Besermyan (бесерман көл)

Besermyan is variety of Udmurt, a member of the Permic branch of the Uralic language family. It is spoken by about 2,000 people mainly in the districts of Yukamenskoye, Balezino and Yar in the northwest of Udmurtia, part of the Volga Federal district in western Russia.

Besermyan was first documented as a distinct variety of Udmurt in 1892 by J Vikhman. The Besermyane consider themselves a distinct people from other Udmurts, and are thought to descend from a group of Tatars who migrated to the Udmurtia region in the late 14th century from the Kazan region. Besermyan has much in common with northern dialects of Udmurt, however it has influences from Tatar.

In the early 21st century, Besermyan emerged as a literary language distinct from Udmurt. The first book in Besermyan, a collection of short stories, was published in 2021. Various ways to write Besermyan with the Cyrillic alphabet have been developed. They are based on the Udmurt alphabet, with a few extra letters.

Besermyan alphabet and pronunciation

Download an alphabet chart for Besermyan (Excel)

Notes

е is pronounced [ʲe] after д, т, з, с, л and н, and [je] elsewhere.
ё is pronounced [ʲo] after д, т, з, с, л and н, and [jo] elsewhere.
и is pronounced [ʲi] after д, т, з, с, л and н, and [i] elsewhere.
ю is pronounced [ʲu] after д, т, з, с, л and н, and [ju] elsewhere.
я is pronounced [ʲa] after д, т, з, с, л and н, and [ja] elsewhere.
The letters ф, х, ц and щ are only used in Russian names and loanwords.

Sample text

Ку вал мөлөм куать арес, киям шедиз «Шонер учөрьёс», көтөн гожьямөн вал адями ки етөлөмтэ тяшшаос щарөщ. Отөщ мон аӟӟи абдрамон картинка. Картинка вөлөн оломар бөчча змея-удав ньөлэ сӥль щийөщ жиёнзэ. Тӥнь оҙ со рисоватьтэмөн вал.

Sample text provided by Wolfgang Kuhl

Translation

When I was six years old, I once saw a magnificent picture in a book on the virgin forest called Stories of Life. It was a boa constrictor that had swallowed a wild beast. Here is a copy of the drawing. It was written in the book, Boa constrictors swallow their whole prey without chewing.

Source: The Little Prince, By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Videos in and about Besermyan

Information about Besermyan | Numbers

Links

Information about Besermyan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besermyan
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бесермянское_наречие
http://beserman.ru/
https://www.languagelist.ru/publications/RuXPm/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356397728 The Language of the Besermians in the Light of the Historical Communication Processes of the Peoples of the Volga-Urals Region
https://beserman.web-corpora.net/index_en.html
http://beserman.ru/corpus/search/?interface_language=en

Permic languages

Besermyan, Komi, Komi-Permyak, Komi-Yazva, Komi-Zyrian, Udmurt

Languages written with the Cyrillic alphabet

Page created: 24.03.26. Last modified: 24.03.26

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