Altaic languages (disputed)
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Writing system

Main article: Tatar alphabet

Tatar has been written in a number of different alphabets.

Pre-1928

Before 1928 Tatar was written with a variant of the Arabic alphabet (Iske imla ...- 1920; Yanga imla 1920-1928).

1927-1938

In Soviet Union Tatar has been written with a Latin alphabet named Janalif.

Cyrillic

In Tatarstan (a republic of Russia where Tatar is most commonly used) and all other parts of Russia a Cyrillic alphabet is used to write Tatar; also in Kazakhstan.

Modern Latin

A Latin alphabet-based system has been used mostly in Tatarstan since 2000 and generally on the Internet, although this has been less common more recently due to the Russian law that all languages of Russia must be written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

History

Tatar's ancestors are the extinct Bolgar and Kipchak languages.

The literary Tatar language is based on Kazan Tatar's Middle (Tatarstan) dialect and the Old Tatar language (İske Tatar Tele). Both are members of the Kypchak (or Northwestern) group of Turkic languages, although they are also partly derived from the ancient Volga Bolgar language.

The Tatar language strongly influenced most of the Caucasian, Slavic and Finnic languages in the Volga River area.

Examples

• äye - yes
• yuq - no
• isänme(sez)/sawmı(sız) - hello
• sälâm - hi
• saw bul(ığız)/xuş(ığız) - goodbye
• zínhar öçen - please
• min - I
• sin - you
• ul - he / she / it
• bez - we
• sez - you
• alar - they
• millät - nation
• İngliz(çä) - English

See also

• Tatars
• Tatar alphabet
• Russification

External links