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Crimean Tatar alphabet

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Crimean Tatar is written in both Latin and Cyrillic. Historically, the Persian script was also used.

Before 1990s Persian alphabet which was used by the Turks before the introduction of the new Latin-based alphabet was used but since 1990s when Verkhovna Rada of Crimea officially accepted the new Common Turkic-based Latin alphabet, it had been dominant mostly on the internet while the Soviet Cyrillic alphabet remained dominant in printed productions. After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, the Russian government requires the use of Cyrillic script only. In 2021 the Ukrainian government started the switch of Crimean Tatar language to the Latin script.[1]

The Crimean Tatar spoken in Romania has a writing system with different orthography.[2] Since 1956 is this alphabet in use,[3] including the letters Á, Ç, Ğ, Í, Î, Ñ, Ó, Ş and Ú.[3][4][5]

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History

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Arabic script

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An example of Crimean Tatar Arabic script. (Alexander Schlichter speaking during the celebration of the "five years of the liberation of Crimea", 1924)

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

Prior to its replacement, same as and in parallel with several other Arabic-based orthographies of Turkic and Caucasian languages across the Soviet Union, several improvements and standardizations were introduced in order to make the writing more clear and more closely matching spoken pronunciations, the first one being adopted in 1921, and the second in 1924.

the Crimean Tatar Arabic script Below table lists the letters used in Crimean Tatar Arabic script.[6]

More information Isolated, Final ...
  1. In initial position, when the letter ع (ayn) is used, the vowel letter is usually dropped. Examples include عسكه‌ر (asker), عبره‌ت (ibret), عثمان (osman), عمه‌ر (ömer).
    • The exception to this rule is that it can be followed by a vowel letter, in matching with the original Arabic writing of a word. عایشه (Ayşe), عالیم (Alim)
  2. The letter (kef) was often used in place of and .
  3. The letter is actually , some words with are also readed as "y", to simplified this was the character by some writers used.[7]
  4. The divergence of the three variants of the letter vav is one of the implemented conventions in the early 1920s into Crimean Tatar Arabic alphabet.
  5. Used as an h sound, and as a e sound (at the end of words). With the above mentioned modifications, the role of this letter expanded notably, in that the "final form ـه ه came to be used for the vowel sound e in the middle of the word in a lot more cases.
  6. Not an actual letter, but a common ligature.
  7. Letters shown with beige background are only used for writing of loanwords from Arabic language. They do not represent unique Crimean Tatar sounds, but sounds that are also written with other letters. Therefore, one of the implemented conventions in the early 1920s into Crimean Tatar Arabic alphabet was the acceptance (but not full enforcement, remaining optional) the removal of such letters.
    • All loandwords written with either ث (se), س (sin), or ص (sad) were to be written using س (sin).
    • All loandwords written with either ذ (zal), ز (ze), ض (zad), or ظ (za) were to be written using ز (ze).
    • All loandwords written with either ث (te) or ط (ta) were to be written using ث (te).
    • The letter ح (ha) in initial position is not pronounced in Crimean Tatar. Thus, the letter is dropped fully in the 1924 conventions.

As per the 1921 and 1924 Crimean Tatar Arabic alphabet orthographic conventions, all vowels were to be written, as shown in the table below.[6]

More information Modern Latin, Isolated ...

The distinction between front and back vowel sounds "o, u, ı" versus "ö, ü, i" weren't marked. These were derived and understood from context and in following vowel harmony rules. Below general rules are noted in Crimean Tatar, same as other Turkic languages.

  • Words that contain the vowel آ ـا (a), contain back vowels, and thus the other vowels in the word will match.
  • Words that contain the vowel اِ ـه‌ ه (e), contain front vowels, and thus the other vowels in the word will match.
  • Words that contain the consonant sounds ق (q) or غ (ğ), are followed by back vowels, and thus the other vowels in the word will match.
  • Words that contain the consonant sounds ك (k) or گ (g), are followed by front vowels, and thus the other vowels in the word will match.
  • Various grammatical suffixes that attach a word, also follow vowel harmony rules, which will follow the above-mentioned rules as well.

