SOME INFORMATION ABOUT UDMURT DIALECTS IN THE 18TH CENTURY
The monuments of written language of the 18th century can be divided into three main groups depending on how empiric information about Udmurt dialects is reflected in them. One group of written monuments is rather small and doesn't have exact location and it is very hard to find any dialectological information there. Another group (for example dictionary by Zakhariа Krotov (Захарiя Кротовъ), grammar book by M. Mogilin (Михаилъ Могилинъ)) has information about the exact place where they were compiled and information about the dialects introduced in the monuments can be easily verified using the data of modern dialects used nowadays. The third group of written monuments (for example “Comparative dictionary of all languages and dialects…” etc) is not so much oriented to emphasize peculiarities of Udmurt dialects as to “smooth” them. Some authors of the 18th century (G.F. Miller, P.S. Pallas, Z. Krotov) not only expressed interesting ideas about territory location of some dialects and their relatively close connection but also had vague hope in some time to create on their basis one general language understandable to everyone.