Komi language

Dialects

Komi has ten dialects: Syktyvkardin (Sysola), Lower Ežva (Vychegda), Central Ežva (Vychegda), Upper Ežva (Vychegda), Luz-let, Upper Sysola, Pećöra, Iźva, Vym, and Udora dialects. Syktyvkardin is spoken in the region of Syktyvkar and forms the model for the generic standard dialect of the language. Dialects are divided based primarily on their use of and :

• Older * remains unchanged in Upper Ežva and Pećöra dialects (also in most dialects of Komi-Permyak).
• In Central dialects, changed to syllable-finally; for instance, in literary Komi * → "tongue".
• In Northern dialects, changes of continued with complete vocalization of syllable-final , resulting in long vowels.

The start of the change date to the 17th century. It is not seen in the oldest Komi texts from the 14th century, nor in loanwords from Komi to Khanty, dated to the 16th; though it fully occurred before Russian loanwords that entered the language in the 18th century as remains unchanged in these.

Some dialects are further distinguished based on the palatalized alveolars , which have unpacked in syllable-final position as clusters .

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

There are no diphthongs, although vowel sequences can occur at morpheme boundaries.

The phoneme is phonetically , and is phonetically . There is noticeable positional allophony, depending on the surrounding consonants, however no allophone overlaps with another vowel phoneme.

Writing system

Main article: Komi alphabets

The Old Permic script is the first writing system for Komi. It was invented in the 14th century by the missionary Stephen of Perm. The alphabet resembled medieval Greek and Cyrillic. The script was also known as Anbur (Komi: , Анбур), named for the first 2 letters of the script, "an" & "bur" (𐍐 & 𐍑, respectively). It is no longer in use today, though it has received Unicode Support as "Old Permic" in recent times. The script saw use in Komi-inhabited areas, primarily the Principality of Great Perm and parts of Bjarmaland.

In the 16th century, this alphabet was replaced by the Russian alphabet with certain modifications for affricates. In the 1920s, the language was written in the Molodtsov alphabet, which also derived from Cyrillic. In the 1930s, during the Latinisation in the Soviet Union, Komi was briefly written with a version of the Latin script. Since the 1940s it uses the Russian-based Cyrillic alphabet with the additional letters І, і and Ӧ, ӧ.

Letters particular to the Molodtsov alphabet include ԁ, ԃ, ԅ, ԇ, ԉ, ԋ, ԍ, ԏ, most of which represent palatalized consonants.

Grammar

Komi has 17 cases, with a rich inventory of locative cases. Like other Uralic languages, Komi has no gender. Verbs agree with subjects in person and number (sg/pl). Negation is expressed with an auxiliary verb, which is inflected for person, number and tense.

Komi is an agglutinative language and adheres to a subject–object–verb order. Most modern texts, however, possess a subject-verb-object word order, due to heavy Russian language influence and the resulting calques.

Sample text

The following sample text displays the Anbur, Cyrillic (modern) and Latin lyrical text from the Komi-Zyryan folk song "Катшасинъяс" (, meaning Daisies).

The first verse of the song and the refrain, as written in the Anbur Script: :**

The second verse and refrain, as written in the Zyryan Cyrillic Alphabet: :Эмöсь лунвылын мичаджык муяс, Сэнi кывтöны визувджык юяс. Сöмын мыйлакö пыр медся матыс Эзысь лысваöн дзирдалысь асыв. Катшасинъяс, Катшасинъяс, Мыйла восьсаöсь пыр тiян синъяс?

The third and final verse and refrain, as written in the modern Latin alphabet: :Una śylankyv tatyś mi kyvlim, Kodös śiöny raďejtan nyvly. Lovja dźoridźyś myj burys śurö Syly puktyny kudria jurö. Kačaśinjas, Kačaśinjas, Myjla vośsaöś pyr tijan śinjas?

Notes

Bibliography

• {{cite book
• R. M. Batalova. 1993. Komi(-Zyryanskij) Jazyk. In V. N. Jartseva (ed.), Jazyki Mira: Ural'skie Jazyki, 214–229. Moskva: Nauka.
• Feďuňova, G.V. Önija komi kyv ('The Modern Komi Language'). Morfologija/Daśtöma filologijasa kandidat G.V.Feďuňova kipod ulyn. Syktyvkar: Komi ňebög ledźanin, 2000. 544 pp. .

References

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