Crimean Tatar language

Crimean Tatar language (, ), also known as Crimean (, ) and Crimean Turkish () is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is spoken in Crimea, the former Soviet Union, and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria.

Number of speakers

Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars are living in Crimea, and approximately 150,000 are still in exile in Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan). There is an estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin living in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities are also found in Romania (24,000), Bulgaria (3,000), Poland, Finland, and the United States.

Dialects

Each of the three sub ethnic groups of the Crimean Tatars has its own dialect. The dialect of the Noğays - former inhabitants of the Crimean steppe (should not be confused with Nogai people) - is of Kypchak origin, Yalıboylus who lived on the southern coast of Crimea before 1944 speak an Oghuz dialect very close to Turkish, and the middle dialect of the Tats from the Crimean Mountains (should not be confused with Tat people) is a mixture of the two. This dialect is a direct descendant of the Cuman language, but it has been strongly influenced by the Oghuz Turkic. Modern Crimean Tatar written language is based on this middle dialect as the Tats comprise about 55% of total Crimean Tatar population and their dialect is equally understandable for the speakers of the others.

History

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

In 1876 different Turkish Crimean dialects were made into a uniform written language by İsmail Gaspıralı. A preference was given to the Oghuz dialect of Yalıboylus in order to break the link between the Crimeans and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. In 1928 it was reoriented to the middle dialect.

In 1928 the alphabet was replaced with the Uniform Turkic Alphabet based on the Latin alphabet. The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was itself replaced in 1938 by a modified Cyrillic alphabet. Since 1990s, the script is in the process of being replaced 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 Sıdkı Çobanzade.

Current Situation

Currently, Crimean Tatar does not have an official language status in Crimea. Before the Sürgün, it had an official language status in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Crimean Tatar in comparison with other languages

Because of its history, this language has often been counted as being descended from Kypchak Turkic. Actually, Crimean Tatar is similar to both Kypchak and Oghuz Turkic languages. A Crimean Tatar speaker can understand languages of both Kypchak and Oghuz origin. Among the living Turkic languages, the closest to Crimean Tatar are Turkish, Urum of the Oghuz group, Kumyk, and Karachay-Balkar of the Kypchak group. Crimean Karaim and Krymchak languages are often cosidered to be variants of Crimean Tatar.

Crimean Tatar and Turkish

The following newspaper report compares the Crimean Tatar and Turkish languages:

2003 senesi 7 sentâbr künü Aqmescitteki İslâm Merkeziniñ binasında Qırımtatar Milliy Meclisiniñ 120-cı toplaşuvı olıp keçti. Toplaşuvda... 7 Eylül 2003 tarihinde Akmescit’teki İslam Merkezi binasında Kırım Tatar Millî Meclisi’nin genişletilmiş 120. toplantısı gerçerkleşti. Toplantıda...

Crimean Tatar	Turkish
Meclis Haberleri 10.09.2003// Qırımtatar Milliy Meclisiniñ 120-cı toplaşuvı olıp keçti	Meclis Haberleri 10.09.2003// Kırım Tatar Millî Meclisi’nin 120. toplantısı yapıldı

As can be seen these languages are quite similar.

Crimean Tatar and Tatar

Because of its common name, Crimean Tatar is sometimes considered to be a dialect of the Tatar language. This is absolutely incorrect. Of course, these tongues are related (as both are Turkic), but as it was mentioned above, the Kypchak tongues closest to Crimean Tatar are Kumyk and Karachay-Balkar, not the Tatar language.

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Crimean Tatar language