The purpose of this study is to determine the destination and typological features of “Remarques sur la langue russienne et sur son alphabet” (Notes on the Russian language and its alphabet) by Fyodor Karzhavin (1791) which is one of the most uncommon linguistic works of the 18th century.
Research methods are the following: linguistic analysis of this work, its comparison with linguistic works published in Russia in the 18th century, consideration of the author’s biography helping understand the features of the work, consideration of this work in the context of Catherine II's philological interests.
The results of the study are the following: 1. The work by Fyodor Karzhavin is a reference tool applied to transliterate Russian names in Latin letters in different European languages. However, it could also be used as a self-study book of Russian letters and sounds for European scientists. 2. The originality of this work consists in the modernization of the Russian civil alphabet for transliteration of Russian words by Latin letters. The second feature is the introduction of new names for Russian letters. The third one is the comparative approach to describing their pronunciation. 3. The work by Fyodor Karzhavin could have been addressed not only to French geographers and historians who needed the transliteration of Russian proper names, but also to European scientists who had to use “Comparative Dictionaries of all languages and dialects”.
The study shows how the practice of Russian words transliteration by Latin letters in the 18th century was developed. Also, it shows that the Karzhavin’s work is culturally and historically associated with the grandiose linguistic project of Catherine II “Comparative Dictionaries of all languages and dialects”. This association has never been noticed by previous researchers of this work.