Abkhaz language biography

Isakov Estonian scientist - researcher of the Abkhaz language, long -standing historical, cultural and scientific relations connect Abkhazia with Estonia, despite thousands of kilometers, separating them geographically. In years, the first groups of Estonian peasants, who found their settlements, which exist to this day, were resettled to Abkhazia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the classics of Estonian literature Eduard Wilde and Anton Tamsaara visited Abkhazia, capturing the life of the region, the life of the peoples inhabiting it, the social contradictions of those days in their travel essays.

Scientists of the University of Tartu, one of the oldest higher educational institutions of our country, in which not only thousands of representatives of the Estonian and Russian intelligentsia, but also prominent figures of the Armenian, Ukrainian, Latvian, and Polish cultures, have an education in the study of Abkhazia. In this regard, we remind of the pupils of the University of Tartu-the founder of the new Armenian literature X.

Abovyan and a large Georgian physician Academician K. back in the year Professor of the University of Tartu, the Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the corresponding member of the Vienna, Parisian and Berlin Academies O. Abih went to the Caucasus to study its geological structure. He was so interested in research and fell in love with a new land for him that he left the university and completely devoted himself to the study of the Caucasus.

Professor O. Abih did a lot to study the nature of Abkhazia. Kuznetsov, an outstanding Russian scientist F. Levinson-Lessing, a geologist and paleontologist N. Masing Estonian scientist L. Leongard Karlovich Masing was also a wide-educated person in the study of Abkhazia. In the degree of candidate of theology, he goes to Germany to continue education. Here he listens to lectures on linguistics, philosophy, history, studies the comparative grammar of Indo -European languages, as well as the Old Slavonic and Lithuanian, Sanskrit, the Old German, Greek, Serbian and Croatian.

The ointment becomes a genuine polyglot. In the year, he defended a doctoral dissertation at the University of Leipzig. This work, in which the young scientist demonstrated exceptional erudition and the breadth of generalizations, brought him fame and recognition. The work of Mazing and to this day has not lost its scientific significance. In the early 10ths of the past century, L.

Masing became interested in the languages ​​of the peoples of the Caucasus. He rightly believed that without knowledge they could not create a complete theory of phonetics. With the help of Georgian and Armenian students who studied at that time at the University of Tartu, the masing began to study their native adverbs. At the same time, he apparently became interested in the Abkhazian language.

In the Mazing archive, which is now in the Scientific Library of the University of Tartu, its numerous extracts from the works of the first researchers of the Abkhaz language of Rosen and especially P. Uselra, comments on their works are stored. In particular, L. Masing indicates shortcomings and uncertainty, in the description of many sounds in P. But the masing soon realized that for a truly scientific study of Caucasian languages, one should go to the Caucasus.

Already at the end of the city, however, the case with the permission of the business trip was delayed, and in May-June G. Mazing again appeals to the university authorities. In a detailed substantiation of a business trip, the masing indicates that its purpose is to “subject the most accurate and comprehensive analysis of the sound system of the Caucasian languages.

And then the ointment gives errors in scientific works about the Caucasian languages ​​indicating insufficient knowledge by their authors. This time permission was obtained, and from September 1, the Masing was on a scientific business trip in the Caucasus. He paid a lot of attention to the study of the Chechen and Georgian languages ​​in particular, the Mingrelian dialect of the latter.

The Estonian scientist visited Abkhazia and was very interested in the language of its indigenous population. He began to record Abkhaz texts apparently, sometimes folklore and individual words, wanting to compose a dictionary of the Abkhaz language. Mazing, as we saw, was most interested in the sound system, the phonet of Caucasian adverbs. But during the records of Abkhaz words, he faced great difficulties: until then, in science, methods of writing Abkhaz sounds were not conveyed exactly their real pronunciation.

And the masing develops its system of transcription in order to be able to accurately record the true sound of the sounds of the Abkhaz language. In Tartu, L. Mazing returned with the vast records of Abkhaz texts and the Patotkoy of the Abkhaz language. In his lectures on phonetics and general linguistics that he read at the University of Tartu, the masing began to introduce examples from the Caucasian languages ​​and especially from Abkhazian.

All his former listeners recall this. The ointment wanted to process his materials in the form of scientific research and publications, however, overloading with educational work, and then an advanced age prevented these plans. As you know, at the end of the XIX century.Mazing and his records of texts would be of great interest for Abkhazian researchers. Unfortunately, the fate of the materials of Professor Mazing is not clear.

After the death of the professor, his archive moved to the scientific library of the University of Tartu. There are now stored large packs of materials in the Chechen language and the Mingrelian dialect of Georgian, collected at one time L. Masing in the Caucasus. But there is no Abkhazian file cabinet in the archive. According to Academician P. Ariste, who at one time listened to L.

Mazing's lectures and dismantled his archive after the death of the professor, Abkhazian materials, in all likelihood, were in Finland. The fact is that Gustav Schmidt, a friend of the University of Helsing, was also engaged in the study of Caucasian languages, L.'s friend and the latter, before his death, asked his daughter to Vendel Masing Cuusicist to transfer to Professor G.

Schmidt the Abkhazian file. As we were informed from Finland, in the manuscript department of the library of the University of Helsinki, the collection of papers of Professor G. Schmidt, there are materials in the Abkhaz language, numbering about 1. This, apparently, is a cardboard and records of the Abkhazian texts of the Estonian scientist, professor of the Tartu University of Masing.

Here is his answer. An associate professor of Tartu State University S. Isakov is of exceptional interest. Mazing, his Caucasian research, especially about his Abkhaz materials in the amount of 1. In addition, L. Mazing was one of the teachers of the famous Abkhaz scientist S. Ashkhatsava, who spoke with great warmth about him, noting disinterested help and support from the worthy son of the fraternal Estonian people.

In his “ways of the development of Abkhaz history”, S. Ashkhatsava, in particular, wrote that the original alphabet expressing all the sounds of the Abkhaz language was compiled by him in the year in Yuryev with the help of Professor Mazing, who worked for many years on the study of the Abkhazian language on behalf of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. Abkhazian scientists are grateful and grateful to S.

Isakov for his sign of good cooperation and believe that his article opens a new page in the development of fruitful cultural and scientific ties existing between Estonia and Abkhazia. Published: GAZ. Soviet Abkhazia, March 13, non -profit distribution of materials is welcome; When reprinting and quoting texts, please indicate the source:.