Philological sciences / 9. Ethno-, socio- and psycholinguistics

 

Candidate of Philological Sciences, Garipova F.Kh.

Institute of  humanitarian researches of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia

The Bashkir language in the sphere of informational technologies

 

Men’s conception of the importance of cultural and linguistic variety for the humanity makes the world community look for new ways in order to support the languages to exist and stay viable. Especially it has a certain attitude toward the  languages, which exist in the conditions when another language dominates over them. Today we have various opportunities to preserve languages, and these opportunities still grow. But, in spite of this, it is difficult to make the material-oriented society know and learn languages which have the little number of their native speakers and restricted sphere of use only because of the fact that these languages function as producers and keepers of nations’ spiritual wealth. That is why with the purpose to induce a man to start learning a low-prestigious language it is necessary to address means, which would attract his attention, make profit to him, and which would be readily available and cheap. In modern world the informational-communicative technologies are one of those means, which influence men and make them dependent more and more every year.

Presentation of a language in global informational sphere doesn’t remove from  the agenda the question of its preservation. Nevertheless, it gives it one more chance for survival. The role of the Internet in the destiny of a language may be consisted in the following:

–                   it is the opportunity to display the language with all its grammatical, lexical, stylistic peculiarities and make conditions for all persons interested to learn it;

–                   it is the opportunity to represent some information in the appropriate language and (or) about the appropriate language (nation) graphically, also in audio- and video format;

–                   it is the opportunity to familiarize the world community with cultural

(including literary) heritage of the nation both as in the language of the origin and in translation into other languages;

–  presence of the  language in the Internet, the development of corresponding terminology, use of a concrete language as the language of interface – all  this helps to advance the language, makes possible for it to satisfy the demands of a contemporary native speaker, widens the spheres of its use and in some degree increases the prestige of the language.

The Bashkir language belongs to the Kypchak branch of the Turkish group  of the Altaic family of languages. Alongside with the Russian language it is the official language of the Republic of Bashkortostan. According to population census 2010 there live 1584554 Bashkirs in the  Russian Federation [Natsionalny sostav naseleniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii] (compare, as to census 2002 the number of Bashkirs was 1673389) [Natsionalny sostav naseleniya]. The results of census 2002 show that the Bashkir language is known by 1056871 people in the Republic of Bashkortostan, among them the Bashkirs themselves amounted to 912204 people (in the whole in the Russian Federation 1192950 Bashkirs pointed that they knew the language of their ethnic belonging) [Vladenie yazykami (krome russkogo) naseleniem otdelnykh natsionalnostey…].

 In accordance with the data of the end of January 2012 the level of Bashkir segment in the Internet consists 66 199 pages [Îrekhov, Gallyamov]. In general there are  mostly being realized the perceptive functions of the Bashkir language in global network, than communicative ones, i.e.  the most part of Bashkir websites has informational character.

Today in Bashkortostan there has being realized a purposeful introduction of the Bashkir language in the sphere of informational technologies.  In Ufa in the Institute of History, Language and Literature of Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IHLL USC RAS) there functions the Laboratory of linguistics and informational technologies.

In June 2011 within the Faculty of Bashkir Philology and Journalism of the Bashkir State University there was founded the Laboratory of computer philology, the branches of which are: automatic word processing, production of specialized cabinets,  electronic scientific publications with inclination (but not abridging only with this) to Bashkir philology, monitoring of network presence of the Bashkir language [O laboratorii compyuternoy filologii].

In the State program for preservation, study and development of  languages of Bashkortostan peoples, which is being renewed every 5 years, one of its parts is dedicated to realization of the languages in the sphere of informational technologies. In the project of the Program, meant for 2012-2016 years, there are supported the following measures: creation of the cabinet of contemporary prose, poetic, publicistic bashkir texts, creation of the cabinet of  the Bashkir nation’s folklore, the development of the program for automatic meta-marking and morphological marking of texts, kept in the national cabinet, the design of interface   and program part of the national cabinet of the Bashkir language and so on.

