Myths of Abakan

It is a well-known fact that people have always desired to decipher the meaning of different words, especially geographical names. Many geographical names of Khakassia can be explained easily. For example the right tributary of Yenisei (Tasheb)  means in the Khakass language “burial mound stone” and also “hill”. The name of the mountain “Oglahty” comes from two Khakass words and means “goat” and “mount” making together the name “goat mount”.

But there are some words which cannot be easily recognized with the help of modem Khakass language. Etymology of such words can be discovered with the help of other languages. There were many myths and legends around such names. Many of them play important role for folk but they can hardly be true.

M.I. Borgoyakov, linguist of Khakass scientific-research institute of language, history and literature, made an effort to find explanation of some names, etymology of some words which were not studied yet. Some of his studies concern the etymology of the word : “Abakan”.

Abakan (Khakass words “Agban”, “Abagan”, “Abygan”). There were many legends about the river Abakan. One of the legends tells: “The name to the river was given by bogatyr (athlete) Ochen pig.  The former name was Ala-ort. When the bogatyr crossed the river he said: “The name Ola-ort must be lost and the river must be called Abakan”. Another scientist V.Titov suggests that “once upon a time a big and powerful bogatyr Aba-kan (his name means “bear’s blood”) lived near the river. Its former name was Alrait. The bogatyr could easily fly on this horse from the one bank of the river to another. But once the river was flooded. And the horse jumped over the river but touched water. The bogatyr fell down. And since that time the river was called Abakan”. Another legend tells: “There were many bears (Khakass bear “aba”) who lived near the river”. That is why the river is called Abakan (bear’s blood). There is one more version: Once upon a time there was a big bear (aba), he destroyed everything and killed people, ate domestic animals, made local people frighten. A young bogatyr decided to kill the bear. They had been fighting for  a long time,  the bear could not continue the battle and decided to go away. The bear was heavily wounded by the bogatyr and he felt his death coming. The whole night the ground was being shaken – the bear cried, ruined trees and threw big stones.  When the day came the bogtyr founded the bear who died and transformed into a big mountain and the river fell from the mountain.  That is why the river was called “bear’s blood” – the river Abakan.

By the way the river has two tributaries (Small Abakan and Big Abakan) and also there are maintains which resemble a bear.

Of course, these legends are fantastic, they were made by people to explain the names of strange words.