Latin alphabet

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An example of Crimean Tatar Latin alphabet of 1920s. In modern orthography: «KÖYLİ VE SU ANASI: Bir köyli baltasını özenge tüşürgen, su kenarında oturub qayğısından ağlamağa başlağan edi. Su anası bunı işitdi, köylini acidi ve sudan altın bir balta çıkarıb „bu seniñmi?“ deb soradı.» In Cyrillic: «КОЙЛИ ВЕ СУ АНАСЫ: Бир койли балтасыны озенге тюшюрген, су кенарында отуруб къайгъысындан агъламагъа башлагъан эди. Су анасы буны ишитди, койлини аджыды ве судан алтын бир балта чыкъарыб „бу сенинъми?“ деб сорады.»

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, the letters Ь ь, Ƣ ƣ, Ꞑ ꞑ, Ɵ ɵ, X x, Ƶ ƶ, I i instead of the modern  â, Ğ ğ, I ı, İ i, Ñ ñ, Ö ö, and Ü ü.

More information Alphabet of 1928, Alphabet of 1997 ...
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Modern alphabets

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Cyrillic

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"Welcome to Crimea" (Qırımğa hoş keldiñiz!) written in Crimean Tatar Cyrillic, airport bus, Simferopol International Airport

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.

А а Б б В в Г г Гъ гъ* Д д Е е Ё ё
Ж ж З з И и Й й К к Къ къ* Л л М м
Н н Нъ нъ* О о П п Р р С с Т т У у
Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Дж дж* Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ
Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я

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

Latin

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Crimean Tatar Latin script on the table in Bakhchysarai.

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.[8]

A a  â* B b C c Ç ç D d E e F f
G g Ğ ğ H h I ı İ i J j K k L l
M m N n Ñ ñ O o Ö ö P p Q q R r
S s Ş ş T t U u Ü ü V v Y y Z z

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

Cyrillic to Latin transliteration

More information Cyrillic, Latin ...

Sample of the scripts

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

More information Cyrillic, Latin ...
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Romania

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Letter appearance (font) of Á á, Í í, Ó ó, Ú ú unique to Crimean Tatar in Romania[9]

Literary Tatar

Tatar spoken in Romania has two distinct facets existing, interweaving and forming together the literary Tatar language "edebiy Tatarğa". One of these aspects is the authentic Tatar called "ğalpî Tatarğa" or "ğalpak Tatarğa" and the other is the academic Tatar language called "muwallímatça".[10]

  • Academic Tatar language, means writing and pronouncing Arabic and Persian neologisms - occurring mostly in science, religion, literature, arts or politics - in their original form.
  • Authentic Tatar language, means writing and pronouncing words, including those of Arabic and Persian origin, by strictly adapting them to the own phonetic system.

Naturalization

Naturalization is shifting the spelling of academic speech sounds to authentic sounds following the patterns below, where a greater-than sign indicates that one sound changes to another.[10]

f > p
v > w
v > b
ç > ş
ç > j
h > (skip over)
h > k
h > y
h > w

Letters

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Letters of Dobrujan Tatar alphabet

There is a total of 10 letters used to represent determinant sounds of which 9 mark authentic determinant sounds: a, e, i, î, í, o, ó, u, ú while the letter á is used for an academic vowel. The writing system registers authentic consonants with 17 letters: b, ç, d, g, ğ, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, ş, t, z and has three signs standing for the academic consonants: f, h, v. There are also two authentic semivowels: y, w. An old authentic Turkic consonant, the sound /ç/ represented by the letter ⟨Ç⟩ is rarely heard because authentic speakers of Tatar spoken in Dobruja spell it /ş/ as letter ⟨Ş⟩. As the written language most often follows the spoken language shifting ⟨Ç⟩ to ⟨Ş⟩, the result is that in Tatar spoken in Romania letter ⟨Ç⟩ and sound /ç/ are often treated as academic.[10]

The letters b, d, g, ğ, i, ó, u, ú, v can't occur at the end, as a last letter of the word (exception: ald and dad). Also the letter ñ can't occur as an initial letter of a word.[11]

Letter groups "aá" and "áa"

The group of letters does not symbolize two adjacent vowels, being a writing convention that shows that the reading is done according to the first vowel in the group and the inflection of the word is done according to the second vowel in the group. For example, the reading of the word kaár "care" is identical to that of kar "snow", but in the ablative case they will become kaárden "of/from care", respectively kardan "of/from snow". The group of letters áa must be treated similarly. For example, the word nikáa "wedding" is read as "niká" and its dative will be nikáaga "to/to the wedding".

