Evenki orthography
![]() | This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by Logan Sherwin (talk | contribs) 3 years ago. (Update timer) |
Evenki orthgraphy uses three different scripts, depending on the region. In Russia, a Cyrillic-based alphabet enjoys official status, while in China two scripts are used: Latin (various forms) and the Mongolian script (experimentally).
Preliterate period
Before the 20th century, the Evenki language had no orthography of its own, although material regarding the language was fixated in the 18th and 19th centuries repeatedly by various investigators, who used various orthographical systems in their writings. Thus, the first texts in the language were published in 1705 in a second edition of a book by Nicolaes Witsen "Noord en Oost Tartarye," which contains a translation of a prayer into Evenki, written in the Latin alphabet. Earlier, Evenki words were documented by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg, Peter Simon Pallas, Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt and other investigators. For their notes they used both the Latin alphabet and various Cyrillic alphabets. In 1865 the first scientific grammar of the Evenki language, written by Matthias Castrén, was published.[1]
The first attempts at the creation of Evenki orthography were made by missionaries of the Bible Society in Russia. In 1818 they translated excerpts of the New Testament. The Cyrillic alphabet was used in the translations, which were never published after all.[2][3] Some publications claim that "Тунгусский букварь" (in English, "Tungus language children's primer (or ABC-book), written 1858), as well as the dictionary and translation of the Gospel of Matthew that followed it, were in the Evenki language. However, in reality, these books were written in the Ola dialect of the Even language.[1][4]
Latin alphabets
The creation of Evenki orthography began in the 1920s. In May of 1928 investigator Glafira Makar'yevna Vasilyevich wrote «Памятку тунгусам-отпускникам» (lit. Memo for Tungus vacationers) for Evenkis studying in what was then Leningrad. It was small methodical, enacted on a piece of glass.[5] In it was the Evenki Latin-based alphabet created by Vasilyevich. A year later she compiled the book «Первая книга для чтения на тунгусском языке,» or «Әwәnkil dukuwuntin,» lit. "First book for reading in the Tungus language."[6] This alphabet had the following letters: Aa Bb Чч Dd Ӡӡ Ee Әә Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Ŋŋ Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Ww Yy; it also included diacritic marks: a macron, to indicate a lengthened vowel and a 'under-letter comma' (modernist cedilla), to indicate palatalization.[7]
Notes
- ^ a b Я. П. Алькор (Кошкин). Проект алфавита эвенкийского (тунгусского) языка. — Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1930. — 14 с. — 650 экз.
- ^ Книжная культура эвенков / Л. Н. Потапова. — Якутск, 2008. — С. 6—14.
- ^ Б. Даниленко. Перевод и интерпретация Священного Писания в этнокультурах Дальнего Востока. Информационно-просветительский портал Хабаровской епархии (15.11.2006).
- ^ А. А. Бурыкин. Изучение фонетики языков малочисленных народов Севера России и проблемы развития их письменности (обзор) // Язык и речевая деятельность. — СПб, 2000. — Т. 3, вып. 1. — С. 150—180.
- ^ Г. М. Василевич. Памятка тунгусам-отпукникам. — Л., 1928.
- ^ Эвенкийская литература / В. Огрызко. — М.: Литературная Россия, 2006. — С. 10—12. — 320 с. — 1000 экз. — ISBN 5-7809-0094-9.
- ^ Я. П. Алькор (Кошкин). Письменность народов Севера // Культура и письменность востока. — М.: ВЦК НА, 1931. — Вып. X. — С. 12—31.