The Komi language ( kv, коми кыв, ''komi kyv''), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Komi: коми-зырян кыв, komi-zyrjan kyv),Komi language
''Britannica''. is one of the two regional varieties of the pluricentric Komi language, the other regional variety being Permyak. Komi is natively spoken by the

Komi peoples The Komi ( kv, комияс, ' also ', also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous Permian ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and Kama rivers. They mos ...

native to the

Komi Republic The Komi Republic (russian: Республика Коми; kv, Коми Республика), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Syktyvkar. The population of th ...

and other parts of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

such as

Nenetsia The Nenets Autonomous Okrug (russian: Не́нецкий автоно́мный о́круг; Nenets: Ненёцие автономной ӈокрук, ''Nenjocije awtonomnoj ŋokruk'') is a federal subject of Russia and an autonomous okrug of Ar ...

and Yamalia. There were 285,000 speakers in 1994, which decreased to 160,000 in 2010. Komi has a standardized form. It was written in the

Old Permic alphabet The Old Permic script ( kv, Важ Перым гижӧм, ), sometimes known by its initial 2 characters as Abur or Anbur, is a "highly idiosyncratic adaptation" of the Cyrillic script once used to write medieval Komi (a member of the Permic bran ...

(Komi: , Анбур, ''Anbur'') for liturgical purposes in the 14th century. The

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

was introduced by Russia missionaries in the 17th century, replacing the

Old Permic script The Old Permic script ( kv, Важ Перым гижӧм, ), sometimes known by its initial 2 characters as Abur or Anbur, is a "highly idiosyncratic adaptation" of the Cyrillic script once used to write medieval Komi (a member of the Permic bra ...

. A tradition of secular works of literature in the modern form of the language dates back to the 19th century.

Dialects

Komi has ten dialects: Prisyktyvkarsky, Lower Vychegdan, Central Vychegdan, Luzsko-letsky, Upper Sysolan, Upper Vychegdan, Pechoran, Izhemsky, Vymsky, and Udorsky. Prisyktyvkarsky is spoken in the region of Syktyvkar and forms the model for the generic standard dialect of the language. Dialects are divided based primarily on their use of and :Bartens 2000, p. 47-49 * Older * remains unchanged in upper Vychegdan and Pechoran dialects (also in most dialects of Komi-Permyak). * In Central dialects, changed to syllable-finally; for instance, in literary Komi * → "tongue". * In Northern dialects, changes of continued with complete vocalization of syllable-final , resulting in long vowels. The start of the change date to the 17th century. It is not seen in the oldest Komi texts from the 14th century, nor in loanwords from Komi to

Khanty The Khanty ( Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, togethe ...

, dated to the 16th; though it fully occurred before Russian loanwords that entered the language in the 18th century as remains unchanged in these. Some dialects are further distinguished based on the palatalized alveolars , which have unpacked in syllable-final position as clusters . Komi language

Writing system

The

is the first writing system for Komi. It was invented in the 14th century by the missionary Stepan Khrap. The alphabet resembled medieval

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Cyrillic. The script was also known as Anbur (Komi: , Анбур), named for the first 2 letters of the script, “''an''” & “''bur''” (𐍐 & 𐍑, respectively). It is no longer in use today, though it has received

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

Support as “Old Permic” in recent times. The script saw use in Komi-inhabited areas, primarily the Principality of Great Perm and parts of

Bjarmaland Bjarmaland (also spelt ''Bjarmland'' and ''Bjarmia''; Latin: ''Biarmia''; Old English: ''Beormaland,'' Komi: Биармия ''Biarmia,'' Old Permic: 𐍑𐍙‎𐍐𐍒‎𐍜𐍙‎𐍐) was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas since the Vikin ...

. In the 16th century, this alphabet was replaced by the Russian alphabet with certain modifications for affricates. In the 1920s the language was written in the

Molodtsov alphabet The Komi language, a Uralic language spoken in the north-eastern part of European Russia, has been written in several different alphabets. Currently, Komi writing uses letters from the Cyrillic script. There have been five distinct stages in the h ...

, which also derived from Cyrillic. In the 1930s, during the

Latinisation in the Soviet Union In the USSR, latinisation or latinization (russian: латиниза́ция, ') was the name of the campaign during the 1920s–1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that wo ...

, Komi was briefly written with a version of the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

. Since the 1940s it uses the Russian-based Cyrillic alphabet with additional letters '' І, і'' and '' Ӧ, ӧ''. Letters particular to the

include ԁ, ԃ, ԅ, ԇ, ԉ, ԋ, ԍ, ԏ, most of which represent palatalized consonants.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Grammar

Komi has 17 cases, with a rich inventory of locative cases. Like other Uralic languages, Komi has no gender. Verbs agree with subjects in person and number (sg/pl). Negation is expressed with an auxiliary verb, which is inflected for person, number and tense. Komi is an agglutinative language and adheres to a subject–object–verb order.

Sample text

The following sample text displays the Anbur, Cyrillic (modern) and Latin lyrical text from the Komi-Zyryan folk song “Kačaśinjas” ( Daisies). The first verse of the song and the refrain, as written in the Anbur Script: :' The second verse and refrain, as written in the Zyryan Cyrillic Alphabet: :''Эмöсь лунвылын мичаджык муяс,'' ''Сэнi кывтöны визувджык юяс.'' ''Сöмын мыйлакö пыр медся матыс'' ''Эзысь лысваöн дзирдалысь асыв.'' ''Катшасинъяс,'' ''Катшасинъяс,'' ''Мыйла восьсаöсь пыр тiян синъяс?'' The third and final verse and refrain, as written in the modern Latin Alphabet: :''Una śylankyv tatyś mi kyvlim,'' ''Kodös śiöny raďejtan nyvly.'' ''Lovja dźoridźyś myj burys śurö'' ''Syly puktyny kudria jurö.'' ''Kačaśinjas,'' ''Kačaśinjas,'' ''Myjla vośsaöś pyr tijan śinjas?''

Notes

Bibliography

* *Abondolo, Daniel (2015). ''The Uralic Languages''. Routledge *R. M. Batalova. 1993. Komi(-Zyryanskij) Jazyk. In V. N. Jartseva (ed.), Jazyki Mira: Ural'skie Jazyki, 214–229. Moskva: Nauka. * Fed'un'ova, G.V. ''Önija komi kyv'' ('The Modern Komi Language'). Morfologia/Das’töma filologijasa kandidat G.V.Fed'un'ova kipod ulyn. Syktyvkar: Komi n’ebög ledzanin, 2000. 544 pp. .

External links

*
Books in Komi-Zyrian from Finno-Ugric Electronic Library
(by the Finno-Ugric Information Center in Syktyvkar,

(interface in Russian and English, texts in Mari, Komi, Udmurt, Erzya and

Moksha ''Moksha'' (; sa, मोक्ष, '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'' and ''mukti'', is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, enlightenment, liberation, and release. In its soteriologic ...

languages))
Komi–Russian & Russian–Komi Online Dictionaries

Tarabukin I.I. Komi–Russian Phraseological Dictionary.

Komi Grammar. (in Russian)

Komi-language courses
{{Authority control Komi Languages of Russia Komi Republic