I’ve always found native names for the months of the year interesting, and in the past I’ve presented here the Udmurt system, and the Mari system is also fun. Here are the names from a Northern Mansi dialect that József Erdődi collected in December 1970. He published this in 1974 in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’s Acta Linguistica Vol. 24 (1–4), pp. 125–135.
| Month | Northern Mansi name |
|---|---|
| Around March | māńpoĺ ‘smaller frost’ |
| April | jani̮ɣpoĺ ‘greater frost’ |
| May | jāŋnatn ētpos ‘flowing ice month’ |
| June | lūpta-ētpos ‘leaf month’ |
| July | ojttur-ētpos ‘lower shore month’ |
| August | wōrtur-ētpos ‘forest and lake month’ |
| September | sūkr-ētpos ‘sūkr-fish month’ |
| October | jāŋkpoĺn ētpos ‘freezing month’ |
| November | mań-təŋ-ētpos ‘small spade month’ |
| December | wat́i-xōtl-ētpos ‘short day month’ |
| January | rētəŋ jūswoj ‘lazy eagle’ |
| February | wāt́l sāraɣpnal ‘shorter axe handle’ |
| Last month of lunar year | xosa sāraɣpnal ‘longer axe handle’ |
Erdődi offers a commentary on these names. The word ojt in the fifth month denotes a low lakeshore that is waterlogged in the beginning of the year, and where fish can easily be caught. The ninth month refers to hunters’ use of a tall spade to shovel away snow and then help to support their tent. Erdődi has no idea, however, what the reference to an axe handler for two months of the year means. Referring to another Mansi dialect, he suggests the ‘eagle’ in the eleventh month is a metaphor for the sun. Other months refer to hunting possibilities.
The post Names for the months in Northern Mansi appeared first on Christopher Culver.
