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20HISTORICAL SCIENCES
LANGUAGE AND ALPHABET IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL COMMUNICATION (BASED ON THE HISTORY OF THE AZERBAIJANI LANGUAGE, COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES)
Kazimi P.
Baku State University, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy,
ORCID: - 0000-0001-5577-4773
ABSTRACT
There are about 7,000 languages on earth today. Until the end of the twentieth century, only seven languages were considered world languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, German and Portuguese. Of these, Arabic belongs to the Afro-Asian language family, the rest belong to the Indo-European or Indo-Germanic language family. It is believed that the Arabic language was included in this group as a symbol of Islam. A natural question arises here. Buddhists and Hindus are no less than Muslims. But why are these languages not considered world languages? There is no answer to this question, so at the end of the twentieth century the concept of "all languages are world languages" prevailed in Europe.
Certainly, some studies show that languages that have differentiated in historical evolution tend to integrate into a new historical stage, and we observe this as a result of various political and economic processes. It is also known in history that ethnic groups have completely lost their languages and adopted new ones. Therefore, let's look at the general picture of the Turkic languages and their relationship with neighboring languages among the differentiated languages that have historically developed and integrated at certain stages. The fundamental difference between Turkish and Indo-European is that Turkish is agglutinative. According to 2007 statistics, the Indo-European language family includes 140 languages and is spoken by 2 billion people, most of whom are English and are considered inflectional languages. In this regard, it is necessary to remind experts, concerned about the death and disappearance of languages, that those who distinguish between languages tend to integrate and that languages do not die, but only pass from one form to another. Against the background of these processes, let us pay attention to the historical development of the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language and the attitude of the people to the creation of the alphabet. That is why we draw attention to the fact that the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language is a widespread "folk" language, its communicative function in the historical development of the language and some mistakes in the study of historical problems in this area.
1. Misconceptions about the "transition" of the Azerbaijani language to the Latin alphabet.
2. Features of the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language as a folk language and mistakes made in the comparative analysis.
The author assesses the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language as an important means of social communication as a "folk" language, and as a result of the analysis of historically accepted alphabets, it is determined that the transition to the Latin alphabet is the right choice in terms of linguistic characteristics, culture and historical integration.
Keywords Language and culture, alphabet and religion, national alphabet, language and communication.
INTRODUCTION
Since the inception of the first artificial communication systems, librarians have become familiar with literature in different languages and introduced the world to expressions in different languages and different alphabets. In some provinces of the world (especially in the outskirts) this process was not very pronounced, but in cultural centers it was extremely pronounced and aggressive. From this point of view, in the multifaceted evolutionary process, in which languages and alphabets went through, Azerbaijan is in a complex geopolitical space and was influenced by linguistic, ethnocultural, economic and political processes. That is why we draw attention to the fact that the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language is a folk language, to its communicative function in the historical development of the language and to some mistakes in the study of historical problems in this area.
1. Misconceptions about the "transition" of the Azerbaijani language to the Latin alphabet.
2. Features of the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language as a folk language and mistakes made in the comparative analysis.
The author evaluates the Azerbaijani (Turkish) language as an important means of social communication as a vernacular, and in the analysis of the historically adopted alphabets is determined that the transition to the Latin alphabet is a clear order of the correctness of the order of origin.
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
The Germanic tribes, the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic language group), who laid the foundations of European culture, united after a long war on the basis of national, cultural, linguistic and religious unity and became the center of power. According to scientists, over the past 100 years, from 3,000 to 6,000 languages are under threat of extinction. Eighty percent of the world's population speaks only 80 of 7,000 languages. 20% of the population speaks other languages. 3500 languages are owned by 0.2% of the population. As Azerbaijani Turks, we are 80 percent. Certainly, some studies show that languages that have differentiated in historical evolution tend to integrate into a new historical stage, and we observe this as a result of various political and economic processes. It is also known in history that ethnic groups have completely lost their languages and adopted new ones. It is important to study this historical
phenomenon separately. For example, in the history of Iran, a number of governments (Seljuks, Gajars) brought a foreign language to the level of a state language, provided that their native language was preserved, and most of the country continued to live as bilingual. These processes can be monitored and evaluated social, political and psychological events of that time. However, it is impossible to trace the historical picture of the process as a result of which the local population of the Republic of Bulgaria, like the Turkic tribes from the Volga region, completely changed their language after migrating to a new geography and adopting a new religion. In the geography of Ukraine, there is a case when a group of Turkic-Kipchak peoples became Christians under the influence of the Gregorian Church and thus changed their language. However, these Kipchaks did not lose their name, historical memory and mythology at the same time. L. Gumilov has opinions about the loss of languages among ethnic groups of the Caspian tribes (Khazars) after their conversion to Judaism. However, these (Khazars) Caspians of Turkish origin constituted a separate class among the Jews (Mountain Jews) and to this day did not become the children of "Israel".
