Bashkir language

Bashkir (UK: /bæʃˈkɪər/,[2] US: /bɑːʃˈkɪər/;[3] Bashkir: Башҡорт теле, romanized: Bashqort tele, [bɑʂ'qʊ̞ɾt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞] [4]) is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. It is co-official with Russian in Bashkortostan. It is spoken by 1.09 million native speakers in Russia, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia and other neighboring post-Soviet states, and among the Bashkir diaspora. It has three dialect groups: Southern, Eastern and Northwestern.[1]

Bashkir
башҡорт теле (башҡортса)
bashqort tele (bashqortsa)
باشقۇرت تئلئباشقرد تلی
Bashkir in Cyrillic, Latin, and Perso-Arabic scripts
Pronunciation[bɑʂ'qʊ̞ɾt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞]
Native toBashkortostan (Russian Federation)
RegionVolga, Ural region
EthnicityBashkirs
Native speakers
1.2 million (2020 census)[1]
Turkic
Early form
Cyrillic (Bashkir alphabet)
Official status
Official language in
 Bashkortostan (Russia)
Regulated byInstitute of history, language and literature of the Ufa Federal research center the RAS
Language codes
ISO 639-1ba
ISO 639-2bak
ISO 639-3bak
Glottologbash1264
Linguasphere44-AAB-bg
Geographic distribution of Bashkir language in the Russian Empire according to 1897 census
Bashkir is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Speakers

Bashkirs in Russia by administrative districts (raions) in 2010

Speakers of Bashkir mostly live in the republic of Bashkortostan (a republic within the Russian Federation). Many speakers also live in Tatarstan, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Oblasts and other regions of Russia. Minor Bashkir groups also live in Kazakhstan and other countries.

Classification

Bashkir together with Tatar belongs to the Bulgaric (Russian: кыпчакско-булгарская) subgroups of the Kipchak languages. These languages have a similar vocabulary by 94.9%,[5] and they not only have common origin, but also a common ancestor in the written language — Volga Turki.However, Bashkir differs from Tatar in several important ways:

  • Bashkir has dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ in the place of Tatar (and other Turkic) /s/ and /z/. Bashkir /θ/ and /ð/, however, cannot begin a word (there are exceptions: ҙур – "zur" [ðuɾ] 'big', and the particle/conjunction ҙа – "za" [ða] or ҙә – "zə" [ðæ]. The only other Turkic language with a similar feature is Turkmen. However, in Bashkir, /θ/ and /ð/ are two independent phonemes, distinct from /s/ and /z/, whereas in Turkmen [θ] and [ð] are the two main realizations of the common Turkic /s/ and /z/. In other words, there are no /s/ and /z/ phonemes in Turkmen, unlike Bashkir which has both /s/ and /z/ and /θ/ and /ð/.
  • The word-initial and morpheme-initial /s/ is turned into /h/. An example of both features can be Tatar сүз (süz) and Bashkir һүҙ (hüz), both meaning "word".
  • Common Turkic // (Tatar /ɕ/) is turned into Bashkir /s/, e.g., Turkish ağaç [aˈatʃ], Tatar агач ağaç [ɑˈʁɑɕ] and Bashkir ағас – ağas [ɑˈʁɑs], all meaning "tree".
  • The word-initial /ʑ/ in Tatar always corresponds to /j/ in Standard Bashkir, e.g., Tatar җылы cılı [ʑɤˈlɤ] and Bashkir йылы – yılı [jɯˈɫɯ], both meaning "warm". However, the eastern and northern dialects of Bashkir have the /j/ > /ʑ~ʒ/ shift.

The Bashkir orthography is more explicit. /q/ and /ʁ/ are written with their own letters Ҡ ҡ and Ғ ғ, whereas in Tatar they are treated as positional allophones of /k/ and /ɡ/, written К к and Г г.

Labial vowel harmony in Bashkir is written explicitly, e.g. Tatar тормышым tormışım and Bashkir тормошом – tormoşom, both pronounced [tʊɾ.mʊˈʂʊm], meaning "my life".[6]

Orthography

Trilingual sign in Ufa Airport in Bashkir, Russian and English
Bashkir keyboard layout

After the adoption of Islam, which began in the 10th century and lasted for several centuries, the Bashkirs began to use Turki as a written language. Turki was written in a variant of the Arabic script.

