
Tatar ( ; or ) is a
Turkic language
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...
spoken by the
Volga Tatars
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. ...
mainly located in modern
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
(
European Russia
European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...
), as well as
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. It should not be confused with
Crimean Tatar or
Siberian Tatar, which are closely related but belong to different subgroups of the
Kipchak languages
The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanni ...
.
Geographic distribution
The Tatar language is spoken in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
by about 5.3 million people, and also by communities in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
,
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
, and several other countries. Globally, there are more than 7 million speakers of Tatar.
Tatar is also the mother tongue for several thousand
Mari, a
Finnic people;
Mordva's
Qaratay group also speak a variant of Kazan Tatar.
In the
2010 census, 69% of Russian Tatars claimed at least some knowledge of the Tatar language. In Tatarstan, 93% of Tatars and 3.6% of
Russians
Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...
claimed to have at least some knowledge of the Tatar language. In neighbouring
Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a republic of Russia between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast ...
, 67% of Tatars, 27% of
Bashkirs
The Bashkirs ( , ) or Bashkorts (, ; , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a Republics of Russia, republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of B ...
, and 1.3% of Russians claimed to understand basic Tatar language.
Official status
Tatar, along with Russian, is the official language of the
Republic of Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
. The
official script
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
of the Tatar language is based on the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
with some additional letters. The Republic of Tatarstan passed a law in 1999, which came into force in 2001, establishing an official Tatar Latin alphabet. A Russian federal law overrode it in 2002, making Cyrillic the sole official script in Tatarstan since. Unofficially, other scripts are used as well, mostly Latin and Arabic. All official sources in Tatarstan must use Cyrillic on their websites and in publishing. In other cases, where Tatar has no official status, the use of a specific alphabet depends on the preference of the author.
The Tatar language was made a ''de facto'' official language in Russia in 1917, but only within the
Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Tatar ASSR or TASSR, was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR. The resolution for its crea ...
. Tatar is also considered to have been the official language in the short-lived
Idel-Ural State, briefly formed during the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
.
The usage of Tatar declined during the 20th century. By the 1980s, the study and teaching of Tatar in the public education system was limited to rural schools. However, Tatar-speaking pupils had little chance of entering university because higher education was available in Russian almost exclusively.
As of 2001, Tatar was considered a potentially endangered language while Siberian Tatar received "endangered" and "seriously endangered" statuses, respectively. Higher education in Tatar can only be found in
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
, and is restricted to the
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
. In other regions Tatar is primarily a spoken language and the number of speakers as well as their proficiency tends to decrease. Tatar is popular 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.
Since 2017, Tatar language classes are no longer mandatory in the schools of Tatarstan. According to the opponents of this change, it will further endanger the Tatar language and is a violation of the Tatarstan Constitution which stipulates the equality of Russian and Tatar languages in the republic.
Dialects
There are two main dialects of Tatar:
* Central or Middle (Kazan; ''Qazan'')
* Western (Mishar; ''Mişər'')
All of these dialects also have subdivisions. Significant contributions to the study of the Tatar language and its dialects, were made by a scientist
Gabdulkhay Akhatov (Ğabdelxəy Əxətov), who is considered to be the founder of the modern Tatar dialectological school.
Spoken idioms of Siberian Tatars, which differ significantly from the above two, are often considered as the third dialect group of Tatar by some, but as an independent language on its own by others.
Central or Middle
The Central or Middle dialectal group is spoken in Kazan and most of Tatarstan and is the basis of the standard literary Tatar language. Middle Tatar includes the
Nagaibak dialect.
Mishar
The Western (Mishar) dialect is distinguished from the Central dialect most clearly by the absence of the uvular ''q'' and ''ğ'' and the rounded ''å'' of the first syllable. Letters ''ç'' and ''c'' are pronounced as
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
s. Regional differences exist also.
Mishar Dialect, and especially its regional variant in
Sergachsky district (Nizhny Novgorod), is said to be "faithfully close" to the ancient Kipchak language. Some linguists, such as
Radlov,
Samoylovich, think that Mishar traditionally belongs to the Kipchak-Cuman group of languages, rather than to the Kipchak-Bulgar group.
