On 14 March three North Caucasus republics are celebrating the Day of Adygean literature
KABARDINO-BALKARIA, 14 March, Caucasus Times. Celebrating a Day of Adygean literature is relatively young tradition based on the idea of a cultural and linguistic unity and friendship of peoples speaking Adygean languages. Linguists of the Republic of Adygea were the founders of the Day of Adygean literature. Although this holiday is not official, starting from 2000 it is celebrated not only in Adygea, but also in Karachaevo-Cherkessia and in Kabardino-Balkaria.
At present only academics and linguists know about this holiday in Kabardino-Balkaria. In the words of Barasbi Bgazhnokov, academic-linguist, research fellow of Kabardino-Balkarian Humanitarian Research Institute, “tradition of this linguistic and literature holiday should be not only supported, but also further developed since time and space exist in human being’s consciousness only due to the language”.
Originals of the first Circassian ABC-books are stored in the Kabardino-Balkarian Humanitarian Research Institute. Adygean educator Sh. Nogmov is considered to be the first founder of the alphabet of Circassian language.
Another famous Circassian educator of XIX century was Umar Bersei. His text book of Circassian language was written in Cyrillic alphabet, which was later replaced by Arabic script. In 1920 Arabic script was replaced by Latin alphabet, which remained in use until 1936. The last and the most successful was present version of Cyrillic alphabet, which is still used by contemporary Adygeans.