Tatar is a Turkic language with about 7 million speakers in Russian
republic of Tatarstan, and also in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey (Europe), Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
USA and Uzbekistan.
Tatar has been written with a number of different alphabets: before the
9th century AD it was written with the Orkhon alphabet;
then with a version of the Arabic alphabet until 1920. A modified version of
the Arabic alphabet known as Yaña imlâ or new orthography was used
between 1920 and 1927. Since then it has been written
with the Cyrillic alphabet and a number of versions of the Latin alphabet.
Arabic alphabet for Tatar
Tatar was written using the variant of the Arabic alphabet shown below
from the 9th century until 1920.
Latin alphabet for Tatar (Jaŋalif)
Between 1927 and 1939 Tatar was written with the version of the Latin alphabet
shown below.
Cyrillic alphabet for Tatar (татар әлифбасы)
In 1939 the Cyrillic alphabet was imposed by Stalin. Stalin wanted to discourage
contact between the Turkic republics and Turkey and worried about the development
of alliances which might undermine the authority of the Soviet Union.
Notes
Tatar has vowel harmony: front vowels are ә, э(e), и, ө and ү, back vowels are а, ы, ый, о, у
Stress always falls on the final syllabe e.g. ничек /ni'ɕek/
a = [ɒ] word initially and after an a pronounced [ɒ]
Ё, Ж, Ц and Щ are only used in Russian loanwords. в = /v/ only in russian loanwords e.g. врач /vratɕ/
ф mostly appears in loanwords, but also in a few native words, e.g. яфрак, калфак
Notes and some corrections provided by 이윤호
2001 Latin alphabet for Tatar (tatar әlifbası)
In 2001 the authorities in Tatarstan decided to switch back to the modified
version of Latin alphabet to write Tatar.
Sample text in Tatar in the Cyrillic alphabet
Барлык
кешеләр дә азат
һәм үз абруйлары
һәм хокуклары
ягыннан тиң
бупып туапар.
Аларга акыл һәм
вөҗдан бирелгән
һәм бәр-бәрсенә
карата туганнарча
мөнасәбәттә
булырга тиешләр.
Sample Tatar text in the Latin alphabet (Zamanälif)
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. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help. It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free.
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