Tatar language 1

Tatar language

Tatar татарча / Tatarça / تاتارچا

Spoken in Russia, other former Soviet Union

Ethnicity Tatars

Native speakers 6,496,600[1]

Language family Turkic• Kipchak

• Kipchak–Bolgar• Tatar

Writing system Cyrillic alphabet, Latin alphabet and Arabic alphabet

Official status

Official language in  Tatarstan (Russia)

Regulated by Institute of Language, Literature and Arts of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan [2]

Language codes

ISO 639-1 tt

ISO 639-2 tat

ISO 639-3 tat

The Tatar language (Tatar tele, Tatarça, Татар теле, Татарча), or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkiclanguage spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria.

Tatar language 2

Geographic distributionTatar is spoken in Russia (about 5.3 million people), Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey.Tatar is also native for some thousands of Maris. Mordva's Qaratay group also speak Tatar. 94% of ethnic Tatarclaimed knowledge of Tatar language during the 2002 census.[3]

Official status

Bilingual guide in Kazan Metro.

Tatar, along with Russian, is the official language of the Republicof Tatarstan. The official script of Tatar language is based on theCyrillic alphabet with some additional letters. Sometimes otherscripts are used, mostly Latin and Arabic. All official sources inTatarstan use Cyrillic at their web-sites and publishing. In othercases, where Tatar has no official status, the use of a specificalphabet depends on the preference of the author. Guides inTatarstan are published in two alphabets.

The Tatar language was made a de facto official language inRussia in 1917, but only in the Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic.Tatar is also considered the official language in short-livedIdel-Ural State, briefly formed during the Russian Civil War. Oneshould note, however, that Bolshevist Russia did not recognizeofficial languages as such; however, there were a number oflanguages that could be used in trial in some republics. In theSoviet era, Tatar was such a language in Bashkortostan, Mari Eland other regions of the Russian SFSR.

The usage of Tatar declined from the 1930s onwards. In the 1980sit was not studied in city schools, not even by Tatar pupils. Although the language was used in rural schools,Tatar-speaking pupils had little chance to enter a university, because all higher education was in Russian.Tatar is no longer classified as an endangered language,[4] although it is still a low prestige language. Highereducation in Tatar can only be found in Tatarstan, and is restricted to the humanities. In other regions Tatar isprimarily a spoken language and the number of speakers as well as their proficiency tends to decrease. Tatar ispopular as a written language only in Tatar-speaking areas where schools with Tatar language lessons are situated.On the other hand, Tatar is the only language in use in rural districts of Tatarstan.

Dialects of TatarThere are 3 main dialects of Tatar: Western (Mişär or Mishar), Middle (Kazan), and Eastern (Siberian). All of thesedialects also have subdivisions.

Mişär

In the Western (Mişär) dialect Ç is pronounced [tʃ] (southern or lambir mishars) and as [ts] (northern mishars ornizhgars). C is pronounced [dʒ]. There are no differences between v and w, q and k, g and ğ in the Mişär dialect.(The Cyrillic alphabet doesn't have special letters for q, ğ and w, so Mişär speakers have no difficulty reading Tatarwritten in Cyrillic.)This is the dialect spoken by the Tatar minority of Finland.

Tatar language 3

Middle

MinzäläIn the Minzälä subdialect of the Middle Dialect z is pronounced [ð], as opposed to other dialects where it is silent.SlangIn bilingual cities people often pronounce h as [x], q as [k], ğ as [ɡ], w as [v]. This could be due to Russian influence.Another possibility is that these cities were places where both the western and middle dialects were used.The influence of Russian is significant. Russian words and phrases are used with Tatar grammar or Russian grammarin Tatar texts. Some Russian verbs are taken entirely, un-nativized, and followed with itärgä. Some English wordsand phrases are also used.There was a distinct cryptolect, the Gäp, spoken predominantly in Kazan, but now it is extinct or near extinction.

Siberian Tatar

Siberian Tatars pronounce ç as [ts], c as [j] and sometimes b as [p], d as [t], f as p, y and j as ch, t as d, z as s and h ask. There are also grammatical differences within the dialect, scattered across Siberia.[5]

Many linguists claim the origins of Siberian Tatar dialects are actually independent of Volga–Ural Tatar; thesedialects are quite remote both from Standard Tatar and from each other, often preventing mutual comprehension.The claim that this language is part of the modern Tatar language is typically supported by linguists in Kazan anddenounced by Siberian Tatars.Over time, some of these dialects were given distinct names and recognized as separate languages (e.g. the Chulymlanguage) after detailed linguistic study. A brief linguistic analysis shows that many of these dialects exhibit featureswhich are quite different from the Volga–Ural Tatar varieties, and should be classified as Turkic varieties belongingto several sub-groups of the Turkic languages, distinct from Kipchak languages to which Volga–Ural Tatar belongs.

