Crimean Tatar Alphabet

Crimean Tatar is written in both Latin, dominant on the internet, and Cyrillic dominant in printed productions. Historically, the Arabic script was also used.

History

Arabic script

Crimean Tatars used the Arabic script from 16th century to 1928 when it was replaced with the Latin alphabet based on Yañalif. The Crimean variant contained a couple of modified Arabic letters.

¹ — The letter ﻙ (kef) was often used in place of ﮒ and ﯓ.

Latin alphabet

In 1928, during latinisation in the Soviet Union the Crimean Tatar Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet based on the Yañalif script. This alphabet contained a number of differences from the modern variant. Particularly, in letters Ь ь, Ƣ ƣ, Ꞑ ꞑ, Ɵ ɵ, X x, Ƶ ƶ, I i instead of modern  â, Ğ ğ, I ı, İ i, Ñ ñ, Ö ö, and Ü ü.

In Dobruja

In 1956, this alphabet was used by the Tatars in Romania, which was also taught in school. The alphabet:
A a, Á á, B b, Č č, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, I i, Í í, Î î, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ñ ñ, O o, Ó ó, P p, R r, S s, Ș ș, T t, Ț ț, U u, Ú ú, V v, W w, Y y, Z z.

In present-day Dobruja, they use a different alphabet which includes the letters Ĭ ĭ and W w. Ğ ğ and Q q are actually not found. But they try to use the letters Ğ ğ and Q q.

The alphabet which is used now:
A a, B b, С c, Ç ç, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, I ı, İ i, Ĭ ĭ, J j, K k, Q q, L l, M m, N n, Ñ ñ, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, W w, Y y, Z z.

* Sometimes they use Á á, Î î, Í í, Ó ó, Ș ș, Ú ú. The reason can be the alphabet from 1956.

Modern alphabets

Cyrillic

Cyrillic for Crimean Tatar was introduced in 1938 as part of Cyrillization of languages in Soviet Union. It is based on Russian alphabet with no special letters. From 1938 to 1990s, that was the only alphabet used for Crimean Tatar.

*''Гъ'' (''ğ''), ''къ'' (''q''), ''нъ'' (''ñ'') and ''дж'' (''c'') are separate letters of the alphabet ( digraphs).

Latin

Modern Latin alphabet for Crimean Tatar was introduced in 1990s. It is based on Turkish alphabet with three special letters — Q, Ñ, Â. Its official use in Crimea was accepted in 1997 by Crimean Parliament. In 2021 it was approved by the government of Ukraine, to be adopted in education by September 2025.

*Ââ is not recognized as separate letter. It is used to show softness of a consonant followed by Aa.

1. Crimean Tatars in Dobruja use also Ĭĭ and Ww letters. Ĭ ĭ letter is for �and the W w letter is for sound. Crimean Tatars in Crimea use the İ i letter for two sounds �and the letter V v is also two sounds and but in Dobrudja has every letter one sound, İ i is and V v is

Cyrillic to Latin transliteration

References

* Кай И.С. Руководство для обучения крымско-татарскому языку по новому алфавиту — Симферополь, 1928.

Alem-i-Medeniye

{{Arabic script

Latin alphabets
Cyrillic alphabets
Arabic alphabets
Persian alphabets
Alphabets used by Turkic languages
Crimean Tatar culture