Nikolay Feofanovich Yakovlev’s phonological theory and its reception in western linguistics

The article discusses the question of why the name of Nikolay Feofanovich Yakovlev (1892-1974) is almost never found in Western linguistic literature with respect to the history of phonological research. A number of factors seem to have led to this unfortunate circumstance, which will be briefly taken here in consideration. Along with the language barrier, special attention should be paid to the erratic and rather applied character of his theoretical reflections, which were primarily used to create alphabets for the unwritten languages (not only) of the Caucasus as part of the Soviet language policy, as well as his moderate interest in Marr’s theory. No less important is the fact that the positions of the Prague Linguistic Circle, as they are set out in Nikolay Sergeevich Trubetzkoy’s Fundamentals of Phonology (1939), somehow negatively affected the reception of Nikolay Yakovlev in the West.