NEW SOVIET ALPHABETS

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 189, 12 August 1936, Page 16

NEW SOVIET ALPHABETS

Ons of the major tasks assumed by ho Russian Boisneviks has now been iompieted, with the introduction of 3-1 new alphabets lor races and tribes which had no written languages before trio revolution, and provision of 34 otuer simplified Latin alphabets for languages, such as Mongolian, Arabic ana Chinese, which could bo learned oii.y with difficulty. after a recent meeting of the AllUnion Committee for tho Introduction of New Alphabets, the Committee’s vice-chairman, J. E. Korkmasofl, told a correspondent that written languages have now been provided for all Soviet people except a few very email tribes which have decided to hse the languages of larger neighbouring groups. All races which have requested new Latin alphabets for their languages have been served. But the large number of institutes find organisations formed to create new alphabets still have a vast amount of work before them, Mr. Korkmasofl explained. They must now help Various tribes and races to develop rich literary languages from the Bpoken languages which are being 'given written expression for the first (time. About 25,000,000 persons are using the new alphabets. Most of these belong to races with ancient languages bo difficult to acquire that literacy has hitherto been rare among them. But about 2.000,000 are reading and writing languages never before recorded. With the encouragement of central language institutes and . publishing houses in Moscow and Leningrad, 37 local institutes were organised to study local languages and devise new alphabets for them In 1926 regional groups formed the All-Union Committee for Introduction of New Alphabets, which has held four national congresses in 1936. This committee has co-ordinated work everywhere, and served as a medium for exchange *>f information; it has worked closely with tho Central Puhlishing'Hnuse for Nationalities, which has published several thousand titles, using all the new alphabets.

Literacy Makes an Advance

Tho methods of instruction in Soviet schools of a "backward” republic hav© been described recently by M. lerbanoif,' Communist Party chairman oi tho Buriat Mongolian (Soviet Republic. Every Mongo! school, ho explained, uses both the Mongolian and Russian languages. First grade instruction is given entirely in Mongolian, while both languages are used from the second to the sixth grades. After that Russian is used for instruction, while Mongolian becomes a subject for study, like geography. Thus, pupils who receive only an elementary education are instructed largely in Mongolian, as their lives are likely to be spent locally. But those with higher education learn Russian thoroughly, since their future may well lie elsewhere than Mongolia. Until 1933, the old Mongol alphabet was used, but in that year the first textbooks appeared in a Latinised alphabet, which made instruction notably easier, and is being generally adopted. With tho completion of new alphabets, Soviet schools now offer instruction in more than 80 languages. Textbooks and newspapers, at least, are published in all languages, and additional books and journals in most. Children are encouraged to learn two or more languages at once. In this sense, the Communists justify their claim to be an international movement. They have a community of nations within tho borders of tho Soviet Union. But because minority tribes and races are permitted to tise their own languages does not at all mean that any group in the Soviet Union ran teach anything which contradicts Marxian socialism as interpreted by Joseph Stalin and his associates. “Nationalist in form. Socialist in content” is a slogan used frequently by the Kremlin to describe its policy toward national minorities. The “form”—that is the language—is left to the locality; but the “content”— the thoughts expressed in that language—must be decided by the Kremlin.