Crimean Tatar language

Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea. Approximately 120,000 reside in Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan), where their ancestors had been deported 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. An estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin live in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities such as (Dobrujan Tatars) are also found in Romania () and Bulgaria (). Almost all Crimean Tatars are bilingual or multilingual, using the dominant languages of their respective home countries, such as Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Uzbek, Bulgarian or Ukrainian. ==Classification and dialects==

The Crimean Tatar language consists of three or four dialects. Among them is also the southern dialect, also known as the coastal dialect (yalıboyu, cenübiy), which is in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages commonly spoken in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Romania There is also a variety of the Crimean Tatar language spoken in Romania. It includes Crimean Tatar and Nogai dialects, but today there is no longer a sharp distinction between the dialects. This language belongs to the Kipchak Turkic languages, specifically to the Kipchak-Nogai group. • 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. • Keríş • Şoñgar • Tat • Ğemboylîk • Ğedísan • Ğetíşkul Some sources define the dialects according to their level of influence by Oghuz languages. • The language with moderate Oghuz influence is spoken by about 70% of Tatars. It is spoken mainly in the south and center of Constanța. • The language with little Oghuz influence is spoken by about 20% Tatars. It is spoken in Tulcea, near and far north of Constanța, and is the most conservative in preserving Kipchak elements. • The language with high Oghuz influence is spoken by about 10% of Tatars. It is spoken around the city of Hacıoğlu Pazarcık (Dobrich) and is the closest to Oghuz languages. ==History==

The formation period of the Crimean Tatar spoken dialects began with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea by Cumans and Pechenegs 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. During the 1990s and 2000s, the government of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea under Ukraine encouraged replacing the script with a Latin version again, but the Cyrillic has still been widely used (mainly in published literature, newspapers and education). The current Latin-based Crimean Tatar alphabet is the same as the Turkish alphabet, with two additional characters: Ñ ñ and Q q. In the Russian-annexed "Republic of Crimea" all official communications and education in Crimean Tatar are conducted exclusively in the Cyrillic alphabet. As part of soviet authorities efforts to destroy Crimean Tatar identity Crimean Tatar books were destroyed and education was banned in the language and by soviet authorities following the Sürgünlik. Similarly following the Russian annexation of Crimea access to education and media in Crimean Tatar has been suppressed by Russian authorities. ==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, and are realized close to , even though they are phonologically distinct. Consonants In addition to these phonemes, Crimean also displays marginal phonemes that occur in borrowed words, especially palatalized consonants. The southern (coastal) dialect substitutes for , e.g. standard qara 'black', southern xara. At the same time the southern and some central dialects preserve glottal which is pronounced in the standard language. The northern dialect on the contrary lacks and , substituting for and for . The northern is usually , often in the place of , compare standard dağ and northern taw 'mountain' (also in other Oghuz and Kipchak languages, such as and ). and are usually fronted, close to and . == Grammar ==

The grammar of Crimean Tatar, like all Turkic languages, is agglutinating, with the exclusive use of suffixing to express grammatical categories. Generally, suffixes are attached to the ends of word stems, although derivational morphology makes uses of compounding as well. Crimean Tatar is a pro-drop language with a generally SOV word order. Morphophonology Crimean Tatar, like most Turkic languages, features pervasive vowel harmony, which results in sound changes when suffixes are added to verb or noun stems. Essentially, the vowel in a suffix undergoes assimilation to agree in certain categories with the vowel in the stem. The two main types of assimilation that characterize this agreement in Crimean Tatar morphophonology are backness harmony and rounding harmony. Some consonants undergo similar harmonizing changes depending on whether the preceding segment is voiced or voiceless, or whether the segment demonstrates backness harmony. Consonants that alternate between [k], [q], [g] and [ɣ] are represented as K, alternating [k] and [g] as G, alternating [t] and [d] by D, and alternating [tʃ] and [dʒ] as Ç. Thus, the suffix -şAr could be rendered as "şar" or "şer" depending on the vowel in the morpheme preceding it. Verbs are conjugated according to the following paradigm: :: It is possible, albeit rare, for a single verb to contain all of these possible components, as in: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 For the most part, each type of suffix would only appear once in any given word, although it is possible in some circumstances for causative suffixes to double up. Infinitive verbs take the -mAK suffix and can be negated by the addition of the suffix -mA between the verb stem and the infinitive suffix, creating verb constructions that do not easily mirror English. {{fs interlinear|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Verb derivation Novel verb stems are derived chiefly by applying a verbalizing suffix to a noun or adjective, as demonstrated in the following examples: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Bare verb stems can also be compounded with noun stems to create new verbs, as in: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Person markers There are two types of person markers for finite verbs, pronominal and possessive. Depending on tense and mood, verbs will take one or the other set of endings. :: ::: Grammatical person is not marked in third person singular, and the marker is optional in third person plural. As shown above, these markers come as the last element in the broader verb complex. Tense and aspect markers Grammatical tense and aspect are expressed in combination by the addition of various markers to the verb stem. Some of these markers match with pronominal person markers, while others take possessive person markers. Each tense/aspect has an associated negation marker; most of these are -mA but there is some variation. :: Mood The imperative is formed using a specific set of person markers, and negated using -mA. In second person imperatives, only the bare verb stem is used. A first person imperative expresses an "I/we should do X" sentiment, whereas third person expresses "let him/her do X," as shown below with unut ("to forget"): :: Other moods are constructed similarly to tense/aspect forms. :: Voice Grammatical voice is expressed by the addition of suffixes which come in sequence before negation, tense, aspect, mood and person markers. There are several causative suffixes which vary depending on the ending of the verb stem. :: Copula The copula ol ("to be, become, exist") is generally expressed as a predicate suffix in the present tense, closely resembling the pronominal person endings, as displayed below. express sequential or dependent action. Present tense converbs are formed by the addition of the suffixes -A (used after consonants) and -y (used after vowels). In past tense, converbs take the suffix -Ip. Thus: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Nouns Crimean Tatar noun stems take suffixes which express grammatical number, case and possession. As in all other Turkic languages, there is no grammatical gender in Crimean Tatar. Nouns are declined according to the following paradigm: Similarly, a bare verb stem can take a deverbal suffix that converts it into a noun. There are many such denominal and deverbal suffixes in Crimean Tatar; some common suffixes are shown below: : Noun stems can also be reduplicated, which lends a more generalized meaning. The last method of noun derivation is through the compounding of two noun stems. Thus: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Number Nouns are pluralized by the addition of the suffix -lAr to the noun stem. The vowel in this plural suffix agrees phonetically with the final vowel in the stem. as in: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Possession Possession is expressed through person-specific suffixing. As with the plural suffix, possession suffixes harmonize with the preceding vowel in regular ways. The nominative case is unmarked, and the remaining cases are expressed through suffixing. These suffixes come last in a fully declined noun. There are two roots, öz- and kendi-, that express reflexivity. Of the two, kendi- is more common in the southern dialect, but both are used throughout the entire area in which Crimean Tatar is spoken. as in: :: Adjectives Adjectives in Crimean Tatar precede the nouns they modify. They do not show agreement, and as such do not take any of the case, person or possession suffixes. Adjectives can be derived by the addition of certain suffixes to a noun or verb stem. SUF:adjectival suffix The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are expressed, respectively, by the suffix -ÇA and the particle eñ, :: :: Postpositions Crimean Tatar uses postpositions. Each postposition governs a specific case, either dative, genitive or ablative. Some common postpositions are shown below: :: ==Writing systems==

