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 The Republic of Tatarstan
Eurasia
Tatars: General Information
The Tatar language is one of the Turkic languages along
with such languages as Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz,
Azeri, Uygur etc. It is spoken throughout the territory of
modern day Russia, and there are Tatar diasporas in most
former Soviet Union republics (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine), Turkey, China, Japan, Poland,
Finland, USA, Australia etc. The Tatar language is one of
two official languages in the Republic of Tatarstan, which
is a part of the Russian Federation.
The Tatar people have a long history, which connects to
ancient Turkic states such as the Hunn Empire, Turkic
Khanates, and The Great Bulgaria. In the VII-IX centuries
Volga Bulgaria was formed on the territory of modern Ta-
tarstan. The official adoption of Islam in 922 played a big
role in the Tatars’ history. Along with the religion, the
Tatars also adopted an Arabic script and a lot of Arabic
words. In 1236 the Mongols conquered Volga Bulgaria
and added it to the Golden Horde. With its collapse in
the XIV century, the Kazan, Siberian, Astrakhan and
Kasim khanates continued their existence as successor
states of the Golden Horde. In 1552 Ivan IV “the Ter-
rible” invaded Kazan, and since then Tatars have lived as
a part of the Russian Empire. In 1920 they created the
Tatarstan Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic, and
Russia
the script changed from Arabic to Latin and then from
Latin to Cyrillic. The vocabulary also underwent big
changes because of the influence of the Russian language.
In 1990, with the collapse of the USSR, the Republic of
Tatarstan became a sovereign republic within the Russian
Federation. Tatar diasporas around the world appeared in
different eras starting with the Golden Horde period (for
example, Tatars in Lithuania and Poland), the Russian
Empire period (Tatars in Turkey and Finland), the Rus-
sian Revolutioniary period (Tatars in China, Turkey and
Japan), and the Soviet period (Tatars in the USA, Austra-
lia, Canada, and former Soviet Union republics etc.)
Now Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, is a cultural center of
the Tatar people. Every two years, Tatars from all over the
world gather for World Tatar Congress in Kazan.
The Tatar language has three dialects: Kazan, Mishar
and Siberian. Historically the Kazan dialect serves as the
literary language for all Tatars. While communicating
with different Tatars from different parts of the world,
one may hear different, easily understandable variants of
Tatar which can be explained by the historical appear-
ance and location of the diasporas. For instance, the Tatar
diasporas that moved before the Soviet Union period do
not speak Russian and do not use the vast amounts of
Russian borrowings that Tatars in Russia use.
Printed Cyrillic Alphabet

Аа Жж Мм Сс Цц Ээ
Әә Җҗ Нн Тт Чч Юю
Бб Зз Нң Уу Шш Яя
Вв Ии Оо Үү Щщ
Гг Йй Өө Фф ъ
Дд Кк Пп Хх Ыы
Ее Лл Рр Һһ ь

Handwritten Cyrillic Alphabet

Vowels
Vowels in Tatar are eather Back or Front row, depending on the position of the tongue in the mouth.
For example, in “a” the tongue is a bit back, compairing to “ә” where the tongue moves a bit forward.

Plain [a]. To pronounce it you should open your mouth wide. The sound [а] is similar to the sound in
the words: sun and butter.

Аа Examples: китап, кургаш, чуар, мисал.

When you see the letter “a” in the first syllable of the word, pronounce it as [ao]. It is similar to the sound
[a], but to pronounce it you should round your lips a little bit in order to add some of the sound [o].
Examples: катык, алма, салам, апа.
Back row
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This sound is similar to what you here in english words: man and pan-cake. But Tatar [ә] is pronounced

Әә wider and more intense.

Examples: әби, күбәләк, әле, Искәндәр.

Front row
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Оо This letter denotes a sound which is very short “o” in the word “orchestra”.
Examples: он, моң, тору, оту.

Back row
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Letter “Ө” denotes a sound which is quite close to what you hear in the English word “blur”. Lips are

Өө rounded and the tongue goes a little forward towards the lower lip.
Example: төс, көн, өчен, бөтен.
Front row
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Уу Sounds harder that “oo” in “moon”. Try moving tongue a bit back.
Example: урман, кул, су.