Mishar is the dialect spoken by the
Tatar minority of Finland.
Siberian Tatar
Two main isoglosses that characterize Siberian Tatar are ''ç'' as and ''c'' as , corresponding to standard and . There are also grammatical differences within the dialect, scattered across Siberia.
Many linguists claim the origins of Siberian Tatar dialects are actually independent of Volga–Ural Tatar; these dialects 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, Moscow and by Siberian Tatar linguists and denounced by some Russian and Tatar ethnographs.
Over time, some of these dialects were given distinct names and recognized as separate languages (e.g. the
Chulym language) after detailed linguistic study. However, the Chulym language was never classified as a dialect of Tatar language. Confusion arose because of the endoethnonym "Tatars" used by the Chulyms. The question of classifying the Chulym language as a dialect of the Khakass language was debatable. A brief linguistic analysis shows that many of these dialects exhibit features which are quite different from the Volga–Ural Tatar varieties, and should be classified as Turkic varieties belonging to several sub-groups of the Turkic languages, distinct from
Kipchak languages
The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanni ...
to which Volga–Ural Tatar belongs.
Phonology
Vowels

There exist several interpretations of the Tatar vowel phonemic inventory. In total Tatar has nine or ten native vowels, and three or four loaned vowels (mainly in Russian loanwords).
According to
Baskakov (1988) Tatar has only two vowel heights,
high and
low. There are two low vowels,
front and
back
The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...
, while there are eight high vowels: front and back,
round
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Having no sharp corners, as an ellipse, circle, or sphere
* Rounding, reducing the number of significant figures in a number
* Round number, ending with one or more zeroes
* Round (crypt ...
(R+) and unround (R−), normal and short (or reduced).
Poppe (1963) proposed a similar yet slightly different scheme with a third, higher mid, height, and with nine vowels.
According to Makhmutova (1969) Tatar has three vowel heights:
high,
mid and
low, and four tongue positions: front, front-central, back-central and back (as they are named when cited).
The mid back unrounded vowel 'ë'' is usually transcribed as ''
ı'', though it differs from the corresponding Turkish vowel.
The tenth vowel ''ï'' is realized as the diphthong ''ëy'' (), which only occurs word-finally, but it has been argued to be an independent phoneme.
Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately thus (with the Cyrillic letters and the usual Latin romanization in angle brackets):
In polysyllabic words, the front-back distinction is lost in reduced vowels: all become mid-central.
The mid reduced vowels in an unstressed position are frequently elided, as in кеше ''keşe'' > 'person', or кышы ''qışı'' > '(his) winter'.
Low back is rounded in the first syllable and after , but not in the last, as in бала ''bala'' 'child', балаларга ''balalarğa'' 'to children'.
In Russian loans there are also , , , and , written the same as the native vowels: ы, е/э, о, а respectively.
Historical shifts
Historically, the Old Turkic mid vowels have
raised from mid to high, whereas the Old Turkic high vowels have become the Tatar reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened in
Bashkir.)
Consonants
;Notes:
: The phonemes , , , , , are only found in loanwords. occurs more commonly in loanwords, but is also found in native words, e.g. ''yafraq'' 'leaf'.
, , , may be substituted with the corresponding native consonants , , , by some Tatars.
: and are the dialectal Western (Mişär) pronunciations of җ⟨c⟩ and ч⟨ç⟩, the latter are in the literary standard and in the Central (Kazan) dialect. is the variant of ч⟨ç⟩ as pronounced in the Eastern (Siberian) dialects and some Western (Mişär) dialects. Both and are also used in Russian loanwords (the latter written ц).
: and are usually considered allophones of and in the environment of back vowels, so they are never written in the Tatar Cyrillic orthography in native words, and only rarely in loanwords with къ and гъ. However, and also appear before front in Perso-Arabic loanwords which may indicate the phonemic status of these uvular consonants.
Palatalization
Tatar consonants usually undergo slight
palatalization before front vowels. However, this
allophony is not significant and does not constitute a phonemic status. This differs from Russian where palatalized consonants are not
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
s but
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s on their own. There are a number of Russian loanwords which have palatalized consonants in Russian and are thus written the same in Tatar (often with the "soft sign"
ь). The Tatar standard pronunciation also requires palatalization in such loanwords; however, some Tatar may pronounce them non-palatalized.
