The Perevodchik-Terjiman Newspaper: A Bilingual Phenomenon of the Muslim Press in Late Imperial Russia

Praktyka Teoretyczna. 2021. Vol. 1. No. 39. P. 119–136.

Tikhonova N.

This case study examines the bilingualism of the prominent Russian Muslim newspaper of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, known as the “Perevodchik-Terjiman” (literally a ‘Translator’ or ‘Interpreter’), by means of discourse analysis. This newspaper was published from 1883 to 1918 in Crimea, until 1914 by Ismail Gasprinskii (1851-1914), - prominent enlightener of Russian Muslims. Until December 1905 the newspaper was issued in two languages – Russian and so-called common-Turkic. The latter language was unsuccessfully intended to become a common literary language for Russian Muslims. Despite the declarations, the parallel articles in Russian and Turkic barely presented direct translations from one language to another. On the contrary, there were significant differences. The differences in Russian and Turkic narratives were not markers of opposing intentions or obscure meanings. It is argued here that this feature can be qualified as an instance of cultural bilingualism, which reflected multiculturalism of the newspaper’s heterogeneous audience.

Keywords: bilingualism, билингвизм, позднеимперская Россия, Russian Muslims, Российские мусульмане, газета "Переводчик-Терджиман", Ismail Gasprinskii, Исмаил Гаспринский, общетюркский язык, “Perevodchik-Terjiman” newspaper, common-Turkic language, late-imperial Russia, Russian Revolution of 1905, Первая русская революция 1905

Publication based on the results of: Transformation of Regimes of Governing Diversity: Political Identity on the Edge of Post-Imperial and Post-Colonial Paradigms (2021)