Tevfik Esenç (1904 – 7 October 1992) was a Turkish citizen of Circassian origin, known for being the last speaker of the

Ubykh language Ubykh or Päkhy was a Northwest Caucasian language once spoken by the Ubykh tribe of Circassians who originally lived along the eastern coast of the Black Sea before being deported ''en masse'' to Turkey in the Circassian genocide. The Ubykh l ...

. He was fluent in Ubykh, Adyghe and

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. After his death in 1992, the Ubykh language went extinct despite the efforts and work of numerous linguists to revive it. Nevertheless, Esenç is single-handedly responsible for the world's current knowledge of Ubykh language and culture being as extensive and detailed as it is.

Biography

Esenç was raised by his Ubykh-speaking grandparents for a time in the village of Hacıosman ( Ubykh: ''Lak°'ạ́ṡ°a''; Adyghe: ''Hundjahabl'') in Turkey, and he served a term as the ''muhtar'' (mayor) of that village, before receiving a post in the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

of Istanbul. There, he was able to do a great deal of work with the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

linguist

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique d ...

and his associate Georges Charachidzé to help record his language, although not all the writings of Charachidzé (1930-2010) have been published. Others who met Esenç and produced work on Ubykh are: the Norwegian Hans Vogt (1911–92); the Britis
George Hewitt
who in made recordings with Esenç in Istanbul;the recordings are available
on the Net; his account of his meetings in 1974 has been published — 'Encountering Ubykh(s)’, in ''Arxeologija i ètnografija pontijsko-kavkazskogo regiona 5'', 195-204, 2016: Krasnodar; see also his 'The labialised sibilants of Ubykh (North West Caucasian)’, in ''Revue des Etudes Géorgiennes et Caucasiennes, 2'', 1986, 21-30) the Abkhazian

Viacheslav Chirikba Viacheslav Chirikba is a linguist and politician from Abkhazia. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia between 2011 and 2016. Personal life Chirikba was born on 17 March 1959 in Gagra. From 1966 until 1976, he attended School No.5 in ...

, who has written on Ubykh settlements an
Ubykh surnames
and the Turkish linguist A. Sumru Özsoy. Having an excellent memory and understanding quickly the goals of Dumézil and the other linguists who came to visit him, he was a primary source of not only the Ubykh language, but also of the mythology, culture history, and customs of the Ubykh people. He spoke Turkish and Ubykh, and also a dialect of Adyghe (West Circassian), allowing some comparative work to be done between these two members of the

Northwest Caucasian The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called West Caucasian, Abkhazo-Adyghean, Abkhazo-Circassian, Circassic, or sometimes ''Pontic languages'' (from the historical region of Pontus, in contrast to ''Caspian languages'' for the Northeast Cauc ...

family. A purist, his idiolect of Ubykh was considered by Dumézil as the closest thing to a standard "literary" Ubykh language that existed. He finished his work for Ubykh with the following speech to his long-time collaborator Georges Charachidzé: Esenç died in the night of 7 October 1992, at the age of 88; he was buried in the village cemetery of Hacıosman, his birthplace, alongside his wife Emine. He was survived by three sons and two daughters. In 1994, A. Sumru Özsoy organized an international conference, namely Conference on Northwest Caucasian Linguistics, at Boğaziçi University in memory of Dumézil and Esenç.

References

External links

55 audio recordings
of Tevfik Esenç speaking Ubykh, with transcriptions ( Pangloss collection,

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, Paris) *
Account of the burial of the last speaker of Ubykh, Tevfik Esenç
from Lingoblog.dk
Trailer of “I had a dream — In the footsteps of the Last Ubykh”
– a 66' documentary (2019) on the life of Tevfik Esenç, produced by his granddaughter Burcu Esenç. {{DEFAULTSORT:Esenc, Tevfik 1904 births 1992 deaths People from Manyas Turkish people of Ubykh descent Last known speakers of a language Ubykh language Mayors of places in Turkey