Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Armenia, Caucaso e Asia Centrale
Chapter | From the History of Abkhaz Romanized Alphabets
From the History of Abkhaz Romanized Alphabets
Abstract
The article discusses the vicissitudes around the adoption of two versions of the Abkhaz alphabet based on the Latin script – the ‘analytical’ alphabet, proposed by Academician Nikolai Marr (adopted in 1926 and used until 1928), and the ‘unified alphabet’, which replaced Marr’s alphabet. Marr’s system was, in fact, nothing more than a phonetic transcription, complex and inconvenient even for linguists, and unfit for school and literary purposes, which motivated the Abkhaz authorities to opt for its radical reform. The new Romanized alphabet was introduced into school practice in 1929 and functioned until 1938. There is some controversy as to the authorship of this script. In later literature it was attributed to N. Yakovlev, but in reality those who were directly involved in the creation of the new alphabetical system were Y. Polivanov, S. Chanba and M. Khashba, though the latter two did consult with Yakovlev. The fact that both Polivanov and Chanba were executed during Stalinist purges may explain the silencing of their names. By the mid-1930s, the Soviet government had started replacing Latin scripts with Cyrillic-based ones, but with two notable exceptions: in 1938, the alphabets of the Abkhazians and South Ossetians were transferred into a Georgian graphic basis. It was only in 1954, after the death of Stalin, that the Abkhazians returned to their erstwhile Cyrillic alphabet.
Submitted: April 13, 2022 | Accepted: June 13, 2022 | Published April 26, 2023 | Language: en
Keywords Abkhaz Alphabet • Yevgeny Polivanov • Romanized Script • Nikolai Marr • Analytical Alphabet • Abkhaz Language
Copyright © 2023 Viacheslav Chirikba. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-667-1/001
