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MARKERS OF INFLECTIONAL GRAMMATICAL MEANINGS IN THE KOMI-PERMYAK LANGUAGE OF THE LATE 18TH CENTURY (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF ARCHPRIEST ANTONY POPOV’S HANDWRITTEN DICTIONARIES) // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2021. Issue 1 (31). P. 34-46

The article presents a fragment of linguistic analysis of monuments of early Komi-Permyak writing — the manuscripts of Archpriest Antony Popov (1748–1788), which are dated 1785 and are currently known as the first fundamental works on Permyak linguistics — grammar sketch and two dictionaries — alphabetical and thematic. These manuscripts have not yet been published and have not been sufficiently studied. The aim of current study is to identify and analyze markers of inflectional grammatical meanings in the Komi-Permyak language of the late 18th century based on the material of the A. Popov’s dictionaries. Markers of Komi-Permyak inflectional grammatical meanings of the following categories are considered in comparative and areal aspects: a) number of nouns and adjectives, b) case, c) personal possessiveness, d) tense. Most of them are identical to modern grammatical forms and grammatical meanings, but there are also interesting features. The plural suffix of the noun is represented in the A. Popov’s manuscripts by a more archaic variant [jɛs] (cf modern [ɛz]). It was recording still in the second half of the 20th century in various dialects of the Komi language continuum, mainly peripheral. The manuscripts contain a wide range of case markers: along with the nominative, there are ten more case forms (seven of them are local cases that implement spatial semantics, the so-called internal and external cases). Inflectional markers with their own meanings are “hidden” within adverbs, serial postpositions and partly numerals. The marker of abessive case is designed as a separate dictionary entry as a preposition. Attention is drawn to the grammatical marker of the prolative case -ты [tɨ] — in the modern Komi-Permyak language, the semantics of this case is realized by the form -öт [ɘt]. Markers of the category of personal possessiveness presented in the manuscripts are similar to modern semantic and grammatical markers. This inflectional category is implemented by the suffixes -мъ [m ] (-е [e]), -тъ [t ], -съ [s ], -нымъ [nɨm ], -нытъ [nɨt ], -нысъ [nɨs ] (cf modern -ö [ɘ] ‘my’, -ыт [ɨt] ‘your (SG)’, -ыс [ɨs] ‘his’, -ным [nɨm] ‘our’, -ныт [nɨt] ‘your (PL)’, -ныс [nɨs] ‘their’). Inflectional forms of verbs recorded in A. Popov’s dictionaries demonstrate present, future, past I and past II tenses. A fragment of compound future tense is shown. It was not possible to detect at least elements of the analytical past tense (perfect). The markers of all these tenses are identical to the corresponding markers in the modern Komi-Permyak language. This article is not only a contribution to the study of the Finno-Ugric manuscript heritage, but also a modest step towards the development of a historical grammar of the Komi-Permyak language.

Keywords: Komi-Permyak language, manuscripts of the 18th century, grammar, dictionaries, markers of inflectional grammatical meanings, number, case, personal possessiveness, tense