Phonology

VowelsPhonemically, Tatar may be argued to have two vowel heights, high and low. The low vowels are two, front andback, whereas the high vowels are eight: front and back, round and unround, long and short. However, phonetically,the short high vowels are reduced: they are mid-centralized. They are therefore generally transcribed with mid vowelletters such as e and o: high front i ü, high back ï u, reduced (mid) front e ö, reduced (mid) back ë o, and low ä, a.The high back unrounded vowel ï is only found in Russian loans, though the native diphthong ëy, which only occursword-finally, has been argued to be phonemically ï..[6]

Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately high [i] [ʉ] [u], reduced [ɘ̆] [ɵ̆] [ɤ̆~ʌ̆] [ŏ] (ë may be mid-low), andlow [a~æ] [ɑ]. In polysyllabic words, the front-back distinction is lost in reduced vowels: all become mid-central.[6]

Reduced vowels in unstressed position are frequently elided. Low back /ɑ/ is rounded [ɒ] word-initially and after[ɒ], as in bala 'child'. In Russian loans there are also [ɨ], [ɛ], and [ɔ][7]

Historically, the Turkic high vowels have become the Tatar reduced series, whereas the Turkic mid vowels havereplaced them. Thus Kazakh til 'language' and kün 'day' correspond to Tatar tel and kön, while Kazakh men 'I', qol'hand', and kök 'sky' are in Tatar min, qul, kük.

Old:Tatar has 16 vowel symbols representing a variable number of sounds. Tatar exhibits vowel harmony, with some ofthe vowels considered front and others back.Front vowels: ä [æ~ə], â [æ], e [e], é [ɛ], i [i], ó [ø], ö [œ], ü [y]Back vowels: a [ɑ~ʌ], á [ɑ], í [ɯɪ], ı [ɯ~ɨː], o [o~oː], u–ú [u]

Tatar language 4

The usage of í, â, á, ó, ú, é is not universal, and sometimes ıy, a, ya, yo, yu and e are used instead.Some of them are found only in Slavic loanwords, such as é, ó, long o, long ı. Acute in á, ó, ú denotes palatalisation,but sometimes a palatalised consonant is marked by following y before the vowel. This is only a problem for Russianloanwords.The commonly pronounced 10 vowels are native Tatar vowels: a–ä, u–ü, í–i, o–ö, ı–e. The last two pairs areconsidered to be short vowels. They also could mean long vowels, but only in loanwords. [ə] and [ʌ] are notconsidered to be independent vowels. Loaned vowels are considered to be back vowels.

Consonants

The consonants of Tatar

Labial Labio-velar

Alveolar Post-alveolar

Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal

Nasals m /m/ n /n/ ñ /ŋ/ ñ [ɴ]

Plosives Voiceless p /p/ t /t/ k /k/ q [q] ' /ʔ/

Voiced b /b/ d /d/ g /ɡ/

Fricatives Voiceless f /f/ s /s/ ş /ʃ/ ç /tɕ~ɕ/ x /χ/ h /h/

Voiced v /v/ z /z/ j /ʒ/ c /dʑ~ʑ/ ğ [ʁ~ɢ]

Trill r /r/

Approximants w /w/ l /l/ y /j/ ([j~ɪ])

Uvular consonants are allophones of velars before back vowels.Most of these phonemes are common to or have equivalents in all Turkic languages, but the phonemes /v/, /ts/, /h/and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords in Literary Tatar. /f/ is also of foreign origin, but is also found in native words,e.g. yafraq "leaf".[8]

Pronunciation of loanwordsWhile the consonants [ʒ], [f] and [v] are not native to Tatar, they are well established. However, Tatars usuallysubstitute fricatives for affricates, for example [ɕ] for [tʃ], [ʒ] or [ʑ] for [dʒ], and [s] for [ts]. Nevertheless, literarytraditions recommend the pronunciation of affricates in loanwords.[ʔ] (hamza) is a sound found in Arabic loanwords and Islamic prayers. It is usually pronounced [e] in loanwords.

PalatalisationPalatalisation is not common in Tatar. As a result, speakers have no problem using the Arabic and Jaŋalif scripts,neither of which has an accepted method for indicating palatalisation.In general, Russian words with palatalisation have entered into the speech of bilingual Tatars since the 1930s. Whenwriting in the Cyrillic alphabet, Russian words are spelled as they are in Russian. In today's Latin orthography,palatalisation is sometimes represented by an acute diacritic under the vowel.Some Tatars speak Russian without palatalisation, which is known as a Tatar accent.

