Komi language

The Komi language (Komi: Коми кыв, Komi kyv), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Коми-зырян кыв, Komi-zyrjan kyv),[2] is one of the two regional varieties of the pluricentric Komi language, the other regional variety being Permyak.

Komi language
Коми кыв
Komi kyv
Native toRussia
RegionKomi Republic, Nenetsia, Permyakia, Yamalia, Yugra, elsewhere in Russia
Native speakers
160,000 (2010 census)[1]
Cyrillic, Old Permic Script (Formerly)
Official status
Official language in
Russia
  • Komi Republic
Language codes
ISO 639-1kv
ISO 639-3kpv
Glottologkomi1268

Komi is natively spoken by the Komi peoples native to the Komi Republic and other parts of Russia such as Nenetsia & Yamalia. There were 285,000 speakers in 1994, which would decrease to 160,000 by 2010. Komi has a standardized form.

It was written in the Old Permic alphabet (Komi: 𐍐𐍝𐍑𐍣𐍒, Анбур, Anbur) for liturgical purposes in the 14th century. The Cyrillic script was introduced by Russia missionaries in the 17th century, replacing the Old Permic script. A tradition of secular works of literature in the modern form of the language dates back to the 19th century.

Dialects

Komi has ten dialects: Prisyktyvkarsky, Lower Vychegdan, Central Vychegdan, Luzsko-letsky, Upper Sysolan, Upper Vychegdan, Pechoran, Izhemsky, Vymsky, and Udorsky. Prisyktyvkarsky 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 /v/ and /l/:[3]

  • Older */l/ remains unchanged in upper Vychegdan and Pechoran dialects (also in most dialects of Komi-Permyak).
  • In Central dialects, /*l/ changed to /v/ syllable-finally; for instance, in literary Komi */kɨl/ → /kɨv/ "tongue".
  • In Northern dialects, changes of /l/ continued with complete vocalization of syllable-final /l/, 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 /l/ remains unchanged in these.

Some dialects are further distinguished based on the palatalized alveolars /dʲ tʲ/, which have unpacked in syllable-final position as clusters /jd jt/.[3]

Komi language

Writing system
Main article: Komi alphabets
Sign in Syktyvkar showing the name of the city in both Komi-Zyryan Cyrillic & Old Permic Script (Anbur).
A sample of the Komi language words. Upper "Улица Коммунистическая" is in Russian, lower "Коммунистическӧй улича" is in Komi. Both mean "Communist street". This picture was taken in Syktyvkar, the capital of Komi Republic
Trilingual (Russian, Komi, and English) sign in a hotel in Ukhta, Komi Republic

The Old Permic script is the first writing system for Komi. It was invented in the 14th century by the missionary Stepan Khrap. The alphabet resembled medieval Greek and Cyrillic. The script was also known as Anbur (Komi: 𐍐𐍝𐍑𐍣𐍒, 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.[4] The script saw use in Komi-inhabited areas, primarily the Principality of Great Perm & 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 additional letters І, і and Ӧ, ӧ.

Komi alphabet (Коми анбур)

CyrillicLatinIPALetter nameNotes
А аA a[ɑ]а
Б бB b[b]бе
В вV v[v]ве
Г гG g[g]ге
Д дD d
Ď ď		[d]
[ɟ] before е, ё, и, ю, я		дэ
ДЖ джDŽ dž[dʒ]дже
ДЗ дзDŹ dź[dʑ]дзе
Е еJE je
E, e		[e]
[je] word-initially and after vowels
[e] after palatalized coronals		е
Ё ёJO jo[jo] word-initially and after vowels
[o] after [c, ɟ, ɕ, ʑ, ɲ, ʎ]		ё
Ж жŽ ž[ʒ]же
З зZ z
Ź ź		[z]
[ʑ] before е, ё, и, ю, я		зэ
И иI i[i] word-initially and after vowels
[i] after [c, ɟ, ɕ, ʑ, ɲ, ʎ]		небыд и ("soft i")
І іI i[i] after т, д, с, з, н, лчорыд и ("hard i")Non-palatalized form of и.
Й йJ j[j]дженьыд и
К кK k[k]ка
Л лL l
Ľ ľ		[ɫ]
[ʎ] before е, ё, и, ю, я		эл
М мM m[m]эм
Н нN n
Ń ń		[n]
[ɲ] before е, ё, и, ю, я		эн
О оO o[o]о
Ӧ ӧÖ ö[ɘ~ə]ӧ
П пP p[p]пе
Р рR r[r]эр
С сS s
Ś ś		[s]
[ɕ] before е, ё, и, ю, я		эс
Т тT t
Ť ť		[t]
[c] before е, ё, и, ю, я		тэ
ТШ тшČ č[tʃ]тше
У уU u[u]у
Ф фF f[f]эфIn loanwords.
Х хH h[x]хаIn loanwords.
Ц цC c[ts]цеIn loanwords.
Ч чĆ ć[tɕ]че
Ш шŠ š[ʃ]ша
Щ щŠČ šč[ʃtʃ~ʃː]щаIn loanwords.
Ъ ъ--чорыд пас ("hard sign")Same usage in Russian.
Ы ыY y[ɨ~ɤ]ы
Ь ь-[ʲ]небыд пас ("soft sign")Same usage in Russian.
Э эE e[e]эNon-palataized form of е.
Ю юJU ju[ju]
[u] after т, д, с, з, н, л		ю
Я яJA ja[jɑ]
[ɑ] after т, д, с, з, н, л		я

