Yakut Turkic ancestors to the Lena-Aldan interfluve, the Evenks who inhabited this territory switched to the Yakut language. At the last stage, the Yakut language spread among the Evenks outside the Lena-Aldan interfluve, in the Vilyuya, Olekma, Kolyma and in the north [Ubryatova, 1960, p. 12].

Continuing to develop the position of E. I. Ubryatova, N. N. Shirobokova provides evidence for the existence of *y - in the early Yakut language, as well as contacts between the ancestors of the Yakuts and Evenks in the early Middle Ages. In her opinion, this is indicated by the presence of the Evenk word Yakol, meaning Yakuts, and the Russian word yakut, which, according to D. Banzarov, is the Mongolian plural form of the ancient form of self-naming Yakuts (yaka) [Shirobokova, 2000, p. 29].

Recent studies [Pakendorf, Novgorod] It is shown that there was no linguistic shift due to the Turkic (Yakut) influence among the Evenks, i.e. the spread of the Turkic (Yakut) language among the Evenks did not occur, and, consequently, the Evenk language did not have a significant impact on the structure of the Yakut language.

The linguistic contacts of the Turks, Mongols, and Tungus took place in a stepwise process: the Turkic languages influenced the Mongolian, and the Mongolian languages influenced the Tungus - Manchu languages. Influence in the opposite direction is allowed on a much smaller scale, while the possibility of direct Turkic-Tungus-Manchu contacts is questioned or completely excluded. Of course, we are not talking about the late connections of the Yakut language with Evenki and Even after the XIV century. [Shcherbak, 1989, p. 132; Shcherbak, 1994, p. 124].

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In our opinion, the proposed development is pratürk. * y- > Yakut s - (from the point of view of E. I. Ubryatova, voiced consonants are deafened) is in contradiction with the position that in the Turkic proto-language there was no opposition in deafness/sonority at the beginning of a word [Comparative Historical Grammar, 1984, p. 174, Shcherbak, 1970, p. 106], therefore the existence of *y - in the Turkic proto-language and its development into the Yakut s-is doubtful. In any case, it is doubtful that the Yakut Sakha had a form in Old Yakut with the initial y -: yaka.

* * *

In the Mongolian and Buryat languages, the word yakhard is used to denote the ethnonym 'Yakut', which U.-Zh.Sh. Dondukov ascribes to the Middle Mongolian form d-aka' edge', cf. Mong. zakh, bur. zakh [Dondukov, 1978, p. 52], which are Turkisms, and the Yakut form of dya daba 'edge' is Mongolia, while the form of sa saba is a natural development of the corresponding proto - Turkic form [Shcherbak, 1997, p.122].

It should be noted that the Mongolian languages often show the development of the initial affricate d - in y-before the narrow vowel i (Rohrre, 1955, p. 116, 117). However, it is possible that in some cases the Mongolian affricate d - turns into y-i before a wide vowel, for example: mo., M.-P. d'anchi - 'crush, crush',' beat, strike ' > ord., kal. yantshi - [Rorre, 1955, p. 117]; mo., cf. - Mong. dyasa - 'build, arrange', 'dress up, decorate' [Poppe, 1938, S. 132, 153], M.-P. dyasa - 'to put in order, correct; improve' > cf. - mong. yasa- [Poppe, 1938, S. 388]; mo., M.-P. dies 'copper' > cf. - mong. yez [Rohrre, 1927, p. 1040]. It can be assumed that the Evenki djoko, nyookoo, yaakoo 'yakut' have a connection with the Mongolian forms.

Taking into account the stepwise nature of contacts between the Turks, Mongols, and Tungus up to the 12th century. [Shcherbak, 1989, p. 132, Shcherbak, 1994, p. 124] evenk, yaakoo, djoko, nyookoo, even, nyoka, neg. yoho, oroch., ud., ulch., nan can be considered with a high degree of probability. yoko, orok. yokko 'yakut', ma. d'akumu, d'akuta 'name of one of the Manchu clans','? Yakuts ' [Comparative Dictionary..., 1975, p.338] as Mongolisms, which, in turn, penetrated the Mongolian languages from the Turkic languages.