Back row
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Үү Sounds similar to [u] in the word “chew”.

Example: күл, күбәләк, күрү, бүлү.

Front row
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 Ее In most cases, it sounds like [i] in English word him. Other cases will be discussed later.
Example: кем, рәсем, исем, кеше.
Front row
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Ыы Sounds close to “o” in “awesome”, but longer.

Example: кыр, тавык, арыш, кыл.
Back row
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Ии Sounds like “ee” in “see”.

Examples: кич, бик, мин, ишек.
Front row
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Consonants
Tatar consonants are either voiced or unvoiced. Almost all the voiced consonants have unvoiced pair. The unvoiced pair is
pronounced exactly the same way as voiced, but lacks the voice. English example: “g” is voiced, while “k” is its invoiced pair.

Бб [б] is very similar to its English equivalent. But in Tatar there is no aspiration after it.
Examples: бавыр, бина, кәбестә, бер.
Voiced
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Пп [п] is also similar to English “p” in English word “apple”. Although there is no aspiration after it.
Examples: күпер, пәке, керпе, пәрәмәч.
Unvoiced
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First way of pronunciation is the same with English [w] in words “wonder” and “wine”. Here, the lips
come close to each other and the sudden breath pushes them apart.

Вв Examples: вак, авыл, ватык, Вәли.

In words that came to Tatar from other languages “в” is pronounced as English “v”. Here, upper teeth
and lower lips touches each other and sudden breath pushes them apart.
Voiced
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 Фф [ф] is the same with English “f ”, like in the word funny.
Example: кәеф, фән, сыйныф.
Voiced
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In many cases it is pronounced in the same way as English [g] in words go and ago.

Гг
Example: гөмбә, әгәр, түгәрәк.
If after “г” there is “a”, “о”, “ы” or “у” it is pronounced differently: move up the root (back) of your
tongue, but don’t touch the palate.
Examples: кич, бик, мин, ишек.
Voiced
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If after “к” there is “а”, “о”, “ы” or “у” it is pronounced strongly: move up the back of your tongue back
and up and touch the uvula. Sudden breath should push the back of the tongue and the uvula apart.

Кк Examples: акыл, кара, кул, кыр

Second way is to pronounce itw the same way with English [k] in kitten.
Examples: китап, көн, ике, йөрәк.
Voiced
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Дд
Don’t confuse this with English sound [d]. In Tatar it is much “dryer”. To pronounce “д” touch the upper
teeth with the tip of your tongue. Sudden breath should push them apart. Don’t forget to use the voice
Examples: адым, дәфтәр, идән, дөнья.
Voiced
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Тт “T” is the same with “д”, but don’t use your voice.
Examples: тел, китап, кибет.

Unvoiced
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This letter is used in the borrowed words only. This sound is a little bit similar to English [Ȝ] in the word
Жж garage, but pronounced harder. Hint: Pull your tongue a little back.
Examples: журналист, желе.
Voiced
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 Шш Sound like english “sh”, but harder. Pull you tongue back a little.
Examples: шәп, яхшы, инша, эш .
Voiced
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To pronounce sound [җ] use the middle of your tongue. Pull it up and pronounce sound [Ȝ]. This is

Җҗ an important sound. Practice it hard.

Examples: җылы, җавап, тәрҗемә, җеп.
Voiced
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Чч To pronounce this sound take English “ch” in chain, but don’t touch the palate with your tongue. Your
breath should flow slowly between them.
Examples: ачык, беренче, өч, кичә.
Voiced
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Зз Same with English “z” in zoo.

Examples: азык, кызыл, кызу, авыз.
Voiced
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Сс Same with English “s” in sun.

Examples: сорау, кайсы, дәрес, сүз.
Voiced
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Лл Almost same with English “l” in lost. But a bit softer.

Examples: ил, белү, алты, йола.
Voiced
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Мм Same with English “m” in main.