Therefore, let's look at the general picture of the Turkic languages and their relations with neighboring languages among historically differentiated, at some stages integrated languages. The fundamental difference between Turkish and Indo-European is that Turkish is agglutinative. According to 2007 statistics, the Indo-European language family includes 140 languages and is spoken by 2 billion people, most of whom are English-speaking and are considered inflectional languages.
In this regard, it is necessary to remind experts, concerned about the death and disappearance of languages, that those who distinguish between languages tend to integrate and that languages do not die, but only pass from one form to another.
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM
We know that attempts to create a perfect writing system as a form of language expression, regardless of the individual characteristics of languages, have a history of about 5-6 thousand years. The ideal alphabet would bridge the gap between languages and provide understanding. For a long time, people thought that this problem could be solved by creating a single and perfect alphabet. Undoubtedly, a unified and perfect alphabet would greatly facilitate this problem, but its search also took a long time. The transition of human society from "pictorial" (pictographic) writing to orthographic writing took about two thousand years, and then two thousand years, including the transformation of the formed orthographic alphabet into a universal one. By the way, the process of "Latinization" initiated by the Azerbaijani intelligentsia in the 1920s and the decision of the first Turkic Congress held in Baku in 1926 led to the transition of 50 peoples of the USSR to the Latin alphabet. According to A. V. Lunacharsky, V. I. Lenin also supported this process and wanted the Russian Cyrillic alphabet to be translated into Latin. For this, a state commission is being created and a lot of work is
being done. In 1931, by order of Stalin, this work was stopped. In 1939, the Cyrillic alphabet was declared compulsory for everyone.
One of my Russian-speaking students asked me in surprise; "Why haven't Azerbaijanis created an alphabet for themselves yet?" Another Azerbaijani student: "Why did the Sami (Simite) peoples, especially the Syrians, create so many alphabets?" he asked. Of course, I tried to explain the problem, but the "questions" showed that the mentality still works today. The Turkic peoples could not agree and come to terms with the idea that the alphabet was special for someone. the alphabet did not represent and could not represent national identity. If the alphabet is for writing a sacred text, then writing is also sacred. In addition, the alphabet should fully express the idea and leave no room for anyone else to explain.
In the Middle Ages, many Turkish military leaders asked, "If the scriptures are written the same way, why do people understand and interpret them differently?"
At the beginning of the 19th century, mainly German scientists began to "study" the typology of world languages. The study of this problem develops comparative linguistics, and from this begins the study "Which language is better?" the question arises, researchers begin to act guided by personal and national interests, and not by scientific analysis. Researchers of all periods unanimously agree that the typological structure and grammatical norms of the language are associated with the way of thinking of people, and the comparative assessment is incorrect. This idea is clearly expressed in a statement by the American scientist Edward Sapir. "When we switch from Latin to Russian, we feel that our familiar horizons limit our vision. When we switch to English, the hills around us drop dramatically, and when we switch to Chinese, it seems to us that the sky above us shines in a completely different way. "
The preservation and natural development of the language in the historical process could be possible either through its dissemination to the masses as a "folk language", or through the purposeful activity of various institutions (especially religious organizations) in this direction. The history of the formation of many languages is a successful example of the latter. In addition, the Persian language had to go through similar stages (in the Iranian language group). The Persian language has been divided into three stages over the past 2500 years: - the Achaemenid period (for example, the works of Bisitun (Beheestun): - the Sassanid period (for example, works related to Zoroastrianism, the works of the Mazdaks): - the period of Islam (for example, works after Firdosi) .
Between these stages, the language changes beyond recognition. Many experts believe that these languages are spoken by different peoples. Unlike the natural development of a language, religious institutions can have a profound effect on a language. In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, Manichaeism and Mithraism developed and spread rapidly in Persian geography.
This is why the Sassanids could not read the Achaemenid writings, and the Persian literature of the Islamic period could not read any of its predecessors. Language and writing were considered "personalized".
The development of the Persian language during the Islamic period was also controversial. If the Persian language was a widespread "folk" language at that time, then there would be no need to compile special dictionaries for reading and understanding the works of Fir-dovsi.
It is known that Mani, who had close ties with India, lived in India in 270 and wrote a book there. Mani, who came to Iran during the time of Shapur, has followers in a large geography (from western Rome to China), and these priests form a literary language rich in mysticism. The Persians, as patrons of Mithraism, Mandeans and Manichaeism, were still at the center of the process of interfaith synthesis after the adoption of Islam. In these religions, along with Christianity and Zoroastrianism, there are a number of signs of "divinity" (shamanism).