In 1923, a writing system based on the Arabic script was specifically created for the Bashkir language. At the same time, the Bashkir literary language was created, moving away from the older written Turkic influences. At first, it used a modified Arabic alphabet. In 1930 it was replaced with the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet, which was in turn replaced with an adapted Cyrillic alphabet in 1939.

The modern alphabet used by Bashkir is based on the Russian alphabet, with the addition of the following letters: Ә ә /æ/, Ө ө /ø/, Ү ү /ʏ/, Ғ ғ /ʁ/, Ҡ ҡ /q/, Ң ң /ŋ/, Ҙ ҙ /ð/, Ҫ ҫ /θ/, Һ һ /h/.[6]

А аБ бВ вГ гҒ ғД дҘ ҙЕ еЁ ё
Ж жЗ зИ иЙ йК кҠ ҡЛ лМ мН н
Ң ңО оӨ өП пР рС сҪ ҫТ тУ у
Ү үФ фХ хҺ һЦ цЧ чШ шЩ щЪ ъ
Ы ыЬ ьЭ эӘ әЮ юЯ я
Letters and symbols of the Bashkir Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic versionPronunciationNotes
Аа[ɑ], [a]"A" is usually pronounced as [ɑ] in all syllables except last, in last syllable it is pronounced as [a].
Бб[b], [β][β] is the intervocal allophone.
Вв[v], [w][v] in Russian loanwords, [w] in Arabic and Persian loanwords.
Гг[ɡ]
Ғғ[ʁ]
Дд[d]
Ҙҙ[ð]
Ее[jɪ], [ɪ]The letter is iotated at the beginning of a word, after a vowel or after a soft or hard sign.
Ёё[jɔ]Only used in Russian loanwords.
Жж[ʐ]Only occurs in loanwords and onomatopoeia
Зз[z]
Ии[e]
Йй[j]
Кк[k]
Ҡҡ[q]
Лл[l], [ɫ]In front vowel contexts occurs as apical [l], in back vowel contexts occurs as [ɫ].
Мм[m]
Нн[n]
Ңң[ŋ], [ɴ]In front vowel contexts occurs as [ŋ], in back vowel contexts occurs as [ɴ].
Оо[ʊ]
Өө[ø]
Пп[p]
Рр/r/, [ɾ][ɾ] is the intervocal allophone.
Сс[s]
Ҫҫ[θ]
Тт[t]
Уу[u], [w]These two letters are used for /w/ phoneme when they are written after a back or front vowel respectively.
Үү[ʏ], [w]
Фф[ɸ]
Хх[χ]
Һһ[h]
Цц[ts]
Чч[tɕ]
Шш[ʂ]
Щщ[ɕː]Only occurs in loanwords.
Ъъ[ʔ]Indicates the glottal stop in back vowel contexts, if placed after a vowel.
Ыы[ɯ]
Ьь[ʔ]Indicates the glottal stop in front vowel contexts, if placed after a vowel.
Ээ[ɪ]
Әә[æ]
Юю[ju]
Яя[jɑ], [ja]

Phonology

Vowels

Bashkir has nine native vowels, and three or four loaned vowels (mainly in Russian loanwords).[7]

Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately thus (with the Cyrillic letter followed by the usual Latin romanization in angle brackets):[8]

FrontBack
SpreadRoundedSpreadRounded
Closeи i
[ɪ]
ү ü
[y~ʉ]
ы ı
[ɯ]
у u
[ʊ]
Midэ, е e
[e~ɘ]
ө ö
[ø̝~ɵ]
о o
[o~ɤ]
Openә ä
[æ]
а a
[ɑ]

In Russian loans there are also [ɨ], [ɛ], [ɔ] and [ä], written the same as the native vowels: ы, е/э, о, а respectively.[7]

Historical shifts

Historically, the Old Turkic mid vowels have raised from mid to high, whereas the Old Turkic high vowels have become the Bashkir reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened in Tatar.)[9][6]

VowelOld TurkicTatarBashkirGloss
*e /ɛ/*etitit /it/'meat'
*ö /œ/*sözsüzhüź /hʏð/'word'
*o /ɔ/*solsulhul /huɫ/'left'
*i /i/*itetet /ɪt/'dog'
*ï /ɤ/*qïzqızqıź /qɯð/'girl'
*u /u/*qumqomqom /qʊm/'sand'
*ü /y/*külkölköl /køl/'ash'

