How a single writer transformed an oral tradition into a modern literary language

Cultures · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Dmitrii Gulia spent his life documenting the folklore of his people, evolving Abkhaz from a purely spoken tongue into a written literary force. By creating a new script and founding the first newspaper, he preserved a vanishing culture against the pressures of political upheaval and foreign influence in the twentieth century.

The Abkhaz language, a Northwest Caucasian tongue closely related to Abaza, existed for centuries primarily as an oral tradition. While seventeenth-century traveler Evliya Çelebi recorded the earliest known written samples using Arabic script, Abkhaz only began its transition into a formal literary language around 1912. This shift was spearheaded by Dmitrii Gulia, a cultural pioneer who compiled local legends, proverbs, and riddles to establish a secular written foundation. In 1892, he collaborated with K.D. Machavariani to develop a revised script and primer, providing the necessary tools for the language to be documented systematically.

Gulia’s influence extended beyond literature into education and journalism. He edited Apsny, the first Abkhaz-language newspaper founded in 1919, and later taught the language at Tbilisi State University during the 1920s. His work was not merely academic; it was a form of cultural resistance. Throughout the 1940s, he vociferously protested policies that threatened the development of Abkhaz culture, embedding his defiance into his poetry and prose. His novel Kamachych, published in 1940, stands as a testament to this era of intellectual preservation.

Today, the status of Abkhaz remains complex, reflecting its history as a minority language scattered across a global diaspora. While it holds official status in Abkhazia, its usage varies significantly among the Abkhazian people living in Turkey, Russia, and beyond. Modern research into the language’s deeper roots—including controversial theories about ancient inscriptions on Greek pottery—continues to spark debate. Despite these challenges, the language persists, sustained by both the foundational work of early twentieth-century pioneers and contemporary efforts to keep the tongue alive in schools and communities worldwide.

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