The Language of the <i>Kyrgyz for Russians and Russian for Kyrgyzes Self Study Textbook</i> Published in 1914
The role of written monuments in the history of a language or a country is unquestionable. Written monuments are the best source of information about any changes in a language. However, the typical peculiarity of the modern Kazakh linguistics is lack of Kazakh written monuments. That is why there are different opinions on the beginning of the history of the modern Kazakh written language in the academic community. One of the rare monuments of the Kazakh language is the Kyrgyz for Russians and Russian for Kyrgyzes Self Study Textbook. The book was written by mullah Sh.A. Rakhmetullin and published in 1914. The aim of this study is to analyze the main peculiarities of this written monument of the Kazakh language. In spite of Rakhmetullin's nationality being a Tatar and his idiolect showing in the text of the textbook, the author manifested his aim as to teach people the Kazakh language, that is why the peculiarities of the Kazakh language are shown in the text. The study consists of several sections. Information about old written sources of the Kazakh language is briefly presented in the “Introduction”. The following sections include information about some peculiarities of the textbook and of its author, about the alphabet, rules of reading and vocabulary of the textbook. Detailed information about grammar peculiarities, including plural endings, case endings, non-finite verb forms, negative verb forms and present tense endings, is given in the final section. The main lexical, grammatical, alphabetic peculiarities and those of the system of writing were revealed in the study. The language of the textbook has a so-called mixed character when both grammar and lexical elements can spontaneously migrate from one dialect to another. Judging by the analyzed monument, in the time of its writing, the Tatar influence was great in the lexical and phonological spheres, while the influence of the Ottoman language manifested itself in the written system. Norms of the Kazakh language showed mostly in grammar.