Sälam! The #weeklytongue is Tatar a Turkic language spoken by Volga Tatars mainly located at modern Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
Tatar is spoken in Russia by about 5.3 million people, in Central Asia, Ukraine, China, Finland, Turkey and other countries.
Tatar is also native for several thousand Maris and Mordva‘s Qaratay group also speak a variant of Kazan Tatar.
Tatar, along with Russian, is the official language of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The official script of Tatar language is based on the Cyrillic script with some additional letters. The Republic of Tatarstan passed a law in 1999, which came into force in 2001, establishing an official Tatar Latin alphabet. A Russian federal law overrode it in 2002, making Cyrillic the sole official script in Tatarstan since. Unofficially, other scripts are used as well, mostly Latin and Arabic. All official sources in Tatarstan must use Cyrillic on their websites and in publishing. In other cases, where Tatar has no official status, the use of a specific alphabet depends on the preference of the author.
The Tatar language was made a de facto official language in Russia in 1917, but only in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The usage of Tatar declined from the 1930s onwards and In the 1980s, the study and teaching of Tatar in the public education system was limited to rural schools. Tatar is no longer classified as an endangered language, although it is still a low-prestige language. Higher education in Tatar can only be found in Tatarstan, and is restricted to the humanities.
Tatar’s ancestors are the extinct Bulgar and Kipchak languages. Crimean Tatar is not closely related, being more akin to standard Turkish.
The literary Tatar language is based on Tatar’s Middle dialect and the Old Tatar language (İske Tatar Tele). Both are members of the Kipchak group of Turkic languages, although they are also partly derived from the ancient Volga Bulgar language.
The Tatar language has been strongly influenced by most of the Uralic languages in the Volga River area, as well as Arabic, Persian and Russian languages.
SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN TATAR
Welcome - Räxim itegez
Hello - Sälam
How are you? - Niçíksíz?
Fine thanks, and you? - Bik eybetmín, rexmet
What’s your name? - İsímígíz niçík?
My name is … - İsímím …
Where are you from? - Qayan bulasız?
Pleased to meet you - Tanışuıbızğa şatmım
Have a nice day - Xäyerle Kön
I don’t understand - Min añlamim
I don’t know - Belmim şul
Please speak more slowly - äkrenrek söyleşígízçí
Please say that again - Qabatlıyalır idígízmí?
Do you speak Tatar? - Tatarça söyläşäsezme?
Excuse me - Ğafu it(egez)How much is this? - Bu ni qader? Bu Küpme tora?
Sorry - Ğafu ütínem
Please - Zínhar öçen
Thank you – Räxmät
Where’s the toilet? - Bädräf qayda?
RANDOM REBLOG
Okay, First of all, I hope you will all forgive me for taking the week off. Holidays and Parent-Teacher conferences made for some really long work days. I know it seems like I’m fully of excuses of late but I think of most of us get that sometimes life re-orders our priorities for us.
So I’ve decided to do a re-blog each night of my Thanksgiving break to make up for not writing anything original.You all run such awesome blogs and I hope to share some of your awesome finds. This one is fantastic- I LOVE posts on lesser known languages. Complete with video, demographics, and starter phrases- talk about a great introduction to Tatar!
Rock on Polyglottions!