Consonants

The consonants of Bashkir[7]
BilabialLabio-
dental
DentalAlveolarPost-
alveolar
/
Palatal
VelarUvularGlottal
Nasalsм m
/m/
н n
/n/
ң ñ
/ŋ/
ң ñ
[ɴ]²
PlosivesVoicelessп p
/p/
т t
/t/
к k
[c]²
к k
/k/
ҡ q
/q/
ь/ъ 
/ʔ/¹
Voicedб b
/b/
д d
/d/
г g
[ɟ]²
г g
/ɡ/
FricativesVoicelessф f
/f/¹
ҫ ś
/θ/
с s
/s/
ш ş
/ʃ/
х x
/χ/
һ h
/h/
Voicedб b
[β]²
в v
/v/¹
ҙ ź
/ð/
з z
/z/
ж j
/ʒ/
ғ ğ
/ʁ/
Trillр r
/r/
Approximantsл l
/l/
й y
/j/
у/ү/в w
/w~ɥ/
Notes
The phonemes /f/, /v/, /ʔ/ are found only in loanwords, and, in the case of /ʔ/, in a few native onomatopoeic words.
[β] is an intervocal allophone of [b], and it is distinct from [w]. [ɴ] is an allophone of [ŋ] in back vowel contexts. [c] and [ɟ] occur as allophones of [k] and [g] before [e], and both occur only in front vowel contexts.
  • /θ, ð/ are dental [θ, ð], and /ɾ/ is apical alveolar [ɾ]. The exact place of articulation of the other dental/alveolar consonants is unclear.

Grammar

A member of the Turkic language family, Bashkir is an agglutinative, SOV language.[7][10] A large part of the Bashkir vocabulary has Turkic roots; and there are many loan words in Bashkir from Russian, Arabic and Persian sources.[6]

RussianArabicPersian
in BashkirEtymologyTranslationin BashkirEtymologyTranslationin BashkirEtymologyTranslation
минут (minut)from "минута" (minuta)minuteваҡыт (waqıt)from "وَقْت" (waqt)timeдуҫ (duś)from "دوست" (dost)friend
өҫтәл (öśtəl)from "стол" (stol)table, deskвәғәҙә (wəğəźə)from "وَعْدَ" (waʿda)promiseһәр (hər)from "هر" (har)every
сыр (sır)from "сыр" (syr)cheeseйәннәт (yənnət)from "جَنَّة" (janna)paradiseкөмбәҙ (kömbəź)from "گنبد" (gonbad)cupola

Plurality

The form of the plural suffix is heavily dependent on the letter which comes immediately before it. When it's a consonant, there is a four-way distinction between "л" (l), "т" (t), "ҙ" (ź) and "д" (d); The vowel's distinction is two-way between "а" (after back vowels "а" (a), "ы" (ı), "о" (o), "у" (u)) and "ә" (after front vowels "ә" (ə), "е" (e), "и" (i), "ө" (ö), "ү" (ü)). Some nouns are also less likely to be used with their plural forms such as "һыу" (hıw, "water") or "ҡом" (qom, "sand").[6]

suffix consonant
-лар, -ләрafter all vowels except for и (iy)баҡса (baqsa), "garden"

Pl.: баҡсалар (baqsalar)

сәскә (səskə), "flower"

Pl.: сәскәләр (səskələr)

-тар, -тәрmostly after hard consonants – б (b), д (d), г (g), ф (f), х (x), һ (h), к (k), ҡ (q), п (p), с (s), ш (ş), ҫ (ś), т (t)дуҫ (duś), "friend"

Pl.: дуҫтар (duśtar)

төҫ (töś), "colour"

Pl.: төҫтәр (töśtär)

-ҙар, -ҙәрafter approximants and some others – ҙ (ź), и (iy), р (r), у/ү (w), й (y)тау (taw), "mountain"

Pl.: тауҙар (tawzar)

өй (öy), "house"

Pl.: өйҙәр (öyzər)

-дар, -дәрafter nasals and some others – ж (j), л (l), м (m), н (n), ң (ñ), з (z)һан (han), "number"

Pl.: һандар (handar)

көн (kön), "day"

Pl.: көндәр (köndər)

