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Latinisation in the Soviet Union

December 28, 2022

In the USSR, latinisation or latinization (Russian: латиниза́ция, latinizatsiya) was the name of the campaign during the 1920s–1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that would use the Latin script or to create Latin-script-based systems for languages that, at the time, did not have a writing system.

A Kazakh newspaper in Latin script from 1937. Published in Almaty, Kazakh SSR, USSR

History

 
A Tajik newspaper in Latin script from 1936. Published in Tajik SSR, USSR

Background

Since at least 1700, some Russian intellectuals have sought to Latinise the Russian language in their desire for close relations with the West.[1]

The early 20th-century Bolsheviks had four goals: to break with Tsarism, to spread socialism to the whole world, to isolate the Muslim inhabitants of the Soviet Union from the Arabic–Islamic world and religion, and to eradicate illiteracy through simplification.[1] They concluded the Latin alphabet was the right tool to do so, and, after seizing power during the Russian Revolution of 1917, they made plans to realise these ideals.[1]

Although progress was slow at first, in 1926, the Turkic-majority republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in neighbouring Turkey.[2] When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk adopted the new Turkish Latin alphabet in 1928, this in turn encouraged the Soviet leaders to proceed.[1] By 1933, it was estimated that among some language groups that had shifted from an Arabic-based script to Latin, literacy rates rose from 2% to 60%.[3]

Procedure

Almost all Turkic, Iranian, Uralic and several other languages were romanised, totalling nearly 50 of the 72 written languages in the USSR. There also existed plans to Latinise Russian and other Slavic languages as well, but in the late 1930s the latinisation campaign was cancelled, and all newly romanised languages were converted to Cyrillic.

In 1929 the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR formed a committee to develop the question of the romanisation of the Russian alphabet, led by Professor N. F. Yakovlev [ru] and with the participation of linguists, bibliographer, printers, and engineers. The Commission completed its work in mid-January 1930. However, on 25 January 1930, General Secretary Joseph Stalin ordered to halt the development of the question of the romanisation of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russian language.[1]

The following languages were latinised or adapted new Latin-script alphabets:[4]

  1. Abaza (1932)
  2. Abkhaz (Abkhaz alphabet) (1924)
  3. Adyghe (1926)
  4. Altai (1929)
  5. Assyrian (1930)
  6. Avar (1928)
  7. Azerbaijani (Azerbaijani alphabet) (1922)
  8. Balochi (Balochi Latin) (1933)
  9. Bashkir (1927)
  10. Bukhori (1929)
  11. Buryat (1929)
  12. Chechen (1925)
  13. Chinese (Latinxua Sin Wenz) (1931)
  14. Chukchi (Chucki Latin) (1931)
  15. Crimean Tatar (First Latin) (1927)
  16. Dargin (1928)
  17. Dungan (1928)
  18. Eskimo (1931)
  19. Even (1931)
  20. Evenki (Evenki Latin) (1931)
  21. Ingrian (Ingrian alphabet) (1932)
  22. Ingush (1923)
  23. Itelmen (1931)
  24. Juhuri (1929)
  25. Kabardiano-Cherkess (1923)
  26. Kalmyk (1930)
  27. Karachay-Balkar (1924)
  28. Karaim (1928)
  29. Karakalpak (1928)
  30. Karelian (Karelian alphabet) (1931)
  31. Kazakh (Kazakh alphabet) (1928)
  32. Ket (1931)
  33. Khakas (1929)
  34. Khanty (1931)
  35. Komi (1932)
  36. Komi-Permyak (1932)
  37. Koryak (1931)
  38. Krymchak (1928)
  39. Kumandin (1932)
  40. Kumyk (1927)
  41. Kurdish (Kurdish alphabets) (1929)
  42. Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz alphabets) (1928)
  43. Lak (1928)
  44. Laz (1930)
  45. Lezgin (Lezgin alphabets) (1928)
  46. Mansi (1931)
  47. Moldovan (name used in the USSR for Romanian; Moldovan alphabet) (1928)
  48. Nanai language (1931)
  49. Nenets languages (1931)
  50. Nivkh language (1931)
  51. Nogai language (1928)
  52. Ossetic language (1923)
  53. Persian alphabet (1930)
  54. Sami language (1931)
  55. Selkup language (1931)
  56. Shor language (1931)
  57. Shughni language (1932)
  58. Yakut language (1920/1929)
  59. Tabasaran language (1932)
  60. Tajik alphabet (1928)
  61. Talysh language (1929)
  62. Tat language (1933)
  63. Tatar language (Yañalif) (1928)
  64. Tsakhur language (1934)
  65. Turkmen alphabet (1929)
  66. Udege language (1931)
  67. Udi language (1934)
  68. Uyghur language (1928)
  69. Uzbek language (1927)
  70. Vepsian language (1932)

