Semyon Novgorodov

Semyon Andreyevich Novgorodov (Yakut: Семен Андреевич Новгородов, Semen Andreyevich Novgorodov, the older orphography Yakut: Сэмэн Ноҕоруодап, Semen Noğoruodap, Russian: Семён Андреевич Новгородов Semjon Andrejevič Novgorodov; February 13, 1892 – 28 February 1924) was a Yakut politician and linguist, the creator of a Yakut written language.

Semyon Andreyevich Novgorodov was born in the 2nd Khatlinsky nasleg of Boturus Ulus (now Boltoginsky nasleg of Churapchinsky Ulus of Sakha). His father was poor, but later acquired some wealth. He taught his son to read Old Church Slavonic. Later, Novgorodov studied under sexton Andrey Vinokurov, who taught him Russian and arithmetic. Then he visited the private school of exiled I. T. Tsypenko in Churapcha. As Semyon was a brilliant pupil, in 1905 he entered Yakutsk Realschule (Реальное училище). During his time at the college, Novgorodov read widely. Novgorodov started to collect Yakut folklore, his works were published in the first Yakut literature magazine Saqa sanata, which was published in 1912–1913.

As the earliest Yakut writing was invented by Russians, it didn't reflect some features of the Yakut language well. Novgorodov's first writings used a mixture of the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. After Novgorodov graduated from Realschule, he taught in Yelovsky elementary school and Vilyuy municipal school. In 1913 he came to Saint-Petersburg and entered the Arab-Persian-Turkish class of the Oriental department of St.Petersburg University. In December 1913 Novgorodov participated in the All-Russian Congress of Popular Teachers, where he presented a paper about teaching in the national languages of indigenous peoples and the necessity of schoolbooks in the Yakut language.

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