Crimean Tatar

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Crimean Tatar


the language of the Tatars who lived in the Crimea until 1944 and who now reside mainly in the Uzbek SSR.

Crimean Tatar belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages. It is divided into three dialects—Northern (Steppe), Middle, and Southern (in accordance with the settlement areas of the Crimean Tatars in the past); the Southern dialect has been greatly influenced by Turkish. Certain special features of Crimean Tatar include (1) dropping of initial and final h (ava instead of hava, “air,” and saba instead of sabah, “morning”); (2) narrow vowel elision in initial or medial syllable position— (i)lyach, “medicine”; (u)sta, “master”; (u)razhay, k(i)rerim, “I will go in”; (3) genitive case forms of the first person singular and plural pronouns menim and bizim, respectively (instead of mening and bizing); and (4) the first person singular future tense form of negation -mam/-mem (yazmam, “I will not write”).

Historically, Crimean Tatar dates back to the period of decline of the Golden Horde (early 15th century). The oldest Crimean Tatar literary records date from the 17th century. The sub-dialects which evolved from the Cuman language constitute the nucleus of the modern Crimean Tatar literary language. Crimean Tatar used the Arabic alphabet until 1929 and the Latin alphabet until 1938; it has employed Russian script since 1938.


Zaatov, O. Polnyi russko-tatarskii slovar’. Simferopol’, 1906.
Samoilovich, A. Opyt kratkoi krymsko-tatarskoi grammatiki. Petrograd, 1916.
Sevortian, E. V. “Krymsko-tatarskii iazyk.” In lazyki narodov SSSR, vol. 2. Moscow, 1966.
References in periodicals archive ?
met with Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, Crimean Tatar leaders and deputy speakers of the Crimean Tartar parliament, the Mejlis.
Crimean Tartar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, a human rights activist and the former chair of the Tartar parliament in Crimea, was also a tapped as a possible winner.
Lyrically the song describes the harrowing deportations of the entire ethnic Crimean Tartar population, carried out by Stalin, from their home in Ukraine to Central Asia.
it has touched the hearts of people, even at this historical state, when under the Russian occupation of Crimea the rights and freedoms of the citizens of this Ukrainian peninsula including Crimean Tartar people are
In Crimea, Russian restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association have been fully applied, and pro-Ukrainian activists and members of the Crimean Tartar community have been targeted by paramilitary and persecuted by the de facto authorities.
Adapted from Crimean Tartar novelist and poet Cengiz Dagci's first novel Horrible Years, Burak Cem Arliel's Crimean is set during the Second World War.
Soviet rule reportedly caused the near disappearance of the Karaim language, which is closely related to that of the Crimean Tartar Muslim community which was deported from the region in 1944 by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
About ten per cent of Ukrainians also speak the Crimean Tartar language.
For that girl is Safinar, known mostly as Safi, a Crimean Tartar who with her parents and her brother, Lutfi, had been living in exile in Uzbekistan since the Second World War.
9, 1917, the Crimean People's Republic had been formed with Crimean Tartar Noman Ecelebicihan as its founding president.
BRUSSELS, Aug 27 (KUNA) -- The EU condemned Saturday the forced psychiatric confinement and examination of the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis, Ilmi Umerov, of the Crimean Tartars who was charged of separatism in May, as "a clear violation of international human rights standards.
The Seimas on Monday hosted a session of the World Congress of Crimean Tartars, which was broadcast live on the parliament's website.