Projects were created and approved for the following languages, but were not implemented:

  1. Aleut language
  2. Arabic language
  3. Korean language
  4. Udmurt language

On August 8, 1929, by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the new Latinised alphabet of the peoples of the Arabic written language of the USSR" the transition to the Latin alphabet was given an official status. The transition to a new alphabet of newspapers and magazines, publishing houses, educational institutions began. In 1930, a new stage of romanisation began: the transition to a new alphabet of peoples of other language groups.

In total, between 1923 and 1939, Latin alphabets were created for 50 out of 72 languages of the USSR that were written. In the Mari, Mordovian and Udmurt languages, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet continued even during the period of maximum Latinisation.[5]

However, in 1936, a new campaign began to translate all the languages of the peoples of the USSR into Cyrillic, which was largely completed by 1940 (German, Georgian, Armenian and Yiddish remained non-cyrillised from the languages common in the USSR; the last three were also not Latinised). Later, Polish, Finnish, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian languages also remained uncyrillised.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Andresen, Julie Tetel; Carter, Phillip M. (2016). Languages in the World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language. Chichester, West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-118-53115-0. OCLC 913573164. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  2. ^ Zürcher, Erik Jan (2004). Turkey: A Modern History (3rd ed.). London: I.B. Tauris. p. 188. ISBN 1-4175-5697-8. OCLC 56987767.
  3. ^ Wells, Linton (10 August 1933). "Soviets Attempt to Latinize the Alphabet". The Bristol Daily Corier. Vol. XXVIII, no. 58. Bristol, Pennsylvania. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Алфавит Октября. Итоги введения нового алфавита среди народов РСФСР. М. 1934. pp. 156–160.
  5. ^ Алпатов В. М. (2000). 150 языков и политика. 1917—2000. Социолингвистические проблемы СССР и постсоветского пространства. М. p. 70.