Tatar language 5

Syllable types• V (ı-lıs, u-ra, ö-rä)• VC (at-law, el-geç, ir-kä)• CV (qa-la, ki-ä, su-la)• CVC (bar-sa, sız-law, köç-le, qoş-çıq)• VCC (ant-lar, äyt-te, ilt-kän)• CVCC (tört-te, qart-lar, 'qayt-qan)Stress is on the final syllable.

Phonetic replacement

A subway sign in Tatar (top) and Russian

Tatar phonotactics dictate manypronunciation changes.

Unrounded vowels may be pronounced asrounded after o or ö:qorı /qoro/borın /boron/közge /közgö/sorı /soro/)

Nasals are assimilated to following stops:unber /umber/mengeç /meñgeç/

Voicing may also undergo assimilation:küzsez /küssez/Unstressed vowels may be syncopated orreduced:

urını /urnı/kilene /kilne/bezne /bĕzne/kerdem /kĕrdem/qırğıç /qĭrğıç/Vowels may also be elided:qara urman /qar'urman/kilä ide /kilä'yde/turı uram /tur'uram/bula almím /bul'almím/In consonant clusters longer than two phones, ı or e (whichever is dictated by vowel harmony) is inserted into speechas an epenthetic vowel.tekst → /tekest/bank → /banık/ (not /bañk/)Final devoicing is also frequent:tabíb (doctor) → [tabíp]

Tatar language 6

GrammarLike other Turkic languages, Tatar is an agglutinative language.

Plural• After vowels, consonants, hard: -lar (bala-lar, abí-lar, kitap-lar, qaz-lar, malay-lar, qar-lar, ağaç-lar)• After vowels, consonants, soft: -lär (äni-lär, sölge-lär, däftär-lär, kibet-lär, süz-lär, bäbkä-lär, mäktäp-lär,

xäref-lär)• After nasals, hard: -nar (uram-nar, urman-nar, tolım-nar, moñ-nar, tañ-nar, şalqan-nar)• After nasals, soft: -när (ülän-när, keläm-när, çräm-när, iñ-när, ciñ-när, isem-när)

Declension of Pronouns [9]

Personal Pronouns

Case Singular Plural

Nominative мин син ул без сез алар

Genitive минем синең аның безнең сезнең аларның

Dative миңа сиңа аңа безгә сезгә аларга

Accusative мине сине аны безне сезне аларны

Locative миндә синдә анда бездә сездә аларда

Ablative миннән синнән аннан бездән сездән алардан

Demonstrative Pronouns

Case Singular Plural

Case "This" "That" "These" "Those"

Nominative бу шул булар шуллар

Genitive моның шуның буларның шулларның

Dative моңа шуңа буларга шулларга

Accusative моны шуны буларны шулларны

Locative монда шунда буларда шулларда

Ablative моннан шуннан булардан шуллардан

Interrogative Pronouns

Case Who? What?

Nominative кем нәрсә

Genitive кемнең нәрсәнең

Dative кемгә нәрсәгә

Accusative кемне нәрсәне

Locative кемдә нәрсәдә

Ablative кемнән нәрсәдән

Tatar language 7

Writing system

Some guides in Kazan are in Latin script, especially infashion boutiques

Tatar has been written in a number of different alphabets.Writing was adopted from the Bolgar language, which used theOrkhon script, before the 920s. Later, the Arabic alphabet was alsoused, as well as the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.

Before 1928 Tatar was written with a variant of the Arabicalphabet (Iske imla to 1920; Yanga imla 1920–1928).

In the Soviet Union after 1928, Tatar was written with a Latinorthography called Jaŋalif.

In Tatarstan (a republic of Russia where Tatar is most commonlyused) and all other parts of Russia a Cyrillic alphabet wasdeveloped and is still used to write Tatar. It is also used inKazakhstan.

A Latin-based system has been used mostly in Tatarstan since2000 and generally on the Internet, although this has been lesscommon more recently due to the Russian law that all officiallanguages of Russia must be written in Cyrillic.[10]

In China, Tatars still use the Arabic alphabet variant.

History

Tatar's ancestors are the extinct Bolgar and Kipchak languages. Crimean Tatar is not closely related, being more akinto standard Turkish.

