Until the end of the spring session, a bill will be submitted to the State Duma, according to which all small peoples will have the right to approve their own alphabet. So far, the deputies said, not everyone has such an opportunity – for example, some peoples of the Caucasus cannot officially receive a written language. Izvestia dealt with the situation.
Who does not yet have the right to the alphabet
First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on Nationalities Ildar Gilmutdinov declaredwhat the country is inhabited by speakers of 277 languages and dialects, but among these languages there are many dying and unwritten ones. The lack of writing, he noted, is a fixable matter – the alphabet and with it teaching aids can be developed by scientists. The deputies have already passed a law, according to which the government is entitled to approve the alphabets of such languages. This is done by the Interdepartmental Commission on the Approval of Alphabets, Graphics and Spelling.
“But it mainly affected the peoples of the North and the Far East. And the peoples of the Caucasus, for example, where there are also many languages, were not included in this law– said Gilmutdinov. – We promised that we would return to the issue – within the framework of the spring session, we expect to introduce an appropriate bill so that all the peoples of Russia will have the opportunity to approve their alphabets.
He emphasized that this does not mean that everyone will immediately begin to create writing. What is important is the very right of peoples to approve the alphabet.
Now 81 languages are studied in the country at the school subject level, lessons are conducted in 24 languages. Wherein in a number of regions there are problems with the availability of textbooks in native languages, as well as problems of personnel training, methods of teaching subjects – especially in nomadic schools.
Gilmutdinov noted that last year there was the Foundation for the Preservation and Study of Native Languages has been abolished, but a new institution is now being created under the Federal Agency for Nationalities Affairs (FADN). As Natalya Koptseva, head of the Department of Cultural Studies and Art History of the Siberian Federal University, explained to Izvestia, it is the FADN that will receive the authority to decide whether a particular nation needs a written language and alphabet, and will create expert groups.
Things to do in the Decade of Indigenous Languages
Recall The UN General Assembly proclaimed the period from 2022 to 2032 as the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Languages. This is to draw attention to the plight of many indigenous languages in order to mobilize stakeholders and resources to preserve and revive them. Before that, in 2019, the International Year of Indigenous Languages was held. The beginning of the Decade of Indigenous Languages coincided with the year of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
Last week the Russian government approved action plan for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. There are 60 events divided into six thematic sections. They are dedicated to improving public administration, education and training of teachers, science, digitalization and book publishing. The activities of the plan include, for example, the development of keyboard layouts, fonts and mobile applications in national languages, the creation of a virtual museum of the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East, etc.
Every two years it is planned to hold an international conference on the problems of preserving the languages of indigenous peoples. Every three years – the All-Russian Congress of Teachers of the Native Language and Literature of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. The first such meeting will take place in 2022. The Ministry of Education and Science and the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences will conduct research on the sociolinguistic situation of indigenous languages.
Regional authorities were instructed to develop their own plans for holding events until 2032.
Let’s add that Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 2020 commissioned to develop the concept of language policy. Gilmutdinov noted that a draft version of the document has already been developed, but work on it continues. The concept should appear before the end of 2022.
Do the peoples of southern Russia need writing?
Natalya Koptseva notes that the South of Russia is indeed characterized by a large number of languages that do not have a written language.
“For example, in Dagestan there are a large number of local ethno-cultural groups with their own language,” she said. — In fact, often a small village in this region clearly defines itself as a separate ethno-cultural group..
Doctor of Philology, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Uralic Languages, Folklore and Literature of the Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University Sergei Myznikov notes that in the Caucasus, native speakers themselves are not always interested in creating alphabets.
— From a scientific point of view [создание письменности для редких языков] it would be interesting, of course, but when you ask the question: “What language should your children learn?” – in most cases they answer: “Russian. Why do we need this language, what are we going to do with this language? They may not be opposed to their children knowing their native language, but when it comes to practical implementation, people will not lift a finger to do something to revive or at least preserve their languages, — he told Izvestia.
Timur Maysak, Senior Researcher at the Department of Caucasian Languages of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, confirms that many small languages in Dagestan remain unwritten. However, he notes, the problem here is not so much in the absence of the necessary regulatory documents, but rather in the fact that a certain interest, enthusiasm on the part of representatives of small peoples is needed in order to write in these languages.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the creation of the alphabet and the use of writing are far from the same thing.
