The National library presents a large book exposition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the new Chuvash writing system. It was opened on the eve of the day of the Chuvash language, on April 23.
The new Chuvash writing system is associated with the name of the great educator Ivan Yakovlev. He and his associates in 1871 created an alphabet that took into account the phonetic features of the Chuvash speech, which caused the development of the Chuvash literary language. The visitors to the exhibition will be able to follow all the transformations of the alphabet and the Chuvash ABC-book, learn about the people who stood at the origins of their creation.
In the first half of the 20th century the Chuvash alphabet changed significantly, caused by the general orientation of the national policy of the Soviet Union and aimed at bringing the Chuvash spelling closer to the Russian one. We will show documents that tell how the Chuvash language changed, how it was filled with Russian and international borrowings.
The Chuvash language is actively developing – it is being introduced into the sphere of computer information systems, into the electronic space, which allows exchanging data, communicating by e-mail and instant messengers in the native language. Documents and publications will present the modern development of the Chuvash language.
The development and creation of new fonts is a special kind of art of handmade graphics. The exhibition will feature unique Chuvash fonts by E. M. Yuryev, who has been working on their development since the late 1960s.
The book exposition, created by the creative tandem of the library specialists and the artist Oleg Ulangin, will expand the usual understanding of the library exhibition. Each section is a separate page of the amazing history of Chuvash writing system, which intertwines the events, names and destinies of people who played a key role in the development of Chuvash linguistics. Flipping through these pages, the reader will pass a rich path from the very origins of the Chuvash writing system to the modern stage of digitalization and the introduction of the Chuvash language into the electronic space.
The exposition will impress with its professional artistic design and attract with a recreated sample of writing from different epochs, book rarities, unique archival documents.
We hope that the combination of traditional and electronic exhibits will keep the attention of the visitor from the beginning to the end of the exhibition.