In our opinion, the Yakut word Sakha 'yakut' goes back to the Turkic protoform with a long consonant: pratyurk. - interdental, voiceless consonant) 'edge', Yak. 'edge', 'collar', Sakha, sakhha 'yakut', WED alt., tel. yakka 'edge'.

The diversity of reflexes of one Turkic proto-form in the Yakut language can be explained by the differentiation of meanings for the ethnonym, characteristics of space,and details of outerwear.

Different reflections of the same archetype occur in the Yakut language and in other words. For example:

Pratürk. * kyys - 'heat up, blush' [Shcherbak, 1970, p. 194], kyys 'heat, fire', yak. kyhyl 'red' (<pratyurk. * kyys - + - l), kytar- 'blush' (<pratürk. * kyys + ar-).

Thus, the ethnonym Sakha 'Yakut' is the native Turkic word in the Yakut language, which knocks out the ground from under the hypothesis of contacts between Yakuts and Evenks in the early Middle Ages. The author of the article believes that the connections of the Yakut language with Evenki and Even begin after the XIV century.

list of literature

Barashkov P. P. Phonetic features of Yakut dialects. Yakutsk, 1985. Dondukov U.-Zh. Sh. On the origin of the word-ethnonym "Yakut" / / Soviet Turkology. 1978. N 4. pp. 51-53.

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Poppe N. N. Mongolian Dictionary of Muqaddimat al-Adab, I-II. M.-L., 1938.

Comparative historical grammar of the Turkic languages. Phonetics, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1984.

Comparative Dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages, vol. I. L.: Nauka, 1975.

Obratov E. I. a comparative study of the phonetic characteristics of the language of the population of some areas of the Yakut ASSR. Moscow: Nauka, 1960.

Shirobokova N. N. Istoricheskoe razvitie yakutskogo consonantizma [Historical development of Yakut consonantism]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 2001.

Shcherbak A.M. Sravnitel'naia fonetika tyurkskikh yazykov [Comparative phonetics of the Turkic languages].
Shcherbak A.M. Review // Questions of linguistics. 1989. N 6. pp. 132-135.

Shcherbak A.M. Vvedenie v sravnitel'noe izuchenie tyurkskikh yazykov [Introduction to the comparative study of the Turkic languages].
Shcherbak A.M. Rannie tyurksko-mongol'skie yazykovye svyazi (V - XIV vv.) [Early Turkic-Mongolian language relations (V-XIV vv.)]. SPb.: Nauka, 1997.

Janhunen J. The Tungus peoples and conquest of Siberia // Papers at the meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference at Upsala June 7 - 11 1982. - Konferenser 12. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985.

Pakendorf В., Novgorodov I. Loanwords in Sakha II Loanwords Typology / Ed. by M. Haspelmath and Uri Tad-mor (In preparation).

Poppe N. Das mongolische Sprachmaterial einer Leidener Handschrift, 1927 (JAN, 1927, VI series; VII series).

Poppe N. Introduction to Mongolian comparative studies. Memoires de la Societe Finno-Ougrienne, vo. 110. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1955.

ABBREVIATIONS

alt. - Altaic language

bur. - Buryat language

cal. - Kalmyk language

ma. - Manchu language

mong. - modern Mongolian language

mo. - Mongolian language

M.-P.-Mongolian written language

nan. - Nanai language

neg. - Negidal language

Ordo-Ordos dialect of the Mongol language of Inner Mongolia

orok. - Orok language

oroch. - Oroch language

wed-Mong. - Middle Mongolian language

tel. - Teleut language

Pratürk. - Proto-Turkic language

ulch. - Ulch language

Ude - Udege language

even. - even language

Evenk. - Evenki language

yak. - Yakut language

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