Linguistic heritage of the Russian Orthodox missionary work in Central Asia (to the 170th anniversary of Vladimir Katarinsky)

Abstract

The article is devoted to educational and translating-publishing activities of the outstanding Russian missionaryeducator Vasily Vladimirovich Katarinsky (1846–1902), who was one of the first to begin scientific study and description of unwritten Kazakh and Kyrgyz languages. He has carried out translation of general education edifying literature for the Russian-aboriginal schools in Turkestan and the Steppe General Government, as well as compiling and editing primers, textbooks of Russian and Kyrgyz languages, Kyrgyz-Russian and Russian-Kyrgyz dictionaries. He and his colleagues have created a truly national samples of languages, and compiled the first Kyrgyz grammar and lexicographical works marked a truly scientific stage of modern Kyrgyz and Kazakh linguistic material collection, analysis and systematization, resulting in forming conditions to preservation and further development their structural and functional qualities being accumulated for centuries; strengthening their functional capacities; beginning creation of Kyrgyz and Kazakh written tradition; emerging trends in their regulations, as well as breaking out scientific interest of Kyrgyz and Kazakh intelligentsia to native languages problems, which were on the periphery of national interests for centuries.