Alaska Journal of Anthropology Volume 4, Numbers 1-2 The Eskimo Language Work of Aleksandr Forshtein Michael E. Krauss Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK 99775, ff
[email protected] Abstract: Th e paper focuses on another aspect of the legacy of the late Russian Eskimologist Aleksandr Forshtein (1904-1968), namely his linguistic materials and his publications in Eskimo languages and early Russian/Soviet school programs in Siberian Yupik. During the 1930s, the Russians launched an impressive program in developing writing systems, education, and publication in several Native Siberian languages. Forshtein and his mentor, Waldemar Bogoras, took active part in those eff orts on behalf of Siberian Yupik. Th e paper reviews Forshtein’s (and Bogoras’) various contributions to Siberian Yupik language work and language documentation. As it turned out, Forshtein’s, as well as Bogoras’ approach had many fl aws; several colleagues of Forshtein achieved better results and produced alternative writing systems for Siberian Yupik language. Th is review of the early Russian language work on Siberian Yupik is given against the backdrop of many colorful personalities involved and of the general conditions of Russian Siberian linguistics during the 1920s and the 1930s. Keywords: A.S. Forshtein, V.G. Bogoraz, K.S. Sergeeva, E. P. Orlova, Yuit Th is paper that evaluates the Eskimo language work of forced me to compromise a freedom taken for granted on Aleksandr Semenovich Forshtein (1904-1968) must begin this side. with a painfully confl icted apology. In the early 1980’s I was invited by Isabelle Kreindler of Haifa University to contrib- Furthermore, I feel the need to warn the reader to bear ute a paper to a collection on Soviet linguists executed or with me that in the recent process of research for the present interned by Stalinist repression in the former USSR during paper, I was repeatedly faced with new discoveries and re- the years 1930-1953 (Kreindler 1985).