Declension table

[6]suffixconsonant alteration (see the "plurality" table)after the plural suffixexamples
Nominative
Genitive-нең"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)-ҙеңтелдең (teldeñ), "the language's"
-ның-ҙыңбаштың (baştıñ), "the head's"
-ноң-ҙыңтоҙҙоң (toźźoñ), "the salt's"
-нөң-ҙеңтөштөң (töştöñ), "the dream's"
Dative-гә-гәтелгә (telgə), "(to) the language"
-кәтөшкә (töşkə), "(to) the dream"
-ға-ғатоҙға (toźğa), "(to) the salt"
-ҡабашҡа (başqa), "(to) the head"
Accusative-не"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)-ҙетелде (telde), "the language"
-ны-ҙыбашты (baştı), "the head"
-но-ҙытоҙҙо (toźźo), "the salt"
-нө-ҙетөштө (töştö), "the dream"
Locative-лә"л" (l), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)-ҙәтелдә (teldə), "in the language"
-ла-ҙабашта (başta), "in the head"
Ablative-нән"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)-ҙәнтелдән (teldən), "from the language"
-нан-ҙанбаштан (baştan), "from the head"
Declension of pronouns[6]
Interrogative pronounsPersonal pronouns
CasewhowhatSingularPlural
Iyou (thou)he, she, itweyouthey
Nominativeкем
kem
нимә
nimə
мин
min
һин
hin
ул
ul
беҙ
beź
һеҙ
heź
улар
ular
Genitiveкемдең
kemdeñ
нимәнең
niməneñ
минең
mineñ
һинең
hineñ
уның
unıñ
беҙҙең
beźźeñ
һеҙҙең
heźźeñ
уларҙың
ularźıñ
Dativeкемгә
kemgə
нимәгә
niməgə
миңә
miñə
һиңә
hiñə
уға
uğa
беҙгә
beźgə
һеҙгә
heźgə
уларға
ularğa
Accusativeкемде
kemde
нимәне
niməne
мине
mine
һине
hine
уны
unı
беҙҙе
beźźe
һеҙҙе
heźźe
уларҙы
ularźı
Locativeкемдә
kemdə
нимәлә
nimələ
миндә
mində
һиндә
hində
унда
unda
беҙҙә
beźźə
һеҙҙә
heźźə
уларҙа
ularźa
Ablativeкемдән
kemdən
нимәнән
nimənən
минән
minən
һинән
hinən
унан
unan
беҙҙән
beźźən
һеҙҙән
heźźən
уларҙан
ularźan
Demonstrative pronouns[6]
CaseSingularPlural
thisthatthesethose
Nominativeбыл
bıl
ошо
oşo
шул
şul
теге
tege
былар
bılar
ошолар
oşolar
шулар
şular
тегеләр
tegelər
Genitiveбының
bınıñ
ошоноң
oşonoñ
шуның
şunıñ
тегенең
tegeneñ
быларҙың
bılarźıñ
ошоларҙың
oşolarźıñ
шуларҙың
şularźıñ
тегеләрҙең
tegelərźeñ
Dativeбыға
bığa
ошоға
oşoğa
шуға
şuğa
тегегә
tegegə
быларға
bılarğa
ошоларға
oşolarğa
шуларға
şularğa
тегеләргә
tegelərgə
Accusativeбыны
bını
ошоно
oşono
шуны
şunı
тегене
tegene
быларҙы
bılarźı
ошоларҙы
oşolarźı
шуларҙы
şularźı
тегеләрҙе
tegelərźe
Locativeбында
bında
ошонда
oşonda
шунда
şunda
тегендә
tegendə
быларҙа
bılarźa
ошоларҙа
oşolarźa
шуларҙа
şularźa
тегеләрҙә
tegelərźə
Ablativeбынан
bınan
ошонан
oşonan
шунан
şunan
тегенән
tegenən
быларҙан
bılarźan
ошоларҙан
oşolarźan
шуларҙан
şularźan
тегеләрҙән
tegelərźən

References

Further reading

  • Poppe, Nicholas (1997) [1964]. Bashkir Manual. Routledge. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-7007-0836-9.
  • Грамматика современного башкирского литературного языка (in Russian). Москва: Наука. 1981.
  • Дмитриев, Н. К. (1948). Грамматика башкирского языка (in Russian). Из-во АН СССР.

External links