A Morphological study on 『Nomch queen's Geser』 : Focusing on case endings

Research on the Mongolian 『Geser』 has gained momentum following the recent publication of the Mongolian 『Geser』 Series. Since most versions of the Mongolian 『Geser』 exist in manuscript form, individual possession and preservation have inherent limitations. Moreover, as an oral literary work, obtaining specific versions of the Mongolian 『Geser』 required researchers to travel to the regions where those versions were orally transmitted. However, in 2016, the Inner Mongolia Cultural Publishing House in China published facsimile editions of more than ten versions of the Mongolian 『Geser』, making it possible to conduct research using precise and faithful reproductions of the original texts. This study aims to conduct a linguistic analysis of the 『Nomchi queen's Geser』, a manuscript that has received relatively little scholarly attention. Focusing on the case endings observed in this version, the study classifies and analyzes their various morphological forms to gain deeper insights into the linguistic features of Mongolian at the time. The morphological analysis of the 『Nomchi queen's Geser』 reveals the presence of diverse colloquial case endings (e.g., -gi-yin, -du/-dü/-tu/-tü, -la/-le, -tai/-tei, etc.), as well as several pre-classical literary ending (-ča/-če, etc.) that remained in use during that period. Additionally, numerous instances of strong colloquial influence were observed, leading to deviations from traditional Mongolian grammatical norms (e.g., köl-yin (=köl-ün) (7-1-4-14), ǰarliγ-yi (2-1-1-16), boγul-lüge[luγ-a] (31-1-16-35), etc.). Thus far, linguistic research on the Mongolian Geser has been limited to only a few versions, including the 『Peking Geser』 and the 『Longfu Temple Geser』. Moving forward, linguistic studies should also be conducted on previously unexamined versions, such as the 『Osut Monastery Geser』 and the 『Jamsarano Geser』, further to expand the scope of research on the Mongolian 『Geser』.