History in Transcription and Transcription as History: Charles Bally in Soviet Linguistics

Abstract

This article describes the results of a systemic study into the history of conveying the name of the Swiss linguist Charles Bally by the means of Russian transcription, in the 20th-century linguistic discussions. The author reconstructs the history of introducing Charles Bally’s works into Russian and Soviet linguistics, particularly, in the context of the publication of Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course of General Linguistics. The article analyses the variants of transcribing the name Bally in the works of G. O. Vinokur, M. N. Peterson, V. N. Voloshinov, G. K. Danilov, B. A. Larin, L. P. Yakubinsky, V. V. Vinogradov, and others. The author argues that the gradual codification of the Балли variant was a result of ideological discussions in Soviet linguistics held in the 1920—1950s.

Keywords

• charlebally
• transcription reception
• diachronic orthography
• structura-lism
• geneva school of linguistics