The literary Tatar language is based on Tatar's Middle dialect and the Old Tatar language (İske Tatar Tele). Both aremembers of the Kipchak group of Turkic languages, although they are also partly derived from the ancient VolgaBolgar language.The Tatar language has been strongly influenced by most of the Uralic languages in the Volga River area,[11] as wellas Arabic, Persian and Russian languages.[12]

Examples• äye – yes• yuq – no• isänme(sez)/sawmı(sız) – hello• sälâm – hi• sau bul(ığız)/xuş(ığız) – bye bye• zínhar öçen – please• räxmät – thank you• ğafu it(egez) – excuse me• min – I• sin – you (sg.)• ul – he / she / it• bez – we• sez – you (pl.)• alar – they

Tatar language 8

• millät – nation• İngliz(çä) – English

Further reading• Bukharaev, R., & Matthews, D. J. (2000). Historical anthology of Kazan Tatar verse: voices of eternity.

Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 0700710779• PEN (Organization). (1998). Tatar literature today. Kazan: Magarif Publishers.• Poppe, N. N. (1963). Tatar manual: descriptive grammar and texts with a Tatar-English glossary. Bloomington:

Indiana University.

Notes[1] Ethnologue report (http:/ / www. ethnologue. com/ show_language. asp?code=tat)[2] http:/ / www. ijli. antat. ru/ language. html[3] Russian Census 2002. 6. Владение языками (кроме русского) населением отдельных национальностей по республикам, автономной

области и автономным округам Российской Федерации (http:/ / www. perepis2002. ru/ ct/ doc/ TOM_04_06. xls)(Knowledge of languagesother than Russian by the population of republics, autonomous oblast and autonomous districts)(Russian)

[4] Wurm, S; Unesco. (2001). Atlas of the world's languages in danger of disappearing. Paris: Unesco Pub.,. ISBN 9789231037986.[5] Information about Siberian Tatar (http:/ / www. helsinki. fi/ ~tasalmin/ nasia_report. html#SibTatar)[6] Harrison and Kaun, "Vowels and Vowel Harmony in Namangan Tatar", in Aronson, Holisky, & Tuite (2003) Current Trends in Caucasian,

East European and Inner Asian Linguistics[7] Árpád Berta, "Tatar and Bashkir". In Johanson & Csató (1998) The Turkic languages[8] Árpád Berta, "Tatar and Bashkir," The Turkic Languages (1998, Routledge), pg. 283[9] Pronoun declensions based on or extrapolated from information contained on http:/ / www. tatar. com. ru/ grammatika. php (Грамматика

татарского языка)[10] "Russia reconsiders Cyrillic law" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 2/ hi/ europe/ 3718174. stm). BBC News. 2004-10-05. . Retrieved 2010-05-24.[11] Tatar language – Princeton University (http:/ / www. princeton. edu/ ~turkish/ aatt/ tatar. htm)[12] (Russian) Татарский язык в Интернете: информация о методах и средствах обучения (http:/ / www. languages-study. com/ tatar. html)

8. Čaušević, Ekrem: Kazantatarisch. (= Wieser Enzyklopaedie des Europaeischen Ostens / Okuka, Miloš & Krenn,Gerald (ur.). Klagenfurt-Wien-Ljubljana : Wieser Verlag, 2002.. Str. 793–797.]; http:/ / www. uni-klu. ac. at/ eeo/Kasantatarisch. pdf

External links• Tatar language on Ethnologue (http:/ / www. ethnologue. org/ show_language. asp?code=TTR)• Tatar language (http:/ / www. dmoz. org/ Science/ Social_Sciences/ Language_and_Linguistics/

Natural_Languages/ Altaic/ Turkic/ Tatar/ / ) at the Open Directory Project (English)

• Tatar language (http:/ / www. dmoz. org/ World/ Tatarça/ Fännär/ Ã�ctímaÄ�í_Fännär/Tel_wä_Tel_beleme/ Tatarça/ / ) at the Open Directory Project (Tatar), (Russian)

• Tatar dictionaries (http:/ / www. dmoz. org/ Reference/ Dictionaries/ World_Languages/ T/ Tatar/ / ) at the OpenDirectory Project (English)

• Web directory (http:/ / www. dmoz. org/ World/ Tatarça/ / ) at the Open Directory Project (Tatar)

• Tatar.Net (http:/ / www. tatar. net/ )• website of the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan (http:/ / www. kitaphane. ru/ )

Tatar language 9

Language studies• Information about Tatar writing (http:/ / www. omniglot. com/ writing/ tatar. htm)• Textbook on morphology of Tatar language (http:/ / tugan-tel. at. tt/ belem/ sarif/ ) (Russian)

• Course of Tatar language (http:/ / tugan-tel. at. tt/ belem/ deres/ ) (Russian)