– If we are talking, for example, about the small non-written languages of Dagestan, then compiling alphabets for these languages is unlikely to be a big problem, he told Izvestia. – The languages that do not have a written language today include the languages of the Andi and Tsez groups, a number of languages of the Dargin group, the Archin language of the Lezgin group. These languages have “close relatives” among the major written languages - for example, Avar is close to Andean. And as a basis for writing in the Andean languages, it is reasonable to use Avar, for the Dargin languages, it is appropriate to take the writing of the Dargin literary language as a basis, etc.
But the alphabet alone will not be enough: it is necessary that spelling rules, dictionaries, educational materials be prepared and published, and most importantly, that the writing be used by the native speakers themselves.
– It is important that poetry and prose be created in this language, that folklore be recorded and published, that literary classics from other languages be translated– says Timur Maisak. – And of course, so that a person can write a letter to a fellow villager in their own language or hang a sign or announcement.
At the same time, for small peoples, it is not at all necessary that the alphabet be approved by scientists or the government. In fact, some non-written languages have already become written without official approval by enthusiasts, the scientist said.
– For example, in recent years, collections of folklore in the Tsez, Bezhta, Khvarshi, Karata, and Archa languages have been published in Dagestan. A new Andean alphabet has been developed, which also has a number of editionsMaysak said. — This does not mean that now all native speakers of these languages can write in their native language – this also needs to be learned, so the question of studying writing should be put first of all before the school. But such examples show that one can write and read in one’s native language, which may be spoken only in one or a few mountain villages, and that there is no insurmountable barrier here.
Which nations still need to solve the problem with writing
Natalya Koptseva notes that problems arise not only among those peoples who do not have an alphabet. Not always within the small peoples themselves there is a consensus on the use of the existing script.
– The problem arises, for example, among the Vepsians (a small people of the Finno-Ugric language group, traditionally living on the territory of Karelia, the Vologda and Leningrad regions. – “Izvestia”), where representatives of two different directions with two different versions of the alphabet have been discussing – and sometimes quite actively – for several yearsshe said.
Sergey Myznikov confirms: The Vepsians have a very difficult situation, because those who speak the Vepsian language well cannot use the alphabet based on the Latin alphabet.
— I had situations when they wrote letters to me in the Vepsian language in Cyrillic, because those who know the language well simply do not know the Latin alphabethe says. – In the North, in general, the situation is radically different for different languages. There are problems, for example, with the Khanty, who have an alphabet, but they have five written traditions – and each dialect wants to have its own script.
Among the Sami, there are also discussions regarding the alphabet. Natalya Koptseva explains that among the northern peoples who are close to Finland, disputes often arise as to whether the alphabet should be based on Cyrillic or Latin.
Sergei Myznikov continues: even with the Komi language, which, in general, exists quite well, there is a problem – the Komi-Izhma people, who position themselves as a kind of sub-ethnos within the Komi people, also want their own written language and the teaching of their Izhma dialect. So far, they refuse to split the Komi language, but the weight of the Izhma people is quite large – there are about 16 thousand representatives of this ethnic group.
“Many specialists who come to study the languages of small peoples immediately have the idea that an alphabet needs to be created,” says Myznikov. “But, as you can see, this is not the main problem – there are alphabets, and it is better if we pay less attention to their creation, but deal with those that already exist, preserve the existing ones.
Myznikov does not yet see any strategic plans and step-by-step steps in the preservation of languages. And in general, he is rather skeptical about the preservation of languages.
— I don’t think that anything can be radically changed here at the present time, especially since the number of carriers is drastically reduced, – he said. – Even such numerous peoples as the Mordovians are declining – at the beginning of the 2010s there were 1.2 million people, and after 10 years – only 800 thousand.
The last language for which writing was created is the language of the Enets. Izvestia wrote about this in detail. The alphabet was invented for a people of only about 200 people. However, writing can save the language, says Natalia Koptseva.
“When writing appears, the language gets its pedagogical form, methodology,” she says. — You can create teaching aids, primers, dictionaries, textbooks, visual aids, mobile applications with elements of this language, and so on. These are new opportunities for preserving this culture, this cultural heritage. But, unfortunately, the need is not everywhere.
Timur Maisak emphasizes that the impetus for the preservation of the native language is given by the appearance of writing, in which the representatives of small peoples themselves are interested. But it will also take them some time to realize that the language now has a script that needs to be mastered.
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