How History Is Evoked in Oral Folktales:

A Case Study of Tongue Twisters [Qončaan qoyor kövün] Used by Hoboksair Torgud People in Xinjiang

Abstract

  This paper discusses how history is evoked in oral folktales by analyzing the interpretation of tongue twisters [Qončaan qoyor kövün] passed down in Khobogksair Mongolian Autonomous County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.

  A tongue twister is originally a word game where people compete in speaking faster and better words that are hard to pronounce. Syllables of many of the tongue twister words line up in order of difficulty in moving the tongue, and the meaning of the words are hard to understand. Nevertheless, Khobogksair Torgud people made tongue twisters [Qončaan qoyor kövün], have passed them on and told them to their children, making the words sound as if they were word games, and have spread them among the Torgud people with the aim of avoiding interference by Imperial Russia. It is understood that Torgud people who lived in the riverside area of the Idil River interpreted the messages hidden in the tongue twister words spoken by children and began to prepare for migration.

  This paper explores two examples of interpretation concerning the twister tongue words, and focuses on imagining the history of Torgud by excavating their history from the word games with unclear meanings, rather than focusing on whether the tongue twister words were actually used as secret codes for transmitting information for migration. The results showed that Khobogksair Torgud people were fully equipped with an oral communication system for transmitting information on their history of returning to their country.