Topuria Varlam

Varlam Topuria (b. January 8, 1901, Ontopo, present-day Abasha Municipality – d. August 21, 1966, Tbilisi), linguist, researcher of Kartvelian and Ibero-Caucasian languages, full member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1944), Honored Scientist of Georgia (1946), Doctor of Philological Sciences (1935), professor (1935). He graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi State University (TSU) with a degree in linguistics (1922). He was engaged in scientific and pedagogical activities at TSU (1926–1966) and at the Institute of Linguistics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1936–1966). Initially, he was the head of the Department of Lexicology at the Institute of Language, History and Material Culture (1936–1941), then the head of the Department of Kartvelian Languages ​​at the Institute of Linguistics (1941–1960); deputy director (1941–1943) and director (1943–1949) of the Institute of Linguistics. From 1945 until his death, he was the head of the Department of the New Georgian Language at TSU, founded on his own initiative.

Topuria headed the Scientific Board for Coordination of Problems of the Georgian Language, participated in the work of the Republican Commission for Establishing the Norms of the Georgian Literary Language (for a time he was the secretary of the commission) and in the creation and introduction of scientific terminology.

Topuria studied the structure and history of the Kartvelian and Ibero-Caucasian languages, dialectology and lexicology, epigraphy, and topical issues of Georgian language teaching. His first scientific work was One Case of Syntactic Analogy in Georgian in Accordance with Dialects (1923); he is the author of about 250 works, and about 70 books have been published under his editorship.

Topuria was one of the first in Georgia to study the Ibero-Caucasian languages ​​on the spot, in field conditions. This is how Topuria's first-class works on the phonetics-morphology and syntax of the Lak language were created. His role in the scientific study of the Svan language is noteworthy (Svan Language, 1. Verb, 1930). Together with A. Shanidze, he founded a series of publications of Svan texts. Svan Poetry, ​​1 (1939) was published; Svan Prosaic Texts: 1. Balszemouri Dialect(1939); 2. Balskvemouri Dialect (1957); 3. Lentekhuri Dialect (1967); 4. Lashkhuri Dialect (1979). A significant part of the texts published in this series were recorded by Topuria and represent documentation of the Svan language.

Key issues of the phonetics of the Georgian and Kartvelian languages ​​are discussed in Topuria's cycle of works Phonetic Observations in the Kartvelian Languages (in 5 parts, 1926–1941). He dedicated a special series of works to the word formation of the Kartvelian languages ​​(6 works, 1938–1959); issues of the historical-comparative study of the Kartvelian languages: On the Genesis of Some Grammatical Cases in Megrelian (1937), On Reduction in the Kartvelian Languages (1946), The Uniform Process of Grammatical Events in the Kartvelian Languages (1954), Some Issues of Comparative Phonetics of the Kartvelian Languages (1961), etc.

Topuria studied Georgian dialects from 1922; he published a study The State and Objectives of the Study of Dialects of the Georgian Language (1963). Under his leadership and co-authorship, Georgian Dialectology, I (1961), was published, in which the majority of the reviews of dialects belong to Topuria.

Topuria's following works are dedicated to Georgian epigraphy: Inscriptions on Some Ancient Items Preserved in Shida Kartli (1924), Kvajvarani in Georgia (Stone Crosses) (1942). The following studies concern key issues of Old Georgian: On the Ancient Suffixation of the Verb in Georgian (1942), Verbs with D-Prefix in Georgian (1942), and etc. Declension and functions of nouns are studied in the works: Vocative Case (1953), On the Endings of Adverbial Case in Georgian (1942), Absolute Case in Old Georgian (1965), and others. Topuria's Modern Georgian Language in 5 sections (1932–1933), Controversial Issues of the Grammar of the Georgian Language (1967), and others were published.

Topuria laid the foundation for the scientific methodology of teaching the Georgian language: The Original of Georgian Writing — for primary school students (1^st edition in 1933); a series of letters Issues of Teaching the Native Language in Secondary School (1953–1960); a separate book — The Georgian Language and Some Issues of Spelling (1965, 1988, 2005).

Topuria was a member of the main editorial board of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Georgian Language and the editor of the third volume, for which he was awarded the State Prize of Georgia in 1971; he was also the co-author of the Orthographic Dictionary of the Georgian Language, Russian-Georgian Dictionary and Georgian-Russian Dictionary.

Literary works: შრომები, ტ. 1, თბ., 1967; ტ. 3, თბ., 1979; ტ. 2, თბ., 2002; Сванский язык. – «იკე», XII, თბ., 1985.

Literature: თალაკვაძე  მ., ვარლამ თოფურია, თბ., 1968; კიზირია  ა., ქალდანი  მ., ვარლამ თოფურია (ცხოვრება და სამეცნიერო-პედაგოგიური მოღვაწეობა), თბ., 1968; ვარლამ თოფურია. ბიობიბლიოგრაფია, შემდგ. მ. პატარაია, ვ. გოგილაშვილი, თბ., 1984.

 

G. Burchuladze