Shor (endonym: шор тили, тадар тили) is a critically endangered Turkic language spoken by about 2,800 people in a region called Mountain Shoriya, in the Kemerovo Province in Southwest Siberia, although the entire Shor population in this area is over 12000 people. Presently, not all ethnic Shors speak Shor and the language suffered a decline from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. During this period the Shor language was neither written nor taught in schools. However, since the 1980s and 1990s there has been a Shor language revival. The language is now taught at the Novokuznetsk branch of the Kemerovo State University.
Like other Siberian Turkic languages, Shor has borrowed many roots from Mongolian, as well as words from Russian. The two main dialects are Mrassu and Kondoma, named after the rivers in whose valleys they are spoken. From the point of view of classification of Turkic languages, these dialects belong to different branches of Turkic: According to the reflexes of the Proto-Turkic (PT) intervocalic -d- in modern languages (compare PT *adak, in modern Turkic languages meaning 'foot' or 'leg'), the Mrassu dialect is a -z- variety: azaq, the Kondoma dialect is a -y- variety: ayaq. This feature normally distinguishes different branches of Turkic which means that the Shor language has formed from different Turkic sources.
Each Shor dialect has subdialectal varieties. The Upper-Mrassu and the Upper-Kondoma varieties have developed numerous close features in the course of close contacts between their speakers in the upper reaches of the Kondoma and Mrassu rivers.
The Mrassu dialect served as a basis for literary Shor language both in the 1930s and in the 1980s when the written form of the Shor language was revitalized after a break (of almost 50 years) in its written history. However, the Kondoma dialect norms are also largely accepted. The Academy grammar of Shor, published in 1941, was written on the basis of the Mrass dialect by Dyrenkova.[2]
Shor was first written with a Cyrillic alphabet introduced by Christianmissionaries in the middle of the 19th century. After a number of changes, the modern Shor alphabet is written in another modified Cyrillic alphabet.
In 2005, to highlight the endangered status of the language, Gennady Kostochakov published a book of poems in Shor, entitled "I am the Last Shor Poet".[3] In 2017, a Shor translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Liubovʹ Arbaçakova was published.[4]
Morphology and syntax
Pronouns
Shor has seven personal pronouns:
Personal pronouns
Singular
Plural
1st person
мен
men
мен
men
I
пис
pis
пис
pis
we
2nd person
сен
sen
сен
sen
you (singular)
силер/слер
siler/sler
силер/слер
siler/sler
you (plural, formal)
3rd person
ол
ol
ол
ol
he/she/it
ылар/лар,
ılar/lar,
олор/алар
olor/alar
ылар/лар, олор/алар
ılar/lar, olor/alar
they (as in "those", equivalent to Turkish "onlar")
пылар/плар
pılar/plar
пылар/плар
pılar/plar
they (as in "these", equivalent to Turkish "bunlar")
Before the 19th century the Shor language had remained unwritten; in the 1870s Orthodox missionaries made the first effort to create a Cyrillic Shor alphabet. In spite of all the efforts by the missionaries, the percentage of literacy among the native population increased very slowly — by the beginning of the 20th century they constituted only about 1% of the Shors.
The Shor written language had its 'golden age' in the 1920s. In 1927, a second attempt was made to create a Shor alphabet based on Cyrillic. In 1932-1933, Fedor Cispijakov wrote and published a new primer based on the Latin alphabet. This however considerably complicated the process of learning; thus in 1938, the same author together with Georgij Babuskin created a new variant of the primer based on the Cyrillic alphabet, of which several editions have been published since then.[6]
Missionary alphabet
The first book written in the Shor language was published in 1885.
It used a modified Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё, Ф ф, Щ щ, and Ѣ ѣ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ.
In 1927 an official alphabet was adopted, being the Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё and ъ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ.
Latin alphabet
A Latin alphabet for the Shor language was introduced in 1930: A a, B в, C c, D d, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ƣ ƣ, I i, J j, K k, Q q, M m, N n, Ꞑ ꞑ, O o, Ө ө, P p, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, Ş ş, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, L l, Ь ь, Y y, Į į.
The order of the letters was later changed to correspond with alphabets for other languages in the Soviet Union, the letter Ә ә was replaced with E e, and the letter Į į was dropped.
Modern alphabet
In 1938 the Latin alphabet was replaced with a Cyrillic one. It used the Russian alphabet with additional letters Ӧ ӧ, Ӱ ӱ, and Нъ нъ.
After reforms in 1980 it reached its present form: А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ғ ғ, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Қ қ, Л л, М м, Н н, Ң ң, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ӱ ӱ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я.