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

The Molodtsov alphabet
А аБ бВ вГ гԀ ԁԂ ԃЕ еЖ жҖ җЗ зԄ ԅԆ ԇ
І іЈ јК кЛ лԈ ԉМ мН нԊ ԋО оӦ ӧП пР р
С сԌ ԍТ тԎ ԏУ уФ фХ хЦ цЧ чШ шЩ щЫ ы

Phonology

Consonants
Consonant phonemes of Zyrian
Labial Dental Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive voiceless p t c k
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡ʃ tɕ
voiced d͡ʒ dʑ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ ɕ
voiced v z ʒ ʑ
Trill r
Approximant lateral l ʎ
central j

Vowels
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open a

Grammar
Further information: Komi 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.[5]

Sample Text

The following sample text displays the Anbur, Cyrillic (modern) and Latin lyrical text from the Komi-Zyryan folk song “Kačaśinjas” (Daisies).

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

𐍚𐍞𐍠𐍚𐍞 𐍤𐍗𐍛𐍐𐍝𐍝𐍱𐍓𐍔, 𐍚𐍐𐍢𐍦 𐍐𐍡𐍙‎𐍝𐍴𐍡? 𐍜𐍱𐍙‎𐍛𐍐 𐍡 𐍞𐍡𐍡𐍐𐍩𐍡 𐍟𐍱𐍠 𐍢𐍙𐍴𐍝 𐍡𐍙‎𐍝𐍴𐍡? 𐍜𐍔𐍝𐍩 𐍟𐍧𐍠 𐍡𐍩𐍜𐍧𐍝 𐍢𐍙 𐍓𐍙𐍝𐍩 𐍝𐍣‎𐍩, 𐍛𐍧𐍓𐍢𐍩𐍜 𐍓𐍗𐍞𐍠𐍙𐍓𐍗𐍩𐍝 𐍢𐍧𐍠 𐍚𐍞𐍜𐍙 𐍜𐍣‎𐍩.
𐍚𐍐𐍢𐍡𐍐𐍡𐍙𐍝𐍙𐍐𐍡, 𐍚𐍐𐍢𐍡𐍐𐍡𐍙𐍝𐍙𐍐𐍡, 𐍜𐍧𐍛𐍙𐍐 𐍮𐍞𐍡𐍡𐍐𐍩𐍡 𐍟𐍧𐍠 𐍢𐍙𐍙𐍐𐍝 𐍡𐍙𐍝𐍙𐍐𐍡?

The second verse and refrain, as written in the Zyryan Cyrillic Alphabet:

Эмӧсь лунвылын мичаджик муяс, сені кывтӧны визвджик юяс. Сӧмын мыйлакӧ пыр медся матыс Езыс лысваӧн дзирдалысь асыв.
Катшасинъяс, Катшасинъяс, мыйла воссаӧс пыр тіян синяс?

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.
Kačaśinjas, Kačaśinjas, myjla vośsaöś pyr tijan śinjas?

Notes
  1. Komi language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Komi language Britannica.
  3. Bartens 2000, p. 47-49
  4. Everson, Michael (2012-04-26). "Revised proposal for encoding the Old Permic script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Grenoble, L. A. (31 July 2003). Language Policy in the Soviet Union. ISBN 9781402012983.

Bibliography
  • Bartens, Raija (2000). Permiläisten kielten rakenne ja kehitys (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. ISBN 952-5150-55-0.
  • Abondolo, Daniel (2015). The Uralic Languages. Routledge
  • R. M. Batalova. 1993. Komi(-Zyryanskij) Jazyk. In V. N. Jartseva (ed.), Jazyki Mira: Ural'skie Jazyki, 214–229. Moskva: Nauka.
  • Fed'un'ova, G.V. Önija komi kyv ('The Modern Komi Language'). Morfologia/Das’töma filologijasa kandidat G.V.Fed'un'ova kipod ulyn. Syktyvkar: Komi n’ebög ledzanin, 2000. 544 pp. ISBN 5-7555-0689-2.
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