Example: мин, кем, имтихан, мисал.
Voiced
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 Рр
You may think this sound is close to English “R”. The difference is that the tongue should be much
closer to the teeth in Tatar variant. Another important difference is that it should vibrate.
Examples: риза, сабыр, карт хәреф.
Voiced
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A bit different from English “n”. Touch the back of your upper teeth with the tip of your tongue and say

Нн English “n”.
Examples: ун, начар, нәрсә, бүген.

Voiced
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Ңң Same with English “ng” in bang.

Examples: соң, караңгы, яңгыр, киңәш.

Voiced
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Хх Very hard “h” in hi. Usually this sound is denoted in English by letters “kh”.
Examples: хәят, хыял, хәреф, ахыр.
Unvoiced
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Һһ The same with English “Hh”.

Examples: һәм, һәйкәл, һәркем.

Unvoiced
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Йй Very short “и”. It sounds the same with English “y”.

Examples: әйе, йөрәк, аерым.

Voiced
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Щщ Same with “ч”, but used in words which came from Russian.
Example: щетка.

Unvoiced
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 Цц This letter denotes double sound — [тс]. It is used in in words which came from the Russian language.
Example: революция.

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ь,ъ This letters don’t denote any sounds, but show if the word is fron or back row in the cases it is not clear.
Example: революция.

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More vowels
There are several more letters in Tatar. The problem is that they don’t denote any new sounds: they denote double sounds.
This is the result of getting cirillic alphabet in 1939, which doesn’t suit well Tatar phonetics.

The first variant of the pronounciation is in the beginning of this chapter. Nevertheless, in the begin-
Ее ning of the word and after the vowels it means either [йе] or [йы] depending on which row the word is.
Examples: [йе] — егет, тиен; [йы] — аерым, ертык.

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Юю Has to ways of pronunciation: [йү] for front row words, and [йу] for back row words.
Examples: [йү] — юнле, юкә; [йу] — юыну, юаш.

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Яя Has two ways of pronunciation: [йа] for front row words, and [йә] for back row words.
Examples: [йә] — яшь, ярдәм; [йа] — яңа, яңгыр.

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Ээ
Same with Tatar “Ee”. It is put in place of “Ее” in the beginning of the words. Also it is used in the
foreign words.
Examples: эш, эт, энергия.

