This article compares and analyses three versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Abkhaz language, spanning the years 1866 to 2015.
Key words: Abkhaz, Bible translation, Lord’s Prayer
Статья сравнивает и анализирует три версии перевода молит-вы «Отче наш» на абхазский язык, появившиеся в период с 1866 г. по 2015 г.
Ключевые слова: абхазский язык, перевод Библии, молитва «Отче наш»
Introduction
Abkhaz (and its divergent dialect Abaza) together with Circassian and the now extinct Ubykh form the small North West Caucasian language-family. It was only towards the close of tsarist Russia’s imperial drive south that the first serious attempts were made in the latter half of the 19th century to study and provide a writing system for Abkhaz. Following Russia’s final subjugation of the whole North Caucasus in 1864 and again after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878, most of the Abkhazians and Circassians plus all of the Ubykhs migrated to various parts of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining rump-population of Abkhazians were confessionally mixed Christian and Muslim, though it is fair to assume that those most strongly committed to Islam will have left the Caucasian homeland . This article compares and analyses three versions of the Lord’s Prayer spanning the years 1866 to 2015.
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