Bashkir language

The Bashkir language is a Turkic language.

Speakers

The 2002 population census showed over 1,379,000 native speakers of the Bashkir language living in the Russia. Speakers of the Bashkir language mostly live in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Substantial number of the speakers also live in Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, and Kurgan Oblasts. Large Bashkir minority groups also live in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Alphabet and dialects

Even though Bashkirs originally were Ugric or Finnic tribes, they initially adopted the Bolgar language. After the Mongol invasion, the Kypchak language became more common due to the fact that it was the language spoken by the majority of the Golden Horde tribes. The modern Bashkir language, like the similar Tatar language, takes its roots from the Kypchak group of languages. Today the language has many dialects, which are very similar to Tatar. In the past, Bashkirs used Tatar as a written language. In the 15th century it was replaced with the Chagatay language (however, according to some researchers, it was replaced with the Old Tatar variant of Chagatay), which was in use until 1923. Both Tatar and Chagatay were written in Arab letters. In 1923, a writing system was specifically created for the Bashkir language. At the same time, a Bashkir literary language was created, moving away from the "bourgeois" Tatar influences. At first, it used a modified Arabic alphabet. In 1930 it was replaced with a Latin-based alphabet, which was in turn replaced with an adapted Cyrillic alphabet in winter of 1938. The alphabet used by Bashkir is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, with the addition of the following letters: Ә ә [æ], Ө ө [œ], Ү ү [y], Ғ ғ [ɣ], Ҡ ҡ [q], Ң ң [ŋ], Ҙ ҙ [ð], Ҫ ҫ [θ], Һ һ [h].

Bibliography

• Poppe, N. N., Bashkir Manual (Uralic & Altaic): 1997, ISBN-10: 0700708367 ISBN-13: 978-0700708369

External links (in Bashkir)

Bashkir language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Swadesh list in Bashkir
• "Bashinform" news agency
• "Bashkortostan" newspaper
• Site on the 450th anniversary of Bashkortostan's joining Russia
• Ufa city administration's site
• "Ural batyr" epos
• Bashkir folk songs' texts