Crimean language

Crimean language
Qəryəm
Pronunciation	ka-tron-ski
Native speakers	200,085,395 (2018) L2: 10 million
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Cuman Old Crimean Crimean language
Writing system	Officially Latin and Arabic but Cyrillic is also widely used
Official status
Official language in	Crimea
Regulated by	Crimean Nehizde Tilinen
Language codes
ISO 639-3	crm
Linguasphere	52-ABB

Crimean (qəryəm tili, къырым тили), also called Crimean Tatar (qəryəmtatar tili, къырымтатар тили) and sometimes Crimean Turkish, is a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean diasporas of Ukraine, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Uzbekistan, as well as small communities in the United States, Canada and Russian. Despite being called Crimean Tatar, it should not be confused with Tatar proper, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia; the languages are related, but belong to two different subgroups of the Kipchak languages and thus are not mutually intelligible. It has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz dialects, most notably Turkish.

Geographic distribution

Dialects

The dialects of Crimean identified by Ethnologue are: Tatar, Tat, Sharqi, Yalıboyu, Noğay, Cumanian, Yedisani, Khan's Crimean, Danubian Crimean

Script

The official script for Crimean alphabet was the Latin and Arabic alphabets. The Cyrillic alphabet was also an the official script for Crimean, until 2013, when it was replaced by Latin. This change later started a transition to Latin, which brought to a rearrangement of the alphabetical order and the elimination of the phoneme [ɪ] from the new Latin alphabet and the absorption of the phoneme [i] into a new letter: I i. A new letter, X x was also introduced (representing [ks]). The letters ъ, ь and Я я have been abolished. Although not part of the alphabet, Â â ([ja]) is sometimes used in loanwords.

In late 2015, an initiative to use the Georgian script along with the Latin was launched by various Orthodox Crimeans including Patriarch of the Crimean Orthodox Church Timerxan Hayroudinoff as a way of distancing away from Cyrillic and Russian influence. The Crimean government is currently considering to implementing Mkhedruli.

Alphabet

Latin	Arabic	Cyrillic (until 1993)	Georgian (proposed)	Name	IPA
A a	Example	A a	ა	Example	/a/
B b	Example	Б б	ბ	Example	/b/
C c	Example	Дж дж	ჯ	Example	/d͡ʒ/
Ç ç	Example	Ч ч	ჭ	Example	/t͡ʃ/
D d	Example	Д д	დ	Example	/d/
E e		Е е	ე	Example	/e/
Ə ə		Э э	ჷ	Example	/ɜ/
F f	Example	Ф ф	ჶ	Example	/f/
G g	Example	Г г	გ	Example	/g/
Ğ ğ	Example	Гъ гъ	ღ	Example	/ɣ/
H h	Example	X x	ხ	Example	/x/
I i	Example	И и	ი	Example	/i/
I ı	Example	Ы ы	მე	Example	/ɯ/
J j	Example	Ж ж	ჟ	Example	/ʒ/
K k	Example	К к	ქ	Example	/k/
L l	Example	Л л	ლ	Example	/l/
M m	Example	М м	მ	Example	/m/
N n	Example	Н н	ნ	Example	/n/
Ñ ñ	Example	Нъ нъ	ჰ	Example	/ŋ/
O o	Example	О о	ო	Example	/o/
Ö ö	Example	О о	ოე	Example	/ø/
P p	Example	П п	ფ	Example	/p/
Q q	Example	Къ къ	ყ	Example	/q/
R r	Example	P p	რ	Example	/r/
S s	Example	C c	ს	Example	/s/
Ş ş	Example	Ш ш	შ	Example	/ʃ/
T t	Example	Т т	თ	Example	/t/
U u	Example	У у	უ	Example	/u/
Ü ü	Example	Ю ю, У у	უე	Example	/y/
V v	Example	В в	ვ	Example	/v/, /w/
Y y	Example	Й й	ჲ	Example	/j/
Z z	Example	З з	ზ	Example	/z/
Ts ts	Example	Ц ц	ც	Example	/t͡s/
Mm	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

Sample of the scripts

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Crimean	Crimean Cyrillic	Georgian script (proposed)	English
Example	Example	Example	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.

Vocabulary

Numbers

Notes