Bashkir_language
Bashkir or Bashkort[2] (UK: /bæʃˈkɪər/,[3] US: /bɑːʃˈkɪər/;[4] Bashkir: Башҡорт теле, romanized: Bashqort tele, [bɑʂ'qʊ̞ɾt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞] ⓘ[5]) 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 تئلئ • باشقرد تلی | |
Bashkir in Cyrillic, Latin, and Perso-Arabic scripts | |
| Pronunciation | [bɑʂ'qʊ̞ɾt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞] ⓘ |
| Native to | Bashkortostan (Russian Federation) |
| Region | Volga, Ural region |
| Ethnicity | Bashkirs |
Native speakers | 1.2 million (2020 census)[1] |
Turkic
| |
Early form | |
| Cyrillic (Bashkir alphabet) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Bashkortostan (Russia) |
| Regulated by | Institute of history, language and literature of the Ufa Federal research center the RAS |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ba |
| ISO 639-2 | bak |
| ISO 639-3 | bak |
| Glottolog | bash1264 |
| Linguasphere | 44-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 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.
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%,[6] 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 /tʃ/ (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".[7]
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/.[7]
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Ғ ғ | Д д | Ҙ ҙ | Е е | Ё ё |
| Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Ҡ ҡ | Л л | М м | Н н |
| Ң ң | О о | Ө ө | П п | Р р | С с | Ҫ ҫ | Т т | У у |
| Ү ү | Ф ф | Х х | Һ һ | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ |
| Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ә ә | Ю ю | Я я |
| Cyrillic version | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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] |
Vowels
Bashkir has nine native vowels, and three or four loaned vowels (mainly in Russian loanwords).[8]
Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately thus (with the Cyrillic letter followed by the usual Latin romanization in angle brackets):[9]
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spread | Rounded | Spread | Rounded | |
| Close | и ⟨i⟩ [ɪ] |
ү ⟨ü⟩ [y~ʉ] |
ы ⟨ı⟩ [ɯ] |
у ⟨u⟩ [ʊ] |
| Mid | э, е ⟨e⟩ [e~ɘ] |
ө ⟨ö⟩ [ø̝~ɵ] |
о ⟨o⟩ [o~ɤ] | |
| Open | ә ⟨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.[8]
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.)[10][7]
| Vowel | Old Turkic | Tatar | Bashkir | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *e /ɛ/ | *et | it | it /it/ | 'meat' |
| *ö /œ/ | *söz | süz | hüź /hʏð/ | 'word' |
| *o /ɔ/ | *sol | sul | hul /huɫ/ | 'left' |
| *i /i/ | *it | et | et /ɪt/ | 'dog' |
| *ï /ɤ/ | *qïz | qız | qıź /qɯð/ | 'girl' |
| *u /u/ | *qum | qom | qom /qʊm/ | 'sand' |
| *ü /y/ | *kül | köl | köl /køl/ | 'ash' |
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | м ⟨m⟩ /m/ |
н ⟨n⟩ /n/ |
ң ⟨ñ⟩ /ŋ/ |
ң ⟨ñ⟩ [ɴ]² |
|||||
| Plosives | Voiceless | п ⟨p⟩ /p/ |
т ⟨t⟩ /t/ |
к ⟨k⟩ [c]² |
к ⟨k⟩ /k/ |
ҡ ⟨q⟩ /q/ |
ь/ъ ⟨’⟩ /ʔ/¹ | ||
| Voiced | б ⟨b⟩ /b/ |
д ⟨d⟩ /d/ |
г ⟨g⟩ [ɟ]² |
г ⟨g⟩ /ɡ/ |
|||||
| Fricatives | Voiceless | ф ⟨f⟩ /f/¹ |
ҫ ⟨ś⟩ /θ/ |
с ⟨s⟩ /s/ |
ш ⟨ş⟩ /ʃ/ |
х ⟨x⟩ /χ/ |
һ ⟨h⟩ /h/ | ||
| Voiced | б ⟨b⟩ [β]² |
в ⟨v⟩ /v/¹ |
ҙ ⟨ź⟩ /ð/ |
з ⟨z⟩ /z/ |
ж ⟨j⟩ /ʒ/ |
ғ ⟨ğ⟩ /ʁ/ |
|||
| Trill | р ⟨r⟩ /r/ |
||||||||
| Approximants | л ⟨l⟩ /l/ |
й ⟨y⟩ /j/ |
у/ү/в ⟨w⟩ /w~ɥ/ |
||||||
- Notes
- ^¹ The phonemes /f/, /v/, /ʔ/ are found only in loanwords, and, in the case of /ʔ/, in a few native onomatopoeic words.
- ^² [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.
