BESERMIAN LANGUAGE: MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF WRITING

Abstract

The work is a brief overview of the history of writing of the Besermians living compactly in the north-west of Udmurtia. Their native idiom is traditionally defined as the Besermian dialect of the Udmurt language, and the history of Besermian writing is inextricably linked with Udmurt writing, which lasts for about 300 years from its inception in 1726 to the present day. The earliest written source with Besermian vocabulary is the Grammar of the Udmurt language by M. Mogilin prepared between 1768 and 1780. And in the 19th century, several written monuments of Besermian appeared. From the last century to the present day, the Besermian dialect has repeatedly become the object of scientific research. The Besermians retain a self-awareness that differs from the Udmurt, in particular, this is manifested in the desire to give the status of a separate language to their native idiom and create a Besermian script. The idea of creating Besermian writing is gradually being realized. So, in 2021, the first Besermian book with documentary and artistic prose “Vortcha Madyos” was published, and Besermian calendars for 2022 and 2023 were released. However, due to the lack of linguists among the activists of the Besermian movement, a scientifically based graphic system and orthography, which, on the one hand, takes into account the peculiarities of the Besermian language, and, on the other hand, does not contradict the graphics and spelling of the Udmurt and Russian languages, has not been developed. In the light of the above information, the relevance of the work is obvious. The purpose of the work is to highlight the main points in the history of the Besermian written language and to identify possible prospects for the Besermian writing. A descriptive method was used to achieve the goal.