Handwritten dictionaries of Johann Eberhard Fischer as a source for studying the history of Tatar dialects

Handwritten dictionaries of Johann Eberhard Fischer as a source for studying the history of Tatar dialects

Nurieva F.Sh. (KFU, Kazan, Russia; ISP RAS, Moscow, Russia)
Galiullina G.R. (KFU, Kazan, Russia)
Yusupov A.F. (KFU, Kazan, Russia)

Abstract

This article examines the graphic and phonetic features of Johann Eberhard Fischer's vocabularies "Tatarica [ob urben Caʃan]" and "Tatarorum Kuznezensium [ad Tomum, Tschumysch]" using the digital tools of the LingvoDoc platform. The aim is to clarify the specific features of the 18th-century vocabulary. The material consists of 317 lexemes with J.E. Fischer's Russian translations, collected according to a unified scheme across various areas. Etymological verification and comparison with Old Turkic vocabulary were conducted using the Starling database, as well as modern dictionaries of the Tatar (TATZET) and Shor (Tadar tili) languages. A comparative analysis of J.E. Fischer's 18th-century data and modern languages led to the following conclusions: significant phonetic similarities were found in both 18th-century vocabularies. The difference is observed in the preservation of archaic vocalism in "Tatarorum Kuznezensium". In the dictionary "Tatarica [ob urben Caʃan]", Old Turkic [*o] and [*u] are preserved, while the archaic Old Turkic [*e] has shifted to the vowel [i]; as in modern Tatar, the Volga vowel break occurred. In terms of the initial consonant, both dictionary entries largely coincide. egarding the initial consonant, the two wordlists are largely in agreement. A divergence is observed in the Tatarorum Cazanensium [ab urben Caʃan] wordlist, which systematically preserves the anlaut ž-, whereas the Tatarorum Kuznezensium [ad Tomum, Tschumysch] wordlist preserves the j- – a feature characteristic of the Old Turkic language. The subsequent development of these dialects followed different paths. Despite some differences, the text of the dictionary "Tatarica [ob urben Caʃan]" is close to the modern Tatar language. Tatar developed its own innovations, already noted in Fischer's materials (the transition *j- > [ǰ], *е > [i]). The successor of "Tatarorum Kuznezensium" – the modern Shor language – underwent phonetic evolution after the 18th century, in particular changes in consonantism, such as devoicing (*j- > č-; changes in the initial consonant: *b- > m- > p-).

Keywords

linguistic platform; LingvoDoc; J.E. Fischer; phonetics; dictionary; dialect; Tatar language.

Edition

Proceedings of the Institute for System Programming, vol. 38, issue 2, 2026, pp. 241-254

ISSN 2220-6426 (Online), ISSN 2079-8156 (Print).

DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2026-38(2)-16

For citation

Nurieva F.Sh., Galiullina G.R., Yusupov A.F. Handwritten dictionaries of Johann Eberhard Fischer as a source for studying the history of Tatar dialects. Proceedings of the Institute for System Programming, vol. 38, issue 2, 2026, pp. 241-254 DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2026-38(2)-16.

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