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Vocabulary
The majority of the words are of common Turkic, basic
groups of words are the same for all Turkic languages
and specifically Tatar ori gin. Another big group of
vocabulary consists of the words of Arabic and Persian
origin, the words borrowed with the adoption of Islam
and trade connections. And the third group of vocabu-
lary is the words borrowed from Russian and other
European languages. Most Arabic-Persian words and
Russian words borrowed before 1900-s submitted un-
der the rules of the Tatar phonetics. However, the words
borrowed from Russian and other European languages
through Russian are pronounced as in a target language.
Phonetics
There are 39 letters and sounds in Tatar; it means some
of the letters correspond with the several sounds.
Consonants - , vowels 9 plus 3 vowels borrowed from
Russian and used only with them.
Vowels: Row Harmony
The Tatar language is characterized by two types of
vowel harmony. First, row harmony is a peculiar feature
of the Tatar language that has words either only with the
back vowels or only with front vowels.
BACK VOWELS FRONT VOWELS
А Ү
У Ө
О Е (Э)
Ы И
The words with back vowels can be called “hard words”
and those with front vowels “soft words”. For example,
матур, тормыш, караңгы, сукояр – hard words;
күбәләк, тәртип, сикерү, тискәре – soft words.
As follows, suffixes in Tatar always have two variants,
which are correspondently added to either hard or soft
word. For example, suffix of plurality has 2 variants –лар
and –ләр, as a rule –лар is added to a hard word and
–ләр to a soft word. See, hard words with hard endings:
Казаннан, карбызмы, яңгырлы, карлы, Татарстаннан
һ.б. Soft words with soft endings: Мәскәү-дән, көн-ме,
Ләйсәнме, син-ең исем-ең, җил-ле.
Vowels: Lip Harmony
Lip harmony is characterized by the ability of labial
vowels “o” and “ө” affect forthcoming short vowels
“ы” and “e”. Under the influence of “o” and “ө” the
sounds “ы” and “e” are also labialized, however the
impact reduces to the third and fourth syllables. For
example, тормыш is pronounced more like [тормош],
өчен – [өчөн], көмешле - [көмөшле(ө)], корымлы -
[коромлы(о)].
Consonants
Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced in Tatar:
VOICED UNVOICED
CONSONANTS CONSONANTS
Б П
В Ф
Г К
Д Т
Ж Ш
Җ Ч
З С
Л Х
М Һ
Н Щ
Ң Ц
Р
All endings in Tatar have voiced and unvoiced variants.
Words ending on a voiced consonant or a vowel take endings
that start on a voiced consonant and vice versa words with
the unvoiced consonant on the end take unvoiced end-
ings. For example, locative case suffix has four variants: - да
(goes with hard words ending on a voiced consonant or a
vowel – авылда, кырда, Татарстанда), -дә (goes with soft
words ending on a voiced consonant or a vowel – шәһәрдә,
Себердә, тездә, кесәдә), - та (goes with hard word ending on
a unvoiced consonant – тормышта, борылышта, вакытта,
таракта) and –тә (goes with soft words ending on a unvoiced
consonant – бәрелештә, көрәштә, мәктәптә, бишектә).
Some suffixes have nasal variants of endings as well, that is
words endings on “м”, “н”or “ң” take endings starting with a
“н”. For example, урман-нар, Казан-нан.
2 pairs of consonants “г/к”and “б/п” interchange themselves
in intervocalic position. For example, китап – китабым,
тарак – тарагыбыз, мәктәп – мәктәбен, кәсеп – кәсебең.
In a combination “нг” “н”is pronounced as a “ң”. For example,
борынгы – [бороңгы(о)], төнге - [төңгө], онга - [оңга].
Morphology Stress
Tatar is an agglutinative language, which means that Stress is mainly on the last syllable in Tatar. For ex-
different meanings are formed by various suffixes. Suf- ample, карш’ы, көлкел’е, каршылыкл’ы, исемнәрег’ез,
fixes have specific grammatical or lexical-grammatical сәламләш’ү.
meanings. For example, in the word “дус-лар-ым-ныкы” Except the combined words, some borrowings, impera-
adding 3 suffixes we get the meaning “of my friends” tives and particles. For example, с’уүсем, компь’ютер,
where “-лар” is a suffix of plurality, “-ым” is a first person ’укы, бар’амы.
possessive suffix, and “-ныкы” is a genitive case suffix.
Verbs are very rich category in Tatar, different suffixes
and analytical forms create variety of meanings and
nuances. Different verb forms may express the intensity,
the completion, the trustworthiness, the character of
the beginning, the length, the emotionality and many
other aspects of an action.

The adjectives and adverbs can be mutually inter-

changeable. Examples:
Бу матур рәсем. This is a beautiful drawing.
Ул матур җырлый. He/she sings beautifully.

Unlike in English, there are only postpositions in Tatar.

Examples:
синең белән (“you with”) – with you;
шәһәр турында (“city about”) – about the city.

Syntax
The basic sentence pattern in Tatar is
SUBJECT → OBJECT → PREDICATE. Example:
Мин татар телен өйрәнәм.
“I Tatar language learn.”

The theme of the sentence goes before the predicate.

Examples:
Иртәгә мин дусларым белән кинотеатрга барам.
The important information here is that the subject is
going to the movie theatre and nowhere else.
Tomorrow I’m going to the movie theatre with my
friends.

Иртәгә мин кинотеатрга дусларым белән барам.

Here the theme is that subject is going together with
his friends.
Мин дусларым белән кинотеатрга иртәгә барам.
Tomorrow is the main word here.

Adjectives come before nouns in Tatar like in English.

Examples: матур шәһәр – beautiful city, сабыр кеше –
patient person, кызыклы сәяхәт – interesting trip.