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Crimean Tatar
Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) Къырымтатарджа, Къырымтатар тили
Pronunciation
Native to	Ukraine, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Romania, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria
Region	Black Sea
Ethnicity	Crimean Tatars
Native speakers	480,000 (2006–2011)
Language family	Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Cuman/Oghuz Crimean Tatar
Writing system	Cyrillic and Latin; previously Arabic (Crimean Tatar alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine) (de jure) Sevastopol (Russia) Republic of Crimea (Russia) (de facto)
Recognised minority language in	Ukraine
Language codes
ISO 639-2	crh
ISO 639-3	crh
Glottolog	crim1257
ELP	Crimean Tatar
Linguasphere	part of 44-AAB-a
Crimean Tatar-speaking world
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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Crimean Tatar (Qırımtatarca, Qırımtatar tili, Къырымтатарджа, Къырымтатар тили, Turkish: Kırımtatarca, Kırımtatar dili), also called Crimean Turkish or simply Crimean, is the indigenous language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Tatar proper, spoken in Russia. The languages are related but not mutually intelligible. It is more similar to and somewhat mutually intelligible with Turkish.

Number of speakers

Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea. Approximately 150,000 reside in Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan), where their ancestors had been exiled in 1944 during World War II by the Soviet Union. However, of all these people, mostly the older generations are the only ones still speaking Crimean Tatar. In 2013, the language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in only around 15 schools in Crimea. Turkey has provided support to Ukraine, to aid in bringing the schools teaching in Crimean Tatar to a modern state. An estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin live in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of these an estimated 2,000 still speak the language. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities are also found in Romania (22,000), Bulgaria (6,000), and the United States. Crimean Tatar is one of the seriously endangered languages in Europe.

Almost all Crimean Tatars are bilingual or multilingual, using as their first language the dominant languages of their respective home countries, such as Ukrainian, Turkish, Uzbek, or Russian.

Dialects

Each of the three subethnic groups of the Crimean Tatars has its own dialect. The dialect of the Nogays—the former inhabitants of the Crimean steppe (should not be confused with Nogai people)—is of Kypchak–Nogay origin. The Yalıboylus, who lived on the southern coast of Crimea before 1944, speak an Oghuz dialect. The Tat Tatars from the Crimean Mountains (should not be confused with Tat people) use a middle dialect of Kypchak–Cuman origin. This dialect is a direct descendant of the Cuman language, but it has been strongly influenced by Oghuz. The modern Crimean Tatar written language is based on this middle dialect because the Tats comprise about 55% of the total Crimean Tatar population.

History

The forming of the Crimean Tatar spoken dialects began with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea and ended during the period of the Crimean Khanate. However, the official written languages of the Crimean Khanate were Chagatai and Ottoman Turkish. After Islamization, Crimean Tatars wrote with an Arabic script.

In 1876, the different Turkic Crimean dialects were made into a uniform written language by Ismail Gasprinski. A preference was given to the Oghuz dialect of the Yalıboylus, in order to not break the link between the Crimeans and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. In 1928, the language was reoriented to the middle dialect spoken by the majority of the people.

In 1928, the alphabet was replaced with the Uniform Turkic Alphabet based on the Latin script. The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was replaced in 1938 by a Cyrillic alphabet. Since the 1990s, the government has encouraged replacing the script with a Latin version again, but the Cyrillic is still widely used (mainly in published literature and newspapers). The current Latin-based Crimean Tatar alphabet is the same as the Turkish alphabet, with two additional characters: Ñ ñ and Q q.

Crimean Tatar was the native language of the poet Bekir Çoban-zade.

Phonology

Vowels

The vowel system of Crimean Tatar is similar to some other Turkic languages. Because high vowels in Crimean Tatar are short and reduced, /i/ and /ɯ/ are realized close to , even though they are phonologically distinct.

Consonants

In additional to these phonemes, Crimean also displays marginal phonemes that occur in borrowed words, especially palatalized consonants.

Current situation

According to the constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as published in Russian by its Verkhovna Rada, Russian and Crimean Tatar languages enjoy a "protected" (Template:Lang-ru) status; every citizen is entitled, at his request (ходатайство), to receive government documents, such as "Passport, Birth certificate and others" in Crimean Tatar. According to the constitution of Ukraine, however, Ukrainian is the only official language in all of Ukraine. Recognition of Russian and Crimean Tatar is a matter of political and legal debate.

Before the Sürgün, the 18 May 1944 deportation by the Soviet Union of Crimean Tatars to internal exile in Uzbek SSR, Crimean Tatar had an official language status in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Writing systems

Crimean Tatar can be written in either the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets, both modified to the specific needs of Crimean Tatar, and either used respective to where the language is used. Under Ukrainian rule, the Latin alphabet was preferred, but upon Russia's annexation of Crimea, Cyrillic became the sole official script.

Latin alphabet

 â symbol is not considered to be a separate letter.

Cyrillic alphabet

гъ, къ, нъ and дж are separate letters (digraphs).

Comparison with other languages

Turkish and Azerbaijani

The following newspaper report compares Crimean Tatar with Turkish and Azerbaijani:

Tatar proper

Because of its common name, Crimean Tatar is sometimes mistaken to be a dialect of Tatar proper. Although these languages are related (because both are Turkic), the Kypchak languages closest to Crimean Tatar are, as mentioned above, Kumyk, Karachay-Balkar and Nogay, not Tatar.