Syllables
In native words there are six types of syllables (Consonant, Vowel,
Sonorant):
* 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)
* VSC (ant-lar, äyt-te, ilt-kän)
* CVSC (tört-te, qart-lar, qayt-qan)
Loanwords allow other types: CSV (gra-mota), CSVC (käs-trül), etc.
Prosody
Stress is usually on the final syllable. However, some suffixes cannot be stressed, so the stress shifts to the syllable before that suffix, even if the stressed syllable is the third or fourth from the end. A number of Tatar words and grammatical forms have the natural stress on the first syllable. Loanwords, mainly from Russian, usually preserve their original stress (unless the original stress is on the last syllable, in such a case the stress in Tatar shifts to suffixes as usual, e.g. ''sovét'' > ''sovetlár'' > ''sovetlarğá'').
Phonetic alterations
Tatar
phonotactics
Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek 'voice, sound' and 'having to do with arranging') is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
dictate many pronunciation changes which are not reflected in the orthography.
* Unrounded vowels ''ı'' and ''e'' become rounded after ''o'' or ''ö'':
::коры/''qorı'' >
oro::борын/''borın'' >
oron::көзге/''közge'' >
özgö::соры/''sorı'' >
oro
* Nasals are
assimilated to the following stops:
::унбер/''unber'' >
mber::менгеч/''mengeç'' >
eñgeç
* Stops are
assimilated to the preceding nasals (this is reflected in writing):
::урманнар/''urmannar'' ( < ''urman'' + ''lar'')
::комнар/''komnar'' ( < ''kom'' + ''lar'')
* Voicing may also undergo
assimilation:
::күзсез/''küzsez'' >
üssez
* Unstressed vowels may be
syncopated
In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat (music), off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of ...
or
reduced:
::урыны/''urını''>
rnı::килене/''kilene'' >
ilne
* Vowels may also be
elided:
::кара урман/''qara urman'' >
arurman::килә иде/''kilä ide'' >
iläyde::туры урам/''turı uram'' >
ururam::була алмыйм/''bula almıym'' >
ulalmıym
* In
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s longer than two
phones, ı or e (whichever is dictated by
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
) is inserted into speech as an
epenthetic vowel.
::банк/''bank'' >
añqı
* Final
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s are simplified:
::артист/''artist'' >
rtis
*
Final devoicing is also frequent:
::табиб/''tabib'' >
abip
Grammar
Like other Turkic languages, Tatar is an
agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a type of language that primarily forms words by stringing together morphemes (word parts)—each typically representing a single grammatical meaning—without significant modification to their forms ( agglutinations) ...
.
Nouns
Tatar nouns are inflected for cases and numbers. Case suffixes change depending on the last consonants of the noun, while nouns ending in п/к are voiced to б/г (китабым) when a possessive suffix was added. Suffixes below are in back vowel, with front variant can be seen at
#Phonology section.
The declension of possessive suffixes is even more irregular, with the dative suffix -а used in 1st singular and 2nd singular suffixes, and the accusative, dative, locative, and ablative endings -н, -на, -нда, -ннан is used after 3rd person possessive suffix. Nouns ending in -и, -у, or -ү, although phonologically vowels, take consonantic endings.
Declension of pronouns
The declension of personal and demonstrative pronouns tends to be irregular. Irregular forms are in bold.
Verbs
The distribution of present tense suffixes is complicated, with the former (also with vowel harmony) is used with verb stems ending in consonants, and the latter is used with verb stem ending in vowels (with the last vowel being deleted, – эшли, compare
Turkish ''işlemek'' – continuous ''işliyor''). The distribution of indefinite future tense is more complicated in consonant-ending stems, it is resolved by -арга/-ырга infinitives (язарга – язар). However, because some have verb citation forms in verbal noun (-у), this rule becomes somewhat unpredictable.
Tenses are negated with -ма, however in the indefinite future tense and the verbal participle they become -мас and -мыйча instead, respectively. Alongside vowel-ending stems, the suffix also becomes -мый when negates the present tense. To form interrogatives, the suffix -мы is used.