Comparison of Shor alphabets
Cyrillic
Latin
Cyrillic
1885
1927-1930
1930-1938
1938-1980
1980–present
А а
A a
A a
А а
А а
Б б
Б б
B в
Б б
Б б
В в
В в
V v
В в
В в
Г г
Г г
G g
Г г
Г г
Г г
Г г
Ƣ ƣ
Г г
Ғ ғ
Д д
Д д
D d
Д д
Д д
Е е
Е е
Е е
Е е
Ё ё
Ж ж
Ж ж
Ƶ ƶ
Ж ж
Ж ж
З з
З з
Z z
З з
З з
И и, I i, Ѵ ѵ
И и
I i, Į į
И и
И и
Й й
Й й
J j
Й й
Й й
К к
К к
K k
К к
К к
К к
К к
Q q
К к
Қ қ
Л л
Л л
L l
Л л
Л л
М м
М м
M m
М м
М м
Н н
Н н
N n
Н н
Н н
Ҥ ҥ
Ҥ ҥ
Ꞑ ꞑ
Нъ нъ
Ң ң
О о
О о
О о
О о
О о
Ӧ ӧ
Ө ө
Ө ө
Ӧ ӧ
Ӧ ӧ
П п
П п
P p
П п
П п
Р р
Р р
R r
Р р
Р р
С с
С с
S s
C c
C c
Т т
Т т
T t
Т т
Т т
У у
У у
U u
У у
У у
Ӱ ӱ
Ӱ ӱ
Y y
Ӱ ӱ
Ӱ ӱ
Ѳ ѳ
Ф ф
F f
Ф ф
Ф ф
Х х
Х х
Х х
Х х
Ц ц
Ц ц
Ц ц
Ц ц
Ч ч, J j
Ч ч
C c
Ч ч
Ч ч
Ш ш
Ш ш
Ş ş
Ш ш
Ш ш
Щ щ
Щ щ
Щ щ
ъ
ъ
ъ
Ы ы
Ы ы
Ь ь
Ы ы
Ы ы
ь
ь
ь
ь
Э э
Э э
Ə ə, Е е
Э э
Э э
Ю ю
Ю ю
Ю ю
Ю ю
Я я
Я я
Я я
Я я
References
^Shor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Н. П. Дыренкова (1941). Грамматика Шорского Языка. Академия Наук СССР.
^Irina Nevskaya (2006). Erdal, M. (ed.). Exploring the Eastern Frontiers of Turkic. Vol. (Turcologica 60). Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 245–247. ISBN3447053100.
Further reading
Roos, Marti, Hans Nugteren, and Zinaida Waibel. Khakas and Shor proverbs and proverbial sayings. Exploring the Eastern Frontiers of Turkic, ed. by Marcel Erdal and Irina Nevskaya, pp. 60 (2006): 157-192. (Turcologica 60.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
(in Russian) Донидзе Г. И. Шорский язык / Языки мира. Тюркские языки. — М., 1997.
Shor Shor language Peter Shor George G. Shor Shor Shor Toots Shor Shor (film) Charles Shor Shors Saadia Bekhor Shor Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor Dan Shor Shor in the City Elizabeth Noble Shor Naum Z. Shor Shor Shoreh, Dorud Camp Shor, Indiana Shor's algorithm Bacon–Shor code Mehrabad-e Shor Shor Ilan Shor Shor Shor, Razavi Khorasan Eran Shor Ira Shor Miriam Shor Shor Macha Alexey Shor David Shor Shor and Shorshor Toots Shor's Restaurant Ephraim Zalman Shor Sol Shor Chor Machaaye Shor Jasmin (singer) Shor Shoreh Tel Shor Shor-Bulak Ak-Shor Shor Shoreh, Markazi She-Hulk NorShor Theatre There S…
he Is!! Chor Machaye Shor (1996 film) S.H.E She She & Him S.H.E discography She people She Will SHE Media She Saihua She-Ra Say She She Shion no Ō She Said She Said SHeDAISY Shanna the She-Devil Shortepa District She Was Poor but She Was Honest God-Des and She Shively, Kentucky Boyuk Shor Highway She Taxi Who Does She Think She Is Miron Sher SheZow She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She Nevertheless, she persisted She devil She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) She's the Man She-wolf She Bangs Chor Machaye Shor She (pronoun) Lao She John N. Shive Madigan Shive FM S.H.E SheThePeople Yitzchak Isaac Sher There She Goes She's the One She Is Antony Sher Sheic languages She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not She Said Amrita Sher-Gil She Will Be Loved Sher Afgan Khan She-Hulk: Attorney at Law She's Gone She: A History of Adventure Dom Sheed She Would and She Would Not Sheed and Ward Wilfrid Sheed Van She (EP) She's a Rainbow She Is Beautiful Donald Shively She's Not There She's on Fire She's a Beauty She Couldn't She-Hulk (Lyra) HeForShe She-wolf (Roman mythology) The She-bear She's American She's Not Me FC Sher Bishkek She Ain't Got... She Lives! Lawrence Sher Matt Shively She-D