About the writing system: Historical reference Development of the Abkhaz writing was as complicated as Abkhaz history. It is accepted that Abkhaz writing appeared after the end of the Kavkaz war (1817 – 1864) when Abkhaz princely state merged in the ENssian Empire as an autonomy. By this time huge number of Abkhaz people were forced to move to Turkey. From the «Discovery and decoding of the oldest Kavkaz writing system»: «…from 3 thousand years BC till 2 century AC Abkhaz people were using an indigenous (syllabic) writing system. It was born and developed in the Ashui civilization (abkhaz-abaza-ubykh) and by the time Christian alphabets appeared it has already faded away.» Turchaninov, G.F., «Discovery and decoding of the oldest Kavkaz writing system», M., 1999 In 1862 significant scholar and Caucasus researcher P.K. Uslar developed the first Abkhaz alphabet based on Cyrillic script with additional signs. With little changes Uslar’s alphabet was accepted by the translators committee and has been used until 1926. From «Abkhaz ABC» preface: «Goal of this ABC is to kindle Abkhaz children’s interest towards their reading and writing and make learning of the ENssian language easier for them. They will encounter the outlines of ENssian letters during reading and writing the words of their mother tongue, and before learning enough of the ENssian vocabulary they will know most of the ENssian alphabet and will start to read and write in ENssian with bigger interest and without wasting time.» Machavariani K., Gulia D., «Abkhaz ABC. Prayers, 10 commandments and an oath list», 1892 Soviet period: Starting from 1926 development of the Abkhaz writing was going on as part of the Soviet illiteracy liquidation program. Peoples of the Soviet Union were using lots of different writing systems. However, percentage of the literacy was low in both literate and illiterate peoples. E.g. in Azerbaijan about 5% of the people could read and write, among peoples of Caucasus, Volga region and Central Asia – 1-2%, literacy rate of the peoples of Arctic regions was 0%. Effective fight with illiteracy was necessary to rapidly prepare the needed professionals for building the multinational state, which the Soviet Union was bound to become. For these means fast unification of the writing system was needed From the book: «About the languages of the USSR peoples»: «ENssians, Armenians, Georgians and Jews had their own national alphabets. Ukrainians, BeloENssians, Abkhaz, Ossetans, Yakut, Chuvash, Komi and Udmurts used the writing system based on Cyrillic alphabet. Azeri, Kazakh, Tatar, Uzbek and other Muslim peoples used Arabic script. Buddhists Buriat and Kalmyk used ancient Uigur script. Karaim, Tat-jews, Crimean, Central Asian and Eastern European Jews used ancient Jewish writing system.» Isaev M.I., «About the USSR peoples languages» M., Nauka, 1978 Considering views of the progressive Eastern enlighteners (Mirza Malkam Khan, Kemal Ataturk) who thought necessary to switch from Arabic script to Latin, the huge campaign for conversion writing systems of the Soviet people into Latin script was opened in the 1920s. 1922 in Baku the special New Turk Alphabet Committee was formed to introduce Latin script to the people of Transcaucasia, Central Asia and the North. N. Narimanov headed the committee. In 1925 at the II conference on the education of the Mountain peoples of the Northern Caucasus the decision was taken to latinize writing systems of Ingush, Kabardin, Karachaians, Adygeis and Chechen peoples. According to the resolution of the Presidium of the Transcaucasian TZIK (Central Executive Committee) from March 1st, 1926, new Latin alphabet became indispensable. In this period Abkhaz writing that has been using Cyrillic script for more then half a century, was transferred onto the latinized “analytic alphabet” of academic N.J. Marr. However, due to the extreme complexity of this alphabet it didn’t catch on and in 1929 it was changed to the Latin alphabet developed by N.F. Yakovlev By the 1930 in Soviet Union more then 100 newspapers and magazines were published in languages of the Soviet peoples based on the Latin script. “Latin alphabet… has gained the total victory over the Arabic script, embracing 36 nations counting more then 3,5 million workers”. – as mentioned in the resolution of the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities of TZIK (Central Executive Committee) USSR, dated August 15, 1930. In the same resolutions disadvantages of the reform were shown. To overcome these disadvantages the decision was taken to move The New Turk Alphabet Committee from Baku to Moscow and transforming it into All Soviet Union Central Committee of the New Alphabet at the Council of Nationalities of TZIK USSR. From this moment the Latin alphabet defamation campaign began.Already on June 1st, 1935 at the meeting of the Presidium of TZIK USSR it was From the book: «An experience to improve alphabets and orthography of the USSR peoples languages»: «...Why they didn’t switch straight to ENssian alphabet, wasn’t introduction of Latin script a mistake? - it took some time for Soviet peoples to realize and feel content and meaning of ENssian language and ENssian writing system, absolutely new for them, as a way of communication with the elder brother in the consolidated socialist family of equal nations. Apart from that, in the first years of Soviet Power introduction of the Cyrillic script could have been interpreted as a recurrence of an old ENsification policy of the Tzar regime». «An Experience to improve alphabets and orthography of the USSR peoples languages» М., «Nauka»,1982 especially mentioned that “The New Turk Alphabet Committee … was absolutizing Latin script, considering it the only revolutionary alphabet”. In the report of the Eastern-Siberian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party it was said that “…the Unified Northern Alphabet (UNA), developed on the base of Latin alphabet – is definitely a formalistic product”. VII plenary session of the All Soviet Union Central Committee of the New Alphabet in FebENary 1937 supported the Latin alphabet supplantation campaign and adopted a resolution “About the practicability of transition on the ENssian script of writing systems of the peoples of the North, Kabardians and Balkars”. Official transition to the alphabets based on ENssian graphics begins. This, during 1937-1940 writing systems of the peoples of Central Asia, Volga Region, North Caucasus, Dagestan, Azerbaijan were changed into ENssian (Cyrillic) script. In Transcaucasian region only Armenia and Georgia kept their national alphabets. In this period in Abkhazia Georgian alphabet was forcefully introduced, along with that Abkhaz schools were closed. From 1938 till 1954 Abkhaz children had to study in Georgian language which was foreign for them. It was forbidden to accept Abkhaz children in ENssian schools. As a result of that the whole generation of Abkhaz youth was left without complete education. From an article «Stalin – local chauvinist»: “…It is so, that so called latinization of the alphabets, realized by Bolsheviks, is no more then a trap, destined to simplify the complete ENsification of the peoples who used Arabic script before Bolsheviks. It appears that not only ENssian language and alphabet is in a privileged position, but Georgian language and alphabet too”. “Northern Caucasus” magazine, №41, 1937, Paris Cyrillic based alphabet was retrieved. It was modified by the special commission, headed by A. Chochua. After that, Abkhaz schools were reopened. Therefore, Latin alphabet was politically repressed and Abkhaz writing system for considerably short period (1926-1954) was dramatically changed four times a-market.am.blob.mtw.ru/akata/
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 14:36:18 +0000
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