Коми-пермяцкий перевод Евангелия от Матфея 1823 г.: особенности графики и орфографии
Komi-Permyak Translation of the Gospel of Matthew 1823: Features of Graphics and Spelling

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the graphic and orthographic features of the handwritten Gospel of Matthew in the Komi-Permyak language, according to the copy from the fund of the Russian Bible Society. This manuscript, dated 1823, is the first of the currently known large Komi-Permyak texts, while its linguistic aspect has not been studied before. The specifics of the use of some vowels and consonants in different positions are considered, while its inconsistency is noted. Four different letters <э>, <е>, <ѣ>, <ε> are used to denote one vowel [e], while some tendencies of the predominant use of these letters in the positional plan are noted. But the same letters can also be used to denote a specific Komi vowel [ə], where the tendencies of the predominant use of a particular letter will be different. In turn, the sound [i] is represented by three graphic realizations <и>, <і> and <ьі>, of which <і> is a purely positional variant in the spirit of the old Russian tradition, and <ьі> can indicate a preceding hard paired consonant. At the same time, the letters <и> and <ьі> can also denote the vowel [ɨ] (along with <ы>), including cases of its iotated use. The only “non-Russian” grapheme in this manuscript is the unique ligature <чж>, which denotes both the hard and soft voiced affricate, respectively, the letter <ч> denotes both the hard and soft voiceless affricate, which can be seen as inconsistent too. The instability in the writing of identical cases and the large variability revealed in the studied monument are characteristic of the initial stage of the development of national writing. With its solutions to various problems of graphic representation of Komi pronunciation, this text occupies its own unique place in the history of the written tradition of the Permic languages.

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