A major portion of the material presented in the Bashkir  language is placed in republic mass media websites [Îrekhov, Gallyamov]. (Look, for example, websites of the following magazines: «Éәøëåê», «Êèñêå Өôө» and so on, journals as «Àғèçåë», «Øîңkàð etc.). In mode online one can listen to the music and watch in the Bashkir language various programs of the Bashkir State Television and such radios as «Þëäàø», «Àøkàçàð» [Websites of the republic mass media].

In the website «Áàøkîðò ôîðóìäàðû» (Bashkir forums) a wide range of themes for discussion is presented. Exchange of opinions, views on this or that question is realized both in the Bashkir and Russian languages. In section «Áàøkîðò òåëåíäә àðàëàøûó» (“Communication in the Bashkir language”) it is noted that this forum serves only for dialogues in the Bashkir language  [Bashkir forums].

Those who want to study Bashkir can also find teaching materials in Bashnet (online and electronic textbooks, bilingual dictionaries) [Websites with teaching materials].

The great value for the scientists-scholars, teachers, students and high school students, who wish to study the Bashkir language, present the Computer fund of the Bashkir language, developed and supported by the stuff of officers of the Laboratory of linguistics and computer technologies of IHLL USC RAS and the Internet center of BSU, which one can address in www.mfbl.ru. The present information system consists of 7 databases, which make parts, or constituents, of the Computer fund:

– database of general card index,

– lexicographic database,

– grammatical database,

– catalogue of handwritten books,

–       catalogue of old printed books,

–       experimental-phonetical database of the fund,

–  dialectological database of the fund [Sirazitdinov, 2010, S. 34].

The interfaces for making the queries to database of the fund are available  in Russian, Bashkir and English languages.

Supplementation and promotion of the Bashkir language in the Internet, extension of its presence there calls for both corresponding financial investments and energization of real and potential users of Bashnet site. Perhaps, the last  circumstance to a greater extent will promote the distribution of the language in the global net, than the first one, because we have enthusiasts exist   – they are those who sincerely love their native language and appreciate it. On a voluntary basis they carry out a great work in this orientation.

 

Literature

1. Bashkort forumdary (Bashkir forums) [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://www.bashforum.net/index.php?/forum/48-%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82.

2. Vladenie yazykami (krome russkogo) naseleniem otdelnykh natsionalnostey po respublikam, avtonomnoy oblasti I avtonomnym okrugam Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=17

3. Natsionalny sostav naseleniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/results-inform.php

4. Natsionalny sostav naseleniya [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=17

5. O laboratorii compyuternoy filologii [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://lcph.bashedu.ru/index.php?go=about

6. Orekhov B.V., Gallyamov A.A. Bashkirskiy segment interneta: semiotika i lingvistika (tezisy vystupleniya)  [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://igianrb.ru/node/publications/Nauchnyj%20seminar%20IGI%20RB%202012g

7. Websites of republican mass media: http://yeshlek-gazeta.ru, http://www.ye02.ru, http://kiskeufa.ru, http://øîíêàð.ðô, http://uldashfm.ru, http://tv-rb.ru/bash.

8. Websites with teaching materials: http://tel.bashqort.com, http://www.proshkolu.ru/user/Iluza23/folder/52239, http://www.languages-study.com/bashkir.html, http://tv-rb.ru/node/4022.

9. Sirazitdinov Z.A. Informatsionnaya systema “Mashinny fond bashkirskogo yazyka”  // Gorodskie bashkiry: problem yazyka I demografii: Materialy VI Mezhregionalnoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii, posvyaschennoy, III Vsemirnomu kurultayu Bashkir (g.Oktyabrskiy, 15 aprelya 2010). – Ufa: IIYaL UNTs RAN, 2010. – S.32-40.