Subject: shor

the revival of the shor literaly language . irina nevskaya , mainz . summary the article is devoted to the present-day sociolinguistic situation in mountain shoriya ( russia , the south of western siberia , the kemerovo region ) . the indigenous population of mountain shoriya are the shors who speak one of the siberian turkic languages . the shor language has survived in spite of unfavourable circumstances . until very recently , it was neither written nor taught at school for half a century . at present , the shors try to restore social functions to the language . the turcological traditions at the novokuznetsk state pedagogical institute have facilitated ( and even instigated ) the revival of the shor literary language . the article touches upon the history of literary shor and of shor language research in novokuznetsk , and analyzes recent developments in shoriya : the revival of shor language school teaching , and of written shor . special attention is paid to problems facing shor turcologists who were providing the revival process with scientific back-up . the article will be fully published in one of the next issues of the journal turkic languages here we present some extracts of it . general information the shors are one of the minor indigenous turkic peoples of siberia . in the former ussr there were slightly over 16 , 000 shors . 12 , 585 of them , according to the census of 1989 , lived in kuzbass ( the kemerovo region ) , in the south of western siberia [ itogi 1989 , 42 ] . . . the shors inhabit mountain shoriya , the northern part of the sayan - altay mountain region . the ethnonym was introduced by the academician v . v . radlov at the end of the nineteenth century . the ethnonym , which came to be used officially , was originally the name of one of the turkic family clans or tribes ( sooks ) who spoke rather similar turkic dialects . the turks of altay also used the terrn ' shor ' for the turkic - speaking population of the kondoma ( shor lfondumj , mrassu ( shor pras ) and tom ( shor tom ) river basins . at that time , this population did not have a general native name . as the official and native name oftthis ethnos , the ethnonym spread in the mid - 1 ^ 30 's , during the beginning of the national cansolidation of the turkic sayan - altay ethnic groups . the ethnic group formed from various turkic and non - turkic sources . the ethnonym ' aba ' , the name of one of tolax sooks , is encountered in chinese sources dating from 603 [ pritsak 1959 , 630 ] . the shors are considered to be turkicized ob - ugrians : linguistic , ethnographic and anthropological research shows thz presence of an ob - ugric substratum in the ethnos : in the toponymy of shoriya there are a lot of ket names ( e . g . the river names ending in * zas / + sas ) , indicating that the region was inhabited earlier by the kets . many questions of shor ethnic history have not yet been solved . as a separate nation with selfidentification and national sentiment , it formed within the turkic - speaking population of this region during the last three centuries . the shor ethnologist dr . valery kimeev delineates 3 periods of the ethnos history [ kimeev 1994 , 4 - 6 ] . 1 . the formation of territorial ethnic groups of the shors within the administrative ethnic territory ( russian kuzneckij uezd ) , from the beginning of the seventeenth until the beginning of the twentieth century . 2 . national and cultural consolidation in the framework of the autonomous national district ( cor / lo-swo / skij nacional ' nyj / ajon ) , 1926 - 1939 . at that time , the processes of national development were very intensive . the most important contributing factors were the development of the literary language , school instruction in shor and the spreading of literacy among the shor population . 3 . from the early 1940 's until very recently , the shor nation in the conditions of active spreading of the dominant russian culture . within these years the shors lost their literary language and were at the brink of full assimilation . socio - linguistic situation in shordya in the late 1980 's the shor language has survived despite unfavourable circumstances . the fast industrial development of the area in the twentieth century almost destroyed the traditional shor way of life and had a profound influence on the area . the mass inflow of mainly russian speaking migrants initiated assimilation processes which threatened not only the shor language but also the very existence of the shor nation . beginning in the 1950 's , the following new economic and social factors emerged : small farms were merged , and many shor villages disappeared ; people , in search of work , had to move to cities ( where the processes of assimilation moved even faster ) ; the rural population was reduced , the urban population in mountainshoriya grew ; schools in small shor villages were closed ; shor boarding schools were opened ( these were primary and secondary educational establishments in big villages and industrial centers where shor children lived apart from their families during the academic year and were instructed in russian ) . as a result , by the end of the 1980 's , shor came to have a lower social status it was not a written language , nor a language of school education . furthermore , its transmission to younger generations had almost stopped , and the number of speakers had dramatically diminished . the language competence of speakers was reduced , especially of urban shors ( only 3 % of urban shors could speak shor fluently in 1986 versus 20 . 1 % in 1976 ) , while their competence in russian increased . in 1989 only 59 . 4 % of the shors considered shor to be their mother tongue , versus 76 . 6 % in 1970 . the number of shors who considered russian to be their mother tongue increased from 24 . 4 % up to 39 . 