Evenki orthography
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Evenki orthgraphy is the othography of the Evenki language. Multiple alphabets based on three different scripts have been and are currently being used, depending on the region. In Russia, a Cyrillic-based alphabet enjoys official status, while in China two scripts are used: Latin (official) 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 1928, researcher Glafira Makar'yevna Vasilyevich wrote «Памятку тунгусам-отпускникам» (lit. Memo to Tungus vacationers) for Evenks studying in Leningrad. It was small textbook, duplicated on 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 sub-letter comma (modernist cedilla), to indicate palatalization.[7]
In 1930 a decision was made to create writing systems for the majority of the peoples of the North of the UUSR. The Latin alphabet was chosen as a graphic basis. In the same year Y. P Al'kor suggested the Evenki alphabet project. This project differed from the alphabet created by Vasilyevich only in the inclusion of letters used only in Russian loanwords (C c, F f, J j, Ш ш, Z z), and also the usage of the letter V v instead of W w, Ç ç instead of Ч ч, as well as the exclusion of the letter Y y.[7] In May 1931 the Evenki Latin-based alphabet was officially confirmed, and in 1932 regular book publishing began, using the alphabet.[2] The basis of the literary language was the more thouroughly researched Nepsky dialect (north of Irkutsk Oblast').[8]
The official Latin-based alphabet, which was used in book publishing and school education, was thus:[9]
| A a | B в | C c | D d | Ʒ ʒ | E e | Ə ə | Ə̄ ə̄ | F f |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m | N n | Ņ ņ |
| Ŋ ŋ | O o | P p | R r | S s | T t | U u | W w | Z z |
Cyrillic
In 1937, like many other alphabets used by peoples of the USSR, the Evenki alphabet was changed to a Cyrillic-based one. Initially, it had the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet, plus the digraph Нг нг.[10] In the 1950s this digraph was replaced by the letter Ӈ ӈ. At the same time the base of Evenki literature was translated to the Poligusov dialect.[8]
The modern Evenki Cyillic-based alphabet contains 34 letters:
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /b/ | /v/ | /ɡ/,/ɣ/ | /d/,/dʒ/ | /je/ | /jo/ | /ʒ/ | /z~dz/ | /i/ | /j/ | /k/ |
| Л л | М м | Н н | Ӈ ӈ | О о | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у | Ф ф | Х х |
| /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /ɔ/ | /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /ʊ/, /u/ | /f/ | /x/, /h/ |
| Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я | ||
| /ts/ | /tʃ/ | /ʃ/ | /ʃtʃ/ | /./ | /ə/, /ɨ/ | /ʲ/ | /e/ | /ju/ | /ja/ |
Notes
- ^ a b Я. П. Алькор (Кошкин). Проект алфавита эвенкийского (тунгусского) языка. — Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1930. — 14 с. — 650 экз.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b Я. П. Алькор (Кошкин). Письменность народов Севера // Культура и письменность востока. — М.: ВЦК НА, 1931. — Вып. X. — С. 12—31.
- ^ a b Письменные языки мира: Языки Российской Федерации. — М.: Academia, 2003. — Т. 2. — С. 648—649. — 848 с. — 1000 экз. — ISBN 5-87444-191-3.
- ^ Г. М. Василевич. Учебник эвенкийского (тунгусского) языка. — М.-Л.: Гос. уч.-пед. изд-во, 1934. — С. 14. — 160 с. — 5200 экз.
- ^ Г. М. Василевич. Очерк грамматики эвенкийского (тунгусского) языка. — Л.: Гос. уч.-пед. изд-во, 1940. — С. 13—14. — 133 с. — 1100 экз.