• tatar.org.ru (http:/ / tatar. org. ru/ course/ view. php?id=18)• Tatar tele turında säxifä (http:/ / tugan-tel. noka. ru/ forum/ )• Tatar.com.ru: Tatar language course (http:/ / www. tatar. com. ru) (Russian)

Forums• Tatar mailing list (http:/ / groups. yahoo. com/ group/ tatar-l/ ) (English)

• Tatar forum (http:/ / tugan-tel. noka. ru/ forum/ ) (Tatar)

• IRC channel #tatar (irc:/ / irc. freenode. net/ tatar) on the freenode network

History and literature• Tatar poetry (http:/ / shigriyat. ru/ ) (Tatar)

• Tatar myths (http:/ / www. alabuga. ru/ City/ History/ TatarMyths/ ), including the story of Şüräle (Russian)

• Tatar library (http:/ / kitapxane. noka. ru/ authors/ )• Tatar Electronic Library (http:/ / kitap. net. ru/ ) (Russian) (Tatar)

• Links to other Tatar language resources (http:/ / peoples. org. ru/ eng_tatar. html)

Dictionaries• Russian-Tatar On-Line Dictionary (a) (http:/ / www. suzlek. ru/ suzlek/ main. show)• Russian-Tatar On-Line Dictionary (b) (http:/ / tatarisem. narod. ru/ slovar. html)• Turkish-Tatar On-Line Dictionary (http:/ / dictionary. suleyman. cc/ tatarca. php)• Concise English-Tatar On-Line Dictionary (http:/ / agidel. virtualave. net/ frame. html)

Article Sources and Contributors 10

Article Sources and ContributorsTatar language  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=443537999  Contributors: .:Ajvol:., 1297, AKeckarov, Absar, Abu Amal Bahraini, Aeusoes1, Ahoerstemeier, Ajhowey275,Al Beri, Alaexis, Alansohn, Alaudo, Amire80, Ams80, Anclation, Andres65, Andrew Dalby, Andries, Ante Aikio, AtilimGunesBaydin, Avicennasis, Avram, AxelBoldt, Barefact, Baristarim,Batisbatis, Beginning, Benne, Biruitorul, Bogdangiusca, Borovi4ok, Brianski, Burschik, CSWarren, Cassowary, Chapultepec, ChrisCork, Circeus, Cmdrjameson, Coemgenus, Coroboy, Crculver,Croquant, Curps, DanMS, Danny, Dbachmann, Deb, DopefishJustin, E104421, Edwinstearns, Ekrem52, Embryomystic, Everyking, ExRat, Fazullin, FlyHigh, Garzo, Geneb1955, Glebchik,Gr8opinionater, Graham87, Guslacerda, Gwalla, Hottentot, IceKarma, Ilgiz, Internedko, Ish ishwar, It's-is-not-a-genitive, Japo, Jeepo, Jmgonzalez, Jnestorius, Jon Harald Søby, JorisvS, Jose77,Junes, Jyril, Khoikhoi, Kirill Skorobogat, KittySaturn, Kmoksy, Kneiphof, Kwamikagami, Lucyin, MK8, Mahlum, Mahmudmasri, Mani1, Markaci, Mayumashu, Megabyde, Mglovesfun,MichaelBillington, Mick Knapton, Mike hayes, Mohsenkazempur, Monedula, Munferit, N-true, Ogress, Olivier, OwenBlacker, Parishan, Pasquale, Penthrift, PlatypeanArchcow, PuzzletChung,Quigley, RetiredUser2, Riwnodennyk, Rogerb67, Rosiestep, Rudjek, Rursus, Ruslik0, Rustam, Salgueiro, Shaile, Silvermane, Spring01, StradivariusTV, Straughn, Sverdrup, Taivo, TarzanASG,Timir2, Tomh009, Tothwolf, Tropylium, Tuluat, Ulric1313, Unoffensive text or character, Untifler, UtherSRG, Vassili Nikolaev, Vmenkov, Voyevoda, Wavelength, Whlee, Wikiacc,Woohookitty, Wrathchild, XStandartX, Xophist, Yhlee1010, Zunaid, Немања 93, Пипумбрик, Регистрироваться, Регистрироваться 00, 虞海, 238 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Flag of Tatarstan.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Tatarstan.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:FibonacciImage:Söyälmäskä.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Söyälmäskä.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Gleb Borisov, Man vyi, Obakeneko, UntiflerImage:Kazan metro sign.JPG  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kazan_metro_sign.JPG  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: Man vyi, PalefireImage:Tatar guide in Latin.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tatar_guide_in_Latin.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:Untifler

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