A member of the Turkic language family, Bashkir is an agglutinative, SOV language.[8][11] A large part of the Bashkir vocabulary has Turkic roots; and there are many loan words in Bashkir from Russian, Arabic and Persian sources.[7]
| Russian | Arabic | Persian | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Bashkir | Etymology | Translation | in Bashkir | Etymology | Translation | in Bashkir | Etymology | Translation |
| минут (minut) | from "минута" (minuta) | minute | ваҡыт (waqıt) | from "وَقْت" (waqt) | time | дуҫ (duś) | from "دوست" (dost) | friend |
| өҫтәл (öśtəl) | from "стол" (stol) | table, desk | вәғәҙә (wəğəźə) | from "وَعْدَ" (waʿda) | promise | һәр (hər) | from "هر" (har) | every |
| сыр (sır) | from "сыр" (syr) | cheese | йәннәт (yənnət) | from "جَنَّة" (janna) | paradise | көмбәҙ (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").[7]
| suffix consonant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| -лар, -ләр | after all vowels except for и (iy) | баҡса (baqsa), "garden"
Pl.: баҡсалар (baqsalar) |
сәскә (səskə), "flower"
Pl.: сәскәләр (səskələr) |
| -тар, -тәр | mostly 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, -ҙәр | after 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, -дәр | after 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
| [7] | suffix | consonant alteration (see the "plurality" table) | after the plural suffix | examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ||||
| Genitive | -нең | "н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź) | -ҙең | телдең (teldeñ), "the language's" |
| -ның | -ҙың | баштың (baştıñ), "the head's" | ||
| -ноң | -ҙың | тоҙҙоң (toźźoñ), "the salt's" | ||
| -нөң | -ҙең | төштөң (töştöñ), "the dream's" | ||
| Dative | -гә | -гә | телгә (telgə), "(to) the language" | |
| -кә | төшкә (töşkə), "(to) the dream" | |||
| -ға | -ға | тоҙға (toźğa), "(to) the salt" | ||
| -ҡа | башҡа (başqa), "(to) the head" | |||
| Accusative | -не | "н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź) | -ҙе | телде (telde), "the language" |
| -ны | -ҙы | башты (baştı), "the head" | ||
| -но | -ҙы | тоҙҙо (toźźo), "the salt" | ||
| -нө | -ҙе | төштө (töştö), "the dream" | ||
| Locative | -лә | "л" (l), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź) | -ҙә | телдә (teldə), "in the language" |
| -ла | -ҙа | башта (başta), "in the head" | ||
| Ablative | -нән | "н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź) | -ҙән | телдән (teldən), "from the language" |
| -нан | -ҙан | баштан (baştan), "from the head" | ||
| Interrogative pronouns | Personal pronouns | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | who | what | Singular | Plural | |||||
| I | you (thou) | he, she, it | we | you | they | ||||
| Nominative | кем kem | нимә nimə | мин min | һин hin | ул ul | беҙ beź | һеҙ heź | улар ular | |
| Genitive | кемдең kemdeñ | нимәнең niməneñ | минең mineñ | һинең hineñ | уның unıñ | беҙҙең beźźeñ | һеҙҙең heźźeñ | уларҙың ularźıñ | |
| Dative | кемгә kemgə | нимәгә niməgə | миңә miñə | һиңә hiñə | уға uğa | беҙгә beźgə | һеҙгә heźgə | уларға ularğa | |
| Accusative | кемде kemde | нимәне niməne | мине mine | һине hine | уны unı | беҙҙе beźźe | һеҙҙе heźźe | уларҙы ularźı | |
| Locative | кемдә kemdə | нимәлә nimələ | миндә mində | һиндә hində | унда unda | беҙҙә beźźə | һеҙҙә heźźə | уларҙа ularźa | |
| Ablative | кемдән kemdən | нимәнән nimənən | минән minən | һинән hinən | унан unan | беҙҙән beźźən | һеҙҙән heźźən | уларҙан ularźan | |
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| this | that | these | those | |||||
| Nominative | был bıl | ошо oşo | шул şul | теге tege | былар bılar | ошолар oşolar | шулар şular | тегеләр tegelər |
| Genitive | бының bınıñ | ошоноң oşonoñ | шуның şunıñ | тегенең tegeneñ | быларҙың bılarźıñ | ошоларҙың oşolarźıñ | шуларҙың şularźıñ | тегеләрҙең tegelərźeñ |
| Dative | быға bığa | ошоға oşoğa | шуға şuğa | тегегә tegegə | быларға bılarğa | ошоларға oşolarğa | шуларға şularğa | тегеләргә tegelərgə |
| Accusative | быны bını | ошоно oşono | шуны şunı | тегене tegene | быларҙы bılarźı | ошоларҙы oşolarźı | шуларҙы şularźı | тегеләрҙе tegelərźe |
| Locative | бында bında | ошонда oşonda | шунда şunda | тегендә tegendə | быларҙа bılarźa | ошоларҙа oşolarźa | шуларҙа şularźa | тегеләрҙә tegelərźə |
| Ablative | бынан bınan | ошонан oşonan | шунан şunan | тегенән tegenən | быларҙан bılarźan | ошоларҙан oşolarźan | шуларҙан şularźan | тегеләрҙән tegelərźən |
- Bashkir at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- Moseley, Christopher (2010). "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". p. 42.
- Longman, J.C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3 ed.). Pearson Education ESL. ISBN 978-1405881173.
- "Bashkir". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
- Berta, Árpád (1998). "Tatar and Bashkir". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.). The Turkic languages. Routledge. pp. 283–300. ISBN 9780415082006.
- Poppe, Nicholas N. (1964). Bashkir Manual. Research and Studies in Uralic and Altaic Languages. Vol. 36. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. LCCN 63-64521. OCLC 1147723720.
- Johanson, Lars (1998). "The History of Turkic". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.). The Turkic languages. Routledge. p. 92. ISBN 9780415082006.
- "Overview of the Bashkir Language". Learn the Bashkir Language & Culture. Transparent Language. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
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- 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.
