History and Sociology of Bashkir: Archival Dialect Materials from Ufa Federal Research Centre of the RAS (Scientific Archive, Collections of Rare Books and Manuscripts)

. The article examines early-to-mid 20th century Bashkir dialect materials stored at archival collections of Ufa Federal Research Centre (RAS). Goals. The study aims at interpreting and identifying the dialect materials for available documents related to history and sociology of the Bashkir language. Materials and methods. The work analyzes reports and other documents of 1920s–1930s dialect and comprehensive research expeditions supervised by N. Dmitriev, as well as old printed books, dictionaries and other 18th–19th century materials from the Scientific Library and collections of rare books and manuscripts. The main research methods employed are descriptive, comparative, and diachronic ones. Results. The paper shows that participants of expeditions succeeded in collecting not only linguistic and folklore materials but also that dealing with sociology of Bashkir. Moreover, the former not only examined the language situation but also made their proposals on the language of instruction in the field, thus improving the literary language, compiling dictionaries and textbooks. Conclusions. The most valuable materials on history and sociology of the Bashkir language have been deposited in archives of Ufa Federal Research Centre (RAS). Those reflect 18th – 20th century linguistic peculiarities, specifics of language policy, state of the Bashkir language in crucial years of the 20th century