Crimean Tatar is 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. Historically, the Arabic script was used from the sixteenth century. In the Soviet Union, it was replaced by a Latin alphabet based on Yañalif in 1928, and by a Cyrillic alphabet in 1938. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Cyrillic became the sole script allowed in Russian occupied Crimea because according to the Constitutional Court of Russia decision made in 2004, all languages of Russia must use Cyrillic. The Crimean Tatar language in Romania did get a Latin alphabet in 1956, Most of the teachers who taught at the Tatar language department graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan State University (located in Tatarstan, Russia), specializing in Tatar language and literature. Arabic alphabet Crimean Tatars used Arabic script from the 16th century to 1928. Note: • The letter ﻙ (kef) is often used in place of ﮒ and ﯓ. Latin alphabet  â is not considered to be a separate letter. Usually it represents the near-open front unrounded vowel, /æ/. Latin alphabet in Romania In Romania, the Crimean Tatar language uses a different orthography. 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. Cyrillic alphabet The digraphs гъ, къ, нъ and дж are separate letters. == Sample text ==

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Crimean Tatar Latin alphabet:Bütün insanlar serbestlik, menlik ve uquqlarda musaviy olıp dünyağa keleler. Olar aqıl ve vicdan saibidirler ve biri-birilerinen qardaşçasına munasebette bulunmalıdırlar.Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: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. ==Legal status==

The Crimean peninsula is internationally recognized as territory of Ukraine, but since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea is de facto administered as part of the Russian Federation. According to Russian law, by the April 2014 constitution of the Republic of Crimea and the 2017 Crimean language law, Russian and Crimean Tatar languages enjoy a "protected" () status; every citizen is entitled, at his request (), to receive government documents, such as "passport, birth certificate and others" in Crimean Tatar; but Russian is the language of interethnic communication and to be used in public life. According to the constitution of Ukraine, Ukrainian is the state language. Recognition of Russian and Crimean Tatar was a matter of political and legal debate. Before the Sürgünlik, 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. The Government of Romania recognises the Crimean Tatar community and their language. Fifth of May is the official Tatar Language Day in Romania. == Media ==

The first Crimean Tatar newspaper was Terciman published in 1883-1918 by Ismail Gasprinsky. Some other Crimean Tatar media include: ATR, Qırım Aqiqat, Qırım, Meydan, Qırım Alemi, Avdet, Yañı Dünya, Yıldız. There are some Tatar magazines in Romania, as well as novels, dictionaries, poetry books, school books and science books. Tatar learning rubrics called "Tatarşa üyrenemĭz" (; "We learn Tatar") and the TV show "''Romanya'dan Tatarlar" (; "Tatars from Romania") were also broadcast on Romanian television. However, this version of the language is not supported in language keyboards or in machine translation. But there is a project trying to collect text data for Crimean Tatar (Romania). The project is titled as Crimean Tatar (Romania) Language Corpus'', "this focuses on collecting text sources specifically for the Dobrujan Tatar dialect, adhering to a particular orthography and linguistic norm established by Taner Murat and the Tatar language section of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Bucharest." == Notes ==