Definite past and conditional tenses use type II personal inflections instead. When in the case of present tense, short ending (-м) is used. After vowels, the first person imperative forms deletes the last vowel, similar to the present tense does ( – эшлим). Like plurals of nouns, the suffix -лар change depending the preceding consonants (-алар, but -ганнар).
Anomalous verbs
Some verbs, however, fall into this category. Dozens of them have irregular stems with a final mid vowel, but obscured on the infinitive ( – укы, укый, – төзе, төзи). The verbs кору "to build", тану "to disclaim", ташу "to spill" have contrastive meanings with verbs with their final vowelled counterparts, meaning "to dry", "to know", "to carry".
The verb "to say" is significantly more irregular than any other verbs: its 2nd person singular imperative is диген, while its expected regular form is repurposed as the present tense forms (дим, диң, ди...).
Predicatives
These predicative suffixes have now fallen into disuse, or rarely used.
Writing system

During its history, Tatar has been written in
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
s.
Before 1928, Tatar was mostly written in Arabic script (Иске имля/
İske imlâ, "Old orthography", to 1920; Яңа имла/
Yaña imlâ, "New orthography", 1920–1928).
During the 19th century, Russian Christian missionary
Nikolay Ilminsky devised the first Cyrillic alphabet for Tatar. This alphabet is still used by Christian Tatars (
Kryashens).
In the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
after 1928, Tatar was written with a
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...
called
Jaꞑalif.
In 1939, in
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
and all other parts of the Soviet Union, a
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
was adopted and is still used to write Tatar. It is also used in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
.
The Republic of Tatarstan passed a law in 1999 that came into force in 2001 establishing an official Tatar Latin alphabet. A Russian federal law overrode it in 2002, making Cyrillic the sole official script in Tatarstan since. In 2004, an attempt to introduce a Latin-based alphabet for Tatar was further abandoned when the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...
ruled that the federal law of 15 November 2002 mandating the use of Cyrillic for the state languages of the republics of the Russian Federation
does not contradict the
Russian constitution.
In accordance with this Constitutional Court ruling, on 28 December 2004, the Tatar Supreme Court overturned the Tatarstani law that made the Latin alphabet official.
In 2012 the Tatarstan government adopted a new Latin alphabet but with limited usage (mostly for Romanization).
* Tatar
Perso-Arabic alphabet (before 1928):
* Tatar Old Latin (Jaꞑalif) alphabet (1928 to 1940):
* Tatar Old Cyrillic alphabet (by
Nikolay Ilminsky, 1861; the letters in parentheses are not used in modern publications):
* Tatar Cyrillic alphabet (1939; the letter order adopted in 1997):
* 1999 Tatar Latin alphabet, made official by a law adopted by Tatarstani authorities but annulled by the Tatar Supreme Court in 2004:
* 2012 Tatar Latin alphabet
Common Turkic Alphabet 2024
In 2024, the modified
Common Turkic Alphabet replaced letter ä with ə, which was already in use in
Azerbaijani, as well as among Tatar activists using the Latin alphabet.
History
The ancestors of Tatar are the extinct Turkic
Bulgar and
Kipchak languages
The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanni ...
.
The literary Tatar language is based on the Middle Tatar (Kazan) dialect and on the
Old Tatar language
The Old Tatar language was a literary language used by some ethnic groups of the Idel-Ural region (Tatars and Bashkirs) from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century.
Old Tatar is a member of the Kipchak languages, Kipchak (or Northwestern ...
(''İske Tatar Tele''), also known as ''Türki'' (ترکی). Both are members of the Volga-Ural subgroup of the
Kipchak group of
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...
, although they also partly derive from the ancient Volga
Bulgar language
Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is the extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mi ...
.
Crimean Tatar, although similar by name, belongs to another subgroup of the Kipchak languages. Unlike Kazan Tatar, Crimean Tatar is heavily influenced by
Turkish (mostly its
Ottoman variety with
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and
Persian influences) and
Nogai languages.
Influences in Tatar
Most of the
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...
in the
Volga River
The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...
area have strongly influenced the Tatar language, as have the
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Persian and
Russian languages.
