Alliteration in Mongol Poetry

Abstract

Alliteration is present in the oldest known Mongol literary monuments (for instance, in the thirteenth-century Secret History of the Mongols), in modern writing and folklore, in practically all genres of poetry: epic, lyric, riddles, proverbs, and, as a non-structural embellishment, also in prose. Although Mongol literature and folklore have verses without it, alliteration is the commonest sound feature in Mongol versification. It is also the usual substitute of rhyme when translating foreign verses into Mongol. The Mongol kind of alliteration embraces the initial consonant if any and the first vowel of the words. Except clitics or particles, all word categories and parts of speech may alliterate. Word-initial alliteration binds parallel rhythmic units in couplets and strophes as well as within the lines. It often accompanies syntactic and semantic parallelism. It may be combined with other formal features, such as assonance, end-rhyme, head-rhyme, medial rhyme, reduplication, fixed number of syllables, beats or words. The nearest cognates of Mongol alliteration are found in Old Turkic and Manchu poetry. Old Turkic alliteration may have inspired that of the Mongols. Mongol alliteration may have been instrumental in preservation of alliteration in South Siberian Turkic folklore. Manchu alliteration may be of Mongol origin as is that of Southern Evenki Solon verse.