Dictionaries by Joseph Giganov - dialectology dictionaries of the Tatar language

J. Giganov, first in European science, made research into the grammar of the Tatarlanguage. The work was completed in 1798, but was published only after the death of the author in 1801. As an appendix to this work adictionary called Native Words, necessary for teaching the Tatar language complied by J. Giganov and inspected by Yurtovsky mullahswas published (St. Petersburg, 1801, 75 p.). The words in this dictionary are placed in three columns: in the first column there areTatar words in Arabic font; in the second one, in accord to the laws of pronunciation, Tatar words are printed with the help of Russianletters, in the third one - Russian words. It should be noted that the work is the first experience of compiling a printed thematic dictionaryof the Tatar language. It contains 1 800 lexical units. They are located in thematic groups. J. Giganovs dictionary is the first dialectologydictionary, because the author registered a large lexical material of local dialects of the Siberian Tatars in it. Most of these lexemesare in active use in the contemporary language of the Siberian Tatars. Three years later, in 1804 the second work by Giganov appeared.This work published on the behest of his Majesty is known under the name of Dictionary of Russian-Tatar compiled by aTatar teacher J. Giganov and Yurtovsky mullahs in Tobolsk Main Peoples specialized school; it consists of 672 pages. It was publishedin St. Petersburg in 1804, at the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In J. Giganovs dictionary words are placed in three columns: inthe first column there are Russian words in alphabetical order; in the second one, according to orthoepic laws, Tatar words are givenwith the help of Russian letters, and in the third - the same Tatar words are given in Arabic letters. The fact that the words are placed inexact alphabetical order testifies to the acquaintance of the author with the principles of dictionary compilation. In some cases, cognatesor lemma close in the meaning are added to the translation. This makes it easier to work with the dictionary and contributes to the rapidmemorization of the Tatar language vocabulary. Both dictionaries provide word-for-word translation. The author pointed out all thevariants of words used in the region of Siberia. In Giganovs dictionaries much attention is paid to dialectal words typical for the speechof Eastern Siberia Tatars, the region where he worked. J. Giganovs dictionaries we deal with are works of different types and they areintended for different purposes. If the first dictionary was compiled as an appendix to the book in Grammar and included only the activevocabulary of the Siberian Tatars language, the second one is an academic work. Aforementioned works by Giganov contributed to thedevelopment of Tatar linguistics of his time and to propaganda and learning of the Tatar language. Not of less importance are they forRussian turkology in general. Nowadays these works make up a valuable source for research into the lexical fund of the Tatar languageof that period and dialectology.

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