A Turkic language of the Tatar people in Russia — the official language of Tatarstan, spoken by about 5 million people.
Where it’s spoken
Tatar is the second-most-spoken language in the Russian Federation after Russian. The Republic of Tatarstan (capital Kazan) is the language’s primary heartland. About 5 million speakers live across Russia (especially Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Astrakhan), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey. Russian has been displacing Tatar in many urban areas.
What it sounds like
Tatar has vowel harmony and nine vowels (including the high central ы). The consonant system includes several distinctive sounds — the uvular q, the velar fricative x, and palatalization patterns. Stress is generally on the final syllable.
How it’s written
Tatar has used Arabic script (until 1927), the Yañalif Latin alphabet (1927–1939), Cyrillic (since 1939 with 39 letters), and a new Latin alphabet that was proposed in 1999 but blocked from official use by a 2002 Russian federal law. Practical use today is overwhelmingly Cyrillic, with Latin in unofficial and online contexts.
History
Volga Bulgar Turkic ancestors of Tatar were the language of the medieval Volga Bulgaria. Tatar literature flourished from the 13th century onward. The Soviet era brought widespread literacy alongside Russification pressure.
Find more languages by letter
Tatar starts with T and ends with R. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Tatar":