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Tenevil (Russian:Теневиль) (c. 1890–1943?) was aChukchi farmer andorthographic pioneer. He is best known for creating the Tenevil Script, an independently formulated original script for theChukchi language.
Tenevil was born near the settlement ofUst-Belaya in the Russian province ofChukotka. He later worked as an independentreindeer herder before joining theSoviet government and transitioning into agricultural work as a senior supervisor at theUst'-Belaya Collectivized Farm.[1] He died sometime in the early 1940s.
Around 1927 or 1928, Tenevil independently invented a writing system for theChukchi language. The nature of this script remains a topic of debate among scholars. It remains uncertain whether the symbols in this writing system wereideograms/pictograms or whether the system is fundamentallylogogramic. Researchers have noted the abstract character of the symbols, which may be indirect evidence that this writing system was entirely Tenevil's invention.
Tenevil also developed symbols for numerals, using the base 20 counting system of the Chukchi language. To date, approximately 1,000 basic elements of the Tenevil writing system have been identified.
The writing system was used entirely within Tenevil's family, and known only to his colleagues at Ust'-Belaya and his extended family. Apart from Tenevil himself, the writing system was used by his sons, with whom he exchanged messages during shifts away at the reindeer pastures. Tenevil developed his script extensively, writing his symbols on boards, bones, walrus tusks, and candy wrappers.
The sources and prototype of the Tenevil writing system are unknown. Taking into consideration the isolation of Chukotka from the regional centres of civilization, it could be considered a localized creative initiative of a lone person. It is possible the writing system is influenced by the decorations onshamans' drums. The wordwriting (kelikel) in theChukchi language hasTungusic parallels.[1]
Tenevil's writing system was first described by the Russian ethnographer and writerWaldemar Bogoras in 1930. In 1945, one or two years after Tenevil's death, the artist and art historian I. Lavrov visited the upper reaches of theAnadyr River where Tenevil had lived.[2] There he tracked down Tenevil's wife Raulina, who had preserved a large archive of his work in the form of a box containing thousands of relics of Tenevil's writing. Lavrov is commonly credited with bringing Tenevil's work to the attention of the wider Linguistic community.
Tenevil's proposed writing system, while innovative, did not gain widespread acceptance.[3] The lack of adoption can be attributed to local Chukchi efforts to resistRussification, which encompassed both cultural and linguistic aspects. Consequently, those among the Chukchi community who were inclined towards adopting a writing system predominantly chose the Cyrillic script over Tenevil's system.
The emergence of the Tenevil Script is particularly remarkable given the rarity of isolate scripts. Tenevil's accomplishments provided invaluable insights to the field oflinguistics, shedding light on the potential origins and evolutionary paths of written languages. Moreover, his script stands as the northernmost instance of a language crafting its own orthography, making it a significant point of interest in linguistic studies.
The Chukchi writerYuri Rytkheu dedicated his 1969 novelA Dream in Polar Fog to Tenevil.[1]