The Divine Language in Mongolian Religious Texts

Ágnes Birtalan

The Divine Language in Mongolian Religious Texts

(60th Meeting of the PIAC, Székesfehérvár 2017)

Communication with the transcendental beings and forces is essential in religions and belief systems. The phenomenon called “sacred communication” is a key notion in the religious practice that concerns both the religious specialists and the believers or practitioners, although in different ways and to differing extent. Sacred communication includes specific non-verbal ways, a particular group of objects, and various types and genres of verbal communication.

The main characteristics of the “sacred language” are connected with veneration regarding the vocabulary and grammatical properties; however, in some cases it might deploy lower layers and registers of a language as well. During my field work among various Mongolian ethnic groups I have collected various shamanic and folklore genres chanted during rituals with the purpose of establishing a connection with the sacred sphere. Previously some of my articles have been devoted to the shamanic language usage. In the present paper I am going to introduce some linguistic and symbolical features of the “divine language”, in which the transcendental beings communicate with the religious specialists and the audience of the believers.