Pronunciation

More information Latin character, Name ...

History

In 1956 were the discussions about the alphabet problems of Dobrujan Tatar, which was regulated by Vladimir Drîmba, a well-known Turkologist, including other professors and teachers.[3] The result was 33 letters, 10 of them vowels and 23 consonants. It was used in University of Bucharest, the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures.[4][12][10] The letter "Ç ç" is to see as "Č č" in the document of alphabet discussions, also "Ğ ğ" is more like "Ǧ ǧ".[3] But they did appear as "Ç ç" and "Ğ ğ" in the grammar books.[12] There was actually also the letter "Ţ ţ" (name: ţe).[3] The letter "Ţ ţ" was originally an academic letter representing the sound voiceless alveolar affricate [ts] and naturalized to authentic as [s] "S s".[13] It is calculated that the letter "Ţ ţ" is fully naturalized to "S s", probably by Şukran Vuap-Mocanu in 1985,[14] this means the words, which needed to be written with "Ţ ţ" are only written in authentic.

Arabic script

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A page from Metrelí kaytarmalar (مَتْرَلِ قَيْتَرْمَالَارً)

Arabic script for Turkic languages was used since the 10th century by Kara Khanids. Dobrujan Tatar did use a variant of Chagatai alphabet. It was the same version as Ottoman Turkish alphabet. The writer Taner Murat, along with some others, revived the Arabic script, he did use it in some translations and did also make transliterations to Arabic script. Taner Murat did write in a different way from the traditional version. He did marked the vowels all the time by Arabic diacritics,[15] like Xiao'erjing and different writing signs were used. Some letters unique to Arabic, were in the works of Taner Murat mostly replaced by other letters. The journal "Nazar Look" (نَظَرْ لُوقٌ), which was founded by Taner Murat, did also have a logo with Arabic script.

Letters

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1 — Only between hard vowels (a, î, o, u).

Letters not used in general writing

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Vowels

The vowels are created with the harakats (ـَ / ـِ / ـُ) also with small-alif (ـٰ / ـٖ), the long vowels are represented by «ـَا / ـِی / ـُو». The long vowels loose there function only when they are fallowed by «ـَ» and are without sukun (ـْ), these‌ (ـَا / ـَى / ـَو) are readed as „a“. The exceptional long vowels (aa, ee, ii) can be made by adding maddah (ـٓ) on the long vowel (ـَآ / ـِیٓ). The letter «ا» or «ء» [randomly] is used as a initial letter when the vowel is the first letter of the word. Also when a vowel is fallowed by a vowel or when «ـِ» is fallowed by shaddah (ـّ), «ا» is written.

Vowels as a first letter of the word

More information Character, Vowel ...

Vowels in middle and end of the word

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Long vowels

More information Character, Long vowel ...

Tanwin

More information Character, Sound ...
  • Sometimes is Tanwin mute, when it replaces Sukun, mostly end of the sentence, headline, or single word.

Other changes

More information Character, Arabic ...

Cyrillic script

There is a Cyrillic alphabet designed for Dobrujan Tatar by Taner Murat, including the letters Ә ә, Җ җ, Ң ң, Ө ө, Ў ў, Ү ү, І і.[5] It was also used in translations with transliteration.[5]

More information Cyrillic, Latin ...

Old Turkic script

Dobrujan Tatar has a version of Old Turkic script, which is designed by Taner Murat. It was also used in translations with transliteration.[5]

Vowels

More information Script, Latin ...
  • The vowels are mostly in begin and middle of the word not written.

Consonants

More information Script (hard), Script (soft) ...

Semivowels

More information Script (hard), Script (soft) ...

Diagraphs

More information Script, Latin ...

Other changes

More information Symbol, Meaning ...
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References

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