An analysis of the historical environment shows that the Sassanian period of the development of the Persian (Farsi) language in this historical period was preserved and developed by the clergy and clergy, new words and concepts were introduced, and this was not the usual "folk language". For example, linguists believe that at the first stage of the development of the ancient Persian language, this language had three gender indicators. Modern Persian is the only Indo-European language that does not indicate gender. The written expression of the Persian language at the first stage is reflected in the cuneiform alphabet known to the Su-merians. In the second stage, the Sassanid alphabet was based on the 22-letter Aramaic alphabet, and in the third stage, on the Arabic alphabet. The seventh century Arab scholar Ibn Mukafa writes about the Sassanid writings: "They (the Persians) have a special writing system called zevarish. If someone wants to write gusht (meat), he writes bisra. But when he reads, he reads gusht ( meat). If one wants to write bread, he writes naxma, but he reads nan (bread). The Persians have a thousand such words. "
In search of the perfect alphabet, different situations arose in different parts of the world. As a result of this process, Japanese (agglutinative language) today uses three alphabets. Although Koreans (who had an agglutinative language) were influenced by Chinese characters for a long historical period, they reformed their alphabets in the 15th century, adapting the character system of Chinese (another language group) to their national languages. The Chinese, however, did not accept the "square" alphabet, which Kublai Khan reformed in the 13th century and put into circulation throughout China. In multinational China, hieroglyphic writing served as international "communication". For example, the character for "mountain" was read and understood in Chinese as "shan", in Japanese as "yama" and in Korean as "san".
Turkish, Finno-Ugric languages are considered agglutinative languages. For these languages, "word formation" and "replacement of words" with suffixes are of a systemic nature, and suffixes have the same functionality with a single function of classification and solution. The oldest example is the Sumerian language.
Historical sources confirm that the recording of a speech was a sacred event in ancient times. It is no coincidence that the oldest sources relate to religious topics. The concept of "forehead writing" in Azerbaijan means that writing has even a mystical meaning. Therefore, not everyone can read and write, and those who can read and write are not like everyone else.
HISTORICAL SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM.
The Sumerians moved from pictography to cuneiform, and later the Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians and all the peoples of Mesopotamia began to write based on this alphabet. The creation of the phonetic alphabet by the Phoenicians based on this alphabet, as well as its use by the Arameans (Nabateans), Jews and Sassanids, used the Aramaic script, derived from the Greek alphabet and the Latin alphabet. As a result of this process, we see that two concepts historically emerged in the formation of the writing system.
I - creating a perfect writing system for everyone,
II - Acquiring opportunities for national ("tribal" and "group") self-isolation.
If the first feature is the culture of the ancient Greeks, like the Sumerians, and the way to improve the alphabet, the search for opportunities for integration, then the second feature is manifested in a number of other languages. The languages of North Africa, especially the Sami (Smith) languages, have created many different alphabets that are derived from them.
As you can see, the fundamental difference between the Turkic languages and the Indo-European languages and the Sami (Smith) languages was that when transcribing the language, it had to express its features (agglutinative features and phonemes), which did not correspond to any of the historically accepted alphabets. Linguists who study the languages of the peoples of Central Africa believe that many African peoples still retain complex phonemes, and the formation of their alphabetical system is a complex process. However, it should be noted that the use of the alphabet and the industrialization of the language rationally reduce phonemes, the alphabet affects the language, and the language leads to the formation of the alphabet. It should be noted that modern Chinese scholars still say that hieroglyphic writing is a heavy burden and the rationality of replacing it. Jewish scholars, despite the fact that the alphabet has historically changed a lot, believe that it is written from right to left and so on. It is known that the Chinese did not create a special alphabet, and the hieroglyphic writing was gradually formed on the basis of fortune telling. The Jews admit that they adopted the Hebrew alphabet with several variations from ancient Aramaic. Although there are significant differences and inconsistencies between the alphabets. When the Greeks composed the alphabet based on the Phoenicians and Latins based on the Greek system, it was based on a certain logic, the evolution of the original alphabet.
It is believed that the Turkic peoples (seals) used the form of letters in the structure of the Orkhon-Ye-nisei (Runi) alphabet. Although the Scandinavians did not know the origin of the runic alphabet, which they owned, they always exaggerated its mystical nature.
Even after the adoption of Christianity, this alphabet was used for a long time (until the end of the 19th century). Although the Russians of the 9th century did not accept the Latin alphabet, they acquired an alphabet with the same graphic structure, but underwent significant structural changes. The legend about Cyril and Methodius is not supported by historical facts. It is known that the first version of the alphabet was the syllabic alphabet, which was later corrected by the Russian Orthodox Church. The last reforms were carried out by Peter the Great in the 18th century. Although it is specifically called the Russian alphabet, it is based on the Latin alphabet, which is a product of development. In the structure of some alphabets, neither the logical form nor the results of evolution are manifested, and it can be argued that they are more cryptographic in nature.
