Tatar alphabet

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Two versions of the Tatar alphabet are currently used for the Tatar language. The first one is based on the Cyrillic alphabet and another one is based on the Latin alphabet.

1 Latin version
- 1.1 Pronunciation
2 Cyrillic version
- 2.1 Changing of alphabets
3 History of Tatar writing
4 See also
5 External links

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Latin version

The Latin version of the Tatar alphabet contains 35 letters. There are 10 vowels and 25 consonants. There are 10 extra letters: Çç, Ğğ, Şş, Ññ, Ää, Öö, Üü, Iı, İi and Íí. The other letters are the same in both alphabets, but they are pronounced differently.

A, Ä, B, C, Ç, D, E, F, G, Ğ, H, I, İ, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, Ö, P, Q, R, S, Ş, T, U, Ü, V, W, X, Y, Z.

Tatar vowels are: a/ä, o/ö, u/ü, í/i, ı/e.

The symbol «'» is used for the Arabic sound glottal stop (known as hamza in Tatar).

It is possible to use these letters for writing words of non-Tatar origin: Á, Â, É, Ó, Ú.

The Tatarstan government declared encoding with the characters listed above. But it also recommended using non-standard fonts for publishing. In publishing the Ə letter can be used instead of Ä, Ө instead of Ö and Ŋ instead of Ñ. Crimean Tatar has its own written form, with some differences from the Kazan Tatar orthography: there is no x, w, ä or í.

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Pronunciation

Tatar writing is completely phonetic, full WYSIWYS (what you see is what you say). This rule excludes recent loanwords, such as summit and names.

A – a as in "ugly"
Ä – ä as in "man", but less open
B – be as in "bell"
C – ce as in "jet" but without first [d]
Ç – çe as in "chair" but without first [t]
D – de as in "decade"
E – e as in "six"
F – fe as in "federal"
G – ge as in "get"
Ğ – ğı is back version of g
H – he as in "helicopter"
I – ı as in "number"
İ – i as in "kiss"
Í – í as in "mankey"
J – je as in "pleasure" (Tatar garaj = garage, pronounced as in French & English)
K – ke as in "kettle"
L – le as in "leg"
M – me as in "men"
N – ne as in "never"
Ñ – eñ as in "English"
O – o as in "orchestra"
Ö – ö as in "urge" and like German ö
P – pe as in "pen"
Q – qu as in "Iraq"
R – re as in Spanish "carro"
S – se as in "sell"
Ş – şe as in "shelf"
T – te as in "telephone"
U – u as in "oops!"
Ü – ü as in "fruit, nude" and like German ü
V – ve as in "vegetable"
W – we as in "wall"
Y – ye as in "yes"
X – xa as "kh", or like Scottish "ch" in "loch"
Z – ze as in "zebra"

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Cyrillic version

The Cyrilic version of the Tatar alphabet contains 39 letters:

А Ә Б В Г Д Е (Ё) Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ь Ы Ъ Э Ю Я

Unlike Tatar Latin, Tatar Cyrillic is not WYSIWYS.

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Changing of alphabets

Номер буквы	Original Latin Letter	New Letter (Latin)	New Letter (Cyrillic)	Transcription
1	A a	A	А	Template:IPA
	á	A hämzä belän	А һәмзә белән	Template:IPA
2	Ä ä	Ä, noqtalı A	Ә, нокталы А	Template:IPA
	Â â	A dulqın belän	А дулкын белән	Template:IPA
3	B b	Bé	Бэ	b
4	C c	Cé	Җэ	Template:IPA
5	Ç ç	Çé	Чэ	Template:IPA
6	D d	Dé	Дэ	d
7	E e	E	Э	e
	É é	E hämzä belän, ozın E	Э һәмзә белән, озын э	Template:IPA
8	F f	Éf	Эф	f
9	G g	Gé	Ге	g
10	Ğ ğ	Ğé	Гъэ	Template:IPA
11	H h	Hé	Һэ	h
12	İ i	İ	И	i
13	Í í	Í	Ый	Template:IPA
14	I ı	I	Ы	Template:IPA
15	J j	Jé	Жэ	Template:IPA
16	K k	Ké	Ке	k
17	L l	El	Эль	l
18	M m	Ém	Эм	m
19	N n	Én	Эн	n
20	Ñ ñ	Éñ	Эң	Template:IPA
21	O o	O	О	o, o:
	ó	O hämzä belän	О һәмзә белән	Template:IPA
22	Ö ö	Ö, noqtalı O	Ө, нокталы О	Template:IPA
23	P p	Pé	Пэ	p
24	Q q	Qu	Ку	q
25	R r	Ér	Эр	r
26	S s	És	Эс	s
27	Ş ş	Şa	Ша	Template:IPA
28	T t	Té	Тэ	t
29	U u	U	У	u
	ú	U hämzä belän	У һәмзә белән	Template:IPA
30	Ü ü	Ü, noqtalı U	Ү, нокталы У	Y
31	V v	Vé	Вэ	v
32	W w	Wé	Вэ (Уэ)	w
33	X x	Éx	Эх	x
34	Y y	Yé	Йэ	Template:IPA
35	Z z	Zet	Зет	z
	' - hämzä	Hämzä	Һәмзә	?

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History of Tatar writing

Before 1928, the Tatar language was usually written using the Arabic alphabet (or, more correctly, Persian alphabet) when it was written at all. The writing system was inherited from Bolgar. See Iske imla.

The most ancient of Tatar literature (in Bolgar) was created in the beginning of the 13th century. (Qíssai Yosıf by Qol-Ğäli). Until 1905 all literature was in Old Tatar, which was evolved from the Bolgar, which differed from modern Tatar. Since 1905 gazettes came to use modern Tatar in publishing. In 1918 the alphabet was revised (see: Yanga imla; some letters for Tatar sounds were added, some Arabic letters were deleted). A Latin alphabet (Janalif) was created for it in 1927. However, from 1939 until 2000, the Tatar language was written in a modified Cyrillic alphabet. The transition to a revised Latin alphabet (another version, different than Janalif) [1] should be completed in 2011, if current legal obstacles do not prevent it. Tatarstan's government as well as human rights groups strongly oppose the Russian Federal Law On Languages of Peoples of the Russian Federation passed in 2002.

The first printed Tatar book used the Armenian alphabet in the 17th century and was printed in Leipzig (However, this is disputed). Another is Peter the Great's Manifest, printed in Arabic script on the tsar's ship during his voyage to Astrakhan.

Printed books appeared en masse in 1801 when the first private typography ("Oriental typography") in Kazan appeared. The first typewriter in the Arabic alphabet was created in Tatarstan in the 1920s. See Janalif (typewriter) The Tatar Cyrillic script requires the Russian alphabet plus 6 extra letters: Әә, Өө, Үү, Җҗ, Ңң, Һһ.

Before the 1980s, extra letters were placed after the original Russian ones, but in the 1990s the extra letters were inserted after their pairmates.

The Keräşen Tatar ethnic group has used another Cyrillic alphabet, based on Russian, since the 19th century. This alphabet requires the Russian alphabet with pre-1917 orthography for Russian Christian religious words and Cyrillic letters А, О, У with umlauts for Tatar vowels and the ligature НГ (Ng). This alphabet is related to the Mari alphabet and was used because Christian Tatars couldn't use the Arabic script.

Image:New Turkic alphabets.jpg

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