The Russian Cyrillic alphabet in Siberia in the XVII-XX centuries: patterns of development

the article analyzes the changes in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet in the XVII – XX centuries in Siberia. The aim is to characterize the variability of Cyrillic letters in the Siberian business writing of the XVII century and the alphabet of one of the languages of the indigenous peoples of Siberia (Shorsky) in terms of patterns: a) the formation of graphic norms of the Russian national language, b) the reflection of the phonetic system of the language. The variability of graphic means in the Siberian manuscripts of business writing of the XVII century was first identified and analyzed in a normative aspect using a synchronous-diachronic approach. It is established that the use of certain sign of the two possible (З-Ѕ, Ф-?, О-?, И-I, Е-?), using ?, ?, ? and other extra letters depends on extralinguistic reasons (training of the scribe, the Russian tradition of writing in general), and their position in the word. The dynamics of the variability of Cyrillic letters is analyzed on regional material in terms of development trends of the Russian alphabet in subsequent epochs (XVII – XVIII centuries). For the first time we described the Cyrillic alphabet of the Shor language (XX century) as adequately reflecting his phonetic system and successfully functioning. We have identified similar patterns in the processes of development of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet and the formation of the alphabet of the Shor language.

Russian Cyrillic alphabet, variability, linguistic norm, usage, manuscript of Siberian business writing, Shor language