Many of the historically accepted alphabets of the Turkic peoples also faced these problems. The idea of reforming the Arabic alphabet, which has been in use for over a thousand years, was expressed by M.F. Akhundov in the middle of the 19th century. Although the Uyghur alphabet was used during the early Elkha-nids, Kazan Khan (grandson of Hulagu) not only converted to Islam in Azerbaijan, but also became the patron saint of Islamic education and culture.
At the beginning of the 19th century, due to the occupation of the northern part of Azerbaijan by Russia, various misconceptions spread that northern Azerbaijan was closer to European science, and these views do not disappear today. As you know, Russia at that time was far from European sciences, and strict censorship laws were applied as nowhere else. Although strict serfdom was abolished in 1861, it continued until 1900. World languages and secular knowledge were studied narrowly. Determining the number of Azerbaijani scientists working in Russian universities there is an opinion that the discovery of Azerbaijan (northern) to the world took place not through Russia, but with Russia.
In the fall of 1779, at the request of Catherine II, Voltaire's personal library was transported to St. Petersburg, Russia. It is known that these books were kept in special storage rooms (the royal chamber) and their use was prohibited. Pushkin, who wrote a book about Peter, received the right to use these books with the special permission of the emperor. The translation and distribution of works by European scholars and writers was prohibited. Even among Christian books, many prohibited books have been identified by the church and censored. Works on non-Tarianism, Catholicism, Mani-chaeism and many other world religions and confessions were banned. Russia continued its censorship activities during the Soviet era, and brutal censorship repression continues in contemporary Russia.
The purposeful activity of the Russian Orthodox Church towards the assimilation of the Siberian Turks since the 19th century, the creation of national alphabets based on the Cyrillic alphabet, the forcible adoption of Orthodoxy, the persecution of theology (shamanism), and so on, was an expression of the interests of the Russian Empire.
CONCLUSIONS
On March 21, 1919, by the decision of the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the Ministry of Public Education was instructed to create a special government commission on the reform of the Arabic alphabet and submit proposals prepared by the commission for consideration by the Council of Ministers. According to this decision, a special commission on the reform of the Arabic alphabet was created under the Ministry of Public Education under the chairmanship of a member of the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov. The reform of the alphabet, first of all, was supposed to directly serve the implementation of the tasks facing the state in the field of education, nationalization of public education. The commission, acting with the attention and care of the government of the People's Republic of Azerbaijan, soon prepared and presented to the government several projects of the alphabet.
Among these projects, the version prepared by the teacher Abdullah bey Efendizade was approved and accepted as the basis for the new alphabet. A.Afendizadeh also published in Baku in 1919 the textbook "The Last Turkish Alphabet", dedicated to the reform of the alphabet, especially the need to switch to the Latin alphabet. In the textbook, he was the first to compare the Arabic and Latin alphabets, arguing that the first is incompatible with our native language, and the second is more consistent with rich "linguistic facts". The first practical steps taken by the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in the field of alphabet reform were incomplete as a result of the April occupation.
In 1921, the idea of reforming the alphabet, which was already on the verge of implementation during the time of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, was returned to Soviet Azerbaijan. After a thorough discussion of this issue, a new decree signed by Nariman Narimanov was created by the Committee for the reform of the alphabet in Azerbaijan according to the new Turkish alphabet. The draft of the Azerbaijani alphabet based on the Latin alphabet prepared by the committee has been published in the newspaper "Yeni Yol" for public discussion.
In 1926, the 1st Turkic Congress was held in Baku. At this congress, the transition of the Turkic peoples to the Latin alphabet was considered and a decision was made. For the first time, this congress became a platform that clearly expressed the integration aspirations of the Turkish people. It was stated that the Latin alphabet can mainly express the features of the Turkic languages and that there is hope for the historical integration of peoples living in a large geographical area in the area of this alphabet.
After tense and long discussions, in 1929 Azerbaijan completely switched to the Latin alphabet. Thus, one of the tasks set by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was completed.
Apparently, the transition to the Latin alphabet did not take place, because the Turkish Republic adopted this alphabet, and as a result, other Turkic peoples also adopted this alphabet. On the contrary, this alphabet was adopted because it responded to the historical search and wide integration of the Turkic peoples.
In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, five independent Turkic states were formed: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Among them, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan switched to the Latin alphabet, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan took some time to switch to the Latin alphabet. In the republics of the Russian Federation, such as Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Yakuts, Khakassia and Tuva, the Cyrillic alphabet is still used.
He chose the path of integration with the Latin alphabet, completing a complex and difficult historical search in the group of Turkic languages, and this path was accepted as the common choice of the Turkic-speaking peoples. As a result of this historic choice, the language now requires rapid industrialization.
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