Arabic and Persian
The Arabic and Persian influence on Tatar can be seen most clearly in loan words but also in specific sounds. For example, Tatar ğ / г is the Arabic
ghayn غ. However, in Arabic words and names where there’s an
ayin ع, Tatar adds the ghayn instead (عبد الله, ''’''Abdullah'';'' Tatar: ''Ğabdulla'' / Габдулла;
Yaña imlâ: غابدوللا /ʁabdulla/).
In the Mishar Tatar Dialect, ğ is not pronounced, and thus, a word like ''şiğır'' (شعر, шигыр, "poem") is ''şigır'' or ''şiyır'' for Mishars (who in Finland use the Latin alphabet).
When it comes to Arabic and Persian loanwords, in the Tatar Latin script,
alif is realised as the letter a, and when there’s no alif, it is ä (ə) (عيسى, Ğəysə; آزاد, Azat). When the alif has
hamza
The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...
on top (أ), it is also ä (ə), but Tatar
İske imlâ spells it without (امين / أمين, Əmin). Vowel harmony as well is a deciding factor (عبد الله, Ğabdulla; عبد الرشيد, Ğəbderrəşit). Similarly with ö/o (عمر, Ğömər; عثمان, Ğosman). However, this rule is often inconsistent when transliterating from Cyrillic to Latin.
During the Golden Horde (1242–1502), the ancestors of modern Tatars used Persian in addition to their Turkic language to a relatively significant extent, especially in poetry and even after the Golden Horde. For example, the long-serving Khan of the Kazan Khanate (1438–1552),
Möxəmməd-Əmin, wrote poetry in Persian. In religious and legal matters Arabic was used. Many Persian and Arabic works are considered part of Tatar literature today.
Sample text
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...
in Tatar (Cyrillic):
:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tatar (Latin):
:
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
transcription:
:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in
English:
:''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''
Tatar online learning
A common complaint among those curious about the Tatar language outside of Russia has been its lack of non-Russian Latin alphabet sources. For this, a young Germany-based Tatar architect Aygul Ahmetcan (Aygöl Əxmətcan), with the help of linguistics student Bulat Shaymi (Bulat Şəymi), has created a
Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...
channel ''Learn Tatar'', which offers Tatar language teaching in English. It has gained thousands of viewers in few months after its creation in August 2023. Shaymi himself has a Youtube channel dedicated to Tatar content.
Since then, a website ''learntatar.com'' has also been established.
Among other helpful sources is the Finnish Tatar website ''Aybagar'' ("Sunflower"), which "publishes scientific works and original materials about Tatars, the Tatar language and Tatar culture, focusing especially on the Tatar diaspora worldwide". Tatar pronunciations can be found in
Forvo and "Corpus of Written Tatar".
''Modern Tatar Identity'' is a podcast that has "conversations with people who have dedicated a part of their life to Tatar and Tatar language research".
See also
*
Corpus of Written Tatar
*
Tatar alphabet
Three scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic (in Russia, including the Republic of Tatarstan, where it is an official language and where the majority of speakers live, and in Kazakhstan), Latin (in Turkey, Finland, the Czech R ...
*
Tatar name
*
Tatar–Russian code-switching
*
Bashkir language
Bashkir ( , ) or Bashkort (, ) is a Turkic languages, Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak languages, Kipchak branch. It is official language#Political alternatives, co-official with Russian language, Russian in Bashkortostan. Bashkir has ap ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* 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.
* Ахатов Г. Х. Татарская диалектология (учебник для студентов вузов). – Казань, 1984.
* Татарская грамматика. В 3-х т. / Гл. ред. М. З. Закиев. – Казань, 1993.
External links
*
Atlas of Tatar dialectsTatar<>Turkish dictionaryИске татар теле
{{Authority control
Agglutinative languages
Languages of Azerbaijan
Languages of China
Languages of Finland
Languages of Kazakhstan
Indigenous languages of European Russia
Languages of Turkey
Languages of Ukraine
Languages of Uzbekistan
Turkic languages
Vowel-harmony languages
Vulnerable languages
Endangered Turkic languages
Endangered languages of Europe
Endangered languages of China
Endangered languages of Asia