Mirgu Thoskistorje
A History of Thosk

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Early in the first decade of the 20th century, Matei Fergunin, the son of a Thosk-speaking immigrant family, recorded all he could remember of what had been for him a childhood language in a manuscript he entitled Banhuzd, somewhat inaccurately translated as the "Treasury of Words." His principal motivation seems to have been an increasing dismay at the likely disappearance of Thosk, and a consequent desire that at least the outlines of its grammar and a fairly substantial word-list be preserved for his children. There is some debate about whether he was in fact fluent. Supporters of the Thosk revival, the Thoskkivakende, naturally point to the evidence of his Thosk diaries and other private writings to confirm that he was competent in the language. In any case, Fergunin apparently had no one with whom he could speak regularly, having married an American woman and moved away from Boston where his parents had settled.

4. Scripts and Utvristi

Until that time, Thosk had been written only sporadically, and in a number of different scripts. Fergunin recalled seeing what he identified as "Cyrillic letters" among his father's papers, but such tantalizing clues to the possible original home of Thosk are few and uncertain. The upcoming publication in both English and Thosk of Fergunin's biography, Utvristi, which is based heavily on his Thosk diaries and other personal papers only recently made available to scholars, may shed further light on these matters.

5. Orthography and Thosk Publishing

The orthography Fergunin used to record Thosk was partly his own invention, but also partly an adaptation from memory of the script his father used and had apparently devised for his private journal. Fergunin also reported that his father briefly published a newspaper, Hur Steren, "North Star," in this script, in an effort to sustain the language, and unite its speakers, but that it did not last beyond three or four issues. No copies are known to remain, but there are scattered references to the publication in the personal letters of other Thosk speakers of that period. Banhuzd was published privately in 1924 in a limited edition of 500, and an occasional copy may still be found in antiquarian book stores. Fergunin also began a supplement, Firhte i Bekude, "Questions and Answers," which exists in manuscript but was never published. In this second work he employs a more practical orthography, this time in Roman script with which he was better acquainted, and which with some minor normalizations is used in these materials.

6. Evthird and the Revival

Thosk literary output, until recently, was almost wholly confined to irregularly published periodicals and chapbooks of limited circulation. With the publication of Lubun Evthird’s Handiskude, however, Thosk now boasts a poet of international stature. The example of Evthird’s poem sequence “Invocations,” also the title of his collection, has stimulated Thosk poetry in what some speakers are calling Ankind – a rebirth or renaissance of Thosk letters.

7. Jedelbir and Tinguvist

It is wholly appropriate to end this short introduction with a special acknowledgment to Surtan Jedelbir, director of Tinguvist, the official quarterly publication of the scholarly arm of the Revival, for his generous and extensive contributions to the Thosk language, for the founding of Gimboli Press (a Thosk imprint, recently relocated to Boston), and for his efforts through four decades of experience in studying and teaching Thosk.

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