The formation of the Yakut people is associated with the several waves of migration from the southern direction, in which Mongol-speaking communities took part. The researchers of the Yakuts ethnic history noticed the ethnonym İgidäi, known as the name of a large tribal group in the interfluve of Aldan and Lena Rivers, in the 17th century, which was connected in Russian written sources with the particular unit are “Igideiskaya volost”. In the late 19th century the descendants of this population were presented by four administrative units (nasleg) in the Bayagantai and Baturus ulus (as 1st and 2nd Igideysky in both cases). There is no association in the names of the smaller administrative units (Russian: rod) attested as parts of these nasleg with other ethnonyms. This suggests that those populations were quite homogeneous and did not subject to large external migrations in the historical period. By itself, the ethnonym İgidäi was repeatedly associated with the name of a large tribal grouping of Western Buryats, known as eχirid (rus. ekhirit), which in turn goes back to the Middle Mongolian ethnonym Ikires. Pprevious researchers had outlined right path of searching, however they limited only a statement of the formal consonance of the Yakut İgidäi and buryats eχirid. The present article is devoted to the argumentation of the comparison based on the analysis of phonetic data. The form İgidäi make it possible to reconstruct the primary appearance of the ethnonym as *ikir (plur.: ikid), which correlates with the dialectal version of the Western Buryat ethnonym attested as eχirši, also referring to the early form *ikir. The tribe Ikires mentioned above was known in the 13–14th centuries and was associated with the territory of Mongolia. Information about the Ekhirits, because of lack of written sources, attested only in the 17th century AD in the Western Baikal region. Despite the obvious kinship of their names, it is not possible to trace any intermediate stages that would allow us to talk about the unity of the history of the population known by these ethnonyms. At the same time, the identification among the Yakuts the ethnonym, which clearly goes back to the form that demonstrates the phonetic characteristics of Western Buryat dialects, allows us, based on the general historical context, to move the lower chronological border beginning the stay of the ethnonym Eχirid carriers in the Western Baikal region at least by a century.
Voices from the Uncanny Valley
