Linguistic Heritage of A. G. Bessonov as a Dialect Monument of Early 20th Century Bashkir

Abstract

Goals. The article seeks to sum up Bashkir dialect features traced in early 20th century written monuments authored by the Russian scholar and missionary A. G. Bessonov. Results. Part One of the article discusses the main results of previous detailed analyses into linguistic data contained in the Alphabet Book for Bashkirs (Russ. Bukvar' dlya Bashkir, 1907). Phonetic, morphological, and morphonological elements cited indicate the use of two dialects comparable to the Argayash and Kyzyl subdialects of contemporary Eastern Bashkir. Besides, the edition under consideration contains a unique morphonological type of affixes characteristic of the Qatai subdialect. Part Two provides a first detailed linguistic analysis of language features inherent to Bessonov’s First Reader and First Lessons of Russian for Southeastern Bashkirs (1907). Phonetic, morphological, morphonological, and lexical patterns are compared to contemporary dialect forms examined in works on Bashkir dialectology, as well as to standard Bashkir. This scrupulous analysis at all linguistic levels shows the language of the monument largely approaches the Argayash subdialect, while some peculiar features of other Eastern Bashkir subdialects are also noticeable. Conclusions. The paper makes certain conclusions as to dialect affiliation of language patterns involved in the compilation of monuments under study. Special attention is paid to the significance of Bessonov’s works for the history of Bashkir linguistics and dialectology, as well as to his role in teaching literacy to Bashkirs.