The main issues connected to teaching the Abkhazian and Ossetian languages between the 20s and 50s of the XX century

Abstract

The development of the Abkhazian and Ossetian languages between the 20s and 50s of the 20^th century is of vital importance from linguistic, political, ideological, and didactic points of view. Noteworthy is the fact that in this period, the Abkhaz and Ossetian languages were evolving through the use of alphabets of different languages.

In particular, it should be noted that from the beginning of the 20^th century the Abkhaz and Ossetian languages were developing on the basis of the Russian alphabet. Afterwards, the written Ossetian (1923) and Abkhazian languages (1926) were based on the Latin alphabet, which is connected to the activities of Nicholas Marr. From 1938 there were more changes to the alphabet for both languages and the Russian alphabet was used for the Ossetian language in North Ossetia whereas the alphabets for the Ossetian and Abkhazian languages in South Ossetia and Abkhazia were based on the Georgian alphabet. In 1954, the Russian alphabet replaced the Georgian alphabet in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Recognition of Nicolas Marr’s “Iapetus theory” in the Soviet Union led to the first changes and Latinization of the Ossetian and Abkhazian alphabets. It should be noted that from the 20s of the 20^th century, the writing system of Turkic languages of Central Asian countries was also based on the Latin script.

The alphabet change is a complicated and painful issue that reflected on the educational process of Abkhazian and Ossetian languages, as well  as  on  the  literature  development  on  these languages. The paper deals with the philological, political and pedagogical aspects of the above- mentioned issues.