December 28, 2022
latinisation, soviet, union, this, article, expanded, with, text, translated, from, corresponding, article, russian, february, 2009, click, show, important, translation, instructions, view, machine, translated, version, russian, article, machine, translation, . This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian February 2009 Click show for important translation instructions View a machine translated version of the Russian article Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the English Wikipedia Consider adding a topic to this template there are already 2 674 articles in the main category and specifying topic will aid in categorization Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality If possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at ru Latinizaciya see its history for attribution You should also add the template Translated ru Latinizaciya to the talk page For more guidance see Wikipedia Translation In the USSR latinisation or latinization Russian latiniza ciya latinizatsiya was the name of the campaign during the 1920s 1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that would use the Latin script or to create Latin script based systems for languages that at the time did not have a writing system A Kazakh newspaper in Latin script from 1937 Published in Almaty Kazakh SSR USSR Contents 1 History 1 1 Background 1 2 Procedure 2 See also 3 ReferencesHistory Edit A Tajik newspaper in Latin script from 1936 Published in Tajik SSR USSR Background Edit Since at least 1700 some Russian intellectuals have sought to Latinise the Russian language in their desire for close relations with the West 1 The early 20th century Bolsheviks had four goals to break with Tsarism to spread socialism to the whole world to isolate the Muslim inhabitants of the Soviet Union from the Arabic Islamic world and religion and to eradicate illiteracy through simplification 1 They concluded the Latin alphabet was the right tool to do so and after seizing power during the Russian Revolution of 1917 they made plans to realise these ideals 1 Although progress was slow at first in 1926 the Turkic majority republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script giving a major boost to reformers in neighbouring Turkey 2 When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk adopted the new Turkish Latin alphabet in 1928 this in turn encouraged the Soviet leaders to proceed 1 By 1933 it was estimated that among some language groups that had shifted from an Arabic based script to Latin literacy rates rose from 2 to 60 3 Procedure Edit Almost all Turkic Iranian Uralic and several other languages were romanised totalling nearly 50 of the 72 written languages in the USSR There also existed plans to Latinise Russian and other Slavic languages as well but in the late 1930s the latinisation campaign was cancelled and all newly romanised languages were converted to Cyrillic In 1929 the People s Commissariat of the RSFSR formed a committee to develop the question of the romanisation of the Russian alphabet led by Professor N F Yakovlev ru and with the participation of linguists bibliographer printers and engineers The Commission completed its work in mid January 1930 However on 25 January 1930 General Secretary Joseph Stalin ordered to halt the development of the question of the romanisation of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russian language 1 The following languages were latinised or adapted new Latin script alphabets 4 Abaza 1932 Abkhaz Abkhaz alphabet 1924 Adyghe 1926 Altai 1929 Assyrian 1930 Avar 1928 Azerbaijani Azerbaijani alphabet 1922 Balochi Balochi Latin 1933 Bashkir 1927 Bukhori 1929 Buryat 1929 Chechen 1925 Chinese Latinxua Sin Wenz 1931 Chukchi Chucki Latin 1931 Crimean Tatar First Latin 1927 Dargin 1928 Dungan 1928 Eskimo 1931 Even 1931 Evenki Evenki Latin 1931 Ingrian Ingrian alphabet 1932 Ingush 1923 Itelmen 1931 Juhuri 1929 Kabardiano Cherkess 1923 Kalmyk 1930 Karachay Balkar 1924 Karaim 1928 Karakalpak 1928 Karelian Karelian alphabet 1931 Kazakh Kazakh alphabet 1928 Ket 1931 Khakas 1929 Khanty 1931 Komi 1932 Komi Permyak 1932 Koryak 1931 Krymchak 1928 Kumandin 1932 Kumyk 1927 Kurdish Kurdish alphabets 1929 Kyrgyz Kyrgyz alphabets 1928 Lak 1928 Laz 1930 Lezgin Lezgin alphabets 1928 Mansi 1931 Moldovan name used in the USSR for Romanian Moldovan alphabet 1928 Nanai language 1931 Nenets languages 1931 Nivkh language 1931 Nogai language 1928 Ossetic language 1923 Persian alphabet 1930 Sami language 1931 Selkup language 1931 Shor language 1931 Shughni language 1932 Yakut language 1920 1929 Tabasaran language 1932 Tajik alphabet 1928 Talysh language 1929 Tat language 1933 Tatar language Yanalif 1928 Tsakhur language 1934 Turkmen alphabet 1929 Udege language 1931 Udi language 1934 Uyghur language 1928 Uzbek language 1927 Vepsian language 1932 Projects were created and approved for the following languages but were not implemented Aleut language Arabic language Korean language Udmurt language On August 8 1929 by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People s Commissars of the USSR On the new Latinised alphabet of the peoples of the Arabic written language of the USSR the transition to the Latin alphabet was given an official status The transition to a new alphabet of newspapers and magazines publishing houses educational institutions began In 1930 a new stage of romanisation began the transition to a new alphabet of peoples of other language groups In total between 1923 and 1939 Latin alphabets were created for 50 out of 72 languages of the USSR that were written In the Mari Mordovian and Udmurt languages the use of the Cyrillic alphabet continued even during the period of maximum Latinisation 5 However in 1936 a new campaign began to translate all the languages of the peoples of the USSR into Cyrillic which was largely completed by 1940 German Georgian Armenian and Yiddish remained non cyrillised from the languages common in the USSR the last three were also not Latinised Later Polish Finnish Latvian Estonian and Lithuanian languages also remained uncyrillised See also EditKorenizatsiya Yanalif Uniform Turkic Alphabet Unified Northern Alphabet Cyrillization of Chinese Belarusian Latin alphabet Russian Latin alphabet Ukrainian Latin alphabet Mongolian Latin alphabetReferences Edit a b c d e Andresen Julie Tetel Carter Phillip M 2016 Languages in the World How History Culture and Politics Shape Language Chichester West Sussex England John Wiley amp Sons p 110 ISBN 978 1 118 53115 0 OCLC 913573164 Retrieved 7 June 2017 Zurcher Erik Jan 2004 Turkey A Modern History 3rd ed London I B Tauris p 188 ISBN 1 4175 5697 8 OCLC 56987767 Wells Linton 10 August 1933 Soviets Attempt to Latinize the Alphabet The Bristol Daily Corier Vol XXVIII no 58 Bristol Pennsylvania p 1 via Newspapers com Alfavit Oktyabrya Itogi vvedeniya novogo alfavita sredi narodov RSFSR M 1934 pp 156 160 Alpatov V M 2000 150 yazykov i politika 1917 2000 Sociolingvisticheskie problemy SSSR i postsovetskogo prostranstva M p 70 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Latinisation in the Soviet Union amp oldid 1120584739, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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