𐰉𐰞𐰉𐰞
balbal
Meaning:
memorial stone (balbal)
In early Turkic memorial complexes, balbal generally denoted an upright stone, often one of a series extending from a memorial enclosure. It should not automatically be equated with the sculpted human figure at the enclosure. Their precise ritual function remains debated.
The etymology is uncertain. The variant balbar is also attested in the Yenisei inscriptions.
Examples
No corpus links yet.
Translations
German:
Gedenkstein (Balbal)
Russian:
поминальный камень (балбал)
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
xatirə daşı (balbal)
Turkish (Türkiye):
anıt taşı (balbal)
Bibliography 5
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Hendrik Boeschoten (2022) A dictionary of early middle Turkicp. 70a, entry balmanp. 70a, entry balman
balman ‘idol’ (QT3) [< *balbal, cf. CL 333a] -
Marcel Erdal (2004) A Grammar of Old Turkicp. 363, paragraph on two objects and balbal tik-p. 363, paragraph on two objects and balbal tik-
Verbs can govern two direct objects, the first in the accusative and the second in the nominative, as in kïrkïz xaganïg balbal tikdim (KT) Translating the nominative form with ‘as’, we get ‘I set up the Kïrkïz ruler as anthropomorphic stele’; translating more loosely one could say ‘I set up a balbal for the K. ruler’. On the other hand balbal tik- could also, in Orkhon Turkic, have become a lexicalised phrase.
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Sergei Starostin, Anna Dybo, Oleg Mudrak (2003) Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languagespp. 1084–1085, entry *pélaba(nV)pp. 1084–1085, entry *pélaba(nV)
*pélaba(nV) a figure made of stone or clay: Tung. *pelbu; Mong. *barimal; Turk. *bAlbal; Jpn. *páníwá, *panipai, *panima. PTung. *pelbu antropomorphic pendant for women’s hair (подвеска (женское украшение в виде изображения человека)): Evk. helbu. ◊ ТМС 2, 363. Attested only in Evk., but having interesting external parallels. PMong. *barimal sculpture (скульптура): WMong. barimal (L 88); Kh. baŕmal. PTurk. *bAlbal a stone pillar erected on a grave (каменная колонна на могиле, истукан): OTurk. balbal (Orkh., Yen.). ◊ EDT 333. Borrowed (possibly from an unattested Bulgar source) in Old Russ. bolvanъ, Hung. bálvány ‘stone idol’ (suggestion of Melioranski, evidently preferable to the hypothesis of Korsch-Dmitriev < Pers. pahlavān, see Шипова 84-85, Аникин 114). PJpn. *páníwá, *panipai, *panima figures of men and animals made of clay (фигурки людей и животных из глины): OJpn. paniwa, panipe, panima; MJpn. fáníwá; Tok. hàniwa; Kyo. háníwá; Kag. haníwa. ◊ JLTT 398. ‖ The comparison is very tempting, although one has to suppose secondary folk-etymological reanalysis in Mong. (where barimal /a regular development < *balima-r/) is associated with bari- ‘to build’, and in Jpn., where all the variants are associated with pani ‘red clay’. -
Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkishp. 333a, s.v. balbalp. 333a, s.v. balbal
balbal ‘a stone pillar erected on a grave in token of an enemy killed by the deceased and occasionally inscribed with the name of the enemy’. N.o.a.b., but survives as a l.-w. in Russian (kamennaya) baba ‘(a stone) balbal’. Türkü viii (my father the xağan died) kaŋım xağanka: başlayu: baz xağanığ balbal tikmiş ‘we erected stone pillars, with (one symbolizing) Baz Kağan at the head of them, for my father the xağan’ I E 16, II E 13; o.o. I E 25; II S 7, 9; Ongin 3; Tölis Şadıŋ balbalı: balbal near II (ETY I 190); (VU) Işvara: Tarkan balbalı: balbal near Ongin (do. 131): viii ff. Yen. türk xan balbalı: Mal. 32, 10 (the other supposed occurrences in Mal. are very dubious). -
M Räsänen, I Kecskeméti (1969) Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachenp. 60a, paragraph beginning “atü. balbal”p. 60a, paragraph beginning “atü. balbal”
atü. balbal ’ein als Denkmal für einen Toten aufgestelltes Steinbild’, uig. (Gab.) balbal ’Schandmal’