Notes

References

1. Crimean Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "To which languages does the Charter apply?". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. p. 2.
3. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/crh
4. ^ Crimean Tatar language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
5. Crimean Tatar language in danger, Avrupa Times, 02/19/2013
6. Tapani Salminen, UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages: Europe, September 1999
7. Kavitskaya 2010, p. 6
8. Kavitskaya 2010, p. 8
9. Kavitskaya 2010, p. 10
10. Конституция Автономной Республики Крым

Bibliography

• Berta, Árpád (1998). "West Kipchak Languages". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (eds.). The Turkic Languages. Routledge. pp. 301–317. ISBN 978-0-415-08200-6.
• Kavitskaya, Darya (2010). Crimean Tatar. Munich: Lincom Europa. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Wiktionary's category of Crimean Tatar words
  • Turkish Wiktionary's category of Crimean Tatar words Template:Tr icon
• Linguistic corpus of Crimean Tatar language
• Crimean Tatar internet library
• Automatic Latin–Cyrillic transliterator for Crimean Tatar texts

Dictionaries

• Crimean Tatar Online Dictionary
• Russian–Crimean Tatar Dictionary (a)
• Russian–Crimean Tatar Dictionary (b)
• Russian–Crimean Tatar Dictionary (c)
• Ukrainian–Crimean Tatar Dictionary
• Online Crimean Tatar (Northern dialect)–Turkish–English Dictionary tatarcasozluk.com

Medias

• ATR TV Channel
• Radio Liberty
• Avdet newspaper
• Yañı Dünya newspaper

v t e Crimea articles
Political status Sevastopol Republic of Crimea (Russia) Autonomous Republic of Crimea
History	Greek Crimea Crimea in the Roman era Cherson (theme) Bosporan Kingdom) Akatziri Khazars Crimean Goths Kipchaks Empire of Trebizond Genoese Crimea Genoese–Mongol Wars Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 Crimean Khanate 1783 annexation by Russia Crimean War Soviet period Crimea in World War II 1944 Crimean Tatar deportation Renaming of Crimean toponyms 1954 transfer to Ukraine Crimean Tatar repatriation Autonomous Republic of Crimea President of Crimea (historical) 2003 Tuzla Island conflict 2014 status referendum 2014 annexation by Russia Supreme Council of Crimea (until 2014) (Chairman) Prime Minister of Crimea (until 2014) Council of Ministers (until 2014) Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Geography	Arabat Spit Arabat Bay Azov Sea Black Sea Caves Marble Vyalova Crimean Mountains Kerch Strait Perekop Isthmus Pontic–Caspian steppe Southern Coast Syvash Subdivisions Cities Raions Urban-type settlements
Politics	Republic of Crimea/Autonomous Republic of Crimea Constitution Head State Council 2014 parliamentary election Sevastopol Legislative Assembly Governor 2017 election Black Sea Fleet Crimean Federal District
Economy	Tourism Crimean Bridge Crimean Trolleybus
Society	Sports Crimean Premier League Demographics Peoples Russians Ukrainians Crimean Tatars Armenians Karaites Pontic Greeks Krymchaks Crimea Germans Languages Crimean Tatar Krymchak Russian Ukrainian Religion Christianity Roman Catholicism Ukrainian Catholicism Judaism Islam
Category

v t e Turkic languages
Proto-language	Proto-Turkic
Common Turkic	Argu Argu Khalaj Karluk Western Northern Uzbek Southern Uzbek Eastern Ili Turki Uyghur Khoton Lop Äynu Old Chagatai Karakhanid Khorezmian Kipchak Bulgar Bashkir Tatar Mishar Tatar Nagaibak Old Tatar Cuman Armeno-Kipchak Crimean Tatar Cuman Karachay-Balkar Karaim Krymchak Kumyk Mamluk-Kipchak Urum Kyrgyz Fergana Kipchak Kyrgyz Pamir Kyrgyz Siberian Tatar Baraba Tom Southern Altai Telengit Teleut Nogai Dobrujan Tatar Karakalpak Kazakh Nogai Siberian Tatar Tobol-Irtysh Oghuz Salar Eastern Khorasani Turkic Turkmen Trukhmen Southern Afshari Chaharmahali Turkic Qashqai Sonqori Western Azerbaijani North Azerbaijani South Azerbaijani Ajem-Turkic Balkan Gagauz Gagauz Karapapakh Turkish Karamanli Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish Ottoman Turkish Siberian Northern Dolgan Yakut Southern Chulym Lower Chulym Sayan Steppe Tuvan Taiga Dukhan Soyot Tofa Yenisei Fuyu Kyrgyz Khakas Northern Altai Chelkan Kumandy Tuba Shor Western Yugur Old Old Uyghur Orkhon Turkic
Oghur	Bulgar Chuvash
Disputed classification	Khazar Pecheneg
Potentially Turkic languages	Di Hunnic Jie Pannonian Avar Tuoba Wusun Xiongnu
Creoles and pidgins	Hezhou Kurbet Qoqmončaq
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

• Languages

• Turkic languages
• Crimean Tatar language
• Agglutinative languages
• Kipchak languages
• Crimean Tatar culture
• Languages of Ukraine
• Languages of Russia
• Languages of Turkey
• Languages of Romania
• Languages of Bulgaria