This research is a result of my study of historical Yeniseian linguistics under the supervision of Professor Edward Vajda at the Center for East Asian Studies (Western Washington University, USA) from April to June, 2012 and in March, 2014 at the frames of the Hungarian Eötvös State Fellowship and the Campus Hungary Fellowship. I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Professor Vajda: without his teaching, and advice my research would not have been possible. I am grateful for support over the years, and, last but not least, for correcting my English.
My deepest gratitude and thanks go to Professor Stefan Georg (University of Bonn, Germany) from whom I absorbed new scientific ideas and methods thanks to his valuable remarks, and for allowing me to profit from his linguistic expertise.
A special word of thank is due to Professor Alexander Vovin (EHESS/CRLAO, Paris), who carefully read my work, offered me valuable suggestions, accepted my work for publication and supported me throughout years.
I sincerely thank Professor András Róna-Tas (Szeged University, Department of Altaic Studies) and Professor Claus Schönig (Institut für Turkologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) for their feedback and valuable comments and criticism, whether by providing advice or discussion.
My equally big gratitude goes to my colleagues and friends for their help throughout all these years: Prof. Marianne Bakró-Nagy (Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies, Szeged University), Prof. Elisabetta Ragagnin (Institut für Turkologie, Freie Universität Berlin), Dr. Veronika Zikmundova, Dr. Veronika Kapišovská and Dr. Rachel Mikos (Institute of South and Central Asia, Charles University, Prague), Prof. Julian Rentzsch (Institute für Turkologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), Dr. Hans Nugteren (Seminar für Turkologie und Zentralasienkunde, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Dr. Sárközi Ildikó (Pécs University), and Dr. Szeverényi Sándor (Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies, Szeged University).
I wish also to thank Catherine Schellenberg for housing accommodations during my stay in Bellingham (USA) in 2012 and 2014.
I with to express my gratitude towards those close to me—my mother Galina Zhigmitovna and my father Abido Cydypovich, my sister Namsalma and my daughter Emese—for all their support.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Katalin Uray-Kőhalmi—Kati néni—to a wonderful person and my esteemed teacher from whom I learnt the basics of Tungusic Studies, Ewenki and Manchu languages. Without her teaching and support this book would not have come into existence. I am very grateful to my fate that I could learn from her.
All inaccuracies and mistakes, of course, are mine.
Bayarma Khabtagaeva
Szeged
May 24, 2018