1 % [ itogi , 1989 , 42 ] . we see that people preferred to give up their mother tongue . the history of the shor literary language is important for the analysis of the factors which led to this situation . general information on the history of the shor litera / y language shor could be called one of the " oppressed languages " of the former ussr . within the twentieth century alone , the shor language lost its literary tradition twice . the first time was just after the october revolution in russia , when the church schools founded by the altay missionaries were closed . the altay missionaries preached in the native languages of siberia 's aborigines . they published books in indigenous languages of the siberian people , founded primary , secondary schools , and religious tertiary schools where they trained national priests and teachers for shor schools . one of the first primary schools in shoriya was opened in the village of kuzedeevo by the wellknown missionary and linguist v . 1 . verbitsky who taught at this school . by the time of the october revolution there were schools in all the larger villages . in the northern part of shoriya , about 40 % of the population was literate . shor was the language of school teaching , written communication , literature . the shor literature of the time was sparse ; there were only shor translations of religious literature , and original works . after 1917 , with the outbreak of the revolution and civil war , all schools were closed , and hence the literary tradition was interrupted . in 1927 the shor national district was formed . though the district did not exist long ( it was annulled in 1939 ) , this was an important period for the development of the shortliterary language . it was taught at schools ; a considerable number of books in shor were published ( more th , an 150 titles ) and the language , folklore and ethnology of the shors were studied intensively . however , the tragic events of 1937-45 had a devastating effect on the culture of the shors . in 1942 , the last issue of the shor language newspaper " kyzl sor " ( ' red shoriya ' ) was published , and all the shor schools closed . frqm this time on , the shor language was no longer written or taught at schools for half a century . the sphere of its functioning was minimal : it was only used at home for everyday topics . all other cultural needs were met by russian , which was the language of education , of literary works , of the mass media , as well as of administrative , political , and economic relations . during this period , several generations of urban shors grew up with at best minimal competence in shor . at present , history gives the shor language a chance ( probably the last one ) to become a literary language . the active growth of shor national sentiment and political activity , their interest in the national culture and language , and changes in the country as a whole can contribute to this . the revival of literary shor began with the publishing of textbooks of shor , the training of shor language teachers , and the teaching of shor at schools and in shor language circles . the revival of teaching shor at schools in 1988 , a chair of the shor language and literature was created at the novokuznetsk state pedagogical institute ( ngpi ) . the first head was prof . andrey chudoyakov . the same year a shor department was established in the faculty of philology and teacher training in shor language and literature began . a year later , teachers of different subjects who were shors themselves began to teach shor in a number of schools . they were graduates of a 2 - year course of training leaders for shor language circles . the course was organized in novokuznetsk by dr . alisa esipova . the shor alphabet book and textbooks for the primary years were written by dr . nadezhda kurpeshko ( kemerovo ) and members of the department . in 1994 , the first graduates of the national department ( 5 people ) began to work at schools in the kemerovo region . at present , about 20 teachers of shor work at schools in the tashtagol and mezhdurechensk districts of mountain shoriya , both in cities and villages . some schools which were closed 10-30 years ago resumed teaching . some schools were rebuilt . turcology in novokuznetsk the revival process was facilitated ( or , perhaps , even instigated ) by turcological traditions at the novokuznetsk state pedagogical institute . during the 50 crucial years of shor language history , the collecting , compiling and describing of all still available material has not stopped . the shor language research has been carried out mainly by university foreign-language teachers at the novokuznetsk state pedagogical institute . when in late eighties we witnessed the uprise of shor national sentiment and the desire to restore social functions to the language , there had already been qualified people ( among them also shors ) who could cope with this task . initially , the most important task facing such linguists was to provide the revival process with scientific back-up : to create a modern orthography for shor , to choose a standard dialect , and to work out literary norms . references itogi vsesojuznoj perepisi naselenija 1989 goda . vypusk 4 . nacional ' nyj sostav . 1990 . kemerovo : kemerovskoe kniznoe izdatel 's tvo . patruseva , g . m . 1994 . sovremennye etniceskie processy u sorcev . in : kimeev , v . m . & lavrent ' eva , l . a . & tokmasev , j . k . & sogrina , n . a . & bobrov , v . v . & nevskaja , i . a . & tivjakov , s . d . ( eds . ) 1994 . sorskij sbornik . vypusk 1 . kemerovo : kem . gu . 216-222 . pritsak , o . 1959 . das schorische . in : deny , jean & scheel , helmuth & togan , zeki validi ( eds ) . philologiae turcicae fundamenta . 1 . wiesbaden : steiner . 598-640 . dr . irina a . nevskaya ( novokuznetsk , russia ) currently has a scholarship from the conference of the german academy of sciences . she is working at the research project entitled converb clauses in shor under the guidance of prof . dr . lars johanson . she will stay at mainz university at the institute of oriental studies until july 1997 . for those interested in siberian turkic languages her address is : dr . irina nevskaya seminar fur orientkunde universitat mainz , d-55099 mainz tel . + 49-6131 - 393885 e - mail : turcolog @ mzdmza . zdv . uni-mainz . de fax : + 49-6131 - 394380
