A Study Of Folk Names Of Seed Plants In Mongolia

In this research,the folk names were collected from the original Russian,Chinese translation,Cyrillic Mongolian translation of Forage Plants of Grazing Land and Mowing Pasture in the People’s Republic of Mongolia and the Uighur-style Mongolian original of Advice to Herders on How to Conduct Animal Husbandry Production,and their scientific names were verified and sorted according to the plants classification system.The structure,type and naming basis of plant names in the books were analyzed by using relevant data.The naming characteristics of Mongolian seed plants’ folk names were summarized.The results are as follows:(1)494 folk names of plant have been collected,corresponding to 400 species,4 subspecies,2 varieties and 1 form in the plant classification system,belonging to 52 families and 224 genera.At the family level,Compositae have the largest number of taxa,accounting for 13.51% of the total number of plant taxa.The second is Gramineae and Leguminosae,accounting for 18.44%of the total plant taxa.At the genus level,Allium and Artemisia have the largest number of taxa,accounting for 5.9% of the total number of plant taxa.T The second is Caragana,Carex and Neopallasia,accounting for 6.14% of the total number of plant taxa.The folk names of Compositae,Gramineae and Leguminosae account for 31.95% of the seed plants in Mongolia,which is consistent with the species size of seed plants in Mongolia.(2)There are three correspondences between folk names of seed plants and their scientific names: "one-to-one","one-to-many" and "many-to-one".There are 134 plant name groups with one-to-one correspondence,accounting for 32.6%.There are 104 plant name groups with one-to-many correspondence,accounting for 25.31%.There are 173 plant name groups with many-to-one correspondence,accounting for 42.09%.(3)Mongolian seed plant folk names can be divided into three types:primary names,secondary names,and borrowed names.Among them,there are 309 primary names,accounting for 62.55%;126 secondary names,accounting for 25.51%;and 59 borrowed names,accounting for 11.94%.The folk names of seed plants in Mongolia are mainly original names.The naming of the folk names is based on 9 items including the external morphological characteristics,colors,content of substances,ecological habits,odors,uses,habitats,growth patterns and other characteristics of plants.Among the names collected,100 were named based on plant external morphological characteristics;59 were named based on plant color;16,9 and 7 were named based on plant content,growth type and ecological habits;5 of each were named based on plant odor and purpose;There are 3 and 6 respectively named according to plant habitat and other characteristics.The folk names of seed plants in Mongolia are mainly based on the external morphological characteristics of plants.Naming plants based on animal characteristics,living utensils and plants characteristics are the main feature of Mongolian naming plants.Among them,the most significant feature is naming based on animal characteristics.This method use animal body characteristics to describe plant morphological characteristics,and use different domestic animals to describe plant size and height.This is closely related to the unique grassland culture of Mongolian.Mongolian people have a long history of plant utilization,and the folk plant naming knowledge is rich and distinctive.Scientific summary of these traditional knowledge is of great practical significance to the sustainable utilization of plant resources and the protection of biodiversity.To maintain the precious Mongolian biocultural diversity will require more profound and detailed research.